Tony Martyr

Myles - I am off to China on Saturday so I have fixed the motor cycle chain round the front wheels just in case my wife is tempted with a purchase offer for it while I'm away I will miss seeing you all AGAIN at the Brook Jon Ingarfikeld my reply to your enquiry was 'bounced on two occassions please make contact Tony Martyr

Change of life forces sale and in spite of protests from family and friends my much loved Caterham has to go to a new home so: Caterham P351DAB. BRG with carbon cycle wings. Build by owner 1997 pre-SVA, now done 27500 miles. Annual service check and MOT by Caterham agent. Engine 1800 k series fitted with throttle bodies and DTA ecu. Engine converted from 1600 to 1800cc in 2004 with new liners, forged pistons and DVA flowed head. Brise starter, Apollo tank, ACES change light unit, wide suspension, large brakes, electronic speedo, 14” wheels and 6 speed box. Fully documented and always garaged, MOT until March 2006. £12500. Available for test drive at WR7 4ES (Worcestershire) please email at tonu@martyr.freeserve.co.uk or tony.martyr@avl.com

1997 Caterham 7 and Minno trailer for sale. Caterham P351DAB. BRG with carbon cycle wings. Build by owner 1997 pre-SVA, now done 27500 miles. Annual service check and MOT by Caterham agent. Engine 1800 k series fitted with throttle bodies and DTA ecu. Engine converted from 1600 to 1800cc in 2004 with new liners, forged pistons and DVA flowed head. Brise starter, Apollo tank, ACES change light unit, wide suspension, large brakes, electronic speedo, 14” wheels and 6 speed box. Fully documented and always garaged, MOT until March 2006. £12500. Trailer is Minno single pole unit (folding tow-bar for compact storage), purchased new in Feb.2004. Recorded 4000 miles sold with security lock and 4 straps. £1000, Both car and trailer offered together for £13000. Can be seen by appointment in Inkberrow, Worcestershire Tony Martyr 01386 792272 (eve) or 07734 736584 or email at tony@martyr.freeserve.co.uk

There is a dirt trap where the passenger footwell ends which causes skin corrosion where the frame joins the botton rail at this point. I have signs of localised corrosion on the outside of the skin at this point and was considering the best and least drastic method of dealing with it. I am considering cutting a section of skin away including the effected area which will allow me to get at the frame at this point clean it up and prevent further damage. Then I propose to pop-rivet a silicon sealed patch over the repair hole. Has anyone done this - seached but can't find anything.

Tyre pressure for trailer wheels I know I should not have to ask this question 😳 But I can't remember or find the tyre pressures for my 4 wheel Minno trailer loaded with a Caterham and intending to blast down the French Autoroutes on the Le Sept trip. They are all over the place at present ranging from 18 to 28 psi

susser - You make an interesting point, but I believe you are confusing the chemistry of the brain cortex with the physics of external forces. After a critical amount of R-OH group chemicals you are more at risk from gravity but it remains constant - you don't. Interestingly the chemistry modifies the effect of the sudden deacceleration in that you only notice the full effect when the its worm off. I went climbing with my son on Saturday and it is quite clear that I was under far earthwards greater force than he after taking difference in mass into account. I intend to use this theory as excuse number 17, after the wrong tyre choice, during the Le Sept trip

Just so the pedants are represented - acceleration under gravity changes with geographic location, although it is probably a little difficult to detect it in a Caterham. The figure of 9,81 m/s2 is calculated for sea level at 47 degrees north and south of the equator . It increases towards the poles and decreases towards the equator. It is a problem when we calibrate dynamometers with 'dead weights' as a unit calibrated in London will read 0.13% high recalibrated in Sydney and 0.09% low if recaibrated in St Petersburg unless the local value of g is used. If you buy a geological map of your area you will find the local variations of g marked. I also have a theory that the value of g expereinced by the human body increases with age

Richard in France says: Wrapping exhaust is generally thought of as a no, no as the heat is retained. I do not understand nor agree based on 40 years of engine testing. In fact, by lagging, the heat within the exhaust gasses is retained for an additional 300mm or so before being cooled by the external airflow. This is preferable - to the driver/passenger - who is otherwise subjected to high temperature air around the footwell. Looking at most modern cars with transverse engines you will see the manufacturers have addopted a heat shield stractegy because there is insuffucient ducted cooling air flow until the pipe is exposed to the under car air flow. There seems to be some folk law about exhaust lagging being a bad idea but I can't find the source or science behind it - can someone point me in the right direction?

You can ONLY treat the symptoms since the cause is inherent in any heat engine. For every 100kW of power at the flywheel between 30 and 40 kw of heat energy will be going out through the exhaust and the more exposed (unlagged) exhaust tubing that is under the bonnet and the more airflow it is exposed to, then the greater will be the heating effect around the footwell. The answer is to lag both exhaust primaries and footwell. Ventilation, by air not heated by the engine, of the footwell is sound advice as is the lagging, by carpet, of the transmission tunnel. The 30 plus kW being taken out of the coolant through the radiator is also blowing back towards the bulkhead and adding to the general heat load that is taken aft either under the car or through the bonnet louvres. Good example of entropy - small pipe in the transmission tunnel brings chemical energy to the engine which converts it around 30% of it into kinetic engine the rest into masses of heat that has to be got rid of via big pipes and holes in the car.

Myles, Come to Inkberrow and have a look at my ground brock and Brise starter before you start cutting metal. Watch the swarf if you do it in situ - it can get in places it should not. Tony Martyr

Assuming it is a 6 speed Caterham box: When you take the cover off you should have the car in neutral with the handbrake on. As you lift the coveryou have to lift the driver's side higher to clear a groove in the cover that engages with a disk in the gear train. The seal is an O ring that runs round a groove in the top surface of the box. Do not take it out unless it comes away with the lid as it is not easy to get to lie back again. Putting it back on is a reverse of taking off, you have to get it right over the hole and hinge it down.

