ashaughnessy

The fan switch is situated on the radiator, I presume this is from where you took the two spade connectors and connected them directly to a 12 volt source? You said you took some spade connectors from the thermostat, which obviously isn't electrical, so I'm wondering if you took the spade connectors off the temperature gauge instead of the fan. I'm sure you did the right thing, just a poor choice of words.

Anthony

Thanks Simon.

Anthony

I'd qualify M25 Traveller's reply by saying that on my car, the flasher unit stays securely in place but the wires at the back fall out. Not regularly, but more than once over the years. If you push home the flasher unit it won't make a difference, you have to feel round the back of the block to where the wires go into the unit and make sure they're fully pushed home. Of course, that's on a fairly old car. Its probably all done with wifi and bluetooth nowadays.

Surely a westfield? The wings and nose cone are the wrong shape and the dashboard and transmission tunnel are also wrong. I'm not expert though.

I wish you'd all told me how much it was worth before I advertised it ☹️

Thanks for the comment wile7, I had to stick a pin somewhere and this price is what I came up with. Clamshells and crossflow - its the only way really Though BDR or lotus twin-cam are also nice.

Thanks Simonpa, in that case you can have it for £10,995 *smile*

 

I should probably try and get a recording of the noise before I sell it. If only I could capture the smell as well.

Baz, that's an interesting reply. My overheating problems only really occurred either when in traffic jams, or when I hadn't taken care to top up the water very regularly. Eventually it would lose enough water to cause a problem. Whether you see this as the result of a fault that needed to be cured, or simply as an ineffective design is up for debate. Caterham Midlands were of the former opinion, and thought that upgrading the radiator, replacing the thermostat, and replacing the filler cap should be enough but this was no help. Changing to the sealed system has resulted in zero problems since. It still gets hot in traffic jams but doesn't lose water and so the fan works reliably and keeps it under control.

 

I never had any trouble as long as I avoided slow moving traffic but this is difficult in most parts of the UK :-(

Anthony

I've now agreed a sale, thanks for any interest.

 

For sale, my beautiful 1987 supersprint that I've owned for 21 years. Bought from Caterham in 1990 with one previous owner.

 

1987 Crossflow supersprint

Long cockpit, live axle, four speed

Red/aluminium, clamshell wings

 

The engine was originally a caterham standard 1700cc supersprint spec engine. It was rebuilt in 2002 and has done only five thousand miles

since, by Dave Brookes of Crewe (www.davebrooks-engines.co.uk) to a 150bhp spec, with much strengthening, lightening and balancing

- forged pistons

- lightened flywheel (compared to standard supersprint spec)

- additional head porting

- kent 244 cam

- distributor remapped/adjusted by Aldon

- uprated radiator (caterham aluminium race rad)

- many other internal changes to strengthen and raise the rpm limit.

- full engine spec available to peruse

 

Carbs are uprated to 45 DCOE

Exhaust is caterham 4 into 1 side exit system.

 

It revs easily past 7000 rpm and is far smoother than the original spec.

 

FIA roll over bar

Uprated / updated front suspension, with the more modern full wishbone setup (original period design had only a single top

link plus the roll bar, the uprated set up adds a second top link)

22% steering rack

Original bench seat (composite race seat also included)

Fully plumbed in fire extinguisher

Battery cut out switch

Flush fuel filler cap

Stainless steel braided flexible brake hoses

Original KN alloy wheels, with Yokohama A032R tyres

Hood and tonneau

Heated screen

Six point race harness

 

I had it set up for racing about ten or fifteen years ago, with adjustable spring platforms, corner weighted and flat floored.

 

150bhp + 505Kg = R300 performance + superb crossflow sound!

 

I've owned the car since 1990, bought from Caterham and it's done about 50,000 miles (with only 5,000 since

the engine rebuild)

 

Cosmetic condition is good but consistent with being a 25 year old car.

 

For sale at £8,500

 

See pictures here

 

Located in Todmorden, West Yorkshire.

 

Edited by - ashaughnessy on 25 Jun 2012 12:43:51

By "expansion tank" I presume you have the original standard set up, with a filler cap near the thermostat. This is very prone to losing water, which gets spat into the expansion tank but doesn't get sucked back in again, leaving air instead. Eventually, the water level will drop below the level of the fan switch, which means the fan won't turn on, which then makes the problem worse. You'll also need to take care when refilling to ensure no air in the system, by various means including jacking the car up at both ends in turn to dislodge air, manually jiggling and squeezing the bottom hose, etc.

