Mechanical Moz

If I try to use the booking form on my Android phone the buttons for selecting multiple choice options are off the screen. As with previous wonky mobile behavior on the site I am able to get it to work if I select Request Desktop Site from the menu in Chrome. Not a massive problem I know but i thought I'd flag it up anyway.

Were the Adidas trainers you tried the Trackstar XLT driving ones? I've been tempted to buy a pair for ages but the price and lack of somewhere with stock in a shop to try them on has put me off so far. I have wideish size 10 feet, which is why I've never found any of the Puma driving trainers fit well. I recently bought a pair of the Koden kart boots recommended in another thread and am happy with the fit, I followed the advice to order a size up from what you would normally buy. My old McRae pair were perfect but have slowly come apart.

The reason for changing the pump is the same reason for changing the tensioner pulley, because failure of the bearing will throw the belt off. You could argue that the bearings should only need replacing at the recommended mileage interval, rather than the time interval that usually applies to the belt at typical Caterham mileages, but no one will recommend you just change the belt and leave the original tensioner pulley on. As the pump has at least two more potential modes of failure than the tensioner pulley then it makes sense to fit a new one.

Interesting, I think I'll add one of those Fiesta dipsticks to my winter shopping list. If it's much easier to read than the squint and roll it on some tissue technique the standard one demands then it's worth a go for a few quid.

What happened to the crank pulley bolt? I'm guessing it fell out rather than snapped if you're looking to pop it back together? I'm sorry to say I'm not optimistic for you unless the crank stopped spinning within a single revolution of the belt coming off.

Part number 79085FIA is what you need, also discovered mine were missing.

Thanks, have BM you about replacement seals.

VVC160 engine rebuilt last year, bottom end had new Goetze liners & rings, new Rover main & big end shells. Head was stripped, cleaned, valves lapped and built back up with new MGR seals etc. No problems at first, although the oil consumption was higher than my old 60k mile factory VVC engine. New engine uses a couple of hundred ml per 500 miles compared to virtually nil of the old engine. Last time out at the Anglesey track day in October I noticed some oil smoke for 30 seconds to a minute or so after cold start. Only just got round to looking at it so I thought I'd stick a cheapo USB borescope in the cylinders to have a look. First of all removing the plugs revealed #1 plug (far right below) to have signs of oil fouling. Looking down the plug hole with the borescope and on #1 piston there are drops of oil on the crown. The engine hasn't run since it was turned off after driving from Anglesey back to Liverpool in October, in other words after a very long run. Here is #4 piston for comparsion (#2 & #3 look the same as #4). I tried to look at the cylinder walls using the little angled mirror attachment but it isn't great. Although it was enough to show droplets of oil on the wall of #1, wheras #2,3 & 4 had no droplets I could see. I'm assuming it can only be one of two things, oil control ring stack on #1 piston or valve stem seals/guides on at least one of the valves for that cylinder. I tried measuring the valve guide wear when building up the head as per the Rover manual and I thought it was OK but I wasn't convinced I was getting an accurate measurement. Stem seals were all new. I'm well used to the start up smoke from the rattly old A series in my classic Mini and the smoke from start up on the Caterham is noticeably worse. Is there a way of determining which is the cause and how long might I live with it without causing further trouble?

If you need something local Roverlink in Widnes advertise this service. http://www.roverlink.co.uk/content.aspx?page=alarms

The remote thermostat in my car is connected to the submarine, it has separate connections for the thermostat bypass and header tank. See this thread for a photo: https://www.lotus7.club/forum/techtalk/top-hose-thermostat-housing-k-series Never had cooling system problems although I do still have the jiggle valve in the inlet manifold.

Just read the LF article and feel it's a bit of a shame the report isn't being made available. I'm sure there are plenty of members like myself who are engineers or have an interest in engineering that would find it really interesting! Even just having quantified results might help members in the future who are considering upgrading make a more informed decision. Bar A had a deformation of X mm at Y load and failed at Z load etc. Maybe there are NDA's or similar in place which prohibit the club saying anything more detailed than this bar is stronger than that bar? Hey ho, time to start looking forward to the new club trackday season.

My car had a single diagonal bar fitted when I bought it. Only when I changed the rear dampers, 5 years and a handful of club trackdays later, did I discover the additional fixings were never fitted. Assumption is the mother...

