tomwood

Hi Chris, sorry to hear you got black flagged. im going through the process of quietening mine down at the moment too and have opted for a raceco to help with matters to start with. Everything I've read in the archives suggests that you're best off going with the track day air box from Caterham as well though, the one with the K&N style filter that sits on the end under the bonnet. I've no doubt this will hamper performance to some degree compared to your current arrangement which draws air from outside the bonnet but the fact that the induction noise will remain inside the bonnet has got to improve maters. Better to take the edge off the top end performance a little bit but still be able to rev it out surely. Short shifting is just annoying. id try that first as will be cheaper than swapping out your raceco for the track day silencer from Caterham you're referring to. I also don't particularly like that particular exhaust as I've seen a few of the secondary silencers under the fuel tank hitting the floor at the bottom of the hill around brands hatch. which raceco can do you have? Is it the 750mm sleeved one? I understand they do a longer one as well, could that also be an option perhaps? incidentally that air box on the Caterham parts site is unlikely to ever be in stock. I think it's a special order part for those interested in getting hold of one. Tom

Sorry, disregard what I said earlier, its the 5w-40 Fuchs Pro S that I've been using not the 10w-40. Tom

Oil Manufacturer less important than grade I would suggest. Ford specify 5w-30 for a conventional tin top with the Duratec. I wouldn't suggest running 15w-40, it's going to be too viscous when cold. If you want to stick with Fuchs Pro S they do a 10w-40 instead which I've used to good affect in mine for some time now. It's an excellent oil in my opinion. you might also want to consider what your typical use of the car is. If you track it a lot then a 50 grade might be worthwhile given you'll run higher oil temps. Conversely if it's primarily road use then 40 will be good I reckon. i've just rigged up an oil temp gauge on mine and have been interested to see that even in spirited conditions on the road I'm lucky to see much more than 80 degrees when fully warm so it's possible I'm better off with a 40 grade rather than 50 grade oil. I've not yet tracked it so will be interesting to see what difference that makes. Tom

Diagram as promised, hopefully its large enough to be readable, the club server seems to have resized it. Few points about the diagram, The colours are purely indicative. In my case the original coolant temp sender wire was green & blue (purple wire on diagram). I have not had to run this wire myself from the temp sensor in the engine bay, this is already all wired in and I have simply re-used what was already feeding the existing coolant gauge. The wire from the sump tank I did have to run myself (blue wire on diagram). This was the only wire that I had to pass through the rubber grommet ahead of where the gearstick is. You can of course use whatever colour of wire you want for this, likewise the new sender wire (orange on diagram) that will need to go from the central pole on the switch to the gauge. Tom

Just to finish this off for the purposes of when it inevitably comes up in the archive when someone attempts to do this themselves. I wired everything as described in my original post. It turned out I was wrong about the number of wires. On closer inspection I found that actually there is just a single green / blue wire feeding the left terminal on the original gauge. This is the existing temp sender wire responsible for giving the coolant temp to the gauge. i did as suggested, prised this terminal out of the back of the plug and ran it to one side of the switch. Other side of the switch now has temp sender wire from sump tank attached to it. Middle terminal on switch has a newly made up wire that feeds into the connector (replaces terminal previously removed) and now feeds left terminal on gauge. Fitting switch was simple, drill the dash in the right place and fit the switch. i've got a diagram showing how this is all wired which I will upload later for future reference. Tom

East coast fibreglass supplies is where I bought mine from originally. Good to deal with. https://www.ecfibreglasssupplies.co.uk/product/cable-tyrap-stainless-steel Tom

Yeah, agreed. I think I'll probably have to buy something new but thought I'd ask first on the off chance. 7WOW, just had a look at some of the welding porn you linked to on FB, quite spectacular!. That guy can really weld. What exactly did you have made? Has it reduced noise over your previous setup? Tom

After one of these to quieten things down for track days. Would consider other options too for reducing noise. Anyone have one or know of one for sale? Thanks Tom

Intriguing, Appreciate t's not the same spec as yours but I've just switched to a decat pipe on my Duratec which, like yours, has throttle bodies on it. I've got to be honest, I couldn't really tell much of a difference noise wise. It was bloody loud before I switched it over and it continues to be :) I can't see how fitting a decat pipe could create a bang really, except perhaps in that unburnt fuel might get further down the exhaust before igniting. Could it be that? Where's the bang coming from? Tom

I'm with everyone else on this one and have done every service on the car myself thus far. ive always maintained my tin tops as well and have never felt that I've taken a hit come resale time because of it. The fact that you can talk extensively about the cars history and all the parts you've changed and why is often seen as beneficial. I've been to garages where they know absolutely nothing of the cars history and it's far more of a punt than buying off a private seller who really knows his stuff/the car. Get fiddling :) Tom

No high temp sealer from me either. The cat that's come off the car didn't have it and the decat pipe that's gone back in its place doesn't either and in both cases the seal has been good. Tom

I had to tackle this job the other day too. In the end I managed it really easily once I'd settled on using cable ties. You can position a few of them around the spring and progressively tighten each one until the springs are totally compressed. They act in much the same way as Spring compressors do on conventional suspension. you can then put the springs back on really easily as well and simply cut the cable ties to get the spring to tension up again. Tom

I bought the same ones as ChrisC, I have a minuscule sized garage and they were an absolute god send during the build. i forget exactly what I did when putting the engine in now but there's a good chance I switched to fixed axle stands at the front so the engine crane legs could go underneath. The problem with the mobile ones is the length of the cross piece. It's fine at the back where the car is generally wider but at the front it's wider than the car and can sometimes be annoying. Having said that, as Chris mentions the fact it's wider than the car does mean you avoid running the risk of pushing the car into a wall when you move it about. you won't regret buying them. I still use them now over the winter to take the weight off the suspension and tyres and also maximise useable space in the garage whilst the cars not being used. Tom

