Lotus Boy

On the A12 colchester bound Yellow/green stripe and HPC wheels Cheers Dave

SM25T - Skim reading again are we Sir?? 😬 Pete says it is a k-series, not Ford. Foam sump applies Pete and sensible thing to do! Cheers Dave

Ah I did first think of you but for some reason you didn't look like you if you see what I mean and I didn't know your car. I was actually at the Paddock Garages looking at a car and saw you pull up to the junction...and sit there for a little while waiting for a break in traffic...before heading up to the A120. What is the engine then? Edited by - Lotus Boy on 20 Oct 2008 13:13:25

Sunday morning in Dunmow. Hello Was a nice day for it Cheers Dave

Hi there, I'm afraid I can't help with point 3 (point 2?) but with regards to point one your options are: 1. Have the sides re-skinned and repainted 2. Bond tiny ali plates to the inside of the skin covering each of the holes. Then from the outside, fill the holes with filler and re-paint the panels 3. Simply fill the holes with a nut bolt and washer. By the way, are you saying you are running 10" wide at the front??...if so, what on earth are you running on the rear Cheers Dave

Also Chris - can't find the other thread but I did the CDX drift day yesterday and it was utterly fab - stick yourself on one of those days, you won't regret it.

What wheels are you trying to fit? ISTR that Caterham had the revise the size of the ears when they started fitting the 8.5" wheels to the Superlight R and subsequent R cars to prevent fouling. Presume they use the same size ear now for all cars? That said, when I came to fit my 7 inch rear Superlites I still had to file off a tiny amount of the lower rear section of the ear to ensure I had clearance - I must have had big ears! (Mine is a '94 HPC). Re tyres - if you are mainly track then they are good choices. You may want to look at Toyo R888's too, especially if you plan on some road use as many have found the Toyos are a lot more compliant on the road that the 048s. 048s have a squarer shoulder and stiffer sidewalls which means the car is quite fidgety on the road as they squirm over cambers and truck ruts. Cheers Dave

What about RIAL wheels Stew? They still available through MOG or whoever it was? Can they offer ITAL pcd? Don't know how they would compare in price to MB's though. couple of links here half way down on this one here Dave Edited by - Lotus Boy on 8 Oct 2008 13:07:35

Yes maybe that is a bit of a giveaway! Well I'm sure Matthew said they made their own be it Think or Mocal or whoever. Oh well, as long as it is more reliable than the electrical ones eh?! Dave

Think Automotive make Mocal - or so Matthew Potter told me. They supply to Merlin, Burtons, Demon Tweeks etc directly. What makes you say they are made by Caerbont Rob? Dave

Excellent result Sandy. I have to say I didn't actually know about the club discount either until I saw my invoice. When I spoke to Matthew I mentioned the club forum and so guess that triggered it. Racetech do a mech gauge but I have a feeling it is near identical to the Mocal one, just with 'Racetech' written on the dial. Mocal probably supply them to racetech?! At least buying the mocal one you know it has the right fitting. Oh and don't think of the gauge as being out of place with the other smaller ones, think of it as complementing the tachometer with the full needle sweep Glad you got it all sorted in the end. What a great thing this club is eh? Cheers Dave Edited by - Lotus Boy on 6 Oct 2008 13:02:02

But what would that something be Malcolm? I spoke to Matthew at Think Auto today who also found it a bit odd but couldn't offer any suggestions. Could it be a sticking pressure relief valve? ETA - I recently bought some 'Top End Treatment' that removes gum and varnish to hopefully eliminate my tappety tappets when cold so maybe this might help unstick a sticky relief valve. Who knows. Still...better to have lots of pressure than none I guess Cheers Dave Edited by - Lotus Boy on 4 Oct 2008 18:10:23

Ah yes I have read about those so that would perhaps make sense then. Guess I don't need to worry, thanks Mark, appreciate that. Cheers Dave

