ashaughnessy

I removed my engine without the gearbox (though I put them back in as a unit). However, I did decouple the prop shaft and unbolt the gearbox from the chassis first. This meant I could slide the gearbox backwards to get the necessary clearance. If you're doing all this it might be just as easy to take the whole lot out as a unit. I don't think the gearbox removal adds much to the difficulty of the job, the gearbox/propshaft is the easy part of the whole affair. Anthony Edited by - ashaughnessy on 4 Apr 2006 13:42:03

I had a similar problem after a rebuild of my crossflow using a 244 cam. One of the cam lobes had been damaged. The damage became apparent after just a couple of hundred miles of running in, symptoms being rough running and huge tappet clearance on one of the cylinders. I had followed the "2000 rpm running for first 20 minutes" advice. The engine was sent back to the engine builder and he found the cause was cam followers that weren't machined correctly to match the cam. I think he said that the cam lobe had a slight angle to it but the follower didn't (or the other way round). He had used followers from another company but swapped them for Kent parts and rebuilt and the problem was cured. I don't know the manufacturer of the original faulty followers though. So, sounds like the same story as others but following Roger's advice about using Kent followers seems to be the solution. Anthony

What about a hewland or similar race gearbox??? I don't know, just an idea.

Mark, you say the engine is standard except for cam timing and exhaust. Did the engine run sweetly before you made these two changes or was it running badly when it was fully standard? Or haven't you driven it when it was in standard form (you mention driving it in anger for the first time, I'm not sure if you mean first time after the changes). Anthony

I'm disappointed - I thought you were going to tell us the rules for using copper grease Rule 1 - You don't talk about using copper grease Rule 2 - You don't talk about using copper grease

Doesn't the use of copper grease have a fairly radical effect on the torque setting? Does the torque setting assume a dry or a greased thread? Anthony

How does the silencer that comes with Caterham's 4-1 perform in terms of noise? Is it excessive? Anthony

My originally 1987 standard spec supersprint has been rebuilt to have 244 cam and various other goodies to allow it to rev past 7000 and so hopefully produce prodigious power (for a crossflow :-) However, I still have the original 40DCOE webers and the original 4-2-1 rear exit exhaust pipe. The engine builder is recommending weber 45s but also reckons I'll need a 4-1 larger bore side exit exhaust otherwise the exhaust will rob power at the top end, making the larger carbs pointless. What are the options? Does caterham still do one (I'll ring on monday, but can't wait to find out! :-) What about noise levels? I'll need it to be quiet enough to get by on track days. What other suppliers are there? I'd like an off-the-shelf item that will bolt straight on (notwithstanding cutting the larger hole in the side skin). Anthony

The welders pickling solution (pickling paste) is certainly not an "instant back to silver" solution. It does work but it can take several applications for a badly corroded exhaust and take all day. It is supposed to restore the stainless steel's surface finish that resists corrosion (sorry, I'm not a metallurgist and don't know how SS keeps stainless) but after doing mine twice (restoring it to bright silver finish from matte brown) both times it has gone back to matte brown in no time at all. Anthony

I don't know the ins and outs but when I removed my heater and converted to a header tank type system (kit supplied from him) he said it was fine to block that exit off and supplied a plug to do it with. Anthony

Ian, sounds like you're doing the right thing - I've got the same rocker cover breather mod as you have. Doesn't do anything for oil surge - it just directs a lot of the oil back into the engine that would otherwise be spat out into the catch tank. I've had oil surge problems on my supersprint at Oulton Park on yokohama A021Rs, which aren't as sticky as 032Rs but haven't done anything about it. I've now got A032Rs and used them at Cadwell and Mallory without surge problems. No problems with the axle on those sticky tyres - I think the axle is well up to it, personally. Stick to a "soft" rev limit of 6000, with an allowance to 6300 for "red mist" moments. I don't know about your spec, which I presume is either GT or Sprint spec, but my supersprint engine used to feel decidedly rough after 6300 and peak power was at about 5900. I'll check my books tonight but I think the BCF2 is the standard fitment cam for either the Sprint or GT spec engines. Anthony

One more thing to check before driving - are the tax, mot and insurance up to date? I sometimes forget after a long lay off. Anthony

I've got a 1987 live axle car. The front suspension originally had the single top wishbone with the anti-roll bar acting as the second link. This was updated to introduce a real second top wishbone link so the ARB should now only be an ARB. Question 1 - Can the ARB be disabled and the car still run and how? Is it simply a case of removing it from it's brackets? Question 2 - With the ARB removed or disabled, what will the effect be on the handling? In particular how will it behave in the wet? Thanks Anthony

It seems, from this and lots of other threads in the past, that take any given service agent and you'll get a varied mix of good and bad reports about them. Perhaps all places sometimes get it wrong, or perhaps we all differ in our expectations of service. Anthony

