The_ASH

One last stab... or ...final call before I err... 1400 Supersport or alternatively Suzuki engined 160 wanted. Must be competitively priced. Leaning towards a 160 at present but only used ones seem to be with manufacturer, I wonder if they (cough) take offers? If not I’ll just watch the market and leave it to chance once my membership has lapsed in the next few weeks or so.

Is this the ‘thin end of the wedge’ for the K? 13 years out of production, (14?). Not in Sevens but... So many of them out there, falling off the end of the end of the conveyor belt, so many of them high mileage, so many being indiscriminately scrapped (in saloons) without true and proper assessment (by Dave) :-), no new parts as PTP or Rover don’t exist any longer since late 2005. Certain things seem to be in plentiful... if not ‘end of stock’ or clearance supply but are we in a THE END IS NIGH situation. The massive oversupply of the British motor industry was bound to end eventually. Ford keep some back stock, the Japs less so (not fully bound to the 7 year rule). When an engine is made of metallic cheese surely it goes off sooner than than a muscular weighty iron engine. Cost^^^! Eeek!

Yes, have noticed those.

The LE’s had a plaque on the dash to denote which one they were. This was the car I owned 10 years ago here http://www.thecaterhamregister.net/images/1400Roadsport/1400%20Roadsport%20No.002.jpg

Is it one of the LE’s, no.2 of 30 by any chance?

I think Brexit is putting people off a lot of things financial outlay wise, depending on what happens I think sales could pick up after March end... or not. Who knows.

Ian - The most galling bit of all this is there was the ideal car (I didn’t know i wanted one then) for sale locally to me, was for sale for a while, sold just before I sold my last car, 1400SS tb’s apollo 5spd etc kind of ultimate road spec. A bit like trains, busses or taxis there’s never one around when you want one. I might at a push settle for a Suzuki 160 but again there’s none at the right price Millwood had one (sensibly priced), Caterham have several but to me they seem £1.5 to £2k over priced. At the risk of upsetting a few people the 160 seems like the ‘new’ VX 8V value and hierarchy wise. Somehow a 1400 SS seems a safer bet long term and better value... the more sensible better judged option.

Another long story but had 2 of those as well and again I prefer the 1400 SS over the standard or SS 1600. Love the zingy 1400 engine’s pickup that the 1600 loses a little and the 1800 moreso as the stroke, bore and cc’s get bigger. Imagine how revvy and sharp the ultra rare 1100K 16V would be SuperSported and in a Seven. Also not the most important issue but a 1400 is cheaper to tax, the first one always felt so good like it was incorrectly banded, like you were getting away with some kind of tax evasion. Seemed at the time to epitomise the old Blatchat smiley sticker that adorned so many cars back then <like that but it was the car that was animated not the smiley.

Long story but the 3rd Seven I owned was one of those, the first was a standard SS not an LE, of the two I actually preferred the standard one, felt more powerful, went better and the 5 speed was better for distance cruising, theoretically they command less of a premium as well ...arguably. Of course, I know there are pro’s and con’s allied to both cars.

Final call before I permanently adopt a pipe and slippers. Cheaper the better. Anyone? or put another way

I knew there were intercontinental ro-ro ships as used by the large manufacturers but for some reason I always envisaged that us ‘average motorist’ types had to stick the car in a shipping container, pray it didn’t fall off the ship enroute creating some metallic growler yachting hazard, travel independently and hopefully collect it intact at the other end.

That’s interesting, up to 90 days wandering around in the US (or Canada) in a Seven. I did a bit of Googling and found this https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/thecruisepeople.wordpress.com/2018/01/17/atlantic-container-line-announces-new-trans-atlantic-passenger-service-starting-in-march-hamburg-antwerp-liverpool-halifax-new-york-baltimore-and-return/amp/ Suprising my relations in Ca. would be a laugh but a bit of a stretch from NY as it’s ‘only’ 2794 miles (or 41 hours driving Google tells me).

The best shift light I ever found was Australian by a company called Ecliptech. The latest version can be found here https://ecliptech.com.au/shift-p2/ Not cheap now at £150 (last version was £80 ISTR) but for road use on a Seven the night time auto dimming feature meant that after triggering the lights you weren’t staring at a stinging white dot for the next few miles which is what I found with the DRE ones on minimum brightness once the sun had retreated for the day plus you had to manually set it then set it back for daytime.

