I don't know how stiff the spring action on them should be, but these are stouter than I'd like, but no sign of binding, etc.

Can I just remove that external coil spring?   I've not tried yet because it looks like you have to cut them to remove, and not sold as replacement parts.

You have to buy the whole block for stupid money.

I took one off, and the pistons it raises seem to have a spring load of their own, so it seems removing the external one would be OK

Very rare that I use it, but, if it's there I'd like it to work

Ive recently bought a Birkin that was built in south Africa then exported to Japan and is now in New Zealand. Ive no details about it and wondered if anyone with experience of similar had an idea of the spec Birkin used. It has twin weber 40s with 32mm chokes and a long branch 4 into 1 exhaust which also has a cat which I find strange and is running some sort of Ford engine management via the distributor. Everything looks original on this car, its only done 15k km and hasnt been on the road for 15+ years. Im interested, because Im going to be in the UK shortly, and in a position to pick up some tuning parts if the factory specs were rather lowly. On the other hand, if they used a decent level of kit from the factory, then Ill limit myself to stockpiling consumables. 

It isnt even on the road yet and Im already anticipating upgrades 

Thanks in advance.

Ben

With that said, I want to recognize the work that Keith Franck has been doing. He runs a forum focused on Weber carburetor tuning and also manufactures custom Weber components. His forum can be a little difficult to find and isn't the most intuitive to navigate, so with Keith's permission, I've uploaded several of the documents he's written. His white paper, in particular, has been immensely helpful. Keith mentioned that it is due for an update, but even so, I found the information to be invaluable.

https://vintagetechnologygarage.groups.io/g/sidedraft

One thing I would highly recommend is installing a wideband O₂ sensor. I think it's almost essential if you're new to tuning carburetors and don't have much experience interpreting plug color, engine sound, exhaust smell, and the other subjective methods that experienced tuners often rely on. I installed an AEM X-Series, and it's been an excellent tool. It was easy to install, simple to set up, and completely removed the guesswork.

Another key lesson I learned from Keith was to measure the fuel level with the carburetors installed on the car rather than relying solely on setting the float height while they're disassembled. Keith used to sell a tool for this, but he no longer offers it. I ended up using the depth rod on the back of a vernier caliper along with a flashlight. If you watch the fuel surface closely, you can see exactly when the meniscus is disturbed, making it surprisingly easy to get an accurate measurement. Going through this process revealed that my fuel levels were nowhere near the recommended 25 mm target. Correcting them nearly eliminated a lean bog that I had been chasing by richening the idle circuit.

I still have some tuning left to do and will continue to post updates. Keith also designs and manufactures his own emulsion tubes and jets, which I may try next. Feedback from the community has been very positive. If anyone here has used them, I'd be interested in hearing about your experience.

Weber_DCOE_Tuning_White_Paper.pdf Fuel_Level_Setting_Instructions.pdf

Trailered to an Evolution school.  While an instructor was driving the car, it quit on-course.  We pushed it over to my rig.  I changed the fuse and the new one blew.

I suspect that there may be a transient that is blowing the fuses.  These are the blade-type fuses in the color-coded plastic housings.  Does anyone make slow-blow fuses in this format?

Harnesses

Right now I have the standard Caterham harnesses and the sub strap to make it a 5 point. These obviously are not dated so I need to replace them. Before I pull the trigger here, I see companies in the UK sell Caterham specific harnesses, including Caterham themselves. Its not clear to me if those harnesses are actually dated though. I'm not sure how some of these harnesses are "designed specifically for a Caterham" either.

I'd also prefer to order something state side for numerous reasons. Can I get any old pull down 6 point harness with bolt in brackets, or will something be weird in the Caterham, like the straps are 50 feet long or something else unexpected that might cause issues?

What harnesses do people run here that need FIA dated? I am looking at getting something like one of these

https://www.pegasusautoracing.com/productdetails.asp?RecID=34016 
https://www.pegasusautoracing.com/productselection.asp?Product=SCH-94530

Then I would also need to get the bolt in style brackets and swap over to those.

I actually ordered a set that were one year old so they were 40% off, but they're sewn in brackets with the snap in  style so I need to return them

Arm Restraints

I just ordered these and I think they actually make a lot of sense for our cars (I do enjoy having arms), but I am a little worried about point bys. I am used to giving really obvious point bys which I assume are going to be pretty difficult to do with these. I can probably t-rex a point for a drivers side pass, but not sure about a passenger side pass. A lot of the HPDE organizations I run with do not allow turn signal point bys. Also I am worried the rear wheel fenders will obstruct the view of my restrained point bys as well. Have any of you had issues there? I will know soon enough when I get them in the mail, but I am curious to hear others experiences giving and receiving point bys from a restrained seven driver.

FHR

Like the arm restraints, this makes sense. Running harnesses, probably a good idea to do what you can to keep your head attached to your neck. I currently have a Simpson Hybrid S from tracking a Lotus Elise with a 3 point belt. Right now, at least with the standard Caterham harnesses, clipping in the rings from the Simpson Hybrid S into the shoulder straps is a real struiggle sometimes, especially when youre running late to the grid. Also, the back of the apparatus hits the seats making it a little uncomfortable. I think I would like to switch to a standard FHR device, but the shoulder strap angle and placement is out of whack on Caterhams woith factory mount points. They supposed to be between 0 and 20 degrees below the shoulders, ideally at 10 degrees and the mounts are supposed to be much closer together. Is it even possible to correct this? What do people do here? Just run at the incorrect angle? If this is a significant hurdle, maybe sticking with the standard mount points and my hybrid S is the best option.

