Highside43

Yes spoken to Dave and looked at his page extensively. At the minute it has the 1.8 with the hot cams, according to Caterham(I e-mailed them to check on what power it was meant to have as it was a factory built one) and they confirmed 140bhp. If I wanted to tune up the engine as it is, then it would be a couple of grand to get and extra 10 to 20bhp. I might as well spend that on putting in a VVC engine and I've got the extra power there, with more scope for tuning without spending half as much as the car again. I'd be happy with a genuine 180bhp in it, which is acheivable (I gather) with the VVC engine - the engine I have at the minute would take a lot more money and effort to do that. Self build? No thanks. I've had my time fiddling with engines 20 years ago and know my way roughly round them, but would now rather pay someone to do it. If I fixed all the toys myself I would never have time to play on them - now if one is broke someone else can fix it for me and I go out to play on another one. If I didn't, then all my spare time would be spent fixing the bloody things instead of having fun on them. I'm not getting any younger so want to enjoy them while I can. I'm in Aberdovey.

Further to my thread about lack of power in my 1.8 K series SS, and taking it back to the garage I bought it from for them to look at and them not finding anything, I had it dyno'd the other week and it came back with a record breaking 77bhp...I was pleased in one way as I knew all along it wasn't running correctly - plugs were right colour, nothing in the oil or coolant which shouldn't be, even checked the stoke length (in a Heath Robinson way with some threaded bar and metal rule, but it worked) and the only conclusion is that it wasn't breathing right. The car drove fine, no hiccups, splutters or any untoward noises, it just lacked power when you went for the overtake. Diesel L200 trucks pulled away from you slowly when having a play....I'd never driven one before to compare, and everyone was saying that I was being too harsh coming from a superbike background, but it just didn't feel right. Just performed a compression test and the two middle cylinders failed big style - no wonder it's running at half power and feels gutless. So.... A new engine it is. Looking at chucking a VVC lump in there with the idea of tuning it in the future. As I've been used to running about with 77bhp, 160 should be a little perkier and make it move a little more. Any thoughts on where to go for engine / refresh / builds...etc? I'm thinking of getting one for 500 odd quid and then refreshing it by a specialist with all new internals. I want a stock one to start with to keep the cost down (budgeting £2K as a ball park figure) - I'm no mechanic and will have to pay someone to install / build it for me. Thoughts please.

Caterham confirmed the engine and tune / power. The car has had one owner from new until I purchased it last year, so unlikely that the cams would have been swapped in it's 36,000 mile history - but a possibility I have considered though. I suspect timing is way out too, but i have very limited mechanical knowledge and relying on Google a lot.

Tom, From my limited knowledge - and I'm only an enthusiastic DIY mechanic - it can only be one of two things:- 1) - not getting enough mixture. 2) - not getting exhaust out. The car runs fine, pulls reasonably well low down, but when you get to 4.5 / 5K it just runs out of puff - it will rev to 6.5K but as I've said in previous posts, it feels asthmatic doing so. It ticks over fine, it doesn't cough or hesitate when you drive it, it doesn't smoke, spark plugs correct colour...etc...all the usual checks tick. There is nothing untoward with the running of the engine until you drive it and feel how gutless it is, it sounds fine and not like a box of frogs at all. Changed oil and nothing untoward in that. Same for coolant. So I'm scratching my head. If it sounded terrible on start-up, or made a load of clanging noises when driving then at least you could say the engine was shot, but it doesn't give any clues to how feeble it is unless you boot it. During normal road driving you wouldn't tell anything was wrong with it. I want to tune it slightly anyway, and future proof it for more tuning - so if it is a completely knackered CAT in the exhaust (I don't think it is, but it will eliminate that possibility of a blocked by putting a free'er flowing exhaust on ready for the future tune). Likewise with the throttle bodies and ECU - once set up it should pull like an express train. Again, I'm no expert but I think the cam timing is way, way out (from possibly a belt change previous???) - I'm not competent enough to adjust this, but my diagnosis with how the engine physically runs and feels, it can't be opening the valves soon enough and closing them too quickly. Unless I'm on the wrong path altogether?

I have the 1.8 SS K series (non VVC - 1998 model) which according to Caterham is meant to be 140bhp. Having had it dyno'd yesterday and it was giving out a paltry 77bhp, I'm after the following please:- Free'er flowing exhaust Throttle bodies Piper Cams Verniers Programmable ECU Just want to make it breath more in and out to start with and give it a few more BHP over standard. Many thanks.

Hi to whoever it was at Glandwr Cafe in Beddgelert - fellow 7 owner who works there - said he was on here, owns an R300, apologies but didn't get your name, I was still driving after being in it all day and not compos mentis / conversational with the tent still to pitch at Cae Du...been visiting your cafe for many years on the bike, first time in the 7 and good to chat briefly. No apple pie this time in the counter though - that was my treat each time with your famous ice cream...!!!

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That was me... Just bought it (1st November was collection day). Loving it.