Graham King

Jonathan, once all up to temp then there's no flow difference, however the stat will be reacting to water that has just left the engine not to the temp after it has been cooled via the rad as in the standard setup. During warm-up however, in the standard set up the rad is part of the flow, whereas in the modified setup the rad is bypassed, so warm-up is quicker but once the stat is opened the rad comes back into the circuit and all the cold water held in it returns to the system, on cold days this changes the temp enough to close the stat again starting the cycle again. If the car is stationary the effect is minimal but if car is moving then the effect is noticeable. I reckon the gauge drops by about 10-15 degrees to start with, each subsequent cycle is smaller until it stabilises fully. I'm not sure how much effect this has on the engine but I know some say the k-series is sensitive to thermal shock. Hope that all makes sense. graham.

Dave, many thanks for your reply, I'll drop you a mail re the oil seal, would rather buy from a known source than risk another failure. cheers Graham

Mankee/Simon, it is indeed the smaller one that is capped, I've run like it for 6 years so didn't think it was an issue but thanks for the confirmation. Graham.

Jonathan, my experience is that once up to temperature then the temps are controlled very well, other than whilst sitting stationary in traffic mine never goes over 80. It is prior to reaching a permanently open stat position that it is in my view compromised. I should also mention that I have a Radtec rad (stabdard not extreme version) so this may exacerbate the cooling effect whilst the stat is closed and the water is stationary in the rad. Graham.

Jonathan, here it is http://files.qedmotorsport.co.uk/k-series_qed_remote_thermostat_fitting.pdf Diagram shown is for an Elise but it's basically the same for a Caterham, essentially then housing inserts into the top hose and the bypass goes to the bottom hose (so bypassing the rad) via the hose from the header tank to the submarine. Graham.

Folks, was at the club track day yesterday at Brands, towards the end of the day noticed that the car was using oil more than expected. On closer inspection this morning there is oil all over everything from bellhousing back, removing the clutch rubber bot cover there is a lot of oil inside the bellhousing so it looks highly likely that the rear crankshaft oil seal has failed. The engine is a wet sumped (Apollo) 1.8K with forged pistons and a DVA ported VHPD head on Jenvey TB's. This was built about 6-7 years ago by DVA and was recently refreshed, by a very reputable company to whom I attach no blame so will not mention directly, (new valve stem seals and piston rings) to fix an oil consumption issue. The engine has done about 1500 miles (max) since then. I will obviously have to remove the engine and double check it is the oil seal but on the assumption it is has anyone got any insight as to what might have caused such a failure? The engine ran great all day sounded really sweet and was definitely not down on power at all. The max oil temp I saw was approx 100 so hot but not excessive and the oil pressure was fine throughout the day and after on the drive home (normal k-series drop on right handers allowed for). This thread http://www.lotus7.club/forum/techtalk/what-makes-crankshaft-oil-seals-go?page=1 talks a lot about excessive crankcase pressure being a potential issue, my cam cover is vented to the air box through one outlet but the other is capped. Could this be an issue? Before I remove the engine I will do a compression test just to double check that nothing else more seroious has gone wrong, is there anything else that I should be checking first that may help with diagnosis? Also can anyone point me at the correct part no for the rear oil seal please. Rimmer Bros have LUF000050L as the rear seal but others have LUF100560L as having superceded LUF000050L due to a design issue. Apologies for the long post but any advice appreciated. Graham.

Mankee, it looks to me like it should work then, the bottom and top hoses are the same size so they will fit, the QED bypass is actually 8mm, the 16mm referred to on their website is the size of the hose it t's into, so the t-piece is 16-8-16 (if that makes sense). When I bought mine they only offered the 22mm t-piece, I rang them and pointed out it didn't actually fit a caterham and that it needed to be 16mm, so they had some of the right size made up sent me one and started offering the option on all new ones. They had assumed the installation in the caterham was the same as an Elise. One thing to be aware of is the QED solution isn't without it's own compromises. Warm up is slightly compromised, in that engine temps take a while to stabilise. It's ok if stationary as there is no airflow through the rad, but if driving on a cold day then during warm up there is cold airflow through the rad which further cools the water in the rad so when the stat does open it then dumps a rad and bottom hose full of cold water back into the system, which causes that stat to close again and so the cycle starts again. Will a łarger bypass exacerbate this or make it less likely? Graham.

Mankee, as no one else has replied then I'll give it a go. I do have the QED stat plumbed in exactly as you describe, I can't picture the standard k-series stat housing outside of the engine as I've only ever seen it connected to the block, I would have thought it was all doable but a couple of points I can think of. 1. You need to T it into the top 32mm hose, the input from the bottom hose is obviously 32mm but is the output side that is normally connected to the block? 2. The bypass outlet on the standard stat housing is 19mm (I believe) and the hose from stat to heater tapers down to 16mm. You would obviously need to replicate this somehow in your setup. Apart from that I can't see any specific reason why it wouldn't work as ultimately it does exactly the same job. If the plumbing can be made to work (leak free) and I guess as you have a spare housing then you can see if it can be made to fit. Graham.

Hi, I have a map for a 1.8K, ported (by DVA) VHPD head, 4-2-1, Jenvey TB's but with BP285H cams. No idea on compression ratio. Happy to send if it's of any help but suspect the different cams mean of no use. Graham.

