Rob Walker

Nick my starter is a Magneti Marelli type M79(0.9) made in the UK. I beleive its a Ford Sierra starter motor. The faults we have encountered are not heat related but are down to poor mechanical support for the attuator terminal and cabling.

The Apollo Tank system is a two and a half litre aluminim tank that is 100mm in diameter and about 350mm tall. Its is designed with a conical top and small bleed off hole at the conical top. The oil is fed into the tank through a flat jet against the inside 3/4 up the tank causing the oil to swirl against the side. Any air bubbles rising into the conical top and out the bleed hole through a small restictor valve. This airiated oil is then fed back into the cam cover and through a foam filter. The oil remaining in the tank is fed from the bottom of the tank back to the oil pump through the oil filter. It should be understood that this system is a big improvement over the standard wet sump in that it separates the air from the oil, has 2.5L more oil capacity and can help to continue some supply of oil to the oil pump during hard cornering. It is however not a dry sump and cannot maintain oil pressure whilst hard cornering and braking. Also it takes a very long time to reach operating temp with nearly 7.5L of oil and 0.5 Bar pressure is lost from the system through the restrictor valve.

Sounds like you have lubrication problems. If you thrash around the track without a dry sump system or oil air separator, the engine oil becomes largely foam and as such will not keep hydraulic followers full of oil. This is known as K series rattle and should be taken as a warning that the engines lubrication is inadequate. The very minamum to prevent this is the Caterham Air/oil separator or Apollo Tank. Continued use will cause engine damage , firstly the cam lobes and followers and bottom end will suffer. I must disagree with the previous posting regarding Oil, for an engine running hydraulic tappets an oil with lower viscosity is required. The recomended oil for the Caterham Seven K series is Comma Syn-G 5W 40 and Mobil 1 is also a favourite with many.

I am currently running a 6 " box on my 1.6ss it measured 94dba at 4500rpm at castle combe.

Yep, look in Demon Theives catalogue. Also I eyeballed a neat disc set up at the autosport show. I think it was from The Four Wheel Bike Company and was off a Jap bike.

I had a problem with my 1997 K De dion tank leaking from the fuel pump flange. The tank had to be replaced as a mechanic at Caterham had overtightened the fixings and distorted the mating face on the tank. This is an extremely poor design of seal and when the fixings for the fuel pump flange are tightened the thin ali of the tank can distort giving a small leak when the tank is filled. In my opinion this seal needs redesining with a steel plate located in the tank that clamps the faces together flat when the fixings are tightened. I also worry that if the OS rear of the car was to be lightly impacted a major leak could result.

Gripfill available at any builders merchant.

The damper body has three circlip grooves spaced at 50mm. Sounds like you need to drop down to the next lower groove. As the previous posting says you will have to remove the springs to gain access. The rears run in the bottom groove which necessitates placing spacing washers between the damper lower fixing and the De Dion tube or axle to allow clearance for the threaded sleeves. The fronts if I remember correctly run in the middle of the three grooves.

Weber Alpha do a simple 6 LED jobby for £45. It is simplicity to wire, just piggy back the three wire off the back of the rev counter terminals. The unit has a half revs set feature which makes setting a doddle.

Peter, I ran last year with DTHTB`s 19mm 42/45 spacers, 90mm trumpets and ITG jc50 domed sausage filter. This arrangement clears fuel rail connection, clutch cable boss and engine bay diagonal and leaves 25mm clearance between the surface of the filter and the bonnet inner face. You can also access the wiper bottle.

Chris The QED/Jenvey DTHTB`s clear the engine bay diagonal no problem.

Luke, Its not which car the engine is out of its the type of engine, the VVC is the most difficult to fit into the Seven. Don`t be put off the problems are solvable but just be aware its not a straight fit. Aryliam Motorsport fitted a VVC into a friends Seven and made a very neat job, they picked the car up and returned it by trailor, cost about £1500. Speak to Aryliam`s Clive Denham on 01923 269306 they know about all the problems and how best to solve them. Edited by - Rob walker on 27 Feb 2001 09:42:30

Nick, See my article in January`s Low Flying. Why not sell your SS kit and convert your 1.6K into a VHPD. The use of the new BP285H cams will allow you to use your hydraulic followers without converting them to solid and should give similar results. I ran this set up last year its a nice state of tune. Edited by - Rob walker on 23 Feb 2001 22:39:54

Pinky, The stock 1.8 needs the block machining to clear the starter motor, the Caterham sump pan baffle and foam, the crank will have to be either machined to take the ford input shaft and spigot bearing and sleeve or have your input shaft shortened. You will also need the Caterham water rail. Its worth knowing that a Caterham with a non standard engine ie., an engine installed that is not identified on the VIN plate devalues the car by up to 30%.

