Dave McCulloch

Oily Thanks for the reply - not sure whether that's better or worse than HGF.... Does this require drilling out the oilway or is the 6mm aluminium tube a tight fit in the existing oilway? I guess my question is how far do I need to strip down the engine to fix this? The engine has only done about 4,000 miles since I built it so I wasn't planning on a complete stripdown just yet. But there is quite a lot of oil floating in the header tank, so it does need fixing properly. Cheers Dave

My 1900K scholar K series seems to have been adding its oil to the coolant for a while now - to begin with I thought it was oil left in the coolant passages in the engine following the machining work, but I flushed the whole system and refilled, and again there are globs of oil in the header tank, and the top of the header tank has a black gunky coating on it. The engine doesn't loose coolant at all, and holds temperature fine - it's never overheated. Am I right in thinking these symptons relate to the head gasket having failed between the oil way and the coolant ways? If so, why would this have happened and how can I avoid it happening again? Dave Edited by - Dave McCulloch on 27 May 2008 22:02:15 Edited by - Dave McCulloch on 14 Jun 2008 19:40:53

Gavin My current thought process is change the oil (so I can check for any bits in it), check the gauze filters, and replace the crappy Caterham oil pressure gauge with a mechanical one - the bits from Think Automotive arrived today - but had to buy the gauge from Demon Tweaks as Think were out of stock. Then I'll have my fingers crossed! Dave

Rob Can't remember from when I installed the DS system - presume I can simply remove the scavenge hose and then withdraw the pick up complete with gauze? Going to swap to mechanical gauge anyway as I don't trust the electronic one. Dave

Cheers Think I've already decided to fit an (accurate) mechanical gauge - that's now the 3rd sender that's failed / been suspect. I'll fit that first and see what pressure I'm getting, and then go from there. Dave

I've not used my seven much since a track day last year at Oulton Park - when it ran faultlessly - until the last week's nice weather. The engine is a 1900 scholar (built by myself), dry sumped, with the standard Caterham oil pressure gauge but with a separate low pressure warning light wired in - the switch being 35psi. Historically, the low pressure light would flicker at idle - more so when the oil got hot. However, the last couple of days the OP gauge has been reading noticeably lower - c. 2-3 bar at revs, dropping right down into the red at idle (oil hot). I'd put this down to another dodgy sender, but the low pressure light now seems to be on constantly at idle once the oil's warmed up (over 60 degrees). Then driving home tonight I accelerated hard and the warning light flickered on at high revs. I've checked the oil level - which is fine. Any clues as to what to look for next. Thanks Dave

I'm in the process of rebuilding an engine (not for the 7) and have an engine block which the previous owner tried to paint ..... rather badly. The paint is flaking off in places, but "welded" solid in other places. I've tried using a wire brush in the drill, but there are too many deep recesses in the casting and it's taking forever. I'm guessing therefore that grit blasting is the way to go - can anyone recommend anywhere in sussex - ideally East Grinstead / Crawley area. The one place I know of want £60 - and I'd have to mask up the block - which seems quite expensive. Thanks Dave

Mark I'd prefer them to go as a set. Dave

Still available. I've edited the original post to update details - including the size of the wheel. Dave

I cured this - by fitting a 1900 scholar engine, Emerald and throttle bodies 😬 😬. Car now goes like stink and following input from Oilyhands and Dave Walker at Emerald to map it, it's never stalled again (except when stone cold). Not the cheapest solution, but I've never looked back! Dave

I'll need to check width as I've no idea! Tyres are 195mm wide if that helps. Dave

Geoff Just wondered where I am on the reserve list? Cheers Dave

I did this about 18 months ago - from memory you need to: - remove rear wheels - undo brake calipers and tie up to springs, out of the way - undo the 4 bolts which hold the bearing carrier to the end plates on the de dion tube - withdraw the drive shafts (complete with hubs and discs still attached) from diff, through end plates - undo and remove A frame - undo and remove the 2 tie bars from de dion tube - undo lower shock mounting bolts from de dion tube - slide de dion tube as far back as it will go - undo and remove the four bolts attaching propshaft to diff - undo and remove the 2 lower bolts holding diff to chassis - support weight of diff on trolley jack (it's quite heavy) - undo and remove the long top bolt from top of diff - lower diff through gap in front of de dion tube. From memory you do have to wiggle it about a bit to get it out, but it does fit This method saves having to disconnect any of the brake lines. Dave

