lowerdowne

Yes, use steel ones. The original ali ones pulled out on mine and I nearly ended up with a seriously eroded posterior Phil

Graham I had trouble with the shift light on my supersport and the problem was that I did not push the connector far enought into the socket. Its a fiddly job and worth having a look and checking. 7,200 for the shift light and 7,400 for the limiter is about what I get Phil

The best thing I, or rather DVA, ever did to my SS. I forget the original clearances but they translated to a 12 degree retarded inlet and 10 degree retarded exhaust. At low/medium revs it is a different car. The power comes on steadily instead of all at once at 5,000 rpm and I think there are a few more horses at the top. No problem with the idle Phil

Those tubeless tyre repair kits with the mushroom shaped plugs were around over 40 years ago and worked a treat. Admittedly I only used them on a Morris Minor but they lasted the life of the tyre and over corrugated and boulder strewn South African dirt roads too. Phil

Get those cam timings checked if it is a Supersport. I did (courtesy Dave Andrews) and ended up with a totally different car. Phil

A bit late but I'll second Oilyhands' recommendation of vernier and a larger TB. He did this to my 1.8K SS and the difference to torque at low to medium revs was dramatic and there has been a noticeable increase in top end oomph. Like he says, the cheapest horsepower around. Phil

Thanks, gents. Half to threequarters full witht the engine running seems to be a sort of concensus. I haven't really tried it out yet on any worthwhile corners, Devon lanes are not really the best place unless you want to end up wedged underneath a tractor, but I seem to be getting half to 1 bar more pressure, especially after after a bit of a blast. The only problem is that union next to the engine which is a s*d to get oiltight Martin, where do I get a one way valve? Phil

I'm sure this is something that has been done to death before but there is no Search so here goes. What is the correct way to test the oil level in a K Series? I've just fitted an Apollo tank and the instructions say "stop and wait for 30 seconds". However 7FAQ's (and everyone else) say dip while the engine is running. There is a big difference so who is right? Also the Caterham instructions say the capacity with Apollo tank is 6 litres, 7FAQs say 7.5 litres and I've put in 8 and its still not up to the mark with the engine running. The oil pressure a nice +4 bar though so there can't be anything too wrong - yet Phil

I'll second that comment from the deep South. They don't work at anything over 30 in terms of turbulence but they keep a bit of that grit off your right ear. Phil

It took me about 100 hours as well which was taking it relatively easily and treble checking everything against the manual and then checking again. But do make sure they have sent all the bits as soon as you get the kit. Caterham really are very good about sending missing items.

Brasso after 600 and 1200 grade emery paper also does the trick.

O levels were so long ago I was afraid the gas laws had been changed since then by Brussels Phil

I dimly remember a gas equation which went something like this - P1*V1/T1 = P2*V2/T2. I think this means that given a constant pressure the volume of a gas changes in proportion to its absolute temperature so that air on a really hot day, say 30 degrees C, it is about 10% less dense than at 0 degrees C so that there will be about 10% less oxygen available to be burnt in your cylinders and presumably 10% less power. Someone will tell me this is a load of b******s and there are lots more factors involved but if it is even half right, engine power is drastically affected by the air temperature. Phil

Yes, 'they all do that' is about right. My 1.8KSS has had a whining diff and clanking 6-speed gearbox since new (1999). 18,000 miles later the gearbox is noticeably quieter and you only notice the diff whine with the hood up - another reason for not using a hood. Phil

A while back somebody mentioned which was the appropriate Haynes manual for the 1.8 K engine but I can't find it because the search facility is still on the blink. Can anyone tell me which one it was? Thanks Phil