AdamQ

Hi SM25T, Yup, my agent (sorry John!) told me that he was in negotiations with you! Hope you get it fitted alright. Paul, Thanks for the kind offer re. the rattle - I might very well take you up on it sometime - the more ears that hear it the better, and I'm sure it's one of those rattles that somebody'll hear and just say "Oh yes, I know what that is, it's ..." and sure enough it will be. I'm just at the top of Queen's Road, by St John's Church so really very close indeed. I'll drop you a blatmail sometime soon if I may. Cheers, Adam

Paul, I think that'll have been me out on another rattle diagnosis exercise - I got some funny looks as I drove through Crowborough with a stethoscope on! Sorry I missed the wave. I see from your other post that you were at the Crown today - a nice spot to be on a day like we've had. Cheers, Adam

Crikey - the pressure to find the cause mounts! I shall redouble my efforts. In my searches, I found this post here, which describes almost identical symptoms. Is anybody still in touch with Eddie Guest and, if so, please would they find out whether or not he ever found the cause of his problem! Adam

Thanks Andy, thanks Peter, and thanks Mav. All most useful suggestions and I'll be checking them tomorrow evening. I do remember a nut or a washer or something being missing when I put the seat back in and having to use an inferior substitute so maybe something has worked loose there. I don't carry a spare, but the big nut inside the rear skin is still there so ... Thanks again, Adam

Val, apologies - I promised an update after the weekend. I'm afraid the truth is that I'm no further forward. Beyond just driving the car I didn't get a chance to investigate further. No. 1 suspect by a nose is still the gearbox and I did take the tunnel top off yesterday in the hope that I might just be able to remove the cover plate and have a look - no chance though - the cover plate is much further forward than I envisaged/remembered. So I'm afraid it's another "I'll keep you posted". Adam

akakubi, The short answer is no, I haven't had any luck - the rattle is still there. Your symptoms do indeed sound very similar to mine. A number of expert ears have listened to the rattle and we're homing in the clutch/gearbox. In an effort to reduce footwell temperatures, I cut the gear stick and handbrake gaiters out of an old tunnel top and replaced them with some perforated material (actually the lining out of a cheap pair of tracksuit bottoms - the material is ideal). Having done that and effectively removed some sound insulation, I'm beginning to think that the rattle is coming from the gearbox. This weekend I'm planning to remove the tunnel top and get a passenger to have a listen to the gearbox with a stethoscope (obviously taking great care that nothing gets near the propshaft). If that doesn't get me any further forward, I think I might get one of these and give it a try. I'll keep you posted - let me know if you find the cause of yours. Cheers, Adam

When my Caterham sender gave up the ghost, I took a gamble and ordered a Racetech sender (Part No. RP-AST-OS) and suitable adapter (Part No. ADP-M12X15A) from Merlin Motorsport. I didn't know whether that sender was compatible with the Caterham gauge. However, having found out that the gauges are just ammeters, I simply measured the resistance of a known good Caterham sender and my Racetech one under no pressure. The resistances were 310 and 306 ohms respectively and so I am reasonably confident that I am getting an accurate reading, at least at the low end of the scale. Somebody who followed this route was concerned that the adapter, which is brass (despite what it says on the Merlin web site), was not up to the job. I subsequently did some sums and reckon it's fine, but there is a steel adapter available for added reassurance. FWIW ... Adam Edited by - AdamQ on 16 Sep 2008 07:45:51

RaceLine quote these weight figures: Duratec 92.8kg (less clutch/alt) (projected race spec engine 85kg) K-Series 89kg (less clutch/alt) Vauxhall 110kg (approx) Adam

Rob, I think you're spot on, and very fine primaries they are too! Adam

Thanks for the comments. Nathan, Graham, where were you when I needed you to draw JH's fire and take some of the flak?! Dave, thanks for the warning, but the tensioner is the Raceline one so hopefully all is well. Graham, That's a difficult question which I'm not sure I'm qualified to answer, but I'll try to put down my observations (all IMHO of course). To put things in perspective, previously the car was an 1800 K with DVA's K04 kit and was measured at 150 BHP and 135 torques at SPC. Obviously there are significant increases in both power and torque on paper (stating the obvious again!), but they are also very clearly there when driving the car (something that is not always the case I believe). It's subjective to say whether or not the increases could be classed as quantum leaps. If they're not, they're very, very close. Previously things didn't really come on song until about 5000 RPM, now it's nearer 4000 RPM and the Duratec is certainly at least as eager and encouraging to rev and rev and rev. I imagine others are similar, but I have some days where I'm happy just to potter vigorously and others where the blood is up and if the engine drops below 6000 RPM I'm annoyed with myself. The torque perhaps encourages one to be lazy and veer towards the former approach, but a quick foray up to the limiter soon dispels that. One question I've seen asked is "Do you use it to its full on the road?". I can honestly say that, despite being a physical coward, I do. The revised gearbox ratios certainly improve the driving experience - things are more as you'd expect them to be. SWMBO likes the fact that the exhaust is on my side now (and it pops and bangs like a good-un!). What else? This might sound very trivial, but I have to say that it is just 'nice' to be able to check the oil and fill the water in a conventional way (and not to have to remove the nose cone for the latter). Would I do it again? Absolutely, without hesitation, both for the improvements it's made to the car and for the sheer fun of the conversion itself. Also, I built my first Seven, but this one I bought second hand so it's been good to put my own stamp on it IYSWIM. I hope that goes a little way to answering the question. Adam