@Scott, thanks, I can see those on ebay, I'll bear that in mind if the ones i've got don't work as expected. @Simon, those are the senders I'm pretty sure I've got and I have done exactly as you describe and already put in the wiring from the dry sump to the back of the dash so it's just wiring up the switch that's left to do now. Tom

Simon - Thanks for confirming, I'll have a go at removing the relevant terminal out of the back of the connector and see how I get on, failing that I could indeed do as Scott suggests and run another wire to where the submarine pipe is and make that a (very) long feeder wire into the gauge. I guess I'd like to try and avoid doing that If I can though as I've now put the tunnel back on and covered over the grommet where all the wires feed through. I will indeed measure carefully to make sure I cut a hole for the switch in the correct place between the dials etc. @Johnathan - Not sure why the images aren't working for you. There are 2 in my OP that should be rendering, I uploaded them to the club server I think so should work fine for you so not sure whats happening there. To answer your question, the car is a 2013 SuperSport R and no, I don't have the wiring diagram with colours etc unfortunately. The switch that I have bought is from Caterham. I believe its the same one that's used for the dip/main beams for headlights and as such is an on/on switch with no off position in the middle like the one for the indicators. As for the specification for the senders, I'm just going to have to find out by trial and error I think. the sender in the submarine pipe came with my Kit from Caterham. Likewise, the sender that is in the dry sump was put in by Caterham when they did the dry sump conversion for me so I'm just hoping they are the same spec. @Scott - Should my hunch prove incorrect, a link to where you bought the appropriate senders from would be great. Presumably they are the correct resistance ones so that the gauge reads correctly? Have you done any independent testing with an IR gun or similar to make sure your getting an accurate result on the dial still? Thanks for the help guys, much obliged. Tom

Hi all, I've had a trawl of the archives but am still a little unsure what I need to wire up to where. im trying to wire in a switch so I can flick between water / oil temp utilising the existing coolant temp gauge. I have the caerbont standard caterham gauge as fitted to a 2013 car. the back of the gauge looks like this: Having looked at the manual for this type of gauge, my interpretation is (when looking at the gauge from behind) that the (L) terminal = temp sender (2x green/blue), Middle = ground (2x black) ® = power (2 x green) first Q, am I right in my assumption? second Q, why are there 2 wires going to each terminal, I would have expected just 3 wires total, Instead I appear to have 6? I've bought one of these switches from Caterham: If I've understood correctly am I right in thinking I need an oil temp sender wire to the left most terminal, water temp sender to the right most terminal and then a wire from the centre terminal into the back of the gauge? if so then the bit im unsure on is which of the wires currently feeding into the back of the gauge is actually the current water temp sender that I need to cut? thanks, Tom

Ah, there are different senders are there? how would I find out the range of the one that Caterham has put into the sump tank already?

Oh and John, yes, that temp sender you've linked to is the one that's now in my dry sump tank.

Thanks all, very useful info. John, having read your previous post about changing to the manual OPG, I think as you say that's worth doing regardless. I was assuming that the oil temp would be electrical into that gauge but having looked at the think auto article you've linked to I'm now highly doubtful. Think I'll give them a call tomorrow and confirm. perhaps I need to change approach and go mechanical for the OPG and electrical (perhaps as a single gauge) for oil & water temp. As you say, I could go for a switch and make do with the existing coolant temp gauge but I'm not a massive fan of the gauge itself so would probably look to replace it. I've seen SPA do a dual digital oil/water temp dial. That's certainly an option but it's not very in keeping with the rest of the analogue dials. Tom

Hi All, wondered if I could get some advice from the masses. I've got a Duratec car that's just been upgraded to a dry sump setup. Caterham kindly fitted a temp sensor to the new oil tank in anticipation of having it wired up but as yet I've not done this but would like to. I've got the standard Caterham dash (2013 car) which has existing gauges for fuel level, coolant temp & lastly oil pressure. So what I'm looking to get added is the oil temp. I've looked in the archives and have seen advice on creating a switch for the existing coolant gauge so you can switch between water / oil temp as needed. I could do this but my favoured approach is to have oil temp on its own gauge if I can. research tells me there are both mechanical and electrical ways of getting this info. First Q - on my Duratec car how is it currently done? Are both the coolant temp and oil pressure done electrically or via capillary? Having looked at some available gauges, I quite like the combined oil temp & oil pressure dials that Think Automotive can supply and would consider swapping out the current oil pressure gauge for one of those instead. Second Q - is this the right kind of dial to go for? Info on their site is a bit think on the ground so I can't work out if I can feed it from the electrical temp sender I have in my dry sump tank. I'm also not sure I the existing oil pressure gauge is fed in a manner that is compatible with the think auto gauge. Anyone know? Dial I'm thinking of is on this page https://www.thinkauto.com/acatalog/On_line_shop_Dashboard_Instruments_345.html The ref for the dial is: Ref: OPOTG Third Q - what, if anything do I need to purchase in addition to the dial itself? Many thanks in advance, Tom

Bought a new one in the end but thanks to those who tried to help

Same as this exhaust here: http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ktANkWwQe5k/U4Dx-IRlaqI/AAAAAAAABB4/WHLjDTzuL-M/s1600/IMG_1184.JPG

Good point, it's a SuperSport R so I think it's the same exhaust system as would be on an R300/R400 Duratec as well

Hi All, Looking for a decat pipe for my car if anyone has one or knows where I might be able to source one? Regards Tom

Sold to John, Tom