Dave McCulloch

Up for grabs are the following: Pagid RS14 rear brake pads for standard calipers. Only done about 25 miles - so literally like new. I removed them because with the RS15s on the front it upset the brake balance on my car causing me to nearly spin . This isn't the norm though - they are supposed to work alright with that combination. Cost new - £104. Accept £60 including p&p / £55 collected. Pagid RS15n front brake pads for standard calipers. These have done about 500 miles - including one track day. However I'm not very hard on brakes, and there is almost no signs of wear. Selling as I found the initial bite for road use a bit disappointing - but they are ideal for track use. Cost new - £125. Accept £70 including p&p / £65 collected. Front disks - for standard brake setup. I bought these new to fit with the above Pagid pads - to save having to clean off surface of original disks with garnet paper. They have therefore only done about 500 miles with the above pads only. Only removed because I'm now using the larger Mintex front pads so fitted new disks. Cost new £32. Accept £30 including p&p / £20 collected. I live in East Grinstead, West Sussex and work in Crawley. Alternatively I can deliver to either the Eynsford or Tunbridge Wells meets, or I will be at Cadwell Park on 27th April on the club track day. To keep an orderly process, if you're interested please post on this thread first - we can then sort out details via PM. Thanks Dave

Rik Invoice didn't list discount out separately. The total invoice amount including postage was £41.73. I spoke to Alan at Questmead. Dave

Rik You might want to double check that price - I just bought a set of the 535s from Questmead and total cost including post and VAT - after L7 club discount - was just over £40. Dave

I've got the think kit with the standard pressure warning switch - which from memory I think is set at 35psi. When the oil's hot, the warning light comes on at idle - an ultra-bright red LED - but as soon as you come off idle the light goes out. I've left it set like that as a good early warning system for track days (the fact the light does come on at idle proves the warning light is working) - but it is a bit annoying especially at night. Dave

Graham Apologies if I'm questioning the bl**dy obvious, but how long have you cranked it for? When I fitted a newly built K series into my seven, it took quite a long time cranking to register oil pressure on the (electrical) oil pressure gauge - probably 90 seconds to 2 minutes of actual cranking - done in 20 second bursts with a pause between each to avoid overheating the starter. Dave

I had one of mine relatively easy to get off - I used a screwdriver shaft inserted into the hole in the centre and wiggled it off - but the other was stuck fast - I ended up destroying it in trying to remove it. However, they're not much money from Caterham if you have to replace. Dave

Geoff I don't seem to have had any joining instructions for this - probably lost in the email system. I know my cheque was cashed a long time ago so assume I'm in - could you resend please (email davidgmcculloch@yahoo.co.uk). Many thanks Dave

John I had the same last year. You can buy just the felt seal on its own. You'll need to remove the front hub assembly (for which you have to remove brake caliper - but no need to break the fluid circuit - you can slide the brake pipe through the wing stay far enough that you can tie the caliper up out of the way), remove the old felt seal (from memory it sits on a metal "collar" and then drift the new collar into the back of the hub and reassemble. Whilst I had it apart I cleaned out the old grease, cleaned up the parts and refitted with fresh grease. From memory, all done - including cleaning up and replacing grease - in a couple of hours. Dave All

Grab yourself a bargain - currently only 1 bid at the reserve of £100. That's £20 per wheel . Dave

I probably got more than a small amount of coolant down the bolt holes - because the engine is canted over it does hold water in the head / block - I did remove the sump drain plug to clear out any coolant from the sump after refitting the head - but the design of the dry sump pan looks like you can never fully drain the sump - so I'm guessing that may have been my problem and the coolant water is slowly evaporating out of the oil. Dave

Paul I'm in exactly the same position as you - had the head off (not due to failed HG) but when I put it all back together there was quite a lot of (what I assume is) steam coming from the dry sump vent pipe. Being paranoid I promptly stripped head off and checked surfaces and replaced HG - no signs of any damage to previous gasket - but had exactly the same again. This time I decided to put a few miles on it and monitor the situation - I've done just over 100 miles so far and the coolant level doesn't appear to have dropped at all. It may be wishful thinking but I also thought there was less steam being emitted after the last run than when I first started it up. At the moment I'm going to continue to keep an eye on fluid levels. Only other thought is blow-by - but as I'm not aware I had this problem before removing head I can't see why I'd have that problem now. Ho hum! Dave