Once worked in a tropical part of the world where pressure guages were rare and most people went by the shape of the tyre. I had a sort of batman who came into work one morning and saw that the tyres on the boss's Holden Truck were 'flat'. So he fixed them up to the workshop airline (100 psi max) and made them the 'right shape'. He was not aware that I had worked most of the night with a gang to remove a big mill shaft bearing which was around 2 tons in mass and was lying under the tarp in the back of my utility truck. So I drove very carefull the 10 miles to a shipyard where the bearing was unloaded and in the evening when we had poured the new white-metal I set off for home at a fine gallop. The tropical rain had slicked the big bend where the road ran between the sea and a cliff. It was there that i lost it. Much later - in fact the next day, when we got the Ute back in the workshop and cleared out the debris, I found I had 95 psi in both rear tyres and a contact zone the size of a small pencil.

I did 3 Le Septs and assorted track days minus Appollo with wet sump and have done 4 Le Septs and assorted track days with an Appollo. I have stripped the engine twice, at 22,000 and 26,000 miles as part of upgrades and the sole difference I have noticed is that it now costs a lot more to fill the sump with oil. BUT it does give a measure of peace of mind. I do not notice any real improvement in the drop in pressure on long fast right handers (Magny Cours is great for this) and I am suprised that they is not more oil cooling evident from the increase in cooling surface.

Gareth - interesting - they clearly have some sort of control proble. It occured to me that it could be in the charge air pressure regulation. Intercollers 'blow up' due to being over pressurised on the air side. What do the agents say about the possible cause? Are all these cars high mileage models?

I have a professional (diesel NOT Renault) interest in this thread and have been trying to peice together the parts of the stories to make some sense of them. I think that the turbo damage and actions are part of the effect and not the cause. The intercooler is also consequential rather than causal. The turbine part of Turbo chargers are little heat engines; if they produce more power by accelerating the compressor it is because it has more heat energy available to it - this comes from the engine. Unless there is some form of oil jet burning in the inlet, the turbine will do more work only if the engine is producing more exhaust energy. When I trained on big diesels I had it drummed into me that "Every bit of control gear on a SI (petrol) engine is designed to keep it going, while every bit of gear on a CI engine (diesel _ is so that you can stop the bugger". All automotive diesels have an emergency manual stop button but they don't seem to make them very obvious unless attached to public transport vehicles. Diesel engine are capable of running away - it used to happen not infrequently in test beds and it needed a cool head to stop them. The only reason the disconnection of the battery probably worked (in one account) was that it closed the cut out fuel soleniod and eventially the engine ran out of fuel - but if they get too hot they can run from sump oil and then the only method of stopping them is to seal off the air supply - An heroic act that I have witnessed on a marine test bed. I think the engine control lost a transducer signal and the engine sped up under remaining mechanical logic which was probably under a poor fueling condition and the situation was made a whole lot worse by the turbo charger boost increase (part of the mechanical feed back system). The temperature regime would have caused overheating of the intercooler. I would get the flywheel speed transducer etc checked before throwning money at new bits

The cannister is part of the SHED emission test requirement and allows vapour to trapped and sucked into the intake. If you return the car to its original state - for sale etc - you would be advised to put the cannister back into circuit but it won't make a bit of difference to the engine performance

Graham, I suggest you follow my example and when the engine is warm and deciding to idle at sensible speed; simply pull the plug out of the IACV and leave it disconnected. The only thing you will notice is that on cold starting you have to give more throttle for the first few seconds - but it will prove if it is that item that is at fault. Your emissions will be out for cold start but you can always plug it back in. I left mine unplugged for 2 years before throwing the plenum system away

Make certain you insulate the chrome/steel from the aluminium skin our you will create a simple cell that causes a nasty corrosion patch - I speak from expereince

But then your head blows off at speeds appreciably over 100 mph

One year ago I would have ignored this posting - but that was before I had problems of oil rings not bedding after a K series re-build. I had conbined rather smooth bore liners with Halfords synthetic and it was a seriuos problem. Horrible oil consumption and blow-by. Dave Andrews and I rebuilt the engine AGAIN and did some serious honing of the liners. Dave then sold me two containers of 'Vauxhall 15w/40 mineral oil. This has been run in the engine for 500 miles and all is 100% OK - clearly a suitable brew for running in

He failed the test - change the boyfriend

Handworking and machining of aluminium alloys requires techneque gained by expereince. You can get beautiful results but you need to prevent the tool from building up swarf on the cutting edges. A file will give a rough torn surface if you don't keep cleaning the teeth. Use kerosine as a lubricant or coolant/cutting fluid and constant clearing of swarf. The best way is to use a milling cutter on a lathe or milling m/c but a file, plus time and care gets good results

I have the Caterham aluminium larger than standard capacity radiator and it has done several track days in hot weather on leSept trips without problems - its is the oil temperature that gets high rather than the coolant. The problem is that it is too efficient on cold winter nights and never gets warm below mid height

Make certain that you lock the fixing nut and any other item taht can come loose within the filter and back-plate. Ingesting of screws and lock nuts is not a nice experience for engine or driver

In cold weather and normal road driving my large ali radiator fitted to an 1800 k 190bhp engine is too efficient and the bottom of the raditator remains cold while, at idle, the hot rail sensor switches on the fan. The time honoured means of reducing cooling in such circumstances is to blank off some of the radiator - which bit?. Which part of the radiator should be blanked for best effect and no un-wanted side effect: Bottom half Top Half Left half or right half I was suprised at the amount of disagreement I found at work so am consulting the oricle