AdamQ

On my S3 Duratec with Jenveys, my effort to get cold air to the engine eventually consisted of a home-made airbox on a PX600 back-plate going forwards to an in-line K&N air filter above the steering rack and thence to an air intake via a hole cut in the bottom of the nose-cone below/behind the number plate. There's no hole in the bonnet - it all fits inside - just! With the Jenveys, it means shorter trumpets (40 or 45 mm I think), but it all seems to work OK ... FWIW ... Adam

I'm somewhat mystified by an ECU wiring issue on a Duratec. I've connected an MBE ECU to a Duratec running wasted spark ignition. The ignition is via a coilpack at the rear of the head (i.e. NOT coil-on-plug). Initially, the ECU was not set up for wasted spark and I was not in a position to change it. I therefore connected ECU pins 36 and 15 (Ignition A and D) to pin 1 of the coilpack and ECU pins 18 and 35 (Ignition B and C) to pin 3 of the coilpack (pin 2 of the coilpack being the coilpack feed). This worked and the engine ran well. The ECU setup was then changed to wasted spark and now the engine won't run. Initially, I left the wiring exactly as described above figuring that there would simply be no outputs from the ECU on pins 35 and 15 (Ignition C and D) and that they'd be redundant and do no harm. When the engine wouldn't run, I did disconnect them, but, as expected, it made no difference. I'm sure I'm doing something daft, but I'm at a bit of a loss as to what it might be and any thoughts would be much appreciated. Many thanks, Adam

I think your deductions are pretty much spot on. I agree entirely about fitting the guards to the wings first and the inner edge of the guard should be flush with the inner edge of the wing. And what you say about the two bits of trim and their locations is correct. 5 mm from the bottom edge of the wing sounds about right - for the alignment here I'd be aiming to have the trim along the lower edge of the guard flush with the lower edge of the wing. The wings are handed. I think it'll be obvious which is which if you just hold them up to the car. Also, I think there used to be a pre-drilled pilot hole for the rear light cluster, plus there's a hole/cut-out (perhaps two) in the inner flange for the radius arm mount I think. It's a while since I've done this, but I seem to remember that the order in which you install the rivets can be of significance in getting the guard to sit as flatly and evenly as possible against the wing. Wiser folk will confirm, but I'd be inclined to secure a short edge first (the bottom maybe as you know exactly where you want that) and then work up the long sides alternating from side to side, drilling and riveting as you go. HTH ... Adam

Given that you're in Kent, Tony at TSK is the beyond-obvious choice - a pleasure to deal with and without parallel where painting Caterhams is concerned ...

I'd encourage you not to be put off by what you read - especially given the cost of a new silencer and given that it's a one-off job ... I've done it and it's not as difficult as you might think from reading the posts - and, after all, there's little to lose ... But it's your decision ... Adam

FWIW, it's possible to convert it to a cable rather than hydraulic arrangement, but it's probably not worth the hassle and expense as you'd need a new bell-housing and a different nose cover thingy for the gearbox ...

To me, it looks like there should perhaps be a nut (and maybe a washer) on the bolt on the radiator side of the bobbin to clamp the bolt to the mounting bracket/plate on the radiator, i.e. on the exposed thread to right of the rubber part of the bobbin. Otherwise the bolt head is surely going to (or is at least likely to) chafe against the radiator itself ... FWIW ... Adam

Or there's the option to fit VW Golf alloy calipers - reduce unsprung weight and all that - though there can be clearance issues with some wheel types/designs/diameters. I got a pair of new calipers of the type needed for £83.00 ... Apart from having to sort out the nipples for the handbrake connections (which was easily solved), it was a very simple swap. FWIW ...

S3 1999 Roadsport 2.0 Duratec 13 x 6 8 spoke wheels with Nankang AR-1 tyres (6" front, 8" rear) Screen, no heater Wet sump Leather seats FIA roll bar Standard wings all round Powerspeed 4-2-1 exhaust Powervamp 25 battery No spare wheel Hi-spec front calipers Alloy front hubs Golf rear calipers Balsa wood rear light blocks 3/4 tank of fuel 534 kg

Just to 'close the case' so to speak, a new starter motor has cured the problem so I guess the original one was on its way out. Thanks for all the help.

You could well be right - I happened to notice it one day when browsing - I've had no experience of it, being Duratec (for which Raceline advise sticking 5 litres in, allowing to settle and then cutting a notch on the dipstick ...).

Partridge Green Motorsport also do a dipstick: http://www.pgmsussex.com/shop.html

Good to hear - very glad it's up and running ...

With my very limited knowledge, it sounds like it might be worth recalibrating the TPS in the Emerald ...

I agree with all of the above. I recently changed to the Tracsport semi-helical gearkit with 2.29 1st and 0.82 5th with a 2.0 Duratec and a 3.92 diff. The gearbox was assembled by R&R. I previously had a BGH sporting close which was a massive improvement over standard, but the Tracsport set-up is a quantum leap further in improvement - simply spot on ...

