Croc

More progress this week. The immobilizer accidentally dropped off the car. These are automotive security devices essential in the UK given the high rate of crime present and the current inability of the UK to send convicts to Australia. They work to provide a complete circuit when a key fob sensor is in close proximity to a receiving sensor mounted on the steering column. With this then power is provided to the electrical circuits to allow the car to start. In reality, most US builders of kits just tie wrap the key sensor to the steering column next to the receiving sensor so that it is always on since the USA does not have anywhere near the level of crime and thievery seen in the UK. Something to be said for the Second Amendment I guess? We could have put it back on but decided not to. Its just extra wiring complexity and a likely future failure point. Quite an intrusive piece of kit when seen in isolation.

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That does not look good. There are wiring diagrams in the downloads section of this forum. Also the Caterham owners manual sometimes had a wiring diagram included.

Bit harsh. You drop me out of a plane I am aerodynamically good for 140mph. Caterhams are no faster. Marginal - not noticeable. I suspect most of the hype was marketing driven. My current CSR was put in a wind tunnel in 2012. The chin spoiler (not standard - my addition) did reduce front end lift. The canards/dive planes were too small to register. A diffuser was very helpful but then you messed up the front end by adding rear downforce. The flat undertray was helpful but then you fried your elbow from excess transmission tunnel heat. The trick air diversion from radiator exit over the bonnet was negligible A decent benefit comes from just using a tonneau on the passenger side but any Caterham can do that. The benefit is all in the suspension. The aero trickery is worth zero. Over 10,000 miles of track driving with seat of the pants experience. Back to back testing in 2014 at Donington showed the CSR is 1 second quicker in my hands over an identical engine/gearbox/tires deDion SV Caterham. It all came from me feeling more comfortable with the car at the limit - the CSR was settled on the limit unlike the deDion. Same day proved the SV was faster than the S3 chassis - all because of wide track suspension.

Oh come on Bruce! We are talking about a brick in aerodynamic terms. Inboard or outboard coilovers is like asking whether I am more sporty naked or in full body suit lycra. End result is still pretty ugly....

Yes the thought did occur to me but I have not seen one of these in person to find out if it is truly carbon all the way through. You would hope so for the money....

My 2010 Caterham supplied wings are all carbon fiber - like you I can feel and see the weave on the underside. The CatKong rear wings are fiberglass backed with carbon overlay - its smooth black plastic looking material underneath. For the rear wings, its been that way for at least 3 years. Maybe longer - don't know? Not sure about the fronts - since I have the CSR specific wings and not the ones that @KnifeySpoony has on his Caterham. Tillet do some of the carbon fiber for Caterham and their stuff is high quality and all carbon fiber. However, they are not the only carbon fiber supplier. Rear wings come from somewhere else. CSR front wings are unknown source. I am confused by your post - did you buy new rear wings or are you referring to your 2001 rear wings?

Oh yes that was my initial reaction. The standard Caterham catch tank for this car is this: CATCH TANK PRE-DRILLED 1L - Caterham Parts Its rubbish. Tube shoved in the top and duct taped in. Oil mists everywhere. Looks terrible after first drive. Tends to pressurize and blow the hose out too. I am more sensitive on this topic because of the hassles I had on the current CSR260 until I sorted a proper catch tank with a good vent. My current one is a Mocal aluminum (aluminium for the sensible ones elsewhere) which I cut in half and re-welded to make it low rise. It has a decent vent cap. Still mists but not too bad. Because the 2.3L Cosworth vents heavily plus it has no dipstick or or measuring device it is not unusual to have the tank overflow if I get the oil levels slightly wrong. So I want to improve off my current solution. Fortunately the new set up has an oil level measure via the dry sump tank. The Radium tank is more heavy than the Caterham supplied plastic tank. But light weight is no good if it does not work. The triangular Pace dry sump tank design is much better than my current Cosworth dry sump tower on top of an integrated bell housing tank. So the chance of excess venting is much less. I am skeptical about the breather on the side of the Radium catch tank. It will not stay green like that for longer than a day. But it is a standard fitting size and I have alternative breather vents from my previous research to go on there if needed. It will be a trial once I get experience with the new engine and see how much oil it spits. Not as heavier as you would think. I had the same initial reaction as you. The standard coolant bottle (from some POS mediocre Rover sedan) looks like this: Expansion Bottle - Rover & Sigma (caterhamparts.co.uk) Its fairy thick plastic. Quite large compared to the Radium tank. Awkward positioning as it interferes with the front suspension in standard location. Relocating is a pain from an engine bay layout perspective. Yellows as it ages. The new one is less than a quarter of a pound heavier (sorry have not checked metric), about 1/3rd of the size, and we can locate in a more convenient location for servicing and plumbing. More durable than the standard one. Will stay looking good longer. I think the weight differential penalty is not as bad as you would expect simply because it is so much more compact than the standard Caterham plastic tank which is massively oversized for what a Caterham actually needs. If I really wanted to cut the pounds out of this project, I would swap out the Caterham "carbon" rear wings (which are carbon fiber veneer over fiberglass) for truly carbon fiber ones but thats really expensive. Think US$2500 cost to save 15 pounds. The standard carbon rear wings are REALLY heavy - heavier than the standard fiberglass ones. I was astounded to discover this. So I am really considering a change here. Probably another 5 pounds saving if I did the front wings. As this project has gone on so long we are having scope creep as options have become available that can save weight with some adaption. Definitely there is a lot of weight saving consideration across the project. For example, the new carbon fiber blank dash is nearly 3/4s of a pound lighter than the standard Caterham "carbon fiber" dash and is much better quality. So yes the Radium tank is heavier but the logic supporting our decision is sound given the compromises we were considering.

