Mick Day

This reminds me of the day in the Student Union car park at B'ham University attempting to service my first pride & joy: a Mk 1 Ford Cortina. Took the contact set off to replace with a new one & dropped the screw into the distributor. I could see it but couldn't reach it. My tool kit at that time consisted of a few adjustable spanners & the odd screw driver so no help there. Then a flash of inspiration: all I need is a pair of tweezers. The 5th girl I accosted agreed to lend me her eye-brow tweezers & I retrieved the said screw in double quick time, hence the tweezers in my tool kit should anyone want to borrow them. Mick

This all presupposes that your sensors & gauges are sensing/reading correctly. My previous 1.4 & new(ish) 1.6 read similar oil pressures: 4 bar idle when cold sinking to 2 bar when hot; 5000 rpm sinks to 3.5 (ish) bar when hot. 115 deg C water temp seems a little high to me but maybe on a hot day with a lot of right foot? Pinky: is this figure paddock talk or from an engine guru? Mick

Check the throttle pedal bush hasn't siezed.. This happened to me once on Le-Sept & only a quick flick under the pedal brought my blood pressure back to normal! Mick

Congratulations Tony. My K on TB's etc runs with a GEMS ECU which retains the closed loop system & lambda probe. In fact I'm still using the original exhaust with cat. However, just as Peter says, it's probably completely shot by now & does nothing. Bearing in mind that the cat. (supposedly) only chews up approx. 1 BHP, how much better would a 4:1 system be? Mick Day

14 inch wheels no problem & will give better ground (speed hump)clearance. Don't throw the 13 inch ones out though as you'll need these for track days. And before you ask most people get bitten by the bug sooner or later.

Hi Tony I'd agree with Andy's posting on this. Prior to doing my epic re-build I considered this route. One thing to bear in mind is Dave Andrew's advice on valve sizes: the 1.4 bore is 75mm which will limit the size you can go to on valve diameters. Certainly turbo/supercharging is an option. Consider though what you will spend: it may be better to bite the bullet. Mick

I bought a Momo alu gear knob from DT. Comes with 3 set screws which hold it onto the gear shaft - no problems. Mick

Andy >>I've also just gone through a similar upgrade path >>to Mick, only the mechanicals were done by Ratrace >>and I think I've gone a bit more "extreme". You certainly have! Mick

Chris The project was mine I just conned JW into doing the mechanical work! He did a great job but was let down by circumstances i.e. **** happens!! Roger Barry has already dropped the hint of a LF article; I'll think on it. Mick

Perceived wisom is that no one (as of yet) has been able to modify the Rover MEMS except Rover. Let the buyer beware! Mick

Try fitting the cam shafts as they are part of the up-graded package.

Anything can be converted, it just depends on how much knowledge & patience you have. Firstly the 1.4K block, as supplied by Caterham, was the old "wet" linered version which cannot be upgraded with a simple liner/piston/crank change. So unless Arrowstar have come up with a "fix" you will need a new "damp" linered block. Secondly quite a bit of machining needs to be done to the doner block to make the starter motor fit (taking away the engine number; think on that!). Thirdly there is an issue on which flywheel to use with the 1.8 engine (probably wont fit Caterham bell housing but can't remember exact detail); no problem with the 1.6. Thankfully the cylinder head is common with 1.4, 1.6 & 1.8. However if you can get a VVC head this is the route to go minus the VVC bits. I assume you're ditching the Rover MEMS in which case you can forget about the Rover immobiliser. I went down this route last Winter in changing from 1.4 to 1.6. Biggest problem (apart from the crank breaking on the doner engine)was the coil. The 1.4 uses a conventional coil whilst the 1.6 & 1.8 use a more modern electronic coil. It took ages for this to dawn on us. No problem in sourcing the coil but try getting the plug on its own! Initially Caterham wanted to sell a new loom but after a bit of arm twisting supplied the plug. The loom had to be modified (done by Southern Carbs) to link up to the injection along with a new crank sensor. I'm using the Piper BP270H (hydraulic)cams in a standard head with Jenvey throttle bodies controlled by a GEMS ECU, although the Emerald is flavour of the month. Both these ECU's are plug compatable with the Rover MEMS. On the subject of injectors, I don't think there are any problems in using 1.4 injectors in a 1.8 engine. If you do everthing yourself then look on a budget of about £3000 for engine, cams, ECU & throttle bodies. Good luck. Mick.

If your 1.4 K is running on the standard Rover MEMS there is nothing that can be adjusted. All a rolling road will give you is BHP & torque figures. Why not try a standard Rover (or Caterham) dealer who will have the necessary to plug into the diagnostics of the ECU.

