aerobod - near CYYC

I was thinking about machining the pulley down or using a lighter one, but with the standard cast crankshaft revving to R500 speeds, there is a risk of harmonics causing damage if the harmonic balancer is changed or eliminated.

Main job for today was to use the swarf generator to create a new water pump pulley: Started with a 5” diameter bar of 6061-T6, decided to make the pulley 117.5mm in diameter to give 12% under drive compared with the standard 105mm one. Made it 28.5mm thick to give the same 25mm inset to the pump mounting flange with a 3.5mm thick face: Plenty of clearance for the increased pulley size: The standard belt length still works with the tensioner close to its maximum anticlockwise rotation and the alternator on it’s inner top mounting hole, requiring the belt to be slipped on to the water pump pulley last:

Hi Neil, I will be adjusting the fuel map on the road using my wideband system in the first few km after the cam 20min bedding that Raceline specifies. Then it will be used at full throttle with lots of closed throttle on the overrun up to 2/3 of the redline to adjust the fuel maps, then on to the rollers for max revs once the 2nd stage fuel map adjustments have happened.

As usual with the Calgary weather, near record highs approaching 20C today and tomorrow, then Tuesday weather breaks and stays below freezing for a week with over 30cm of snow forecast, then stays near freezing for the rest of the month. I’m planning on doing the startup and 500km running-in before the rolling road session in April, so will be waiting for the normal April big melt first. I have my cheap 18.9 litre barrel of Shell Rotella 15w40 diesel oil with high ZDDP and 3 oil filters ready to go, once the weather cooperates!

My son was coming over to help me install the engine, but he was pretty sick today and SWMBO said that I should do it on another day, as although he was still going to come over SWMBO put the kibosh on that. I decided to go ahead anyway, with the most difficult task getting the engine on the stand out of the house and down the stairs into the garage. Using the engine crane as a second pair of hands to support the front of the stand worked well, taking the stand down one step at a time, then lowering the crane to level the stand with the next stair: The flywheel and clutch was fitted, the crankshaft pulley holding tool made it easy to torque the ARP flywheel bolts to 130Nm without needing a flywheel locking tool: I gave the bellhousing a bit of a clean and installed a new clutch release bearing: Lowering the engine in was actually easier on my own than I thought it would be. It actually was easier joining the gearbox and engine than it was to separate them when I took the engine out. An engine leveller is essential for a single handed install, though, as jiggling opportunities to get things aligned are a lot more difficult without a second pair of hands: I was happy I got everything connected and installed other than the exhaust, intake (including injectors and coils) and oil tank and oil lines. The next task is to fettle the throttle bodies. I’ve also got a 5” diameter slab of aluminium I’m going to machine into a larger diameter water pulley, so that I can turn it 9% slower than the standard pulley to alleviate any cavitation risk with the higher redline:

There will be two effects due to the ‘S’ position starting with the arms inclined down to the deDion and the ‘R’ position being level. First is in bump steer the car will turn away from the side that the bump is on in ‘S’ and towards the side of the bump in ‘R’. In cornering the car will turn more tightly into the corner as it rolls in ‘S’, but will be more neutral in ‘R’.

I decided to do a bit of a tidy-up with the engine wiring loom, giving the wires a scrub and additional tie wrapping where needed. I added a piece of flexible conduit to the exposed wires that run to the alternator and crankshaft sensor across the bottom of the timing cover:

I will try to remember to do a recording, John. At initial startup I have to totally focused on keeping it at 2500 to 3000RPM for the first 20mins to accomplish the cam and ring break-in. With the fuel map being an estimation scaled from the old R400 map I had fine tuned, it may be a bit of a struggle, but no time can be spent on adjustments until that key break-in phase has been completed and an oil change done. Still have to fettle the throttle body fitment, likely construct a new throttle cable, check all sensor readings and wait for a suitably warm day to roll the car on to the driveway to do the startup. After the initial startup, a basic set of adjustments will be done, followed by 500km of varied road use with break-in oil while logging parameters to tune the fuel map. After that a second oil change to 5w50 synthetic before a rolling road session to fine tune the fuel and ignition maps.