The scary thing is that the wiring you see is mostly standard Caterham harness. The new extra ECU wiring is not on there - its a separate engine harness plus the extra sensors on the wheels. Suspension does not give you top end speed. Engines, weight and aero give you top end. Suspension gives you faster lap times and allows you to carry more speed through corners - think higher average speeds. Top speed will be the same as anyone can be fast in a straight line - no skill needed other than to hold an accelerator pedal on the floor.

The original Caterham dash that had been removed was in the workshop but I did not pay attention sorry. The carbon Caterham supply is second rate. The carbon wings are just a layover of carbon on fiberglass. If you go back to 2010 with my last CSR, it was a true carbon wing - carbon fiber the whole way through. So it is just dressed up fiberglass now. Caterham also have supply issues - no way of getting a blank dash in my lifetime. Alternatives to buying carbon fiber from Caterham? MOG Racing does have a quality supplier of carbon and was the only way I could find to get a blank dash to do this project. Pricey but excellent quality. Its worth paying the extra as they will deliver what you need. There is Classic Carbon but they have a reputation of taking money and never shipping. Thats is what happened to 2 out of 3 of my orders and I have heard quite a few others complain of same. The piece I did get was poor quality. Reverie has a limited range of high quality carbon parts for Caterhams but you do need to do the home work in advance on whether it will fit your application. Some pieces I have purchased do not fit without some work. Lesson - you get what you pay for.

Then it comes to laying out the firewall kit. Layout is critical as there is a lot going on - you need a space for a very large ECU. The MBE 9A9 is several times larger than the Caterham MBE ECU which is supplied. We need space for a coolant overflow based on proximity to engine cooling system. We need space for the oil catch tank based on proximity to the Pace dry sump tank. The battery has to be there too. And all of this needs to be logically connected by wires. So working from left to right: - the triangle tank is the dry sump tank surrounding by some gold insulation. Bruce thought I would like some bling and I thoroughly approve. - Behind it is the oil catch tank to be mounted on the firewall. These engines throw off a fair amount of oil but the plumbing design for this one fixes the failings present in the Caterham CSR260 Cosworth 2.3L Duratec. So hopefully it will not be like the Exxon Valdez. - moving right the Odyssey PC680 battery. - The MBE 9A9 ECU. This will be mounted on a shock absorbing tray to elevate and protect it better. On top will be a passive wiring box intended to map the existing Caterham wiring harness plus all the new sensors and additional kit into the ECU. For size comparison, you can see the standard Caterham MBE ECU to right on pedal box. Its location in the center is critical as we have wires running to the dash, to the back of the car, to the battery, and to the engine. - then we have the coolant catch tank to be mounted on the firewall. - standard brake fluid reservoir. Everything has been carefully thought out for future access and maintenance. Next steps: - sort out wiring and linkages to integrate pneumatic gear shifters with paddles and with sadev gearbox. - sort out passive wiring box that maps existing harness to new ECU and allows connection of the new sensors (e.g. suspension, ABS, dash, additional gauge monitoring, etc).

Now it is time for some catch tank porn. Only on this forum would this be a thing. Bruce found a place in Oregon called Radium Radium - Home Page (radiumauto.com) Gorgeous stuff. So we have an oil catch tank: Still yet to be mounted but in mock up for firewall engine bay layout planning. The black bottom unscrews to empty the oil. The little nubby thing to the left of the connection on top is a catch tank dipstick. The Caterham coolant tank disappears and is replaced by this: Coolant level indicator on the side for working out level. These are all anodized metal. No plastic. Highest quality catch tanks as I have ever seen. Bruce and I were in maximum geek out mode checking these out. Lovely things.