I'm not sure why you'd bother to change to a 5-speed box. It might be more comfortable for motorway cruising but who wants a seven to be a comfortable cruiser? The 4 speed is fine with a crossflow (IMHO) I think a radical engine change (e.g. to Zetec or the like) is out for that budget (lots of expensive ancillaries to replace) so sticking with a crossflow is a better option. A supersprint spec engine would be a good upgrade if you can find a good one from a known source for the price. £500 seems a little cheap for a good condition engine. You'll need to get it complete with properly jetted carbs or you'll need to somehow get a proper carb setup for the new engine. Does the current engine have twin 40DCOE webers? What about an exhaust? You'll probably need to stick with the current exhaust as a new one would blow your budget. I also personally think the standard brakes are pretty good for crossflow power levels so I wouldn't replace them straight away. Not much you can do about the live axle. What about tyres? I'm not convinced you notice the difference on the road (though lots of others do) but you certainly do on a track. New springs and dampers and flat floor setup. I suppose a good question to ask would be what kind of upgrade does he want? Faster? More "bling"? Better handling? More comfortable? Better on road or on track? Have a look at the chit-chat thread currently running on best and worst upgrades to see what is commonly appreciated. My recommendation - assuming nothing else is about to break then blow the lot on the best crossflow engine you can afford. The rest of the car should easily be up to the power (assuming its in good condition otherwise). Anthony

I've got a weber-carbed crossflow with mechanical fuel pump. When not in use the fuel drains from the carbs and (probably) down the fuel pipe so when you come to start it you have to crank for ages before you've got any fuel available. I've thought of fitting an electric fuel pump but I've been put off by a few things: - Complication of fitting it myself - Bad reports of electric pump reliability. I'm very happy with the mechanical pump generally as it seems to be bullet proof and I don't want to compromise that. So I was wondering about fitting an electric pump in parallel to it. It would be run manually without the engine running, purely to pump fuel up to the carburettors before cranking the engine. The advantage of this being much faster starting and hence less battery drain and less flat batteries (and less trauma for me !) Does this sound like a sensible idea? What would be involved? What would be a suitable pump? I've got to repeat that I don't fancy a complete switch to a full time electric pump, though I'll keep an open mind on the subject.

What about another recommendation - choose the now out-of-fashion slow steering rack. I find the quick rack (22%) to be far too sensitive and heavy on the road. My original rack (i.e. the zero percent rack) was much more refined. Anthony

Agreed - symptoms sound very like alternator. Could be the alternator or just the wires entering it. Was the new alternator a cheap one? I've had no luck with cheap alternators on mine. Anthony

Roger King's advice (which has been given in this forum in the past) is not to bother with cranking with the plugs out but just to start the engine as quickly as possible. Al - do you have weber carbs or fuel injection? Weber carbs will lose all the petrol from the float chambers and so will take a lot of cranking before they fill up and the car will start. I've been trying over the last year to short cut this by pouring petrol into the carb via the small filter chamber. This has sometimes worked very well, sometimes had not much effect so I'm still experimenting with it. Edited as I've realised that a lot of people now have electric fuel pumps and so don't have this problem of empty carbs - just us luddites with mechanical fuel pumps. Anthony Edited by - ashaughnessy on 30 Jan 2006 11:31:25

I don't think £800 will go far to upgrading a supersprint. I think another ten horsepower will be expensive. Mine were. Stickier tyres will make a bigger difference and be a lot cheaper. Anthony

After several failed alternators bought cheaply from local factors/spare parts places I bought an expensive one from Caterham which has since been doing good service for about ten years. Anthony

Marc, I've sent you a mail. Robster, how much benefit would you get from 244 cam and larger chokes without going above 6500 rpm and without porting the head? Not disagreeing, just asking. Also, my supersprint (before upgrade) started to sound distinctly rough from about 6000 which I put down to the valve train. Would the rest of the valve gear stand regular running at 6500 in order to get the most out of the 244 cam? When working out costs it's probably worth remembering things like the rolling road setup afterwards, which I guess would be necessary for any breathing-related changes. Anthony

Does anyone have some really old copies of low flying at home? Many years ago (early nineties) SPR used to advertise standard crossflow upgrade packages every month on the back page and, what's more, put prices on them. I know SPR don't exist anymore and that's a long time ago but it might be useful to get a ballpark figure for their cheapest upgrade package. Anthony

How old is it and how many miles has it done? You might find if it's old that any kind of dismantling will result in a lot of expense, even more so when you want to stress it more highly with more power. Is it totally bog-standard supersprint spec, cast pistons, 40DCOE webers, 234 cam? What exhaust do you have? Anthony

I'm thinking of the case where the water wheel is already moving (and has a lot of momentum already) and you try and connect up your engine in opposition to stop it. This is analagous to the case of trying to pull a load from standstill. It would be different if you got your engine all connected up to the water wheel and you were driving the water wheel the wrong way and then you started the water flow. In that case, no problem. Anthony