MikeE

Arnie, Two comments: 1 - listen to Neill Anderson's engineering advice (I'm a fan of his previous cars!) 2 - I went to visit Peter @ Raceline last week and saw his new (own design) car and he was telling me how he had rear mounts for the diff as well as the usual triangulated front mounts we all use - he's done that as he reckons the caterham setup doesn't have the potential to withstand the sort of torque his duratec (and your deisel) will ne putting out. He then told me he was going to talk to Arch about engineering a similar additional rear mount arrangement for a 7 - give him a call cheers R400 Duratec Build and Modification Pictures here Edited by - MikeE on 28 Feb 2006 21:50:17

BTTT R400 Duratec Build and Modification Pictures here

That's not correct, most of the noise meters are on the left (well the 2 I can remember are). I've done bedford many times in my R400 Duratec and have been black flag a couple of times but I'm convinced that's induction noise. As I have a bonnet cut out but you don't you should be fine IMHO Danny - we need to get together to noise test my airbox asap, I'm contemplating doing Hullavington next Friday (17th) if you can make it? R400 Duratec Build and Modification Pictures here

Steve - thanks for the explaination Approximately how long does it take to change the rear studs then? cheers R400 Duratec Build and Modification Pictures here

Arnie - did you get my email? Does anyone know the answers to the above, someone must do *confused* Edited by - MikeE on 9 Feb 2006 13:19:08

Stuart, so how many turns to full tight would that be? I bought some Superlite Ultralites and with my standard studs there's only 4.5 turns, I checked my standard 8 spoke CC wheels and I think they were only about 6-7 turns. I asked Simon Lambert and he seemed to think 4.5 - 5 turns was OK I don't understand this 1.5 * stud diameter rule of thumb, surely many nuts used in the suspension are less than 1.5 * the bolt diameter Shaun - are you also using the CC wheel nuts for the 8 spoke or are you reusing the Minataurs ones? R400 Duratec Build and Modification Pictures here

After investigating a leak a few weeks ago I discovered that the gearbox was leaking at the joint between the main gearbox casing and the tail shaft casing. I got under the car and tightened up the two lower bolts (which were finger tight ) and the two bolts above those (hidden up in the transmission tunnel). This seemed to cure the leak although I didn't have the opportunity to drive the car until today. So today I've given it a run and it seems to have sprung a leak again - because everythings warmed up I guess. So a couple of questions: 1 - what torque should these bolts be tightened to? 2 - are there 4 or 6 bolts holding the tail shaft to the main gearbox casing (i.e. are there two more bolts which I need to access from above the transmission tunnel?) TIA R400 Duratec Build and Modification Pictures here

Arnie, is the SD cage the one that has the forward most fittings in the chassis as opposed to the scuttle? If it is then make sure you use cap head bolts for the forward most hole, makes it much easier to fit. Oh and if you have half dorrs and/or tonneue then make sure you can fit those as well before deciding how many washers/spacers you want/need. I ended up removing the black caps from the back of the hald door poppers to make it easier to slide them down between the cage and bodywork. You might also want to look at the gap between the scuttle and the diagonal tube. On one side this was so close it was impossible to slip the half door through the gap so I had to ease the scuttle edge with a large screw driver - something you'd want to do before you get the car resprayed. And you want to sort the mounting of the mirrors before you get the cage sprayed....... R400 Duratec Build and Modification Pictures here Edited by - MikeE on 6 Feb 2006 10:12:42

Den, You might well find that it's worth getting it tested, if it fails just on emmissions then fit the exhaust and take it back within 24/48 and they'll probably retest for free - worht trying as it may avoid all the grief of changing the exhaust twice. R400 Duratec Build and Modification Pictures here

Den, In my experience, with a 1600 Superlight, you won't have a chance of getting through a genuine emmissions test without a cat - sorry. Mike R400 Duratec Build and Modification Pictures here