No, quite the opposite. I love the ratios of my Tracsport box but the whine in 2nd & 3rd is pretty damn loud. The noise on overrun in 4th is louder than before too, however I did fit a lighter flywheel at the same time as the box was done.

If for any reason you don't end up getting the one from Simon's friend, Kmaps sell the ECU with their map installed. I changed from an EU2 to EU3 VVC engine at the beginning of the year and bought an ECU from them. It was a bit more expensive than buying a second hand ECU from an ebay breaker and sending it to them for mapping but I was happy to pay the premium for a certain amount of guarantee. Although had there been one for sale through a club member at the time I would have snapped it up! I wanted to keep the 5as immobiliser so I sent that to Kmaps who programmed the ECU to it. Very pleased with the service and even more pleased with the result.

Have exactly the same problem. From what I could gather the options are 1. Take it to a local radiator repair shop 2. Try and plug the leak yourself with JB Weld or similar 3 Send it back to Radtec who will likely tell you it's knackered but may offer a discount on a replacement depending on the age of your original. My approach is going to be all of the above in that order. Please let me know if you get any better advice.

People have their own preference about whether it's easier to remove the engine and box together and separate out of the car or just remove the engine and leave the gearbox in. Personally I'd leave the gearbox in. Another thing to be aware of is the bolts that hold the clutch cover to the flywheel may not fit. At least some of the Rover ones are an M7 flange head, which is what Caterham will supply as replacements. I fitted a TTV flywheel which had holes tapped to M8, used M8 socket heads and a washer instead. New flywheel to crank bolts should come with patchlock on them but if not you need a drop or two of Loctite 243 or thread sealant on them to stop oil weeping out. It's a good upgrade but be prepared for the odd embarrassing stall until you get used to it.

The inlet manifold seal can fail and allow coolant to leak from the cylinder head water outlets on the inlet manifold face into the end cylinders. Relatively cheap and easy to replace first if you have coolant finding its way on to the piston. Also worth checking that the inlet manifold face is flat while its off, if it's warped a new seal may fail pretty quickly.

I had a K series block done (don't have a dishwasher!), although the appearance can change to more of a satin look than shiny, the sealing surfaces etc were just as smooth as before. I can't imagine it would have any negative effect on your head. Pic in this thread: https://www.lotus7.club/forum/techtalk/liner-heights-took-far-too-much-block

You could go with the real deal, tetra ethyl lead. http://www.tetraboost.com The different brands are based on different chemistries. http://www.fbhvc.co.uk/legislation-and-fuels/fuel-information/ I've been using Castrol Valvemaster Plus in my classic Mini, it was a toss up between that and Millers VSPE. I liked the bottle on the Castrol with its built in dispenser more though! Am tempted to buy a good few bottles now if I can before it's sold out.

Is this what you're after or was it the connector between the injector sub loom and main engine loom?

I've had that immobilser on a couple of different cars that have had batteries removed for months at a time, it works as normal when the battery is connected back up. No resetting or programming required.

For reasons of time, convenience and not wanting to potentially wreck another block I went with the vapour blasting. Turned out to be £80 to do the block and bearing ladder but wow did it look good!

To conclude, I had the correct brakcet all along so I went with fitting the EU2 (Magnetti Marelli) alternator. The terminals are at roughly the 7 o'clock position when viewed from the rear, which puts them as far away from the primary as they could be. With the terminal type and arrangement on the EU2 alternator it's possible to route the loom up from underneath the alternator which keeps it away from the primary. Sorry Simon I missed your comment about the block and crank previously. The block from the original engine I managed to ruin https://www.lotus7.club/forum/techtalk/liner-heights-took-far-too-much-block, the crank from the EU3 engine had some kind of marking axially across on the journals, it may just need polishing as it's not scoring but the original crank looked much better in comparison.

Thanks, in that case I think I'll go down that route and fit the original alternator. It was the rear exhaust pulley that came off so four bent inlet valves. I haven't stripped it yet to see if there's damage to the seats or guides too. Some time in the future I'd like to have it ported and rebuilt with solid cams now that I have the 160 bottom end.

Yeah it's the plug that's fouling the exhaust. Will the EU3 ecu run OK without the alternator feedback? The original engine threw a cam pulley off, I'm kind of committed to the EU3 ancillaries now as I've made a hybrid loom from the Caterham EU2 and MG ZR160 engine looms.