If you're using the standard head with hydraulic tappets & you're not intending to rev beyond 7600 rpm then standard bottom end will do. Caterham reckon OK to 8000 rpm. Fitting throttle bodies, warm cams, & using a programmable ECU will produce 155 ish BHP from 1.6k. Emerald ECU is flavour of the month. Next stage involves bigger valves & porting the head. Beyond this then invest in a stonger bottom end. If you do nothing else this W/E then please visit Dave Andrews web site: http://members.aol.com/DVAndrews Mick

I bought mine from somewhere I can't recommend for just over 1000 UKP. Used a mag called Car Parts & Accessories Mart. Six months old with 5k on the clock. The reason I can't recommend them is that they must have dropped the engine, somewhere in transit, as the crank broke during testing. As this was outside the 60 day warranty things got a little heated. So byer beware.

Tony wrote: "I predict that the general conversion to automatic gearboxes is a sign of social and moral decline" I disagree. A good auto gearbox allows a road driver in heavy traffic, ie SE UK, to concentrate on the road with both hands on the steering wheel. Ideally a button gearchange on the steering wheel is the way to go if you want to swap cogs.

Arnie My 6 speed leaked oil from new in 1996 & many returns to Caterham failed to stem the flow. Paul Harvey found the tail housing oil seal & bearing had failed necessitating a rebuild & new tail housing. Road & Race transmissions did the rebuild in 1998 & advised the car be jacked up as high as possible at the front to pre-lubricate the rear bearing. Now all the oil stays in the box. The theory is that whilst running in we are too careful & the tail housing bearing can run dry. Incidentaly Caterham wern't interested in helping with the finances as they didn't know who Paul Harvey was!!??

I don't live anywhere near Bracknell either nor anywhere near Breks!

I've used the easybleed & it works well if you're single handed or you can't find anybody daft enough to pump the pedal!

If you're running a lambda probe in your exhaust system leaded petrol will destroy it. Whether LRP will do the same I don't know' but at up to 200 UKP a throw I wouldn't risk it.

Nice to hear everything is OK. Following a session with Raceline's O2 logger (with grateful thanks to Nick Dinsmore) & further input from GEMS my car's ECU is performing much better. The high RPM misfire is all but gone & idle & starting have been improved. Mick

I get your drift Mike; maybe I did well to duck. Edited by - Mick Day on 19 Sep 2000 23:21:15

Wow I’m famous! Everything Peter C has said is basically true. The 6 month old 1.6 engine was obtained from the breakers with 5k on the clock. James Whiting did the mechanics & made a superb job, unfortunately Southern Carburettors couldn’t match it with the electronics. We laboured for weeks whilst SC tried to puzzle out why the engine wouldn’t run over 2000 rpm. The Caterham 1.4 engine wiring is totally different to the 1.6, but shouldn’t be beyond a capable auto electrician, but it foxed SC. Then the crank broke (nothing to do with them) which necessitated a rebuild via QED (with grateful thanks to Peter for the new crank). The penny eventually dropped & SC fitted the correct coil (bloody idiots!). The car was returned to me without any rolling road testing; I think SC just wanted shot of it. The high RPM misfire was only apparent on the track; hard acceleration at about 6500 in 5th & 6th but OK in 1st to 4th?? Car’s been back to GEMS, who’ve carried out minor tinkering, making the car more driveable ie improved idling, starting & running at WOT, but misfire now at 6500 only in 6th. Another “trick†the ECU plays is an unsteady tacho, which waves at me, plus more difficult cold starting as the ambient temperature drops. A local GEMologist will be helping further so I haven’t given up yet. Incidentally Raceline & GEMS have a conversion for the Elise, which is backed by Lotus & I think works OK, so fingers crossed!!! Would I do the same again? No, with hindsight I would probably be down to Paul Harvey for a Blackbird conversion or building a new car. At the time we didn’t realise Caterham’s 1.4’s were all old run-out engines with wet liners; you live & learn. The guy Peter mentioned is Dave Wedge from DTM Consultants in Burcot, Oxfordshire. Back in December 1999 he would have built a 200 bhp 1.8K for £5500 plus VAT. Looking back this would have been a fantastic deal including dyno set up with any ECU I cared to supply. Would JW do another conversion? Well you’d have to ask him that. He’s done one & knows the pitfalls & maybe would point you in the direction of others who have more experience with these conversions. Strange community we live in; there are quite a few people who have successfully carried out conversions but asking for the benefit of their experience is like getting blood from a stone. It’s as though they wanted us to experience the same birth pangs they went through. How does the car perform? Well not having results from a rolling road means I can’t give figures but it certainly has more poke. Having unravelled the fuel & ignition maps via GEMS incomprehensible software, it does reveal there is much more to come. Peter made this comment about the GEMS manual: “How very unintelligible. There I was supposing that the purpose of a manual was to convey information.†It says it all. Would I recommend a GEMS ECU? No. The Emerald has far better software, & it seems from Mike Bees experience, no high RPM misfires! Maybe Roger King would like to give an opinion on the high RPM misfire? Does he have experience, good or bad, with GEMS ECU’s? Mick