Spent a few hours this evening checking the timing and fine tuning the verniers to get it to within 0.5 degrees of the spec: The engine is now ready for transfer to the engine crane and hopefully fitting back into the car next weekend:

Although I decided that I was too tired to fine tune the cam timing today, I now have the engine in a state that I can put it back on the engine crane to fit the flywheel and clutch and put it back in the car. I started off with the bits and pieces to fit the cams: Lots of assembly lube used on all surfaces that will be last to get oil pressure on engine start: With the cams in, the verniers are bolted on: Re-checking the valve clearances, I was lucky to get all inlet valves exactly at 0.25mm and the exhaust valves are all reasonable at between 0.25 and 0.28mm (0.25mm was the aiming point, but with the issue of bucket tappet availability, I elected to err on the high side with the exhaust valves): Valve # Tappet # Used Tappet Thickness (mm) Final Clearance (mm) Inlet 1 282 3.282 0.25 2 282 3.282 0.25 3 302 3.302 0.25 4 362 3.362 0.25 5 442 3.442 0.25 6 502 3.502 0.25 7 382 3.382 0.25 8 502 3.502 0.25 Exhaust 1 422 3.422 0.25 2 442 3.442 0.25 3 462 3.462 0.28 4 502 3.502 0.26 5 442 3.442 0.26 6 382 3.382 0.27 7 462 3.462 0.27 8 442 3.442 0.28 The timing bar is placed in the cam slots to lock them in the TDC position to set the basic timing with the teeth on the vernier pulleys chosen to put the clamping bolts close to the centre of the slots: The crankshaft TDC timing stop was also screwed into the side of the block in place of the blanking plug and the crankshaft is rotated against it, to match the cam positions that the timing bar has set: Before fitting the timing chain, the oil pump sprocket is fitted. Instead of using the special tool to hold the sprocket, an 8mm diameter rod can be used to stop the pulley rotating by holding against a bolt head on the pump body: The timing chain tensioner stop is now set by using a screw driver in a slot I had cut in the end of the stop, and adjusting until there is 10mm of slack in the chain between the vernier pulleys (all slack removed elsewhere by pushing down hard on the chain between the pulleys and working with the tensioner piston and spring removed): Once the piston and spring is back in the tensioner, the slack is moved back into the chain tensioner arm run by pushing hard on the bottom of the arm. The gap from the stop to the tensioner arm can then be checked with a wire style feeler gauge and confirmed to be 1mm when using a used chain, as suggested by SBD: The timing chain is now correctly tensioned and ready for the timing cover to be installed: After the normal faffing about with black RTV and the normal spreading it everywhere, followed by cleaning it off my iPad screen, the timing cover is bolted in place and the crankshaft bolt is tightened up. The bolt is initially torqued to 100Nm, then rotated an additional 90 degrees. Using my largest torque wrench that clicked at the maximum 360Nm when I had about 50 degrees of rotation on the bolt, I estimate it required 450Nm to reach the required 90 degrees. The special crankshaft pulley holding tool made the job easier than expected, as I could pull the tool and torque wrench towards the breaker bar and socket with much better stability than just trying to turn one lever: The timing cover height above the head is checked. At 0.13mm, it should seal fine with the small spot of RTV that is used on the join under the cam cover seal: I bought a standard Ford crankshaft sensor alignment tool, but it needed some fettling to fit the sensor used by Caterham, with the rear legs needing widening and the tooth width at 4.5mm compared with the 3mm the tool initially had: The tool was then used to centre a tooth on the sensor with the engine at TDC:

From the most true-to-life TV programme about IT, ever:

Looks like the hacksaw mod is appropriate as it says "Pedal Bracket - Later Cars -------- Ford 100E 2471 with one side removed". Assume the use of a clutch cable required that to be done, as opposed to being used for a slave cylinder mount.

Now I have a complete set of tappets to install. Should have most of a day to work on the engine this weekend, perhaps will reach the point that it is ready to go back in the car:

Hi Nick, my Yuasa GYZ3HL 32Ah AGM battery is 164mm wide and 122mm deep at the base, with a height of 175mm. I did make a different battery tray than the original Caterham one, but I probably could have forced the Yuasa battery into the old tray, as the dimensions were within a few mm of the Banner battery:

Hi Gerard, What are the coolant and air temperatures reading in Easimap, are they consistent with the expected values? Also, are all plugs consistently dark? With the engine off, does the TPS voltage vary smoothly from 0.41V at idle to close to 5V when fully open with no erratic behaviour?

