K series advice please

[Ed White]

Hi folks,

I've got a K series car with an apollo on it. What oil would you recommend for a 185 BHP engine, and what capacitry does it take with the apollo. Its in for an MOT on Friday and i'll let them do the oil while they have it, TIA

[paul richards]

Recommend fully synthetic 5w50 oil. Capacity with Apollo is 7 litres but doubtful you will be able to drain all of it. Suggest 6 or 6.5 litres and then top up as necessary. 
Apollo tank can be difficult to drain as tank can be fragile and drain plug difficult to remove. I usually drain Apollo with an extraction pump. 
Don't forget get you need to renew sump foam if you still have it, or better still scrap it and modify sump gasket. 

[Ed White]

Thanks Paul, brilliant info!

[Ed White]

Does the foam have to be done with evry oil change then?

Is there an article etc I can give the garage on removal and sump gasket mod?

Cheers, Ed

[Roger Ford]

There's a photo of the gasket mod on this thread. Basically just two holes drilled in the gasket and then the foam is discarded.

[Ed White]

Cheers Roger, only issue is knowing if the foam is there without removing the sump, hence me asking if it had to be done with oil change?

[paul richards]

The foam is prone to breaking up and clogging everything. If you are doing an oil change I would definitely take the opportunity to remove sump and establish whether foam has been removed. 

[Roger Ford]

No way of telling whether it's there without dropping the sump. Well, I guess maybe you might be able to see it through the oil drain hole but that would still require draining the oil.

hence me asking if it had to be done with oil change

I don't think you did ask that!

[Jonathan Kay]

"Is there an article etc I can give the garage on removal and sump gasket mod?"

As above, and DVA sells modified gaskets.

Jonathan

[Geoff Brown]

This will assist in the removal of sump, removal of foam & refit of sump. Replacing with the drilled gasket is as per other threads on this post.

Rover K Series Sump Foam Baffle Change | Caterham and Lotus Seven Club (caterhamlotus7.club)

[Terry Field]

Having suffered ( but got away with ) a fragmented foam baffle blocking the pick up, the car went into Andy Noble and Co at Sevens and Classics who simply removed the baffle completely. Admittedly this is for a car, 1.8 K, that only does road mileage, but it seems to work just fine.

[Dannyboy]

Ed. I've run for years with no sump foam. As noted, just get a gasket from Dave Gemzoe, they already have the alteration done. 
It's just over 7 litres in a k with Apollo, however as noted the Apollo tank can be quite fragile. I ensure I regularly crack open the fixing slightly so it stays relatively free. 
I also run mine of the Eurocarparts fully synth oil. It gets changed regularly so I've never seen any point in using Mobil1 or expensive oils with no noticeable detriment and always change at at least once a year. 

[21jigsaw]

 The K series installation  was designed with a shallow sump to fit under bonnet. The consequence being a low shallow volume of oil which was susceptible to aeration - tiny bubbles suspended in the oil. This was amplified buy the high lateral g forces generated by the cars. The aerated oil would circulate to the hydraulic tappets acting as a spring the valves bounce resulting in  loss of control, the valves would touch the pistons bending them, eventually with a bending fatigue the valve heads would drop off resulting in total engine failure. The tiny bubbles suspended in the oil  need to be burst or be purged .  Air is  removed / bubble burst if the oil hits a solid surface / object ie baffle, foam, block or sump.

The sign off test devised by Caterham for a 1400 Supersport was 1st gear (5 speed box) max revs three figure of eights as fast as possible brake to a stop idle the engine and listen to see if the tappets rattled / aerated. The  foam arrangement gave the required results.

Further development mainly for track competition resulted in the Apollo tank, solid tappets, purple pump dry sump leading to much higher performance  gold pump dry sump package.

To run an  Apollo with the increase in oil  volume and the centrifugal purging of air from the system would probably negate the use of the foam.

I have  run the same foam for some 27k miles 13 years without issue. There have been  failures of the foam leading to engine failure possibly due to :-

 1) bad batch of foam material

 2) fuel contamination

3)Oil  compatibility / contamination

4) engine temperature etc.

 There is no clear reason as to the cause of failure of the foam.

Hope this helps

Dave