Thanks

Has any one else come across this issue? 

1. Starts at the water pump
2. Flows into the heater
3. Flows out from the heater and back into the fitting on the intake manifold, and from there back into the engine

If that's the case, am I ok to use the gasket that I have, and just plug up the fittings on my intake manifold and water pump that routed coolant to/from the heater?

Or, do I need to connect the intake manifold and water pump fittings via a hose if I remove the heater? If that's the case I'm assuming I'd need to try to cut out a hole in the gasket to match the water passage, or to buy an intake manifold gasket that has the water passage cut out (are there any other US sources people recommend beyond Dave Bean and Pegasus?)?

Thanks in advance!

According to both Cosworth and Minster, the CSR260 engine needs fuel pressure of 4.3 bar or 62 psi. Further, the pump needs to produce a fuel flow under load of 1.4 liters per minute.

The original pump was used in the following vehicles:

Rover 200 1.4i to 1.9i from 1995 to 1999

Rover 400 1.4i to 1.6i from 1996 to 2000

Rover 45 1.4i and 1.6i from 1996 to 2000

And evil vehicles they were too.

My CSR 260 is my first cycle-fender car.  The two Caterhams and one Birkin thus far have all had the long, sweeping, "clamshell", fenders attached to the body.

In autocrossing, we use sticky tires and turn the steering wheel sharper than road racers do.  This is a nice car and I want to beat it up as little as I can.

So the LCD screen for the odometer on my VDO speedometer done gone crazy...

Anybody else have issues with the LCD screen going crazy when it gets hot? When it was cooler last fall, it would take a while before the engine heat would cause it to start flaking out. In the current heat wave, she ain't waiting to flake out. It will read normally when cool. It seems the actual odometer info is still there and this is just a display problem.

Has anyone else had this problem? If so, did you try to repair it, or didja just replace it?

Youtube shows replacement could possibly be straight forward, though that is rarely the case for me with my irish luck..

and the part is not that expensive,(assuming they will ship to the us)

https://www.akspeedo.com/vdo-lcd-repair.php

Any thoughts, opinions or advice on how to deal with this would be appreciated!

Brake: mounted with a pin and clevis to a threaded rod, I ( eventually!) worked out that since the nut was captured within the clevis, turning the threaded rod would move the brake pedal along the rod toward the firewall and in so doing move the "arc" of pedal movement in the direction I wanted. But there was very little adjustment, really less than 1/2" of rod before the end of the rod butted up against the pedal. But this might be enough if I can get the clutch and gas pedal to work with it.

Clutch: plenty of locknuts etc. but no actual freedom to really move these without moving the clutch stop - which seems like a bad idea. I'm stumped on how to make any real adjustment to the clutch pedal

Gas: assuming Brake and Clutch are lowered, the Gas pedal will also need to be swung down in order to match. The WOT throttle stop is easy to adjust but the resting position has a ridiculously small, couple of threads adjustment - do people switch this out for a longer nut in order to move the resting position lower, or am I just misunderstanding?

I feel like I'm missing something with all of the above - attached some pics to try and show what I mean. Can anyone who's ventured down this path help me out?

So... Having done this to a second of these batteries, I'm looking for a replacement.   What do you all suggest?

It's a stout motor but not the most powerful one with a power ceiling, especially compared to the Duratec. 

We all strive for a little more power and there are multiple avenues to get to it. ITB's, raceline build, turbo, supercharged (seems to be SV only option), cams, SVT or even swapping for Duratec. 

I bring this up because I'm at the crossroads above. My Zetec doesn't seem to be too healthy putting out 130whp on ITB's and other work even after tuning and replacing everything I could think of. It was a double digit dyno health condition before being tuned. 

I think if I had to start all over I'd simply get myself a raceline build like others have done but I'm somewhat committed to other options at this point and will try to shoe horn a Rotrex SC into the chassis one of these summers and see how that goes. 

Very open to discussion on the matter and opinions. 

200whp seems like an impossible goal without FI or Raceline on these motors. 

1: Has anybody else had an issue with the inertia switch being tripped when on track?

2: Has anybody moved the inertia switch to the inside of the firewall where it could be reset from the driver's seat? 

I have had two Caterhams and a Birkin and I find it is almost impossible to fill them at a gas station.  Is the tank and venting arrangement in the CSR 260 any better.

I have worked out a gas-can method, so if filling the CSR 260 at a gas station is just as dodgy as the other cars have proven to be, I won't even try it.

I'd be interested in feedback on the alignment method and whether anyone else has gone down this path?

SLR STORM CAP

Series 5 (SV) SLR CAGE

My Caterham CSR 260 wears a Caged Laser Engineering cage:

Homologation type FIA/MSM

Homologation Number 2146

ID Number C001A or COO1A or COOIA

Order number 111300

Is this the same cage as for a Caterham SV (or Type 5)?

Anyone with a cage on an SV, please check the label.

Because the CSR 200 and CSR 260 are a bit different from other Caterham cars, I thought I would start this thread to attract input from USA7s members who own, or have knowledge about, these cars.  

any good leads on the foam baffle?

And same for the cork gasket?  Or could I put the sump back on with silicone instead? Or other recommended options? 

Am I supposed to be able to see the engine and dampers through this vent, or is there supposed to be some ducting or the like blocking my view?

1992 Supersprint with 1400 k-series

https://www.classic-spares.com/product/rac057-lucas-a127-55-amp-alternator/
 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/173634751119