Hi Gerard, The issue may be a failed Lambda sensor or air leak in the intake system. The idle screw should not need adjusting normally, as the ECU adjusts to the target, as opposed to the mechanical stop. I would return the idle screw to approximately where it was before, disconnect the Lambda sensor cable and see if that returns the engine to fairly normal running and idling. If not, check for any air leaks around the intake or vacuum lines attached to it. If it is a failed Lambda sensor, read the code off the old one and search for a Bosch sensor from a reputable online source, as it will be a lot cheaper than the Caterham price. With Easimap, you should be able to check the Lambda sensor for normal oscillations at the rate of about once every couple of seconds between lean and rich, when the engine is warmed up and idling normally.

In terms of the tappet / cam follower part numbers as they become increasingly difficult to source, there are alternatives numbers used in Europe vs North America for the Ford parts (CM5E vs CP9Z). Mazda also has more randomly assigned part numbers that supercede the LF- numbers, but I haven't fully investigated those and parts systems seem to be happy with searching for the original ones. I believe that new car usage of these may have ended in 2023 with the Ecoboost major redesign, but they are used on most of the 4-cylinder Ford and Mazda engines produced from 2001 to 2023 in 1.8, 2.0, 2.3 and 2.5 capacities. The Ford parts also have a nominal number inked on the top of the tappet ranging from 01 to 35, not sure if this is the same for the Mazda parts: Duratec Tappet Part Numbers Thickness Tappet # Ford Part # Inked # Mazda Part # 3.000mm 000 CP9Z / CM5E-6500-AAB 01 LF01-12-541 3.025mm 025 CP9Z / CM5E-6500-ABB 02 LF01-12-542 3.050mm 050 CP9Z / CM5E-6500-ACB 03 LF01-12-543 3.075mm 075 CP9Z / CM5E-6500-ADB 04 LF01-12-544 3.100mm 100 CP9Z / CM5E-6500-BAB 05 LF01-12-545 3.122mm 122 CP9Z / CM5E-6500-BBB 06 LF01-12-546 3.142mm 142 CP9Z / CM5E-6500-BCB 07 LF01-12-547 3.162mm 162 CP9Z / CM5E-6500-BDB 08 LF01-12-548 3.182mm 182 CP9Z / CM5E-6500-CAB 09 LF01-12-549 3.202mm 202 CP9Z / CM5E-6500-CBB 10 LF01-12-551 3.222mm 222 CP9Z / CM5E-6500-CCB 11 LF01-12-552 3.242mm 242 CP9Z / CM5E-6500-CDB 12 LF01-12-553 3.262mm 262 CP9Z / CM5E-6500-DAB 13 LF01-12-554 3.282mm 282 CP9Z / CM5E-6500-DBB 14 LF01-12-555 3.302mm 302 CP9Z / CM5E-6500-DCB 15 LF01-12-556 3.322mm 322 CP9Z / CM5E-6500-DDB 16 LF01-12-557 3.342mm 342 CP9Z / CM5E-6500-EAB 17 LF01-12-558 3.362mm 362 CP9Z / CM5E-6500-EBB 18 LF01-12-559 3.382mm 382 CP9Z / CM5E-6500-ECB 19 LF01-12-561 3.402mm 402 CP9Z / CM5E-6500-EDB 20 LF01-12-562 3.422mm 422 CP9Z / CM5E-6500-FAB 21 LF01-12-563 3.442mm 442 CP9Z / CM5E-6500-FBB 22 LF01-12-564 3.462mm 462 CP9Z / CM5E-6500-FCB 23 LF01-12-565 3.482mm 482 CP9Z / CM5E-6500-FDB 24 LF01-12-566 3.502mm 502 CP9Z / CM5E-6500-GAB 25 LF01-12-567 3.522mm 522 CP9Z / CM5E-6500-GBB 26 LF01-12-568 3.542mm 542 CP9Z / CM5E-6500-GCB 27 LF01-12-569 3.562mm 562 CP9Z / CM5E-6500-GDB 28 LF01-12-571 3.582mm 582 CP9Z / CM5E-6500-HAB 29 LF01-12-572 3.602mm 602 CP9Z / CM5E-6500-HBB 30 LF01-12-573 3.625mm 625 CP9Z / CM5E-6500-HCB 31 LF01-12-574 3.650mm 650 CP9Z / CM5E-6500-HDB 32 LF01-12-575 3.675mm 675 CP9Z / CM5E-6500-JAB 33 LF01-12-576 3.700mm 700 CP9Z / CM5E-6500-JBB 34 LF01-12-577 3.725mm 725 CP9Z / CM5E-6500-JCB 35 LF01-12-578

