VX2.0 Wet sump oil level

[Lotus Boy]

Having just trawled through lots of old posts on this I apologise for bringing something up that has been done to death but I'm still a little confused.

 

I have a '94 HPC VXi running with Comma SynerG. The oil level is half way between min and max marks on the dipstick and convincing myself that I can hear the odd noisy tappet on cold start up I was wondering if I should top up the oil level a bit?

Questions come into play when I read that some people fill 5mm above the max mark but if I understand right this is for those fitted with a Caterham wet sump - presumably is this a shallower sump (for additional ground clearance??) and do all genuine VX2.0 Caterhams have the shallow(?) Caterham wet sump or was this an option? i.e. would my car have the Caterham sump or the normal Vauxhall one as standard?

 

Questions, questions, questions, sorry sorry, sorry

 

Dave

[stevefoster]

Have you the SBD camcover mod? Never done as standard from Caterham.

I can't stress enough how important that is to keeping more oil in the engine and less in the catch tank.

Without it any extra oil you try to keep in the engine will get spat out in the catch tank via the 'lets route the oil around a channel' in the cam cover and out to a breather. Might work for FWD apps but not the 7.

With this done I could comfortably run at max level on track with no loss.

More and I would have thought the crank would be thrashing in oil = power loss and extra heat in the oil to no good effect.

I'm not sure how dipstick levels might have varied over the years. You would hope not at all.

The above expereince was on a 97 VX XE from Caterham.

 

Hants (North) and Berkshire Area club site here

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Edited by - stevefoster on 15 May 2005 09:20:36

[doclip]

Im having the cam cover mod done for this very reason -se my reply to similar queery above

 

Field Motorsport VXE HPC

247 bhp

Blatting around Angus and Perthshire with a permanent grin [even bigger than before ]

 

[doclip]

Cam mod is here

 

http://www.sbdev.co.uk/Info_sheets/Oil_systems/SBD%20Cam%20cover%20breathing%20modification.htm

 

 

 

 

Field Motorsport VXE HPC

247 bhp

Blatting around Angus and Perthshire with a permanent grin [even bigger than before ]

 

[doclip]

The other nice thing about the accusump oil system is that it prelubes the engine at cold start up .

Squeezing it in somewhere is going to be a bit of headache -for mike stewart -not for me

 

Field Motorsport VXE HPC

247 bhp

Blatting around Angus and Perthshire with a permanent grin [even bigger than before ]

 

[Lotus Boy]

Will look into the SBD mod - thanks.

 

Well having a look at mine properly last weekend and reading the build manual notes I know mine is the Caterham Sump - it tapers from rear to front. So...are the min max marks correct or should I overfill by a few mm as previously noted by others on various other threads.

 

Also (bit numpty) how do you check how much oil is in the catch tank? There's some sort of electrical plug on top of the tank, do you have to remove this to see?

 

Cheers

[I reply to every thread]

If you have the standard VX dipstick then wisdom is to fill about 3-5 mm above the Max mark. Certainly my VXi (as it was) would get tappety as soon as the oil dipped a mm or so below the max mark.

[I reply to every thread]

Oh - & a standard VXi doesn't have a catch tank. The cam breather went back to the inlet manifold. Are you sure that you are referring to a catch tank? Where is it fed from? Sure it's not the charcoal cannister thingy?

[doclip]

When i eventually get my car back from mike stewart[this weather is really doing my head in ] ill be v interested to see if it cures the dumping into catch tank when i fill up to max

Im not convinced that accusump is really needed however as ive spoken to ohers with wet sumped cars who not had any problem running on sticky tyres round the track

 

Field Motorsport VXE HPC

247 bhp

Blatting around Angus and Perthshire with a permanent grin [even bigger than before ]

 

[Lotus Boy]

AVES - spot on fella! Just confirmed with the previous owner what you queried. Indeed I led myself to believe that the emissions regs canister thingy with the carbon filters was a catch tank 😳 since it wasn't described in the build manual.Thanks for clearing that one up...I can stop looking now!

 

I've topped up to the max mark so will see what difference it makes next time I'm out. Thanks again.

 

Dave

 

 

[I reply to every thread]

I second all that is said above concerning the cam-cover mod. If your cover is standard & you get involved in any , lets say, boisterous, cornering (even roundabouts), you will have a 🙆🏻 clenching moment as you get a huge plume of 007 style smoke out of the exhaust. You cack yourself that the engine is expiring before realising that it was just 200ml of oil being dumped in the inlet via the camcover.