I've got 5 prisoner alloys (6.5J x 15, ET13) with 195/50 tyres (4 Michelin Pilots and 1 Pirelli P6000) which I took off my car about 2 years ago. They'd probably done about 11,000 miles and being Michelin Pilots are showing little sign of wear. The Michelins are however 10 years old so I'd recommend they were changed. The Pirelli has never been driven on and is probably 5 years old. Ive owned the car from new and have kept the wheels in good condition. There is one tiny nick (probably only 3mm) on one of the rims. The other 4 are all unmarked on the outer faces - though there is the usual tar etc marks on the inner side - and also some of the paint finish is bubbling slightly on the inner surface - but not visible from the outside. Come with 2 locking keys and all 5 centre caps. These are Dedion fitment only. Located near East Grinstead - 10 miles east of Gatwick. Price is £200 - which is only £40 per wheel with the donuts tyres thrown in for free 😬. I was keeping them so I could return the car to standard - but I can't see me ever doing that so I'd rather get them out of the shed. Dave Edited by - Dave McCulloch on 26 Apr 2008 21:48:05

Geoff Thanks Dave

Geoff Was hoping to do Cadwell and had been waiting for entry forms - but my Low Flying never appeared for February and no form appeared here on Blatchat ☹️. Do you have a reserves list? - if you do, pls add me to it. Cheers Dave

Paul I used an MGF loom when I built / installed a new engine. Can't remember now whether MFRU was on engine or car loom - but the MGF loom was the same as the standard Caterham setup. Some of the wire lengths differed a bit - I actually stripped down the loom completely, removed all the unnecessary wires and adjusted the length of a few of the wires to suit the Caterham instal I didn't need any of the IACV or lambda wires as I'm non cat and running throttle bodies. Dave

Mmmm - particularly as Caterham now make an uprated starter motor which will fit at a considerably cheaper price than the Brise.... Dave - I assume you had to send the whole starter back to Brise to get it fixed. Pretty heavy so I expect the postage won't be cheap either. Dave

It's taken a while - but I've finally got round to looking at this - I'm losing almost 3.5 volts across the solenoid, leaving only 7v across the starter itself - no wonder it's struggling to start the engine! Will be calling Brise tomorrow to get it sorted out - it was new in Nov 05 so well out of warranty - oh well! Dave

Thanks all. John - I'll measure the voltage drops through the system when I get a moment. Myles - interesting re the high solenoid resistance failure - though when I was cranking to get oil pressure up after the oil change, it was the starter itself which got very hot (and I was only doing 15 second bursts to avoid overheating it), and not the solenoid - I would have thought a high solenoid resistance would result in the solenoid getting very hot given the current the starter draws. Ironically, it started this morning - although the starter still sounded a bit sluggish. Dave

Following on from my previous thread about killing my battery at the Oulton Park trackday (let the electrolyte level drop below the plates) I fitted a new battery last weekend, but the car is still struggling to start. Put a meter on the battery, and on cranking the voltage only drops to about 10v - so new battery appears ok. Measured resistance of main +ve lead to starter, and its 0.1ohms, and resistance from battery negative to engine block is about 0.5ohms. So the only thing I can think is the Brise starter is faulty. I'm halfway through doing an oil change, and took the plugs out to spin the engine over to get oil pressure before starting - but even with no compression the starter is turning quite slowly and quickly gets very hot - which doesn't sound right to me (voltage with no compression to fight stays at about 11v). Anyone else had similar symptons? Going to strip starter off car and send back to Brise for testing me thinks. Dave

and another very happy customer of Steve at Simply Tyres - ordered a pair of 206/60 13 for the rear yesterday lunchtime and they arrived today. £63 each delivered compared to over £90 (albeit fitted) from the only local tyre place who could get them. Dave

Cheers all I'll measure the voltage whilst cranking. Dave