It looks like 3.482mm tappets are now in the unobtanium category with no known stock or delivery date from Ford. I decided to substitute 3.462mm ones instead, as if I used 3.502mm, it would take my exhaust clearances to the range of 0.23 to 0.26mm which is perhaps a bit too tight considering Kent Cams specifies a 0.25mm exhaust tappet clearance compared with a standard Ford specified 0.30mm one. All inlet valves should be at 0.25mm clearance, with the exhaust clearances in the range of 0.25 to 0.28mm now. Kudos to Burton Power and Anthony for sorting out the issue very quickly, They should have the new tappets in the hands of DHL today. They also found other tappets in their stock that Ford had mis-labelled, too.

Besides reassembling the dry sump today, I did the modification to the timing chain tensioner to eliminate the ratchet mechanism: The ratchet spring plunger is held in place by an M8 grub screw with a screw driver slot in it. This is quite soft steel that resisted a tightly fitting screw driver, then turned to cheese when I tried an impact driver on it. So I drilled it out with an 8.5mm drill, then removed the spring and plunger. Modifying the tensioner for the manual adjuster it is not quite straight forward due to a couple of dimension issues: 1. The centre of the ratchet rod hole is only 5.25mm away from the edge of the spring loaded tensioner piston. M6 is about the largest bolt that can be used as an adjuster, but an M6 nut is too big. I used an M5 flange nut, turned the flange down to 10mm diameter and drilled it out and re-tapped it M6. The M6 bolt head was turned down to 8.5mm diameter and a file was used while in the lathe to put a dome on it. 2. The ratchet rod is in a 5.5mm diameter hole, so only about 40% of the M6 thread depth is cut. This is alleviated by ensuring the thread runs all the way to the rear hole that is used for the ratchet withdrawal pin, and using a 50mm long bolt to enable full engagement of that thread. I also spot-faced the rough casting surface under the flange nut to ensure a flat locking surface.

Once the diff has been centralized the first time, the packing washers each side should be the same for refitting. To make it easier to refit, I machined a couple of bushes to the thickness of the packing washers for mine.

I think it is a Ford packaging problem, the part number underneath the Burton label is CM5E-6500-FDB, which corresponds to the 3.482mm tappet. I said to Burton that I would take a couple more of the 3.502mm ones (I already received 3 in the shipment), if they couldn't get the 3.482mm ones this week. I did put a mic on the 2 problem ones and every other one of the tappets I received when they arrived yesterday, definitely 3.182mm for the 2 problem ones (actually measured closer to 3.185), but all others are correct:

They checked the remaining stock of the 3.482mm tappets, also wrongly boxed. They are going back to their Ford supplier to sort out the problem.

Thanks for that Neil, I will wake up earlier than usual for a Sat and give them a quick call, if they haven’t replied to my email. Hopefully not all of their stock of the 3.482mm tappets are mis-boxed 3.182mm ones. If so I could go up to 3.502mm and have 0.23 and 0.24mm clearances, instead of the ideal 0.25 and 0.26mm on the two tappets in question.

Got my tappet order from Burton, so was going to get back on track on with the engine build this weekend: Unfortunately two of the tappets inside the boxes don’t match the box labels, they should be 3.482mm, but are actually 3.182mm: Oh well, I’m sure Burton Power will sort it for me on Monday, I’ve already emailed them, but don’t expect a reply until then.

Do you have any additional exhaust silencing, besides the standard Caterham side exhaust? Do you think you would be black flagged at Bedford for intake noise alone? I’m trying to determine if my local track (Rocky Mountain Motorsport) near Calgary will black flag me once I have the car out there with the new throttle body installation and external filter, due to induction noise. I already have to run a SuperTrapp system on the exhaust to keep below their noise limits, although I plan to add 6 more disks to the existing 18 to increase my exhaust flow somewhat.