Thanks for the replies. Battery readings are 13.0V at rest, 9.7V during cranking and 14.2V when running. Battery is a PVR Clubsport so not serviceable. No work done recently. I'm working my way through the supply and earth connections - nothing that looks horrendous so far, but a couple more to go yet ... That's interesting about duff batteries. I ordered a Motobatt MB18U for a Seven recently. It was duff. The supplier said he'd send me a replacement, but he couldn't find one in his stock that wasn't duff. I naively ordered another one from a different supplier and that too is no good. It's a pity because they looked like excellent batteries for Sevens at a reasonable price (AGM for ~£70). Thanks again ...

I know this has been done to death, but even after a searching I'm at a bit of a loss. K series Elise. On turning the key to start the car, there's an initial effort from the starter motor to turn the engine which is very half-hearted - as if the battery was flat - then there's a pause for a second or two after which the starter motor turns the engine 'normally' and it starts. It seems to be slightly worse when the engine is hot. I've done the starter relay modification and the battery is new and healthy. I assume I've got some high resistance somewhere - does that sound right? As ever, any ideas greatly appreciated ...

This is going to be of limited help I'm afraid. Mine is a Duratec conversion (wet sump) as opposed to a factory car, but does use the same sump I believe, i.e. a Raceline one, and it uses a standard Ford dipstick 'grafted' on. When I did the conversion, the instructions from Raceline were simply to stick five litres of oil in, let the oil settle and file a notch into the dipstick at the resulting level - all cold. For 11 years I've always checked the oil cold using the notch created as above and have never had any problems. FWIW ... Adam

I've used it on two Sevens and have been pleased with the results. See https://www.lotus7.club/forum/techtalk/acoustafil-good-stuff for some actual figures ... I hope that helps. Adam

I messed about with this for a Duratec a few years ago and concocted (read 'botched' as is all too plain from the pictures!) a cold air feed. I remounted the radiator a bit higher (and canted it back so it still fitted under the nose cone) and installed some ducting through an in-line filter up to a home-made airbox (which has now been replaced with something significantly smarter and more professional I'm pleased to say). I cut a letterbox hole in the nose cone below and behind the number plate (invisible without getting down to ground level and looking for it). FWIW ...

Thanks again one and all. I've admitted defeat and the car's at the garage down the road being looked at. The chap there did notice that the Webers were bolted up tightly to the manifold when they should in fact just be nipped up, leaving some vibration-absorbing capability in the special washers (he gave them a name, which I can't remember). Apparently the vibration can whip up (sort of aerate) the fuel in the chambers a bit, leading to problems ... Pete, your suggestion makes good sense - and I'll do my best to make sure lack of use doesn't cause problems again! Anyway, we shall see and report back when the problem has been diagnosed and fixed ...

Thanks again for the further suggestions and ideas - I'm working through them ...! I've ferreted out some more details of the set-up (the car was left to me by an uncle and I've yet to become as knowledgeable as I'd like to be about it (though it's all familiar as I grew up with Midgets)). It's a 1380 A+ block with a Stage 4 head and a MD286 cam with the 1.5:1 roller rocker gear. One thing that's always surprised me is that it appears to have servo-assisted brakes with the vacuum being taken from the inlet manifold for 3 and 4. I'll be blocking that off to eliminate that as a potential cause of problems (though it obviously wouldn't affect 1 and 2).

Thanks one and all for all the helpful suggestions and ideas - greatly appreciated ... I've just had the rocker cover off and have turned the engine to TDC with both No. 1 valves showing a bit of slack and the rotor arm is very definitely pointing at No. 1. I've sprayed some Plusgas around the manifold side of the head. As the Plusgas evaporates as the engine warms up, there's no sign of the 'smoke' being sucked into the engine via an air leak (though I'm not sure how noticeable/subtle or otherwise this would be so could quite easily have missed it). Later or tomorrow, I'll take the inlet manifold off and see what state the gasket is in. It's running twin DCOEs. I have to say, I was slightly surprised by how low the compression numbers were, but took some comfort from the fact that they were at least consistent (ISTR reading on here somewhere that consistency was almost as important as the figures themselves (within reason)). I've just checked them again - hot engine, all plugs out, throttle fully open: 125 - 130 psi across the board again. Thanks again to all.

Thanks Piers, Elie. Regarding the jets, I've had them out and inspected them cursorily - they look OK to me (though not entirely sure what I'd be looking for). The float chambers also looked OK to me. And it is of course running fine on 2 and 3. Re. balance, I've listened down a tube and they seem fairly well balanced and the tickover on 2 cylinders is surprisingly smooth.

Thank you both. Ian, I'll give that a go tomorrow (though I think it might be something I've tried). My thinking about fuel is related to a dim recollection of something in Crombac's Chapman biography where, because of the firing order (1-3-4-2) and the shared ports, 2 and 3 could 'rob' fuel from 1 and 4 resp. - Chapman went to the lengths of rigging up something to de-Siamese the ports as far as I remember. But I'm sure I'm being way to elaborate in my diagnosis - like 99% of things, it'll be something daft and operator-caused ...