ashyers

Update: Used the routing suggested by Sean for a heater equipped car. I included the restrictor in the degas line, I just drilled out the center of a small SHCS and installed it in the expansion tank hose nipple. As far as the T fittings I was able to find a nylon one that was able to accommodate the hose sizes for both the T-stat housing and the heater hoses. So far so good. The car has ~1000mi on the rebuilt engine, including some time at over 100F ambient and it's working well. Thanks for the help! Andy

I had similar cool running issues with my Duratec powered Caterham. The cooling system was an octopus of hoses heading to a 1.5" tube with three 5/8" branches. After looking over some info provided on this forum (http://www.usa7s.net/vb/showthread.php?12165-2-3-Duratec-running-cold-in-03-Caterham&highlight=cooling+system) and revising the system the T-stat now works properly and the engine maintains a constant temperature of 80C. I also ditched a few pounds of hoses and tubing . If you are running cool enough to stay in the portion of the map that provides warm up enrichment you're going to get poor economy and not do the engine any good. Before you start replacing T-stats look at the routing of your cooling system. Maybe you have a similar issue? Andy

Mike, Is the car running stock suspension bushings or urethane? Andy

Mike, Where does it look like the crack originated relative to the weld? At least the driveshaft didn't start chopping off parts. When I was involved in racing it was not uncommon to see them fail, the shaft get free and remove the suspension rather rapidly. Happy you were not hurt! Andy

It's finally running again :driving:. That took a bit longer than expected, but I guess I didn't expect to rebuild the engine either! We've got a few heat cycles on the it and I think we're going to toss the car on the dyno tomorrow to do some break in/mapping. I did take a couple of laps around the parking lot and remember why I jumped off this bridge! If the weather is nice this weekend I'll do some more "break in".

Kevin, The idler is a ratchet mechanism. Once you lift the pawl it doesn't take too much chain tension to cause the plunger to retract. You'll just need the right pick to lift the pawl out of engagement. There's not that much tension on the spring, I believe most of the tensioning is done via oil pressure and the ratchet/pawl is just to maintain tension when the engine is off. Andy

Kevin, We had planned to pull the cams with the motor in the car, but my car has a Ranger front cover with a giant idler pulley that once drove a fan. When the orig. builder rerouted the belt to get to the right side alternator the upper bolt hole for accessing the timing rail was eliminated because it was in the belt's path. We discovered this in process and had to pull the cover off. Of course we had to tear down the entire engine in the end to fix a mess of issues... Had the bolt hole been there I think the only tough bit would have been locking the tensioner in it's retracted state. We should have it running next week and after some break in miles I'll have some dyno runs you're welcome to check out with the Crower Stage 2 cams. Andy

papak, You can pull the cams in the car if you can get to the bolts that allow you to hold the tensioner released. I found a copy of a set of Cosworth instructions that's pretty good. Here's the link: http://dubaipetrolheads.com/biggles/download/camshaft_install.pdf We are nearly ready to fire up the motor in my car (Finally!!). I'm planning lighting it off on Monday with the students, once the initial break in is done it's going to be strapped to the dyno. What cams are you going to use? As I recall you had some Crower Stage 1's in the car. We're trying Crower Stage 2's. If you need some new buckets drop me a line, I have a bunch of them! Andy

Yikes! I suspect that woke you up plenty quick!!! Hope you didn't get hurt. A former student of mine had one come through the windshield after being tossed into the air by a truck.

We've nearly finished the engine assembly (:hurray:), but the temp sender was a casualty today: http://www.usa7s.net/vb/attachment.php?attachmentid=15134&stc=1 Which brings me to my question, where can I pick one up locally? It looks like a VDO gauge: http://www.usa7s.net/vb/attachment.php?attachmentid=15135&stc=1 I was hoping there's something out there that crosses to a common vehicle or can be ordered from Summit or a similar vendor. I'd like to break the engine in w/o having to rely on an IR thermometer. Thanks, Andy