Just checked my Think invoice and I do not have the Female alloy bracket as part of my kit. 2 things... 1. I am Vauxhall 2 litre rather than K but not sure if this makes a difference 2. Is the alloy bracket the 'T' piece to allow another feed to go to the low pressure warning switch? I decided not to go down this route. Sandy - did you speak to Matthew Potter at Think? Very helpful and I'm sure would clarify whether you needed the alloy block to run a basic set up (i.e. without the warning light). Cheers Dave

I had a mechanical oil pressure gauge fitted yesterday (all mocal parts) and whilst it works perfectly well giving me the readings I would expect to see under various hot and cold temp conditions, I have noticed that when pulling away in first and sometimes when accelerating (not necessarily hard) in second gear too I notice that the needle shoots to say 75-80psi for a split second and then shoots back down to a steady 56ish PSI (warmed engine and under load) which is what it should be. Does it sound right that it would momentarily shoot up and back down in that situation? The gauge doesn't do anything else untoward. cheers Dave

I literally did this mod yesterday...well Hyperion did for me. 😬 I paid £29 for the bits from Think and a Mocal (Think) PSI gauge from Merlin, as Think were out of stock (of their own gauge ) Oh well. That cost me £38. I didn't go with a low pressure warning light. I think the Mocal gauge is really nice (though the night time illumination is weaker than the VDO/Caerbont) and goes very well with the existing dials. Yes the needle orientation is different in that it uses most of the face for reading which as Neil K says, does make it a bit more accurate. Cheers Dave ETA- Sandy, my invoice noted a Lotus Club Discount, couldn't tell what the discount was but worth checking in case you didn't get it. Edited by - Lotus Boy on 3 Oct 2008 18:52:18

Hello Mark The heavily laden Seven was me and Jennie on our way up to the Lake District for a week. Full boot, suitcase, e-bag, two hoods as can be seen here Oh and my walking boots were stowed in the spare wheel... Great week and at least the weather improved. Cheers Dave

Just bought the stuff from a local Uniparts outlet - £9.80 for two cans - much cheaper than the £23 incl p&p quoted from Moss! Thanks for the notes re the paint. I will mask off the paint areas then and see how I go. It does indeed sound like powerful stuff! Cheers Dave

Thanks guys. Grim Reaper - was your stuff a spray on type? ETA - just found the stuff on the Moss Europe website so will try that first. Think this might be better as the RTV is everywhere and in lots of awkward places. BR - ha, no the 3000rpm rev limiter will still be in place but the mod will help all the same! To be honest mate I am really looking forward to it. I am simply removing a plate that sits in side the cam cover and won't be replacing so I just need to remove all traces from the cam cover. Cheers Dave Edited by - Lotus Boy on 23 Sep 2008 22:21:37

I'm doing the SBD cam cover mod and need to clean up the cover. What is the best way to remove the RTV? I hear there is a silicon remover that dissolves it - is this right? I've peeled off the big fat bits but still got the worst and trickiest to do. Vauxhall clearly weren't expecting anyone to remove it when they built it. Cheers David

Captain - I doubt it would make a jot of difference for your insurance. To all intents and purposes they are the same car to them. When I was looking for my car I saw a number of non HPC VX's, I guess many bought starter kits and sourced their own engines as it may have been a cheaper route. I'm guessing yours has NS in the chassis code - which stands for Engine Not Supplied. Matt - I too have an inj VX that is an HPC Cheers Dave Edited by - Lotus Boy on 5 Sep 2008 14:02:28

Standard stud length is 32mm but Caterham offer 40mm ones. I have a feeling the 40mm ones were fitted to the SLR/R500 models because of the offset of 8.5" rears though. If you have 32mm then I guess fitting the 40mm ones and a spacer might just do the trick. cheers Dave

Looks like a nice day out and loving the colour scheme on W7 SSK. Looks great in that pic re Terry jumping the kerb gap. Cheers Dave

SM25T - used to! New girlfriend...new rules ☹️ 😬 Dave

Hi Mark, A few of the Essex area people were there I believe, unless they pulled out. I was hoping to go but the girlfriend had other plans sadly. Cheers Dave