Rob Walker

Double post , sorry chaps.

The Burton speed sensor works with the 6 speed boxes, be aware that you need to buy the brass base as well as the sensor its a different thread to the caterham one. If you go the toothed wheel route you will also need to change your speedo to the later type.

Thanks chaps, we are all wasting our time the owner is not even prepared to check if he has 12v at the fuel pump. Prefers to pay someone else. The new breed of 7 owner sadly.

Friend ran his car very low on petrol today then filled up at the Petrol Station. The car will now not start even with jump leads and a large battery. All usual things checked like inertia cut off and immobiliser. Anyone had this problem what was the fix. The only thing I can think of is that the car uses a single ended fuel line and its become air locked, but with an additional battery and long cranking period this should have been forced through the injectors.

Thanks chaps, order placed with Buycarparts.

Hi I am in need of a caterham centre mirror. The one that sticks to the windscreen glass and has the dip facility. Mine has got water in and the mirror is shot. Thanks

I like to see 82- 85C water and 80 to 100C oil temps. There is another issue that is also relevant to this discussion and that is oil and oil pressure. It has become the current advice to run the tuned Duratecs on 10W60 oils sighting that this thick oil is necessary as the block can expand beyond the tolerances Ford/Mazda set for the main bearings and the oil film can brake down under extreme load. I have a problem accepting this as Ford specified a 5W30 for the engine and I believe that this is necessary for the 4 spray jets that cool the back of the pistons to work as intended I also consider that the engine runs very high oil pressure as standard and putting 10W60 in will increase this. The result is most of the oil will be returned to the sump by the oil pressure pump bye pass valve and thus a reduced flow of oil will flow through the engine. Caterham have now seen fit to modify the pressure pump rotors in order to reduce oil pressure on their dry sump systems a move that must further reduce vital oil flow through the engine. I am not convinced that this is a positive move or the correct solution to excessive oil pressure. Why not sort out the over cooling problem first and run with the correct oil as specified by the manufacturers, high spec modern lubricants even at low viscosity have massive film strengths. Low temps, thick oil = loss of power in my experience.

BTW running with temps 70C is not that healthy for the engine as it was designed to run much hotter and at 70C the oil will become contaminated as the volatiles will not be burn"t off.

I have played around with this problem for more than 10 years on several Duratec cars which have all overcooled , the worst being the ones fitted with the Caterham/Raceline dry sump systems. I have tried a variety of thermostats from 82 to 105. with no effect, I have also fitted the large Water Pump pulley and even a Thermostat on the oil cooler circuit all with no effect. I have seen the engine temps pulled down to 40C , thats both oil and water in cold conditions. The expert view has always been that this problem occurs because the water pump is so powerful that it can keep the thermostat from closing. I view I have never supported as there is no such problems with the engine is a stock Mondeo. My latest car is my home brewed version of a Caterham 420r it differs in that I chose to run with a wet sump and crucially no oil cooler. It has the 82C stat fitted. I had expected this cook the oil when held at high revs for prolonged running but this has proved not to be the case. The car runs smack on 82C and is my first Duratec installation that has not overcooled. It is now my opinion that the engine is overcooled by the oil and even blanking the oil cooler if fitted will still not solve the problem as the losses from the sump pan, pipework and bulk oil storage tank effectively pull down the whole engine temps. Obviously if you are racing on a warm day with the cooling restricted through drafting you will need an oil cooler, lets not be silly but for most who do even spirited road miles I don't believe an oil cooler is helpful. It may also be helpfully to partially lag the bulk oil storage tank in cold weather. I also found that partially blanking the water radiator was not very effective but did mask the problem. Its the Oil.

John you are correct. Leave the sump and timing cover bolted in place and run the point of the craft or stanley knife along the joint remove about 1mm deep of sealant, then clean the area with BRAKE cleaner and a tooth brush. When dry apply a bead of sealant along and over the joint, 3mm thickness will suffice, leave to cure for a couple of days before refilling the sump with oil. I have done this several times and permanently cured the leak. The Ford Sump Sealant is the best stuff to use.