The engine rebuild is nearly done and it's time to clean off the bench! Here's the specs: Bore: 87.50mm Std. CR: 9:1 (2.3) 8:1 (2.0) Dish: -20cc P/N: P4-DU875-N20 GNH-8750Bore: 87.50mm Std. CR: 9:1 (2.3) 8:1 (2.0) Dish: -20cc P/N: P4-DU875-N20 The "turbo" pistons somehow ended up in the N/A engine in my Caterham, go figure... They have since been replaced by some with a higher CR. They would work well if you would like to run a boosted engine or just like to run low octane fuel, like low 80's for octane . The pistons are in decent shape and need a new home. I'd be interested in trading of 2.3 Duratec parts (valve cover, front cover, right side alternator mounts) or $150obo. Thanks, Andy

I think Mike hit it on the head. I participate in a couple of auto related sites and traffic has slowed appreciably over the last few years. I'm also involved in a statewide vehicle club and have watched participation and membership decline. It bugs me because as much as I enjoy playing with vehicles, it's the people that really make it fun. Andy

PM'ed

So I can set the soft limiter at 3000rpm. That should be pretty quiet . One of my students said her brother and a few friends were cited last week, but the details she had were limited. I'd be very curious about the circumstances!

Hello All, I'm looking for a photo of the stock mechanism used to attach a throttle cable to the accelerator pedal in an '03 Caterham. The current method in my car is not poor and I wanted to see how the factory did things. Thanks, Andy

Tom, It's a street car with some autocross duty. Current head is a 2.3 Ranger version that we plan on cleaning up with a fresh valve job, new cams, new buckets, and the existing valves, dual springs and Ti retainers. More parts have finally started arriving: the torque plate last week, the correct (!) set of pistons today. I hope to have enough bits to visit the machine shop next week. I still need studs for the mains before we can drop the block off. I was hoping to get the car running next month, but obtaining parts has been slow. The good news is once the machining is done things should go together quickly. Andy

Agreed! This has been one of my weekend reads for some years now. It's a great resource and I suspect more than a few on the site have purchased cars found here.

Update: Things are still moving forward, just a bit slowly. We've totally torn down cleaned and inspected the engine. Parts are taking a bit longer than expected to arrive, but I'm assured they are on the way . Essentially we're redoing everything. One of my students compared this engine to a Russian nested doll. He said whenever we pull something apart we find something else wrong! Unfortunately he's right. The good news is that there's nothing left to pull apart... I'm hopeful that by next week we can drop off the block and head for some machining and maybe have the motor back in the chassis by February. We'll see! Rebuilding an engine and sorting a car with high school students is not always fast, but it is always interesting! The help I've received from this forum has been great. I really appreciate it. Andy

Tom, I suspect we could work out a deal for the pistons. Do you have anything you would like to trade that may be useful for the rebuild?! Send me a PM. Andy

Here's the crown: http://www.usa7s.net/vb/attachment.php?attachmentid=14888&stc=1 http://www.usa7s.net/vb/attachment.php?attachmentid=14889&stc=1

OK, the motor is nearly completely apart and I need some more help . How are you guys at identifying pistons? These are fancy bits and I will likely need rings and possibly some spiral locks. They are gray in color and have no identifying marks. They're in OK shape and we plan on running them. EDIT: Found 'em, they are Supertec pistons with a -20cc dish. This yields a CR of ~ 9:1 in the 2.3L. I'm thinking very seriously about replacing them with something that will get me up over 11:1. I have no idea how these ended up in the motor. Anyone need some turbo pistons?! http://www.usa7s.net/vb/attachment.php?attachmentid=14884&stc=1 http://www.usa7s.net/vb/attachment.php?attachmentid=14885&stc=1 http://www.usa7s.net/vb/attachment.php?attachmentid=14886&stc=1

I guess we'll have time to go through the short block while we wait.... for cams. At some point it would be fun to drive this thing .

Tom, Thanks for the advice. I have a set of buckets on the way in the orig. sizes and I'm curious to see how things end up. I did manage to decipher the P/N's and find a source, so now it's just a matter of inspecting the head/valves and getting a set of cams. I was told they're on back order :banghead: . Andy

Here we go!

Tom, Here's the list of what I removed with the old cams ! 3.000 3.202 3.222 (x4) 3.262 3.282 3.322 (x3) 3.362 (x3) 3.382 3.422 A few buckets that definitely not good enough for set up. A 3.222, 3.362, and 3.422 are junk. None of 'em are beautiful! I was planning on purchasing new buckets as I don't want to risk the new cams. If you know any magic on setting this stuff up without spending a mint on buckets I'm all ears! Thanks, Andy