Crossflow woes again!

[Tyrone]

Thanks Dave, however, I have ordered a Kent 244 cam kit complete with competition cam followers (ref CF30) following advice from Roger and Dave C. Not cheap, £296 😳 (see my wheels in the For Sale section) but it comes with the competition followers, duplex springs, valve stem oil seals (presumably better than the standard OE items seen in a gasket set), lube oil and timing disc.

 

The 244 will be lumpier than the 234 but is there any tangible difference in real terms. I always intended to carry out a rolling road session to fully calibrate the Megajolt. I assume this is even more important now because I will have to rejet the carbs?

[I reply to every thread]

I had a similar problem with my X-Flow - It was substandard followers - They just got shorter & shorter.

 

Exact symptons you describe

[duffym]

Bri , as the cam has more duration and higher lift? I would expect it to be a bit less tractable but in a Caterham it shouldnt be much of an issue due to light weight and yr spirited driving style 😬

 

Rolling road will def be needed to get the best out of the engine but it should be OK for running in on the current set up if you can avoid being too spirited!

[Tyrone]

My spirited days are postponed until my return from Le Mans. If I break it again before the trip to the Classic there will be no more funds made available to fix it, SWMBO has spoken. She was pretty good about the latest problem. I just need to sell those 14" wheels!

[duffym]

I think SWMBO is being very good over this saga so yes you are right to avoid spirited driving for a while ❗

[DaveMorris]

Young Brian,

you can borrow my SWMBO for a while if you like. She's been quite "understanding" about things with my crossflows.

Also, as she's just cut straight thru the tendon on the back of her left thumb (hospital, GA and surgery yesterday) she's not going to be working for a few weeks.

 

Time to earn more brownie/upgrade points methinks 😬

 

Dave

 

p.s. The scalpel episode probably puts the mockers on the trip to Croft 🙆🏻

 

What shall I take to work today ? The Caterham, the .. .. .. ..oh 🙆🏻 I can't ☹️ ... ... OH YES I CAN ! !

[ashaughnessy]

After a lengthy running in period I took my rebuilt crossflow back to the engine builder for setting up. He'd rebuilt it with 244 cam. I had a 4-2-1 rear exit exhaust and 40DCOE carbs. He advised me to replace both the exhaust and the carbs with a caterham 4-1 side exit and 45DCOEs. He reckoned it would drive well with the old setup but I'd perhaps get an extra ten bhp with the new stuff. I thought it worthwhile because he'd done a lot of work on extra gas flowing and also strengthening to give me more revs and that might be wasted without the exhaust and carbs being upgraded to match.

After the rolling road setup (last week) I haven't driven it in anger (all this rain !!!) but so far on part throttle through very heavy rush hour traffic and down busy motorways it pulls very very cleanly but when on a constant throttle it pops and bangs and spits a LOT.

Anthony

[Tyrone]

Anthony,

Why don't you come up to Northallerton when I confirm the date for my RR session, there will be a goodly number of us there to offer opinions (probably contrary 😬).

 

Dave, sorry to hear about SWMBO, seems we are blessed with likeminded women. Scalpels! Bloody dangerous, I once watched a junior technician of mine slice the side of his thumb when cutting up some tracing paper, bled like a stuck pig and ruined a perfectly good sheet of tracing paper!

[ashaughnessy]

Tyrone, good idea - you have mail.

Anthony