Mole

Having fitted TBs and an airbox to replace the standard K-series inlet plenum, the air filter is now positioned inside the nosecone, directly behind the radiator instead of by the pedal box as it was formerly. As a result it is sitting in an enclosed area in the air stream being heated by the radiator! The obvious way of getting cold air to the inlet is to cut a vent in the nosecone - has anyone done this? The only example I've seen is the Swiss Kumschick 2lt turbo which has vents to feed the oil cooler - I'm surprised no-one else seems to have done something similar. SV 52 CAT - moles fly -

Last year I drove from Taunton to Norfolk and back the same day to get mine mapped - don't be a wimp SV 52 CAT - moles fly -

Hi Phil - Unipart Superplus 4 "ready to use" coolant is OK as well. Suggest adding a suitable quantity of water wetter (available from DTweeks/Merlin Motorsport) SV 52 CAT - moles fly - Edited by - Mole on 9 Mar 2004 12:31:49

I think I got it from DTweeks. It has the same terminals as a normal spade type fuse so it's a direct replacement - just pull out the old fuse and replace with the breaker - hey presto 😬 SV 52 CAT - moles fly -

I changed mine for a 25 amp circuit breaker - as well as being able to reset if it trips it also offers manual disconnection (via a little button) which I see as an additional security feature . Oops - perhaps I shouldn't have told you that 😬 SV 52 CAT - moles fly -

Best thing would be to get a map from someone who has a similar set up. What's your spec - i.e. what engine, TBs, cams, exhaust etc.? There's a good chance there'll be someone else out there with a map that's close enough to get to Watton. SV 52 CAT - moles fly -

I'm thinking of installing a big red button together with an "aircraft style" guarded switch for arming the ignition (as shown in the faqs) but I can't see a practical way of installing the switch. On all the guarded switches I have looked at, flipping the guard down throws the switch to the "off" position. This seems very dangerous as accidentally closing the guard when driving will switch the ignition off. It looks simple to change the switch to work the other way but there's still the danger of accidentally arming the ignition. Is it possible to get a guarded switch where the guard doesn't throw the switch? SV 52 CAT - moles fly -

Don't forget - a Laminova will also help your oil to warm up quicker SV 52 CAT - moles fly -

Scuffers - good point about keeping the temperatures stable . I think this is where the Laminova helps because it's constantly working to equalise the oil and water temperatures and thus help to damp temperature fluctuations in the system. SV 52 CAT - moles fly -

Guy - no I don't have an apollo. I've fitted a Laminova heat exchanger with the oil temp sender in the sandwich plate. BTW, the Laminova will help the oil to warm faster so the 6 - 8 miles to get up to normal temperature would probably be 8 - 10 without the Laminova. SV 52 CAT - moles fly -

Duplicate post - 😬 SV 52 CAT - moles fly Edited by - Mole on 22 Feb 2004 09:22:09

I think there's a lot to be said for letting the engine warm up fully before stressing it - since fitting an oil temperature guage it's become clear that the coolant temperature is not a good indicator of whether the engine is properly warmed through. The coolant on my 1.8K is up to its normal 80deg within a mile of leaving home - the oil takes at least another 5 miles before it even gets close to normal running temperature - I keep below 4k rpm for the first 6 - 8 miles of any trip. The coolant temperature guage just isn't a good indicator of what going on - after a long thrash, my coolant temperature is still near to its normal reading - the oil temperature will have risen noticeably so IMHO if you want to avoid overstressing your engine, watch your oil temperature. If you haven't got an oil temp guage then oil pressure on tickover is the next best indicator SV 52 CAT - moles fly -

Hi Phil - I thought about doing this about a year ago, but having consulted all sorts of people including James Whiting (and I think Dave Andrews) I couldn't find anyone who had done it and given that I haven't had any cooling problems (touch wood)I decided that it wasn't really worth doing! It sounds sensible in theory though. Steve. SV 52 CAT - moles fly -

Just use the e-mail icon on one of my postings above ..... SV 52 CAT - moles fly -

Tony - I think you'll be OK - my kit came with all the bits required and it works a treat! Phil - have a good time - we're doing Peru this year (not in the se7en ☹️). Probably back to France 2005! BTW I think it was St-Jean-de-Vaux. SV 52 CAT - moles fly -