Ball park figure would be £10K for a 250bhp 2.3l Duratec conversion to a K-series car if you reuse the 6 speed box. You can of course get some money back on the old engine, exhaust, ECU and ancillaries etc..... R400 Duratec Build and Modification Pictures here

I live in Farnham town centre and haven't been spotted, must be the subtle colour scheme (see link below) 😬 I did see a Red one with Gumball 3000 stickers on it Sunday afternoon..... R400 Duratec Build and Modification Pictures here

spotted this on Bookatrack here R400 Duratec Build and Modification Pictures here

Mike - do you have any pictures? R400 Duratec Build and Modification Pictures here

I believe R400s come with the 8% rack, when I specced my car I asked Simon Lambert about the 22% rack but he convinced me it wasn't suitable for a road/track car, race only - I wish I'd read this thread first though R400 Duratec Build and Modification Pictures here

CC seem to supply only one type of boot cover now which obviously doesn't fit any of the numerous configurations very weel. I had to modify mine extensively to get it to fit to my SD SLR cage. I unpicked the beading and cut it to shape and then got a coach trimmer to sow it back together for me........ R400 Duratec Build and Modification Pictures here

Mark, Yep thats what the styack guide says, it should be marked AL but it doesn't say what colour the wires are and I can't see anything with AL on it so I'm stuck at the moment cheers, Mike R400 Duratec Build and Modification Pictures here

well the 4 bolts holding the gearbox and tail shaft were only finger tight so I think that was the issue, easily resolved once I'd diagnosed it. What wasn't so easy was getting the oil in the gearbox, it took 5 hours or so for it to fill via a tube and a litre bottle of oil balanced in the engine bay. It eventually took a full litre of oil which is worrying as there was obviously none left in there Just hope most of it came out after my last trackday. R400 Duratec Build and Modification Pictures here

I've bought the stack external warning light which I'm going to mount on top of the dash as an extra warning for oil pressure failure. I've looked at the Stack wiring diagram but it doesn't seem to tell you which colour wires to connect to on 19 wire connector at the back of the stack dash and I can't see anything obvious. Can someone confirm that the stack dash comes with the external feed complete with female spade connectors and the colour of the wires I should be looking for?? thanks R400 Duratec Build and Modification Pictures here

thanks for the advice went back under the car and now it has some oil in in I could see the leak was between the box and tail shaft (or whatever it's called). So I checked the 4 bolts which hold them together and they were finger tight so I guess they've just worked loose, nothing to do with the CC service. I suspect there was very little oil left in the box given the amount on the garage floor, not sure how much was in there during my last trackday though so I'll have to see how it behaves/sounds once it's full with oil again. R400 Duratec Build and Modification Pictures here

Had the r400 serviced by Caterham recently and the first time I used it I realised it was leaking gearbox oil. As it had just been serviced I assumed that maybe CC hadn't tightened the filler plug properly (or even put it back in 😳) Anyway I've just got under the car and the filler plug was tight with no signs of a leak from that area, however there is a lot of oil on the bottom of the gearbox and all the way along the transmission tunnel. I've taken the filler plug out and am putting more oil in now, don't know how much it'll take yet but at least 0.5 litres I would have thought. So the question is, why did this leak appear immediately after a service and is there anything else gearbox related that CC might have fiddled with which could be responsible for the leak? BTW it's the BGH 5 speed box. cheers R400 Duratec Build and Modification Pictures here

they're all old numbers now Dave, apparently EFA's now having a nuclear reactor installed in his quest to alleviate his feelings of 'inadequacy' 😳 R400 Duratec Build and Modification Pictures here

yeah saw that on Pistonheads yesterday and meant to post something on here. what is it? R400 Duratec Build and Modification Pictures here

so when's the first 300bhp + Duratec hitting the track then, must be ready soon R400 Duratec Build and Modification Pictures here

yeah me to for the same reasons.... R400 Duratec Build and Modification Pictures here