 

All these troubles disappear if you convert to a fully sealed system with a header tank (see picture here - you can see the header tank next to the fire extinguisher).

 

I had your problems for years before switching to this system, and have now driven without trouble for years since.

 

Normal behaviour on my car is to heat up to high 90s when stuck in a traffic jam, at which point the fan cuts in and cools down again. With your setup, this is likely to result in much water being spat out and lost.

Anthony

testing...

Mine attaches to the bellhousing, to one of the bolts that connects the bellhousing to the engine block.

Anthony

Thanks, I applied some home made padding to the caterham supplied bracket so it is functional but not pretty. I was (and still am) very surprised you can't find an off the shelf cosmetically acceptable solution, but I suppose most cars nowadays have head restraints on the seats.

Anthony

I bought some time ago some head restraint brackets to fit to my FIA rollover bar, my seats not having any head restraints of their own. These come just as a bracket with a metal plate without any padding. Is there an alternative to these that is properly and nicely padded and that looks OK?

Anthony

I've had a similar experience with engine mounts. Took the engine out and found out that the brackets on both sides were approaching total failure. The only visible sign prior to this was that the engine was low in the engine bay. When I took the brackets off, both were badly cracked at the welds, one of them almost all the way round. I guess the engine was wedged in place and held steady by the gearbox mount.

This was on a 1987 crossflow, don't know if modern cars have the same brackets.

Anthony

I preferred my old standard (1987 vintage) rack on the road, much more civilised while the new rack is twitchy and oversensitive. However its good on track while the old rack was difficult on very tight hairpins as you needed too much movement to get round the hairpin.

Anthony

My live axle four speed crossflow with windscreen and perhaps quarter tank of petrol is 505Kg.

Anthony

Also try spraying the damper body with spray grease. The springs can rub against the damper body and produce various noises. This is mentioned in Tony Weale's book and I have personal experience of James Whiting spraying grease on my rear dampers with immediate and satisfactory effect.

Anthony

Graham Perry - what's the spec of your new crossflow? Is it a fire-breathing monster?

Anthony

Assuming you get the correct filter, then no pitfalls apart from possibly skinned knuckles. Simply unscrew the old filter and screw the new one on only hand-tight. You'll find it easier to get the old one off from underneath if you jack the car up and put it on axle stands, otherwise access is awkward.

Drain the engine oil first (obviously!), you might find the drain plug on the sump tight but it should come free without any aggro.

Fill the new filter with oil before fitting.

As for oil type - there are innumerable threads about this, so I'll suggest doing a search rather than supplying my own ill-educated opinion.

You can probably get a filter from Halfords or similar, but I don't know precisely which engine/car to look up for it. Ring up Redline components and order one. They'll then tell you that it will be too expensive to post to you and why don't you try Halfords and here's the exact part number to get. If you still want to get it from Redline I'm sure they will then oblige and send you the correct part - they're very helpful.

Anthony

I've tried the self tapping screw idea myself with zero success. i ended up using a cold chisel and hammer to wiggle it free (which worked fine but left the cap in a slighly second hand state).

Anthony

Blimey, that sounds like a monster. What rev range did it deliver power in?

Anthony

I agree with the battery-moving recommendation. This was certainly the cheapest change (zero cost) and makes things a lot easier for charging, jumping, etc. I put mine on the bottom chassis rail in front of the passenger footwell.

Anthony

There are several crossflow-related threads going on at the moment (because its such a lovely engine :-) and it occurred to me to post the two best things I've done to my crossflow since owning it:

 

1) Converting to a fully sealed cooling system with pressurised header tank. No more overheating, no more water loss, simple and cheap.

2) Replumbing the crankcase breather into the rocker cover. Simple and cheap to do, no more oil loss, no more oil covering the whole of the rear underside.

 

I've also heard that switching to a different distributor with a better advance curve is another cheap and easy way to make a big improvement.

 

Any other cheap and easy quick upgrades that people would recommend? Forged pistons are highly recommended but I'd hardly call that cheap and easy (not on my budget anyway :-)

 

Anthony

Given its a de-dion does that mean you have a five-speed gearbox? Zetec makes even more sense in that case - would others agree?

Anthony

Graham, I don't want to say your suggestion is incorrect but I'd like to know how it works. The reason is that as I understand it, the crossflow pistons have a combustion chamber machined into the top. When you put the teaspoon of oil into the cylinder does it not simply sit in a puddle on top of the piston rather than draining all down the sides to the rings as would be required to get the effect you're trying to achieve?

Anthony