ashyers

Have you used some rotor paint to see where your temps are? Andy

I'll often say "FUN!" followed by "It's a go-kart with plates!".

Hi All, I'm replacing the spherical bearing in the lower control arm of my '03 SV. The threaded portion of the spindle seems to have permanently attached itself to the ID of the bearing and whatever spacer is in there. My '03 uses the special machined lower nut (now obsolete) and a spacer between the top of the bearing's ball and the spindle. I'm guessing that there's also a sleeve of some sort in that is preventing the removal of the control arm from the spindle. Anyone have any tricks, besides anti-seize on reassembly ! Thanks, Andy

John, It was a Pace dry sump, but I have a Raceline sump in the Shop. They're very similar as far as the scraper and windage setup. I chucked the studs up in the lathe and trimmed them a bit for clearance. I suspect you could do the same with the bolt's heads with no ill effects. Andy

John, Looks like fun! If it makes you feel any better, I had to trim a few of the ARP studs to fit the dry sump to my engine. They needed to be flush with the pan rails so the scraper and windage tray would fit. I look forward to seeing how this all works out. It should be a really fun engine, big displacement and revs . Andy

It appears to have A/C!

Check to see that the washers used to center the A-frame in the chassis are not rubbing on the OD of the A-frame that retains the bushings. If set up incorrectly they will make quite the racket!

I was watching that exact video last night! Good stuff! It was scary watching some of the off track excursions, those drivers had guts.

KnifeySpoony, I'm sending you a PM now. Andy

As I said earlier in the post, my '03 SV is very similar to UlfarE's and was built with a 2.3L Duratec from a Ranger. It received cams, rods, pistons, porting, ITB's, MBE967 and a dry sump. I suspect both cars may have been built by William Sours of Autocourse. I'll bet if UlfarE checks his motor mount they are not Caterham parts, but fabricated by the builder. I think Autocourse was using Zetec cars as a basis for Duratec builds early on. Not that any of this really matters, if it runs good who cares !

UlfarE, I'm running the same ECU. It's a nice unit and reasonably easy to get the hang of. The "Woody" reference is to a shop owner who serviced some Caterhams in this area years back. Get in touch when you want to play in the East Bay Hills Andy

Your car may have been built/sold by Autocourse which was run by William Sours. Some of the details look very similar to mine and that's where it originated.

The SBD unit is an ITG, guess how I know :). I suspect the orig. filter material deteriorated like mine did. The foam doesn't like UV much and eventually falls apart. You can buy replacement foam, but I'm not sure it's worth the effort of installation compared to a new unit.

Check under the dash for the ECU. I wonder if this is a Woody car.

Ulfar, Looks like the setup is nearly identical to mine from the Hillbank photos. It's an ITG filter. Hopefully the same knuckleheads that built the original motor in my car had nothing to do with yours. Lots of expensive parts and crap attention to detail. Runs good now, but not without a bit of work! The Duratecs are pretty easy to deal with. Andy

UlfarE, Where are you located? I'm in Oakland and have an '03 SV with a 2.3L Duratec. I know a bit about 'em, at least enough to be dangerous . I'm in agreement that I hope the car was not run too often w/o filters, but what's done is done. I suspect it uses the same filter as mine. If you post a photo I should be able to tell. Get in touch if you're over in the East Bay and I'd be happy to look the car over with you. Andy

If you have an MBE9A4 you should be able to look engine parameters there with no issues. You could install a switch to "tag" your data stream if an event occurred.

John, If you would like some measurements of the hole in my bonnet and trumpet relationship I'm happy to take them, but be warned, the motor mounts are not factory Caterham. My car is an early '03 Duratec and has some non standard parts. Tell me what you'd like as a reference point and what you need for measurements. Andy

If you decide to give up on the Pectel unit don't bin it, I may be interested. Andy

As someone started earlier, MMC likely has something that will work.

You might try something like the photo below. There's some interesting rivets out there that may work using the existing hole and eliminate the need to pull the panels back.

John, One thing that makes the hub dyno useful is the quick response. In certain tuning situations this can be helpful. As far as tire slip and that type of thing, we've seen that the way the car is tied down can make a big difference. In a perfect world measuring tension on the straps would be helpful. Andy

It's a pressurized system with a coolant recovery tank as opposed to a coolant expansion tank. The cap on the T-stat housing controls the pressure in the system. Unpressurized systems have not been run for many, many decades. Check the cap and do as John suggested with the hose in the coolant recovery tank.

Pressure test that cap on the T-stat housing. Has the car always run hot when run on the track?

Watch the tach carefully when the engine cuts out. See if it drops slowly with the crankshaft speed when it cuts out or if it dives for 0 instantly. That may give a hit to if you're loosing your RPM signal. When the old Ford TFI modules used to die this was a quick diagnosis.