Doh! Many thanks Peter. It would have to have been in that sentence, wouldn't it! Very Glad that some of the JH stuff rings true

A much-heralded literary event has occurred. In a fit of egotistical creativity, I have written up the story of my Duratec conversion. It can be found here. Some of the reviews so far: "Vague" - Vogue "Fair" - Vanity "Dickens at his best wrote nothing like this" - The Folio Society "We look forward keenly to the publication of his last work" - TLS "Why?" - Which? Anyway, for those of you who have trouble sleeping, I recommend it; for those of you who don't, just remember it has one thing going for it - it's not Ulysses. Cheers, Adam P.S. I make no excuses for my shameless plagiarism.

I had some very similar symptom on a Midget many years ago. The condensor or something was faulty and so I changed that and also the HT leads and distributor cap at the same time. That's when the problems started. In the end it turned out to be a manufacturing fault in the distributor cap. Inside it had little pointed grub screws that screwed in and secured and made the contact with the HT leads. One of the screw holes hadn't been tapped deeply enough and so the screw wasn't making a decent contact. I don't know why, but this problem got steadily worse on any particular outing, only to reset itself when the car was next driven. I notice that you mention that the dizzy cap was cleaned and not renewed, but I though I'd add my two-penny-worth anyway. Adam

Hi Ian, I have a complete Apollo anti-cavitation kit for a K series available. It's just over a year old and I was looking for about £120 for it. Let me know if you're interested - Blatmail or 0781 0073021. Adam

Q506 FLJ (or something similar), green with some yellow on the A259 between the pier and the marina. Spotted by my uncle who thought it might be me (so you must be a fine looking fellow with excellent dress sense!). Adam

Thanks Rich, though I have a sneaking suspicion that you're in league with Colin! Superglue - now we're talking - the electrical equivalent of duct tape - marvellous! I'll keep you all posted ... (and in the meantime I hope to stop tripping over my turn-ups). Adam

Thanks Colin - where would I be without your help? Now why didn't I spot that? I've assembled arc welder, chalk for marking measurements and a chain saw and I reckon I should be able to knock up a replacement before QI at 10.00 p.m. Not sure I'm going to feature in 'Spotted' for a while! Adam

Thanks all. I'm perhaps guilty of some exaggeration as half the letters and numbers on the chip are still legible and it seems to be one of a cluster of 5 all with the following identification: IPS022G 05431[funny symbol that looks a bit like ()]R I'll liaise with Karl at Emerald, who has for the second time in the past few weeks been extremely helpful (and very swift in getting back to me). I ought to add that the problem hasn't just appeared out of the blue: my heater hose has blown off twice in the past 6 weeks, liberally dousing the Emerald with hot coolant (note to self - don't buy cheap and nasty jubilee clips). Rich, good point about the K3 upgrade - thanks. Thanks again to all, Adam

In an effort to find out why my blessed tachometer won't work, I've just had a look inside my Emerald and I'm pretty certain I've found the problem. Following the lines on the circuit board from Pin 12 quickly leads to a charred mess that was presumably formerly a chip (if that's what you call a little black cube with eight wire legs). I suppose the sensible thing to do would be to post the ECU to Karl at Emerald who would no doubt fix it and get it back to me in a matter of days. However, just the thought of trying to find a post office that hasn't been shut down and then queuing for an age makes me very grumpy. Also, it looks like it'd be a five minute job for somebody who knew what they were doing. So, has anybody any suggestions/recommendations for somebody who might be able to do this in the West Kent/East Sussex area? I'm wondering if a PC repair shop or somewhere similar might be a better bet than a standard autoelectrician? Cheers, Adam

No worries - I'm not in any great hurry. I'll look forward to hearing from you or your wife as and when. Adam

Thanks all. Millsn, YHM. Adam

Please may I have next (not sure what number we're up to) dibs - if it's free of tears (some wear is no problem), I'll definitely take it if it doesn't go to anybody else. Cheers, Adam

I think that the answers to your questions are here. Hope that helps, Adam

Timbo, I can't help with the coils I'm afraid, but I got a crank sensor connection from Ford, Part No. F1051202, for £8.91 (it's a connector used on the automatic transmission of a 1996 Ka apparently!). Hope that's some help, Adam

With a Raceline water rail and the standard Caterham radiator, I used the three hoses suggested by Simon Bell here (Caterham part nos 594-5, 594-3 and 73154) along with a dose of bling consisting of a 3" and two 12" × 32 mm connecting pipes from Demon Tweeks (part nos AHF093 and AHF095) (I think one of the 12" could have been replaced with a 6"). I also needed a blanking cap for the metal outlet from the standard thermostat housing. We did away with the expansion bottle and ended up with the arrangement that can be seen here, here, here and here. (Please excuse the state of the wiring (and everything else) - it's still a work in progress!) There's a picture showing the position of the exhaust hole here - it really needs to be about half an inch bigger all round. Adam