fordy

can you find out how much postage will be on the rad?

Darren, you have mail

i'll take the rad please. YHM

mainly road, but a few track days per year. will be a standard type 9 5 spd and will be on 13's.

3.62 or 3.92 diff ratio for a 1.6 supersport K engine? whats normal? whats best?

Looking for the following standard k series exhaust from a superlight/supersport or a roadsport etc. Got the headers just need the silencer/cat unit. Preferably with guard. rad. steel/ali - anything considered type 9 5 speed box. diff. 3.92 ( if this is the standard roadsport/superlight diff ratio??) call Carl on 01245 426632 home, 020 8526 6444 work thanks

fair question?

I promised myself I wouldn't post on the engine oil topics anymore after the last time which resulted in a very upset Andy Noble in a litigious mood on the phone to me. Just for the record I ended up deleting the posts and agreed to write a joint article in LF with Caterham. I was invited to the Comma/Caterham 'oil day' alluded to elsewhere in this thread only to be suddenly uninvited. No further word on the subject since either so I guess when the 'Caterham/Comma' oil article finally does appear in LF you can be sure it had nothing to do with me, or possibly anyone who would have been in a position to question the technical content or Caterham oil strategy on the clubs behalf. Oh well. For the record I am one of these types who actually specifies oil for cars for several big brand European names. Also one of the small cabal at ACEA who writes the European oil specifications (www.acea.be). Peter has given some very good advice by the way (he's been listening and learning). So heres some general advice about choosing oil for your car. Step 1. READ YOUR OWNER GUIDE. Go on, read the instructions. It will tell you in the OG exactly what oil is specified. Usually will make some brand recomendations too. Consider this. The vehicle manufacturer (OEM's we like to call ourselves) will literally spend millions testing a particular type of oil during an engines development. The oil will have been specified carefully to match the engine design in question. It may even be optimised slightly during the engine development. One thing is for sure, the oil (or oils) the engine was developed on really will be the best choice for the engine. The testing process is lengthy and at times extreme. Essentially trying to guarantee the design for the longest time for even the most severe users. Now its normal for the OEM's own brand products to actually be the self same oil the engine was developed on !!! So this would be a very good place to start. Step 2. Lets say you can't get down to your dealership, or are not happy with the choice or price on offer. This is where you need to look at the mandated specification in the OG. Some OEMs write their own specifications and demand these which may or may not be available in places like Halfords, while some are happy to specify general market specs such as ACEA (Europe) or API (US), ILSAC (US/Japan) and JASO (Japan). These specs are developed in cooperation between the major OEMs and are careully considered. An oil would like to claim one of these specs will have the data to show that it has passed at the right limits all the various engine, bench, chemical and physical tests that make up the spec. Typically this could cost an oil company several million dollars in the development of a new oil. The OEMs are legally obliged to provide an alternative specification of oil, but are also entitled to recommend products of their choice, sometimes own brand, which would actually come from a major oil co. or with a commercial tie up and recommend certain big brand oil co products. But remember, unless you use the mandated specification, you are outside the terms of your warranty...... Now lets look at the ACEA specs as these are the most common at the moment in Europe. ACEA A categories are for gasoline engines, B categories for diesel engines and E categories are for heavy duty diesel engines (truck), although we won't consider these here. A1/B1 are very high quality (normally Grp III based) low viscosity fuel economy oils only recommended be a few OEMs A2/B2 represents 'cooking' grade oils, usually mineral oil derived and Grp I/II based A3/B3 are very good quality general market oils usually Grp I/II and III/IVbased B4 was a specific type of generally synthetic diesel oil, there was no A4 A5/B5 is the highest quality level, generally synthetic and normally Group III or IV/V based and was generated according to the demands of the new long drain requirements many of the OEMS offer nowadays. Most oils available in Europe are both gasoline and diesel and will claim combinations of the above. If you see oils claiming CCMC, be aware that this was ACEA's predecessor and those specs became obsolete in the early nineties. The 'synthetic' question is only just really hitting us in Europe. Most of the major OEMs are heading towards specs that demand Group III based engine oils and would not previously have described these as synthetic. Since the happenings in the US (mentioned in an earlier post) then this is likely to change so there will be confusion in the short term. Also consider that the real performance difference between Grp III and Grp IV is not that great, but the cost difference is (hence the OEMs shifting towards Grp III). There are high quality big brand products out there that are true synthetics that may not be any better than a seemingly lesser products that meet the same specifications. If the OEM recommends say, A3/B3, my advice would be to find the cheapest A3/B3 you can find. At the end of the day we all buy into brands and theres nothing wrong with that. Some of us don't though and we demand the right to choose for ourselves appropriate products at a reasonable price. For these people, read your owner guide, understand the spec. being asked for and but something that meets that. You may spot that Caterham themselves do not recommend any specifications, preferring to recommend only their own brand oil (which does not claim any specifications at all on the can). I can only sympathise to those of you who bought a new one and would dearly love to know whats a good alternative to the Caterham Motorsport oil, I know I would. Unfortunately the OEM in me says, Caterham must know best. Mustn't they? Lets consider Caterhams position though. They wanted to respond to the constant barrage of questions on what oil to use for the various powetrains they've used over the years, a consolidated range with the Caterham name on sounds like a good idea. They wanted an oil that can do a good job in a x-flow and an R500 EVO engine, a wide remit. Alas, Caterham is small and it would be very difficult for this to commercially stack up. They've have an oil developed especially for them but the return from the sales of that oil would never be high enough to pay for the costs of testing the oil to any industry recognised specifications. This is the position they are in, all with the best intentions. I've no doubt that they will have done some level of testing of the oil on their own engines (not at the same level as the engine supplier would have though), probably with the buy-in from the engine supplier themselves. I'm not sure why they didn't pick an existing qualified oil and rebrand it though, Thats what most of the OEMs do for their own brand stuff. If it were me and I had no money to do a proper signoff on all the engines in question then I'd recommend something I'd done a nominal amount of testing on myself and stick my name on it, then to fulill my obligations on alternative specs i'd pick the highest available spec, like A5/B5 to cover my behind.