Unfortunately not Pinky. Edited by - Rob walker on 23 Feb 2001 18:45:22 Edited by - Rob walker on 23 Feb 2001 18:46:32

One set of grade "A" pistons and liners £200 One flywheel complete with clutch £20 Plastic Plenium Chamber Bare £10 Crankshaft £250 All the above parts are from a 1999 1.6K that had covered less than 12K miles.

As Roger says, upgrading the VVC is not as straightforward as the standard K. You basically have to dump the VVC mechanism, engine wiring harness and EMS. The VVC mechanism is replaced by conventional cams, the inlet being a special blank due to its larger journal sizes. These are now available from Piper at a more reasonable cost than the previous inlet cams which were machined from a steel billet. The VVC mechanism needs to be blanked of with a blanking kit. A standard engine wiring harness would be required and an aftermarket EMS fitted. There is no reason why the engine should become untractable, this largely depends on your choice of cams and flywheel. If you were to fit the new BP285H cams and some Throttle bodies together with a bit of porting a very usable 180-200bhp should be on tap.

In order to fit the VVC unit into the Seven some machining is necessary. The webbing at the rear of the engine has to be removed to fit the starter motor, the overall height of the plenium chamber needs to be machined down by at least 5mm to fit under the bonnet, the end of the crankshaft needs machining to take the ford input shaft and spigot bearing or you can hack off 10mm off the input shaft on the six speeder or 15mm on the 5speeder. The engine wiring harness and EMS is different than standard. The flywheel is also a big heavy one. As V7 says as it stands the stock VVC is more trouble than its worth and expensive as compared to a 1.6 or 1.8K from the breakers, It does have the right bits if you want to build a monster. If that is not your intention I would go for a 1.6 or 1.8k and save some money.

Simon, Toms in Bristol you can get him on 0117 9731516 W or 0117 9241387 H. Its a nice clean orginal example, I have worked on the car and know it to be a good one and a bargin at £9500.

I have a set of four 1.6K grade "A" Piston and Rod assemblies with matching grade "A" liners. The parts were removed from a low milage 1999 engine and are in near perfect condition. Suitable for anyone who wants to upgrade from a 1.4K to a 1.6K or to replace worn parts on their 1.6. These parts retail at £707, I want £200 for the lot.

Have a basic head porting job done, retain standard valves, fit the new Piper BP285H cams, DTHTB`s, M3DK ems, is the cheapest route to reasonable power upgrade currently available. I think 150-160bhp should be possible from a 1.6K and a bit more from a 1.8K.

Your all Heart John what a bargin.

Chris AFAIK the sensor should be located at a common point as close to the engine as is possible as it works best when Hot. As you rightly say two of the four wires are for a heater, this ensures that the sensor can function in all conditions. My standard Caterham arrangement is less than ideal being mounted only in the fourth branch of the primaries. Most aftermarket EMS`s can run closed loop but are usually set up to run open loop if the engine is to run without a Cat. I think this is mainly as a result of the rather crude way in which the engine is mapped invarably set up rather rich for safety. Therefore if you intend to run open loop you may remove the sensor after mapping, it will last longer not being clogged up with soot.

Tim/Peter not wanting to tell your father how to suck eggs, but its a sod of a job to get your feeler gauges between the base circle of the cam and the follower with the cam ladder in place. Suppose one could cut down some feelers into little bits in order to present them parallel with the surfaces to be gapped. Anyone out there devised a simple method.

The Lambda sensor or O2 sensor produces a voltage signal that recognises the amount of unburnt oxygen in the exhaust. The Lambda sensor is essentially a bettery that generates its own voltage. When Hot at least 250 C the Zirconium Dioxide element in the sensor`s tip produces a voltage that varies according to the amount of oxygen in the exhaust compared to the ambient oxygen level in the outside air. The greater the difference the higher the sensor`s output voltage. Sensor`s range from 0.2 volts (lean) to 0.8 volts (rich). Perfectly balanced or "Stoichiometric" fuel mixture of 14.7 parts air to 1 part of fuel gives an average reading of around 0.45 volts. Sensor`s output can be checked using a 10K ohm digital multimeter. * CAUTION * never use an ohmmeter on a Zirconium O2 sensor in an attempt to check the sensor because doing so will damage it. Typical life of a Lambda sensor is thought to be about 30K to 50K miles in a road car. Tuned K`s running aftermarket EMS and crude maps could eat them in far less.