Just bringing this back to the top as I believe this is what I'm seeing - having had the head off my scholared 1900 K series to fix another problem, I thought the HG had not sealed properly when I refitted the head. So I took it all apart again and reassembled with new head bolts (to be safe) and another new gasket. Catch tank is still "steaming". Difference is this time I've put a few miles on it - about 100 so far - and it doesn't appear to be losing any coolant. Hence I can only assume this is blow-by gasses. Strange thing is I'd never noticed it doing this before I removed the head - although it's probably a while since I'd last run it with the bonnet off. Engines only done about 5k miles since being scholared. Should I be worried? And I was going to re-plumb the dry sump installation to vent the D/S tank tower into the cam cover and the cam cover into the catch tank - getting rid of the sealed crankcase - but I'm now thinking that's a bad idea as all the water vapour from combustion is going to condense in the crankcase which surely can't be good for the engine. Dave

On ebay here. Auction ends Sunday 21:05. Dave Edited by - Dave McCulloch on 7 Jul 2008 22:06:57

Alan I've got one in East Grinstead that you're welcome to borrow - mail me if you're interested. Dave

*arrowup*Anyone 🤔 In particular can someone confirm my logic re the oil drilling repair - ie that as the oil is higher pressure than the coolant, it's impossible for the coolant to enter the oil at that point? Thanks

Having thought about this some more, I'm guessing it can't be the repair to the oil drilling being unsuccessful - the oil is always at a higher pressure than the coolant (OP at idle is min 30psi compared to coolant where header tank cap vents at 1 bar - 15psi) so presumably you can never get coolant entering the oil system via the oil drilling. So, I can only surmise I've fouled something else up in reassembling. Any thoughts or pointers gratefully received! Dave

Finally got the engine all back together and fired it up this morning - complete with new mechanical oil pressure gauge. Fired straight away with good oil pressure - but a problem soon materialised. Steam started coming out of the top of the dry sump catch tank - pulling the breather hose out of the tank showed a constant stream of steam. Initially thought it might just be evaporating off some coolant which had got into the oilways / sump from when I pulled the head off, so drain catch tank and took car for 30 minute run. Temperature and oil pressure behaved perfectly, but when I got home again there was still steam coming from the vent pipe and the catch tank again had a small amount of slightly oily water in the bottom of it. Now, the question I have is whether this is indicative of my repair to the oil drilling being unsuccessful - previously I was getting oil in the coolant, not coolant in the oil - or have I created another problem? Really not overly happy at the prospect of having to take the head off again - it wasn't exactly a five minute exercise... Thanks Dave

Ah, great! That will make my life easier. Dave

Dave Thanks. Is it ok to vent the D/S tower to the rearmost cam cover vent then? I thought I'd read somewhere on BC that the 2 cam cover vents linked to different internal passages - and hence the front vent should be "into" the engine and the rear one "out" to the catch tank. Cheers Dave

Almost got my K series back together following the "oil in coolant" issues - but one change I'm making is that I'm not going to run the engine sealed - following one of Peter Carmichaels previous threads about not running a dry sumped engine sealed. I'm running EU3 cam cover, and have drilled out the rearmost vent tube to full diameter. However, the hose sizes all seem very different - the hose from the top of the D/S tower is 5/16 fuel hose. However, there is no way this is going over the front vent hole on the cam cover - which appears to be about 22mm. I then intent running the rearmost cam vent pipe into the catch tank - which appears to be yet another diameter. Does anyone know what hose sizes I need to plumb this in? - will I need an adaptor to reduce the c.22mm down to 5/16? Thanks for any pointers Dave

Cheers Dave - ordered one from J&L this morning - should be here tomorrow, so should hopefully be able to sort out this weekend now. Dave

Sourced the Loctite 648 today from a local bearing supplier. Now turns out I've got one of the blocks with a drilling that's smaller than 6mm - oil pump's off but I now need to buy a long 6mm drill bit to get the whole way down the oilway. Ho hum... Dave

Julian Thanks - couldn't find that info before - I guess that answers my question! Need to find a source for the 648 asap so I can start putting the engine back together again.... Dave

Can't find Loctite 648 locally - but I already have Loctite 271 which says its a stud and bearing lock - is this essentially the same stuff and ok to use? Thanks Dave

Right, got the head off today and the HG appears ok - the orangey seal material on the HG around the oil way looks intact. I haven't yet pulled out the dowel from the block, but will I be able to actually see the crack at the top of the oil drilling? Oily - you mentioned the need to carefully shape the aluminium tube at its bottom end for the perpendicular oil way - any pics / indication on how to shape this, or do you sell ready formed/shaped aluminium tubes ready to be fitted? To peen the outside of the tube, what's the best method - multipe hits with a centre punch around the tube? Many thanks Dave