Your BMW 330d will require a specific BMW Longlife oil. I believe something is available from Castrol. Think its called Castrol SLX Longlife. Sure you can get it in Halfords. If in doubt read the oil section in the owner guide. This will give you an EXACT specification to use. Well done Peter, you been reading the ACEA website?

in what way is this overpriced? A new 1.4 classic with no options would cost the same and you'd get a lot less car !!!

I bought an engine just like this a while ago. Couldn't work out what Rover installation it was from but the crank is definetly different from the more common ones and you can't get the spiggot bearing in it without having the crank machined. I sold mine on in the end after a change of plans.

happened to me last year. Replacing the thermostat fixed it. Only an hours job. Nice excuse to change the coolant too.

doing it properly about £1200 quid. If the cars Ali is otherwise in nice nick - people have bonded ali discs to the back of the holes (left by the flares) and filled them with body filler and locally repainted. A paint shop you be able to do this cheaply. Steering rack may not be necessary- some flared car have the correct rack. Even then stopperss can be put on to stop the existing rack going too far. This way project can be done for maybe £300. Have seen some nice jobs done this way.

thinking about it, check the following. the condition of the vacuum pipe (via the fuel trap) from the manifold to the MEMs, air leaks could cause the problems you see. Check for air leaks around the throttle body and allong the manifold itself. I squirted carb cleaner along all the joints and listened for change in engine note and looked for rapid drying around the areas sprayed. Take out your idle control valve and clean it in a bit of petrol and lightly oil with, well a light oil - replacements are expensive £70 so be careful with it. Check condition of the wiring to the IACV too. If your try to operate the IACV out of its housing (using the MEMs reset routine), be warned the it will dismantle itself all over your garage floor - hands up who'd fallen for this? I never did find the spring...... Make sure the ignition King lead from the coil is not running too close to the Crank position sensor. the HT can interfere on some cars. Check battery condition and alternator - you'll need a multimeter check the coolant temp sensor is OK. Best way is to unplug it with the engine running, if the engine note changes, the ECU has just started to run its back up value, which would suggest your sensor is OK. Otherwise if the note hasn't changed it suggests your ECU was already operating on a backup value ! - remember this will trip a fault code in the ECU which you would notice if you subsequently have your ECU read for fault codes. Get your ECU read for fault codes. Only cost me about £20 from an independant (Rover flat refused and told me to get lost) Reset the mems - ignition on throttle from min to max five times - you should here the IACV whirr away to itself as it recalibrates. This also recalibrates the throttle position sensor. If you are not up for a wild goose chase, see a qualified auto electrician. Lastly, have the ECU looked at by an expert (Google for ECU Repair UK - pops up a couple of companies) - make sure you get your unit repaired though, not an exchange - no point bringing other peoples undiagnosed problems to yours! Also your supersport ECU would be quite rare anyway. Lastly give up, get an Emerald and hack off the IACV. Or get a duratec. Hope you get resolution quicker than me. I didn't see a qualified auto electrician - but then I like wild goose chases. Its the challenge and learning as a result......

