Newbie help with Minilite Wheel Nuts and K series 1.8 HT Leads

[jonheli]

Hi All

My first posting since joining the club after selling my 911 and buying a 7!

I have a 1993 Supersport which has had a lot of mods including a 1.8 K series, 202 BHP and Emerald ECU. Wife and I have nicknamed it 'Cruella'.

I want to replace the HT Leads, but I'm guessing that the leads are not the standard ones? as they seem longer - they go down to a pack on the driver's side of the engine, and the distributor cap at end of cam cover is redundant (hope that makes sense - told you I was new!!)

I also want to replace the chromed wheel nuts, as the current ones are in poor condition, and have been painted with silver paint which is also flaking! The nuts have '10' engraved on them, and I have a photo if anyone needs to see it (can't work out how to upload it!!)Caterham website doesn't seem to list these?  thread diameter looks about 11 or 12mm.

Hopefully someone can point me in the right direction

Thanks, Jon

 

[Jonathan Kay]

Welcome.

Do you want to post the photos on a server somewhere else and link to them or upload them directly to this site?

Can you then add photos of your engine set-up?

Jonathan

[jonheli]

Hi Jonathan

Yes, just wanted to put a photo directly onto this site - thought it might help!!

Jon

[Jonathan Kay]

Ian B's great hints.

Jonathan

[jonheli]

Thanks for that - took a bit of fiddling, but it worked!!

[jonheli]

 

And this is the engine!!

[Jonathan Kay]

Well done.

If Caterham don't have them (I'd check directly, not just the website) you could try Redline.

Jonathan

[Mankee]

You have a VVC head, so it is likely that you'll need a set of EU2 VVC leads, especially if the coil pack is bolted to the back of the engine, as per a "normal" EU2 VVC engine. These are readily available. The plug boots are slightly longer than non-VVC leads as the cam carrier is taller.

[Peter G]

You can get loads of bits from Rimmer Bros, but it helps to know what you're looking for., VVC head should lead you to it.

[Adrian Williams]

Jon

As Mankee has already pointed out your head is a VVC which has a different cap on the spark plug end of the HT lead but 'standard' EU2 VVC leads might not be any use to you if the distributor isn't being used.  I can't tell from the picture but your original post mentions the distributor being redundant.

The standard HT lead setup is a single coil pack fitted to the block on the drivers side feeding the distributor which then feeds all 4 spark plugs.

If yours is different it could be that you have a twin coil pack running wasted spark so that the distributor isn't used and you would then need 4 completely non standard HT leads.

A close up picture of the existing leads and coil pack would shed more light on it.

[Mark Durrant]

If you are running wasted spark as Adrian has described or your leads are not standard then I recommend you contact Magnecor or will be able to provide leads to your specification.

[ECR]

Your wheel nuts will be 12 x 1.5mm, 60 Degree Taper, 19mm Hex Head (check the head dimension) and can be purchased from many sources. Rally Design and Demon Tweeks for starters and EBay usually has some.

Personally, I prefer the open ended nut design as you can be sure that the nut isn't bottoming on the stud. You also have a chance of noticing if one is coming loose ...

[nickh7]

There is a set of nuts for sale on here http://www.lotus7.club/forum/sale/caterham-sold-garage-clearout

 

[ECR]

The nuts for sale above are listed as with washers so they are very unlikely to have 60 degree seats. They sound like sleeve nuts.

Shame ....

[jonheli]

Hi Adrian

Thanks for your help -  I'm still learning lots!! Hope these photos will help; The car has an Emerald system as well.

[Mankee]

That might well be a standard EU2 VVC coil pack that runs wasted spark as standard. See if you can match up the part number with the below page:

http://www.rimmerbros.co.uk/Item--i-GRID000050

You can remove the redundant distributor cap to save a few grammes.

[Adrian Williams]

Hi Jon, the photo's are a great help.

That confirms a twin coil pack wasted spark set up and I'd follow Mankee's advice to see if you have the standard MG coil.

Assuming you have and it's positioned in the same place as the standard MG installation then the HT lead set in Mankee's link will work for you which saves the trouble and expense of having a set made up.

[jonheli]

Thanks for your help, those look like the right ones, and they have some clips as well!!

Just wondered if there would be any benefit in changing to Magnecor leads, or best to just put a standard set in?

[Mankee]

I'm undecided on the benefits of fatter "brand name" leads. They look nicer, may well provide a better spark (?) and might last longer, but is it worth the extra?

I had some custom leads made by Formula Power (https://www.formulapower.com/) when I converted an EU3 VVC head to run the original EU2 distributor and coil setup a few years ago. But I made/bodged my own leads from some cheapo £20 Lucas jobs to get the new engine running at the time, fully expecting them to fall apart after a few years of ~200bhp trackdaying. However, they are still going strong, so they aren't going anywhere for the time being.

[jonheli]

Thanks to you (and everyone else!) for all your help - have now managed to get a new set of wheel nuts, but have not had any replies from formula power to either my email or ebay messages to them, so I will spend my money elsewhere now I know what to look for!!

Just also wanted to add that this has got to be one of the most encouraging clubs for getting your hands dirty - others that we have belonged to never encouraged it  (I suppose most of their members had 'a chap who does that sort of thing for one' !!)

[jonheli]

Thought I'd better put the record straight about Formula Power - Have now spoken to the owner, and he didn't respond to my emails due to a Family Illness. He is now currently making up my leads, and was a very pleasant and helpful guy, so now all my problems are solved! (....... well, for now, as I'm sure there will be more!!)

Thanks again to all, Jon & 'Cruella'