If you drain the oil out of the engine, degrease the affected area with brake cleaner, scratch out the gasket line with a stanley craft blade and then apply a bead of the Ford Sump Sealant or a good quality RTV . Leave it to cure for a couple of days the leak will be cured. I have had this problem several times and the leak has never re occured.

Piero De Capita ( Xpower ) is a respected engine builder I think used to work for Mountune and know s his stuff. I have bought parts from him over the years.

Contact Peter at Raceline tel 044 1743 718646 I am sure he has a map for the OMEX and his RLD210 cams or Richard at Omex.

The RLD210 cams work very well with the standard engine just change the valve springs

Strange I have found exactly the opposite when I used the super duper GL5 lubricants in my plate diffs i found that I lost drive in right hand corners when pushing hard. I have had the best results using Castrol Hypoy LS which I think is a GL4 lubricant.

I have followed this thread with interest and have the following comments. All plate diffs will wear during normal cornering ie road use when both wheels have grip the diff will only lock when grip is lost to either wheel. In terms of durability I have run with ZF plate diffs in all my sevens since 1997 and clocked up over 70,000 miles with lots of track time 10 years ago I have only twice needed to have my diff overhauled, once the plates were turned over and re-used , the other the plates were replaced. I think its fair to say that the ZF plate diff has proved itself as very durable, I also know several other owners who have run with the Quaiffe ATB units and once again these have been bombproof its only weakness being shock loading coming off curbs, easy to be sympathetic and avoid this. My other observation is that I do not agree with others who have said that there is no difference between the Ford and the BMW casings, the Ford is cast Aluminium and the BMW is cast Iron, they both have quite different coefficients of expansion, its been my experience that when pushing hard on track with the Ford the case expands more than the Diff cartridge and this takes a lot of the side thrust off the bearings that locate it. result the diff becomes very noisy and transmission backlash increases. The BMW should be more stable in this respect. I am sorry that I have no experience of the Titan but would say that there are a lot of happy owners out there that have had not trouble with their diffs, it must be very worrying for owners to hear stories from a handful of owners of failed units but this needs to be put into context of actual numbers, and also keep an eye on the static preload, swopping to the more durable sintered plates when preload gets below 20 lbft. I have been given advise on lubricants by well known Caterham transmission specialists but found Castrol Hypoy LS has worked better than anything in my diffs. I consider some of the new GL5 too slippery.

I have used the Hawker odessey PC625 on several duratec powered sevens with good results. Its designed as a jet ski /skidu battery and therefore very robust. It will also fit within the banner battery tray if you modify the clamping strap. I have to admit that the spec of some of the lithium battery alterntives is impressive but I have had several fail on my Rotax Kart which has put me off for now.

Wanted new style Caterham Heater. Thanks Rob

When you say its worn, I presume you mean there is play/latency in the steering wheel and the wheels don't move. If that's the case its simply a matter of readjusting the nylon shoe that pushes the pinion further into mesh with the toothed rack. The adjustment is actioned by slackening off the lock nut near the steering column spigot then inserting a 5mm allen key into the shoe cover and adjusting out the play, tighten up the lock nut following adjustment. If your super keen you may like to remove the shoe cover and shoe and jam some LM grease into the rack before proceeding wit final adjustment.

Anyone upgraded to dry sump and got either a Caterham or Raceline wet sump kit surplus? Thanks Rob

Hi Ian, Thanks for your response, they have several differences to the stock loom including the master plug that connects it to the main chassis loom. I find that after minor modification they suit the Duratec installation very well when using an Emerald K6 ecu and retain the Lucas 5AS immobiliser. Rob

I need an early Rover K series engine loom for a EU2 engine, this type was fitted to the 1.6/1.8 roadsports 1997 to around 2000. Many thanks. Rob

Now back to the top with some details.

well Andrew could be in luck I have another two K engines in storage

Hi Chaps, It was just text, a description of the engine package. When I had finished the composition I did a preview then pressed post. I am using a Mac and thats all I know. The site worked perfectly on my next post pleading for help.