@TurboWood Yes it is update time. This project got put on the backburner in 2020 due to Covid interruptions then in 2021 with Beachman Racing having a record Caterham sales season with all of you buying Caterhams. It did not help that I was sidetracked with a number of other car projects on the car plus a day job. So things have restarted and progress is moving forward again. Dash wiring has come together. While it looks like a spaghetti, there is a method in the madness. Left side of photo is wiring for AIM MXS digital dash and all the toggle switches. The black circular thing in center is the air tank for the pneumatic gearshifter mechanism. The velcro covered black box on right plus the silver metal box above it is the immobilizer. The dash was a custom carbon one from Westermann/MOG Racing as a custom layout was needed. Caterham are unable to supply blank dashes within the lifetime of an average human these days. Unlike the original carbon dash from Caterham, which was bonded to the dash frame, this new one has been attached with phillips head screws so it can be removed easily for maintenance. The scuttle that covers this has also been designed to be removable for maintenance - no rivets used. The air tank will have a purge drain into the passenger footwell - easily reached from underneath. Looking at the dash - not quite finished but close: From left to right: - blue tape is where the small LED indicator for the gears will be installed. I could delete this and have the gear indication on the AIM digital dash but then you take away valuable screen real estate. - metal toggle is for horn - I frequently use it on track for Porsche, Corvettes and possibly a red Caterham that gets in my way. - AIM MXS digital dash. - Steering wheel is temporarily mocked up. It will need to be spaced closer to driver. - metal toggle switch for flashing headlights on track for more pesky cars in the way. - Then 6 metal toggle switches for headlights, etc. This will be road registered so need to comply. I like the 620R layout with the half arch switch protectors as it allows positive control by a hand bouncing around at 100mph when you are on a track. Its not the most stylish look I admit but it does work well. - Then there are 2 rotary switches. These are for traction control and launch control. - The small LED screen is for the active suspension. 6 presets. Not designed to be used on the go but can be reached if needed. - The blue tape on far right is where fire extinguisher activation handle will be installed. Its a neat tidy layout that suits me based on how I like things. I recognize not everyone will like it. The tunnel will be covered by a custom Oxted Trimming tunnel cover - diamond quilted black leather. Thread for the diamond quilting is in green to match the Aston Martin green paint.

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I can predict confidently that will not happen. I predict that some good looking chap with a big bag of doggy treats for the furries will arrive to disrupt you.

I could be snarky and say since the gauges are made by Caerbont, I would assume they never worked from new. It is pretty common for them to fail. Plus if the Hall Effect sensor was never working properly (fairly common) then mileage would never be recorded. For tires, you may first want to consider if you want to stay with 16 inch "wagon wheels". The driving experience gets much much better as you drop down wheel size. Only problem with 13 inch wheels is slightly lower ground clearance. Smaller rotating unsprung mass, thicker sidewalls on the tires improves responsiveness, handling and ride quality. Then again you might prefer the looks of the current wheels and they may be in good condition to keep.

This is what I think happened. The production process was massively disrupted and they had staffing issues so probably untrained people doing things they don't normally do. Your case is not the only one I am aware of. Quite a few people have been dealing with assembly issues from kit production faults. Some of the things you have described make me wonder if you got a partial Sigma kit? Not sure what seats you got but if they are the S-type by Oxted Trimming (Thundersports.co.uk) I have an article somewhere on how to take them apart to refurbish which might assist you for putting in a heating pad. Need to find it once I return home this week.

Quick write up Thackery "Spring" Washers: JHPS Any weber specialist for parts supply will have them. Just realized I have always misspelled the name?

Can't help you on the Webcon sorry - I don't have that on any of my 12 little monsters across 4 cars. Yes for the Thackeray replacement. I have both types of installations that John refers to. Never had a Thackeray fail but I am a preventative maintenance type of person. I have seen one fail at the NJMP 7s event so makes sense to do it now. I have used Burton's rebuild kit on 40, 45 and 50s but not in the last 5 years so it may have changed. Best check with them via an email.

Photo guide here. Rear one is definitely the reverse light switch Never seen any manual identify a usage for the forward boss. Neutral safety switch does have a certain logic to it given the layout of the internals. I wonder if it was used on one of its production car installations - definitely not Escort (s1 and s2) or Sierra. May have been Capri or one of the Opels as I never owned those.

The best approach is to get a heated jacket. Heats the front of you that is exposed to the elements, instead of just the back and backside.

Then it may be worth getting a mechanic to assess it in position and possibly fire it up (but not drive it). That allows you to know now as part of the overall condition assessment. Any project like this needs a well laid out plan. If you don't then scope creep happens and you spend a lot more money than you originally planned to. To do a plan you need to thoroughly assess where it is and what you need/want to do to bring it back to the final vision you have for it. All of my projects (ok I admit...money pits in certain cases) have a written plan outlining what needs to be done to get it to the final state I want. You are still properly assessing the state of it (which is good) and still trying to work out where to go with it (which is also good). A key next step is to find the right specialists to help fill in what skills you know you don't have. You have identified early that is going to be a factor you are off doing it - so all good there. @ashyers Nice find on the lock nuts! Thumbs up.

To do a proper clean up/restore you will need to pull the engine and gearbox to clean up any chassis rust present. So with it coming out, and seeing the internal photo, it probably is a good idea to at least do a proper assessment by pulling the cam cover and looking inside the sump. This car may have been parked because it had some terminal damage at some point. The early signs are that a swap is possibly needed. I would look for a like-for-like changeover. Nice easy switch. Uses same loom, sensors and connections. I think this is the SVT Zetec? May not be the easiest to find one to swap in but Josh may have a lead. This brings up the next issue which will factor in - what condition is the ECU in? If it is MBE then a replacement is pricey although Josh may have something on the shelf since he has a lot of those older parts for a Zetec. There are other ECUs but they potentially require a new engine wiring harness. EDited to add: Before you pull the engine, you may want to do a compression/leak down test and see if it has any integrity left. This might tell you if the internals have really gone too far.