Vovchandr

The Caterham 7 - A True Driving Experience

Congrats!

Woah. Didn't know somebody was trying to challenge Morgan for the strangest front end

Ep 122 - 14,000RPM HONDA SUPERBIKE POWERED WEAPON // Shayman test drive

We Put 8 Tires on this Car to Make it FASTER

Introducing the Caterham Seven 420 CUP

Sorry to hear about the failure. Been there with witnessing wobbling fenders on the last few track days. The pictures I got showed that yours was riveted on at the front mount. Clever. I was going to glue it on front and back but will consider the same mount style now on front. Westermann advice was essentially "it should fit, if it doesn't it should fit with a little bit of mallet persuasion" so I did, then it did. Haven't mounted them yet, but might in the neat future. Yours look to sit higher than mine when mocked up but we shall see how it looks like in practice. I do not like the low mount (height of the front of fender from the ground) look and since this is purely aesthetic for me, I'll mess with it to get it right.

Unfortunate misspelling of my name or foreshadowing?

I should have a chance to dig into it this week. Still no luck with tuners at this moment. I'm leaning towards this being a primary timing/cam issue at this moment. I'll do compression test/leak down/ and exhaust gasses in coolant tests to establish a baseline. Cat is likely clogged or close to clogged so I'm planning to take it out. I have an OEM backup with a virgin Cat in place just in case I need to go back to that configuration. Primary question to all experts. This blacktop (Non SVT) Zetec is non interference. I should have no risk trying to use my adjustable cam to dial in the timing a little bit right? I know for a fact that the car pre head gasket change and post head gasket change has cams in different positions. They were not at 0 position before change and are 0'ed out now. I have a hunch maybe the non 0 configuration was on purpose and will be better. Car is misfiring/backfiring at cold and warm throughout the RPMs. I also don't think I go into the idle table due to me removing the IAC and having the ITB's stop on idle screw. I'll consider putting the IAC lines back on. I know it's unusual to have IAC on ITB's but thats how it came and I can't find any parameters in the tuning software to adjust the idle table or IAC at all. Here it is prior to taking it apart. Wasn't sure if it was intentional or accidental slip. (still honestly not sure) I'll go back through and use the suggestions one by one given here so far.

Major upgrade plugged the hole by roll bar

Aero screen here - Safety glasses, hat and airpods pro for noise cancelling or sound Seems to work even on the highway. Ear plugs or nothing at all if I get annoying with the ear plugs. Over a decade of motorcycle riding same way. Safety glasses when visor is up and pretty much never ear plugs. Helmet was sufficient most of the time. Ear plugs/noise cancelling aren't always ideal as they rob a lot of senses while driving. It's a very drastic difference to go back and forth between the two and a complete attack on senses the minute you take them out.

No handbrake on center tunnel makes it a 90's chassis at best unless race specs have something else going on. Not sure why they label it as 620r as exhaust is on the left hand side as well. Old headlight mounts also lead it to likely be a 90's car. Transmission is not sequential and most obviously like you said they never made a LHD 620R.

I learned that we need bigger nose cone whiskers if we plan to go airborne 😳 On a serious note, makes me consider track insurance more seriously, he glad I got a HANs and other safety

I'm bumping this because it's the first time I came across this thread and I personally found it invaluable. It's been a number of years since this post was seen as active and there are many new members that can have some key takeaways from this well documented experience.

Caterham R500 RC Office Race

Sons first time in a Caterham

I'm obviously not the best source to a solution as I still have my own problems, but one thing that jumps out at me is the needing to jump a healthy battery. That in my experience means a bad ground somewhere. Either at the terminal or elsewhere like a starter or a corroded wire. Throwing extra juice at the problem can help bypass a bad ground. Once started the bad ground should be an issue for the rest of the operation. Your backfire is likely unrelated to the battery issues but is likely timing related. I don't have enough knowledge to know whether a mildly bad timing will allow it to run but have it struggle to start? Are you ITB's and aftermarket ECU or regular intake manifold and stock ECU?

It can wait indefinitely! I was hoping to compare in person at the 7s NJMP event but unfortunately I won't be able to make this year. I was wondering if Westermann changed the design over the years as mine appear somewhat different shape than yours. Orientation on the lower ones definitely changed from 45 degree to 0 unfortunately. Not too happy about that. Do you know if you or the previous owner cut yours to go around the sway bar socket or did they come like that originally? Trying to figure out the mounting. Double sided tape has held fine for you? Unfortunate about the existing stay. Very curious as to how it would have failed in details. Although aluminum is quite a soft metal to be putting up with a lot of these forces.

Can you explain how yours got wobbly? Other than bending the straight arm I see no other room for adjustments here without cutting and rewelding the said arm. Are you hitting in height or width? Also while I have your attention, can you take a top down picture of your wish bone aeros? As such

After a back and forth with Westermann they said that the wing stays just need a little mallet action, the one of the aero pieces is just part of processing (but they could send me one that looks fine) and that the mirrors are inadequate and will be replaced. They advertise them as convex but say that will come "slightly curved". We shall see. Using the suggestion I beat the one wing stays into place. Soft aluminum bent up top and the hub steel stud forced it's way through the bottom hole. Not a very delicate procedure. These CSR fenders are quite more aggressive than I expected. Cut angle was expected but how far forward/low on the tire they go compared to my regular ones that I mounted was a surprise. Mocked up for now

Since the area is typically covered by the stripes I would pay a body shop to carefully cut it from one side and then reapply it or weld it or otherwise secure it to the side that wasn't cut and then apply the stripes. I'm no body work expert and I know thin aluminum is hard to work with but I believe this is feasible.

Infrared gun was my only real clue to any misfiring. I saw that the cylinder was drastically colder than others and that my cat converter was glowing/smelling as well it sounding odd/like a missing cylinder. I replaced both wires and the pack. Over the last 12 months I probably put about 500 miles on the car. Mid summer last year I was having the over heating issues etc, that caused me to tear it down for head gasket. Then finally put it all back together for the track day and then maybe drove it once before winter. Since winter I only took it out once and posted the results seen in the beginning of the thread. I knew I still had an issue as it did the 2 NJMP track days fine except it would start to run hot again at idle while waiting to go out on the track and then run fine while moving. I'll look into the wiring this up coming weekend when I continue to troubleshoot. I'll also potentially disconnect the muffler to see if a backpressure/clogged cat could be a concern.

This is essentially what the 620R became right? It appears that it was based on SV chassis.

Were you happy with BaT process?

I have very brief data log of the backfire. It literally happened, I recorded it and made a post. I'll investigate into other cylinders next. In the video everything occurred at idle, but I can hear it while driving. I'll make better note of whether under load or not. I'm currently reluctant to keep driving it to avoid further damage until things get sorted out. I'd say the engine when cold is pretty smooth. Coolant has been muddy since I bought it and it sat for a long time prior. Only major change during my ownership is the headgasket fix, rebuilding of ITB's, fixing a misfire by swapping coil pack and reinstall of the engine after a clutch failure. Cylinder #3 used to have a bad misfire that's been fixed. I'll do that! I think I used a coolant flush kit last year, likely similar technique. Cat might be shot. When I did have a misfire issue it definitely got hot.. Luckily I have a secondary exhaust that I plan to de-cat. Or maybe I'll de-cat this one if its shot and leave the other one alone.