slowdude

Would a mech oil pressure gauge get rid of your woes? I had the same spotty readings and just went for the mechanical gauge.

Coil it was. Car started right up. New plugs/rotor arm/coil and we are back in business. Waiting for my wire and exhaust bung to come in this weekend. Hope to have exhaust drilled for O2 sensor, and sensor wires lengthened to route through the car. O2 / lambda should help with running rich and provide a closed loop.

Classic car LEDs in the UK. For $100 with shipping to plug and play it was a no brainer. They're super bright and I didn't have to do anything. https://www.classiccarleds.co.uk/products/led-headlights-h4-fully-integrated-6000-lumen-hi-lo-beam-conversion-9-32v

Yeah these black buckets are great, no sun reflection + you can throw LED bulbs in no problem.

Welcome welcome! Throw that roof on it and drive it in all weather. Fantastic spec and I'm a big fan of that 1.6 sigma. Well bought.

Well said Vlad. The car is so impractical, the purchase tends to be a forever car. I struggle to find another vehicle I look for which does this job better.

Sheeeeeeesh old 250/350 two stroke street bikes are a level of fast many cannot comprehend if they haven't ridden a two stroke. Hats off to you - those pull like crazy. A few years ago I took an HP4 Race around the track and that was an eye opener as far as the term "fast" is considered. Nothing like those old 2 strokes. Regarding insurance, Croc is the oracle. My Hagerty is 1200$ a year but I am registered as a passenger car. No mileage limit. As others have said, you're over thinking the car. It has 3 pedals and goes where you want it to. I'd worry less about figuring it out and more about visibility / safety if you're thinking this way. It's like riding a motorcycle- no one will see you. Reliability wise, the cars will always have something going on. I just put a mechanical oil pressure gauge in and somehow I've got low power to my ignition coil. You'll need a decent tool kit and some specialist stuff (multimeter) etc. The car is simple to work on, but you'll always have something. Value wise, no vehicle is an investment. If you're worried about 50k cash out of your pocket, you will not enjoy driving the car. As others have said value falls the older they get. I'm under 20k for mine and feel OK when it is down for a bit and not running. Will you feel the same about a 50k car? I'm not trying to scare you but your trepidation gives me concern - you may be similar to me, and overly analytical, but realize that there will always be something going on. It's part of the ownership experience, and I'm learning a lot about how to diagnose the car, plus there is a lot of support on the forums. Carbed engines are significantly easier to work on than EFI. I've worked on carbed motorcycles before and it was a significantly simpler experience than EFI, don't assume modern = better. It just means more things to get juggled and potentially stop working.

Further down the rabbit hole. Took alternator off to remove broken oil pressure sensor. Converted to mechanical gauge. Went to hook up battery terminals and accidentally shorted the positive terminal to the metal valve cover. Got a spark. Pulled battery and went to store to check, battery is fine. Went to turn on the car and only cylinders 2&4 were firing. Put multimeter to ignition coil. Primary coil is at 0.9, should be between 0.8 and 1. Secondary coil is at 4600, should be minimum 8000 for this coil. I must have zapped something and it hurt the coil. New plugs, leads, rotor arm and coil on the way for $80. Can't beat the prices at least. If coil doesn't fix it, ecu may be dying. Definitely time to get the lambda sensor in (coming next week), to setup new ecu. It just keeps going.

I will grab a photo tonight when I get home from work. Appreciate the help. C164 is where I think the O2 will plug in.

Evap canister purge is that C152 in the diagram? I think that's where I reconnected the vacuum line. Vacuum line has a T, back end goes somewhere into car, other side of T goes to fuel pressure regulator and the bottom of the T was down and frayed, looked like it went next to the evap so I plugged it in. Should stop vacuum leak right? Looking into OEM lambda for the stock ecu, yes. This will probably be the move, there are a few 4 wire wideband kits from emerald that I can wire in when I setup the new ECU.

And back to it. Noticed I'm running super rich and don't have a lambda / wideband O2 sensor. Also noticed a frayed and disconnected vacuum line off the EGR which connected to the fuel pressure relay. Trimmed the line and re attached it to the EGR (just to provide a terminus for the vacuum line as I don't have a cap). Haven't driven it since fixing this vacuum leak. In the meantime, I have gone through the EU2 K series loom as I noticed I have an open 4 pin connector for a wide band / lambda. I am on a powerspeed 4 into 1 exhaust, so I will have to get a bung installed on the exhaust. Hoping that @NSXguy's friend is available. The goal is to get the stock ecu recognizing a 4 pin lambda, so that in turn, I can get it to close the loop and adjust the over fuelling. I'm not trying to wash the rings on the new engine. Once I've determined it's working on the rover MEMS 1.6 that I have, I will be one step closer to installing the emerald ECU (need to check timing etc etc etc). Been going down the rabbit hole on this and will probably do a few posts about the emerald ECU / Rover K series EU2 loom and lambda sensor setup etc. I'm glad I caught this with only 1500 or so miles on the engine post rebuild, otherwise it could be way worse. Pic attached of the open lambda loom / harness connector, along with link from Revilla on blatchat who was able to help me, along with lambdasensor.co.uk Harness / Loom diagram.

@Croc, sorry I don't follow this. Sent you a PM. Let's see what we can do.

Absolutely agreed. Heater works with weather equipment. If your engine is warm and you're turning on the hear, you've got bigger problems than the temporary heat discomfort. I run the heat below 50F. Roof and heater at 45 and below. Roof and heater is fine in the high 20s. That's as cold as I've gotten it.

You mention a good point. I took the turn signal horn off my CB750, but its just a power and a ground, so in theory anything could be adapted to the harness.

Can only echo the motorcycle mindset. When preparing for a long bike trip, you always have the checklist of gear. The same falls true for the caterham. This winter I took it on a 500 mile trip in the northeast. Roof, doors, heater and driving like a motorcyclist is really what you need. Replacing the A Arm and bushings really helped tighten up the rear end of the car. One thing that I have only gotten comments on are lights. Switching to LEDs makes driving at night a lot better, plus increases daytime visibility. I leave my doors on pretty much the entire time -> it's easier to commute with, and earplugs make life a lot better. Since you ride a motorcycle, you understand the need for good gear. I've found the sailing jackets with high collars are warm and wind/waterproof. Try out some things that will make you more comfortable.

For backup you can get these at advance auto. Same as land rover ones for some reason.

I went through this with my k series.

What is the power like on it? SDK indicates its built by the factory? Interesting engine choice.

Hey All, Ordered JAL LED front turn signals. They won't fit in my housing without significant modification. One of the LEDs got bumped off in transit. I paid $90 for both, looking for $70. Note, won't fit on a 95 Imperial S3 chassis, the indicator buckets are too deep. Can provide pictures etc upon request.

Wait so I shouldn't install a mechanical or I shouldn't re-tap it?

There is another 7 in Nashville. He's on Instagram, I think it's Nashville420r or something. He may be a good resource for you.

Goated. Thank you!

My sender went toast too. I've got all of the parts except for the adapter. Do you have the link for the m10 adapter?

Count me in! @NSXguy is coming too he just doesn't know it.

I rebuilt my entire engine to get rid of loud ticking tappets at idle. The noise came back yesterday. I think some noises you just need to live with for these cars.