CycleSi Posted December 13, 2018 Share Posted December 13, 2018 Following a very frustrating, upsetting and expensive engine build a few years ago by a relatively well known company in Caterham circles I finally decided to get Rob @ Ratrace Motorsport to build me one good engine out of the 1.8 original R300 engine I had and the 1.9 disastrous engine.He took over 100 hours to build me an absolute work of art and I took the car yesterday to Luke Stevens Developments/Team Leos Racing near Newmarket where Steve Greenauld and Luke spent 5 hours mapping the engine. The result was an outstanding 237 bhp and 163 lb ft torque. The engine sounds and feels amazing. So my car has now morphed from an R300 to an R500.My thanks go to Rob for building such an incredible engine and to Luke & Steve for a fantastic day. They explained everything carefully, let me help them and supplied copious quantities of hot tea.On the 100 mile drive home it felt like a ballistic missile. If anybody wants to know specific details about the build and/or choice of cams, etc. then PM me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Area Representative Golf Juliet Tango Posted December 13, 2018 Area Representative Share Posted December 13, 2018 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LesG Posted December 14, 2018 Share Posted December 14, 2018 Great to hear Si! My 1.8 K Rob built for me, is still going strong, two years later! Long live the K! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Mason Posted December 17, 2018 Share Posted December 17, 2018 I had my first experience of a mapping session in Friday. I came out with 219bhp and 171lb ft from my 1.8k, which was about 5 up in both. Done at Motorscope Northallerton by Richard who was seemingly excellent and I learned an awful lot. The limiting factor now appears to be the fuel pump which wasn't delivering enough to the injectors to go any further so set as it was until (if) I do something about it. The noticeable difference though in driving there to driving home was massive, with the car being utterly smooth as silk on my return, though as it was cold and greasy, didn't do much exploring in upper rev ranges. Highly recommended. Per Les's comment, long live the K! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Area Representative Nick Bassett Posted December 17, 2018 Area Representative Share Posted December 17, 2018 Great result Si - what rpm was max BHP at?I must get my SL-R properly mapped - a job for 2019 I think! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CycleSi Posted December 17, 2018 Author Share Posted December 17, 2018 Paul - that's a great result and a very impressive torque figure. Rob recommended that I also replaced the fuel pump with something more 'capable' to support the higher BHP. If you would like to know what I used then I'll dig out the paperwork tonight. I went for the one Rob uses in all his engine builds.Nick - although it revved to around 8400 very happily, we decided to have the soft cut at 8000 rpm and the hard cut at 8200 for future reliability and longevity. Partly because I'm only using a standard crank and partly because it is so damn mental above 6500 anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Area Representative Nick Bassett Posted December 17, 2018 Area Representative Share Posted December 17, 2018 Sounds very sensible Si - my SL-R is still pulling hard at 8k, but I don't rev it beyond that (I am mindful that the rev counter over-reads by probably 2-300RPM which is no bad thing).Would love to put an all steel bottom end in it to allow it to rev much higher though! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Mason Posted December 17, 2018 Share Posted December 17, 2018 That would be great Si. Mine ended up with a peak at 7.4 on account of fuelling and believe my cams (1444 should be good to 8). That said, I believe I too am standard crank so not too worried and dropped the rev limiter from 8.2 to 7.6 as part of the remap. Would be interested in the options even if I choose to stay as is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CycleSi Posted December 17, 2018 Author Share Posted December 17, 2018 I'll have a look later and find the information for you, but with 1444 cams you'll need to uprate the pump otherwise you run the real risk of it running lean and ultimately going bang !!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Mason Posted December 17, 2018 Share Posted December 17, 2018 Until recently had an airbox so guess that would control airflow some, but now set so as not to run lean with sausage filter and the chap in the emerald PC was happy that at the set up and not trying too hard to eek out more power, would be fuelled properly. I'll probably change the pump as the ones I've seen weren't massive money so good to have as covering all bases Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CycleSi Posted December 17, 2018 Author Share Posted December 17, 2018 The uprated fuel pump I used was a Walbro In-Tank Pump Kit (p/n ITP048) from Glencoe Ltd in Staines. Tel: 01784 493555.The total inc. VAT & carriage was £74.35. From memory, I believe it supports up to 500 bhp so plenty for a Caterham. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Mason Posted December 17, 2018 Share Posted December 17, 2018 Perfect, thanks! Was it tricky to fit, or pop one out and a new one in? (I appreciate few things are so simple on our special little cars) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CycleSi Posted December 17, 2018 Author Share Posted December 17, 2018 Not tricky, but not just drop in either.To be honest, I didn't actually fit mine as I have fantastic (and much appreciated) help from my good friend who is on here as Red John. He had to do a bit of adapting but the chap at Glencoe was excellent and explained what needed to be done. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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