Had the same problem myself on saturday. A problem I've had on and off for over a year. Changed too many sensors and bits to remember trying to solve the problem. Mines a 1400 supersport. I borrowed an Emerald at the weekend. Runs the car just fine at idle. The only sensor the Emerald doesn't use is the Manifold Absolute Pressure Sensor (MAP) which on a K series is located in the MEMs iteslf. So I've narrowed my problem down to my ECU or the MAP in the ECU. Either way In need my ECU fixed. I contacted these people today..... http://www.carelect.demon.co.uk/index.html ......and they quoted me £150 to have my ECU refurbished. My description of my problem is actually listed on their website almost word for word !!! Seems it a very common problem with the MEMs. http://www.carelect.demon.co.uk/rover.html Give em a call. looks like turnaround is only a week. I would suggest first though that you check everything else out first, preferably getting proper diagnosis from an experienced auto electrician. The symptoms you describe can be caused by all manner of problems. Its just I have managed to rule most of them out over the last year, and especially by swapping in a different ECU.

Tony, I thought idea behind that conversion was to retain the supersport ECU AND the supersport cams ?? Maybe your supersport mems is not running happy on standard cams? As far as I know, supersport cams are the same whether 1.4, 1.6 or 1.8 (except the 1.4SS 'race' engine for mechanical tappets). Same with the standard cam.

an end to ali corrosion please. I wouldn't for one minute suggest replacing the ali sides with fibreglass, because Westifield would probably sue Caterham for copying!! but an all round Carbon body would do the trick. Actually thats already been done on the Westy too, though not by Westy themselves ....

I'm using Mintex 1144's now. Huge improvement over the standard front pads and the Green stuff I had in last. Got them from Caterham parts. about £50 ISTR.

Someone said the K series as used in a seven is not the same as the Metro engine. Err, yes it was, the original 1.4K series in sevens came out of the Metro GTi. The supersport bits were added later and at some point the wet linered blocks were switched to damp linered and the low port heads switched to high port. My original 1995 1.4 Kseries (before I bust it) was wet linered and low port head. The engine I replaced it with was damp linered and high port head. Of course the 1600 and 1800 k's were not used in metros but they are not exactly that different. Irrelevant anyway of course. The future of Caterhams engine supply deal on k series in part comes down to how far powertrain can push the emissions performance of the K. I hear they will release a Euro IV engine which buys several years yet (mandatory use by Jan 2006). I find it hard to believe they'll go as far as Euro V though. I don't think Euro V will be mandated until ballpark 2010 in passenger cars though. I think theres life in the old dog yet and Caterham clearly have a nice relationship with Powertrain - I see no immediate reason for them to change. OTOH, we know Caterham are willing to supply 'duratec' chassis's (they quoted me for an 'R300 Duratec Chassis'). One would imagine they developed that for a reason. And no I don't have any insider info either ! Clearly you need to look at who is set up historically for low volume supply of production engines. You're looking at Rover and Ford of course with their daughter entities, Powertrain and Ford Power Products respectively. Vauxhall must also be in the running having supplied Caterham in the past. I'd say is usual they'd go to who they have had current/past relationships with. Look at Lotus/Toyota. The recent deal came about because Lotus still had relevant contacts in Toyota from the old Excel days. I reckon any engine change is at least a couple of years away. Caterham recently seem to be on a 1 new major car a year cycle. This year its R500EVO, last year R400, R300 year before. I imagine next years car would be the Eurocup racecar, possibly a road version of it (with the 2.0EVO K series perhaps?) Maybe 2006 might see a new engined Caterham.

Edited by - fordy on 27 Apr 2004 16:44:14

I have a set you can have for £60. Give us a call on 020 8526 6444 (days)

Edited by - fordy on 26 Apr 2004 10:36:40

don't do this if the coolant is hot though. Doesn't half squirt along way, and coolant tastes nasty!

the flywheel from the Elise will be too large. Caterham 1.8/1.6 K series both use the 1.6 flywheel (which has a '4 missing teeth pattern'. So if you intend to use the Elise ECU then you'll need to find yourself a 1.6 K series flywheel (to make it fit your bellhousing). As Stu says, the other way of doing it is to run the whole lot of the 1.4 Mems ECU using 1.6/1.8 'beige' injectors (which you may be getting with your Elise engine), if you do this then you'd need a 1.4 destined flywheel, and the lightweight ones are a bargain aren't they? And then the switch to an Emerald should be a breeze. Stu know anyway, this is almost exactly the route he's taken!

Anyone have a good base map for a 1.4 K series supersport? Possibly even with a trophy 160 52mm throddle bottie? The software seems to come with a 1.4 base map but its for an unspecified Motobuild 143bhp 1400 K which is probably not a great base to start from. Otherwise theres a straight 1600 supersport base but that might not be too good either due to my lower flow 1.4 injectors. Any ideas?