Hi Tony and hello again PRS (met in Burgundy last year if you remember). When I fitted my Jenveys, I also fitted a Bernard Scouse air box obtained from DVA (aka Dave Andrews aka Oilyhands). The latter came with the bits for mounting the throttle cable etc. It might be worth contacting Dave to see if you can get hold of the throttle linkage bits without buying the whole kit. SV 52 CAT - moles fly -

Anders - I've retrieved the template from Mole's motor house to take measurements, but it might be easier for me to just trace it onto a large sheet of paper and post it to you if you e-mail me your address. SV 52 CAT - moles fly -

I have a template that Caterham sent me before I did the same thing - I'll see if I can take measurements off that if it would help ....... SV 52 CAT - moles fly -

The car is a 1977 Triumph Spitfire 1500 - the problem is that I can't find where to connect the LT wire from the distributor (being a K-series man, I'm not exactly au fait with this wonderful but ancient technology!). According to the wiring diagram in the 1979 Haynes manual ( 😬) the connection should be to the negative side of the coil, but the connectors are all wrong for this and there's nowhere on the coil that doesn't already have something connected! More confusing is that there seems to be a wire connecting directly from the -ve to +ve sides of the coil! Can anyone throw any light on this? SV 52 CAT - moles fly -

Think Automotive supply sandwich plates which are already tapped for a temperature sender so if you are fitting an oil cooler or Laminova (which will need a sandwich plate for the pipes to and from the cooler) then it is much easier to fit the sender this way than to drill and tap the sump plug. I guess it would be possible to use a sandwich plate with a short loop of pipe directly connecting the outlet to the inlet. SV 52 CAT - moles fly -

Leave it with a battery conditioner keeping it topped up. Failing that, disconnect it - powering the immobiliser LED will be enough to drain it in a fairly short time - not good! SV 52 CAT - moles fly -

A subject dear to my heart 😬. With a bit of work you can get a near mirror finish but you need to use gradually less coarse polishes to achieve this. Personally I used Autosol (in a tube), then Autoglym (in a bottle) and finally Peek (the foam version in an aerosol type can). A lot of people recommend Mothers Mag but having tried it I don't rate it. Having got a good finish you will find that it dulls even when you don't take the car out - presumably due to surface oxidation - but this is easy to polish off again. I have tried protecting the surface using wax polish - this does prevent the oxidation, but the polish tends to dull the mirror finish anyway so I prefer not to use it. I might feel differently if it wasn't for the fact that the se7en only comes out when the roads are dry! Rain doesn't really mark very much - even if you do get marks, they are easily polished off again. I rarely wash my se7en - twice in 18 months I think - so you definitely don't need to wash & rinse (the se7en) after every trip. The biggest pain are stone marks which tend to accumulate dirt, polish and cr*p and look like small black marks unless you polish hard. I guess there will eventually be enough of these that the whole car will look cr*ap, but since polished ali looks sooooo much better than any paint finish, it will still look better than all the painted cars (although the one on the cover of the latest LF looks cool) SV 52 CAT - moles fly -

BM - I had similar symptoms and it turned out to be the sender. Like F355GTS I suggest you try swapping the sender, even if it's not the problem it's worth having a spare because sure as eggs is eggs it will fail at some point! SV 52 CAT - can moles fly - you bet!

I've just fixed a problem with the handbrake lever which had worked loose having lost one of the bolts and both nylocs securing it to the brackets in the transmission tunnel. A colleague at work recently had the same happen with fixings for his bike panniers. Now it is just possible that I forgot to tighten them, but given the meticulous care I took during the build I think this is improbable. I guess being so inaccessible, the post-build check probably wouldn't have picked this up. It got me to thinking that if these two had come loose in the space of 7,500 miles (over a year), how many other bits are working loose as well? Now scheduling a complete spanner check for the weekend! Has anyone else experienced losing their nylocs? SV 52 CAT - can moles fly - you bet!

Boing ❗ Come on - someone must have an answer ........ 🤔 SV 52 CAT - can moles fly - you bet!