John, I had exactly the same happen on my k-series (200bhp+), in my case it was the non-flywheel face that disintegrated, was all sitting in either the bottom of the bellhousing or caught in the fingers of the clutch cover. The k obviously has a cable clutch so the symptoms were different, but essentially the clutch pedal was significantly higher than normal and the change felt very odd, but I did manage to drive the car home but the track day had to be curtailed. It was only when I got the engine out could I see exactly what had happened. I was on a track day at the time and between myself and my son we had missed a few gear changes during the day so I assumed the clutch had been decelerated and accelerated abnormally and when being re-engaged it had experienced loads in excess of what it was designed for so had simply broken up. Graham.

GFW, I can't directly answer your question as I don't have leather seats, but I know Oxted Trimming, who make the seats for Caterham, refurbish them for approx £75 (depending on what needs doing obviously), so there's definitely no need to buy a new seat for several hundred pounds. Graham.

Morning all, thanks for all the interest. subject to collection, these are now sold. Graham.

Paul, you should have a reply. Graham.

Sorry folks, duplicate post, first one said it had failed. Please post on other thread if interested. Graham.

As per the title, 4 Caterham Anthracites (with centre caps) for sale, 6 x 13" Dedion fitment. Excellent condition, no flaking etc. £275 for set. Prefer collection (from Lingfield, Surrey area) but could arrange delivery at cost to purchaser if required. Photo below, but other photos available on request. Graham.

Just as an update on this post in case anyone looks in the future. I had the wheels fitted yesterday by a local garage, the bolts securing the drop links were seized solid and I couldn't move anything with the facilities available to me. The garage had to relocate the drop links to the other side as Shaun suggested, they also had to play around with the handbrake as that also fouled the wheels once the drop links were sorted. Anyway the wheels do now fit, but have to say still not completely comfortable with how it all fits as the bolt & nut securing the drop link now protrudes inside the wheel line, even if they are ground down I'm not convinced they'd be completely clear. I need to take a closer look when I get time as I'm not clear if the wheel is able to move relative to the bolt or if the gap is effectively fixed. My RARB is the over the diff type, I think an under diff type would be fine as the relevant mount appears to be well out of the way. I'm not sure if there were chassis mods to allow the fitting of an under the diff type as that seems a better overall solution. Graham

Richard, just in case you weren't aware, there is a proven solution to the k-click problem, there's no need to "live with it". Graham.

JK, you should have a PM from me now. Graham.

Shaun, thanks for the response, that makes sense, I'll have a look at that option this afternoon and see if it works. Graham.

JK, no I don't have an Assembly Guide, so no idea how to adjust the rear ARB, would appreciate one, I'll drop you a PM shortly, have to pop out for about an hour now, but will do as soon as I get back. Many Thanks. Graham.

JK, just worked out how to do it (add the photo that is), actually not too difficult in the end. Cheers. Graham.

Folks, just to add to the above, below is a picture of the droplink I am referring to in my previous post, it is the vertical arm that connects the upper (bar with 4 holes) and lower arms that is being fouled. A real numpty question I suspect but can anyone tell me what this actually is? Thanks. Graham.

Hi folks, I have recently bought a set of Apollo wheels, 6" fronts and 8" rears. When trying to fit the rears they are fouling on the rear assembly. I was aware of the balance weight issue potentially fouling the dedion ears but this appears fine. When fitted the rear edge of the wheel is hard against the drop link on the rear suspension. The only solution that I can see is to fit a spacer to move the wheel out slightly but this doesn't seem an ideal answer. Has anyone else fitted the 8" rears and come across this issue? If so what did you do to get round it? The car is a 99 Superlight (k-series). Many Thanks. Graham.

Malcolm, thanks for that, I'll give that a go, it's the easiest option to try as well. Callum, that's how mine's plumbed in as well, no issues for about 6 years. Ultimately provided the bypass circuit reaches the bottom hose I don't think it matters that much. Graham.

I have had a QED Remote Stat fitted for a number of years now, very similar initial reason as stated by others here, namely an inability to control engine temps, particularly whilst stationary. I actually installed the QED stat and a Radtec at the same time. Overall I'm very pleased with the setup, it does control temperatures very nicely (even on track) and completely eradicated the issue I used to have. However it does, to my mind, introduce another issue that doesn't occur in the standard setup. When starting from cold (and particularly in cold weather), the radiator and most of the bottom hose is completely bypassed until the stat opens. The effect of this is that the water in the rad particularly is "supercooled" and when the stat does open the cold water then rushes round the system and has the effect of partially closing the stat again, so the cycle starts again. It can take several cycles before the temp evens out fully. It may be exaggerated on my car due to the Radtec but this effect is noticeable on the gauge. I'm not clever enough to know exactly what impact this all has but I do know one of the reasons why the k-series was said to suffer HG issues was due to thermal shock (cold water entering a hot engine). I've been trying think about solutions to this issue but not yet really come up with one that is foolproof. Drilling some holes in the stat may help a bit but I suspect that the small amount of water released into the rad will simply cool quickly and make no relevant impact. I've looked at redirecting the bypass into a different place (e.g. into top hose or further back in the bottom hose rather than the submarine) but not convinced these will make any practical difference either. Overall I like the solution and will be sticking with it but like most things it isn't a magic bullet. Graham.