Another thing that can improve things if you are on your own in the car is to fit half of the tonneau cover which traps more warm air in the car and helps to keep it from getting sucked out of the car before you have been able to feel at least some of it’s effect.

I too am looking for the two separate parts, individually identified by the letters FS and WTD. Much like everyone else I appear to have the combined item which is followed by the exclamation FFS!

Thanks for the link to all those race and qualifying vids. In the torrential wet it all looks a bit scary. Have a bttt on me.

Now listed on eBay here :- https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F113285224207

I used to have a BMW 318iS, I used standard non-BMW screen wash which eventually dissolved some plastic parts of the washer system, when I quizzed the Stealers about it I was told “I wasn’t using the ‘Genuine’ screenwash was I?”...pardon? ISTR their own stuff is high alcohol low detergent whereas Halfords stuff is the opposite. The other side effect of the blue screen wash you can buy almost anywhere is the buildup of a snot like substance in the tank if not used for ages which eventually clogs the pump, pipework and nozzles. I found the genuine screen wash wasn’t that expensive but the biggest pain was that you had to go specifically to them to buy it rather than just about anywhere else that sells the blue stuff.

Thanks will bear that in mind. ISTR that the pumps talked about were the gold and purple ones, and yes the leaky bell tank... not sure I’ve ever seen a DS 1400SS without one.

Makes things a little simpler with emissions at MOT time (another hoop less to jump through and no cat to get old and tired) and if I should go completely mad and fit a Duratec (or any other engine) the emissions thing helps there too as it’s pre-97, so 3.5% CO & vis smoke.

As above tentatively looking for a 1400 SuperSport... with perhaps an eye to going back to my 7 owning roots. Needs to be a pre-97 non-cat kit built car with under dash hand brake (a vin beginning SDKRDK). Preferably cycle wings but clams considered also ideally post-93 with rear facing plastic or forward facing cast ally intake plenum. And not an ex-racer, don’t fancy one with a dry sump although with Apollo tank would be nice. Will look at anything from concours to basket cases, not fussed if I have to take it completely to bits as long as asking price reflects that. Maybe you know of one languishing unloved buried in a garage somewhere that someone wants to part with. SuperSport cars preferred but those with standard non-SS 105hp engine & ecu considered. I have all Winter to look so will bring this post back to the top occasionally if nothing turns up. Either reply to me below or PM via club mail system.

Interesting thread, thanks to all for raising the points and asking/answering the questions.

Well, that did occur to me as well, I think at startup especially a certain amount of balancing occurs which results in some oil being sent towards the head until things settle, also not sure what effect having the braided hose disconnected would have on the whole function/flow of the system also as it’s close to the IN connection on the tank, certainly a mess, even a little oil goes a long way and this happened in the dark as well. Regarding restriction vs NRV, restriction would slow flow but allow flow in both directions whereas NRV would only allow unrestricted flow in one direction as is a non return valve (unless it has an inbuilt restriction lol!).

You may well be right, certainly one of the fittings used was a standard brass fridge fitting but the other may have been a ‘special ‘ conjured up by Caterham, I think we need someone to undo the top tank fitting of their Apollo and take a picture of the orifice. Thinking about this, as a fridge engineer, I may have very very very occasionally seen these fittings with a smaller bore to carry out a snubbing function, so I’d bet someone sells them somewhere. From a distant memory of a rapid Apollo assembly cock up, the amount of oil that comes out of the hose if disconnected from the head would point to there being no restriction as it was a solid 1/4” bore of oil... everywhere... very quickly... panic... turn it off!... etc!

I am pretty certain that the fitting that fits into the cam carrier and/or cam cover is a part used widely in refrigeration systems and is 1/8 npt x 1/4 gas, the 1/4 gas end has the angle that you’d find on flare joints, I probably have many of them buried in my garage somewhere from 20 years ago. I never investigated it but the tank top fitting may be the same, certainly one end of it is 1/4 gas as the aeroquip hose has those ends. Some people used to remove that fitting from the tank when doing an oil change as an oil evacuator hose could be popped in to suck the contents out rather than trying to undo the drain at the bottom that can sometimes be hard to shift plus if you undo it you might need another Dowty washer when you put it back together.