310 Encore Build (Colorado)

[jmaz]

Hi All,

 

I'm in the early stages of assembling a 310 Encore.  After reaching (and passing) retirement age, I figured it was pretty much now or never to scratch a long-time itch of owning a Seven, particularly if I was going to do the build myself.  The 310 had always felt like the best combination of power and balance for my needs, so when Caterham announced this summer that they were planning a limited run of 25 new 310's, I decided to take the leap after some discussion with Josh Robbins at Rocky Mountain Caterham.

 

The build has gone well so far, with no new issues encountered that haven't already been discussed in the various build blogs and forums.  I'd like to thank everyone who has taken the time to document their builds and to help with questions and problems that other builders have run into.  It's scary to imagine trying to put the car together using just the official manuals.  Along with using Josh R. as a resource, my main go-to blogs so far have been caterham420detailedbuildblog.co.uk, 310build.com and www.caterham7diaries.com.  I'll then check several others (cat310s.wordpress.com, www.caterhamr500.co.uk, purplemeanie.co.uk, www.caterham310.co.uk, caterham170r.wordpress.com, among others, along with some of the instructional youtube videos such as Caterham 7 Diaries and The Caterham Cave) to help fill in some information gaps.   All of them have additional bits of detail and tricks to offer.   I'm sure that, so far, I've spent way more time reading than I have on the actual build.

 

Yoram's Yellowjacket build posts here on usa7s proved particularly valuable for suggestions on dealing with the initial hurdle of the crate delivery.  Since I couldn't be sure that the delivery truck would have a forklift that would fit in my garage, and having 3 (4, as it turned out) big crates sitting on my driveway in the middle of winter wasn't ideal, I'd followed Yoram's suggestion and construction plans to build a dolly for the chassis crate so that it could be pushed into the garage.  I made a second dolly for the engine crate.  The delivery donkey lift did in fact turn out to be too tall for my standard-height garage entry, so the dollies saved the day.  The tall crate was too high to allow use of a dolly, but the lift operator was able to nudge the crate far enough into the garage.

 

Again following Yoram's suggestion, Once we'd pushed the chassis crate into the garage, my helper (son-in-law) and I used the engine hoist and lifting straps to move the chassis off the crate base and onto jack stands.   (Here's a hint from "should have realized that" category:  remember to unbolt the chassis from the crate bottom before trying to do the lifting.)

 

I mentioned 4 crates.  One of the crates was intended to be delivered to RMC but was left with me by mistake.  

 

The chassis is an S3 with lowered floors.

 

Edited April 26 by jmaz
clarity

[williamwashere]

Wow, nice choice on color!! I really like the graphics package that came with the Encore builds. That's going to be fun!!

[jmaz]

I'd played around a lot with the Configurator and kept coming back to a white-with-blue-trim combination, with red versions coming in second place, so I was glad that white was one of the two no-extra-cost colors.  Black is the other choice, which I think looks really sharp but I wanted a high visibility paint color.  The other four Encore-theme choices cost an extra $1,750.   If I'd wanted red or any other custom color, it would have cost $3K

[Vovchandr]

White is best @BlakeJ

[BlakeJ]

Thanks, Vlad. 

[Vovchandr]

I just noticed a center filler cap. Very peculiar. Not sure I've seen a lot of that. 

[jmaz]

The center filler cap is one of the standard features CC added to make the Encore a bit different.  There are a few other things they pulled out of the parts bin, such as the red 4-pot calipers.  

[jmaz]

Can anyone offer advice on the black connector in this photo; the one with the yellow tape on it?  It's a 2-pin connector, and I can't find anything accessible in the engine bay that it looks like it should attach to.  

 

And, for the MAP sensor (attached to the green 3-pin connector in the photo), the info. I can find suggests that it's hose nipple port should be left unattached to anything since, on the Seven, the sensor's supposed to be measuring ambient air pressure.  Is that correct?

 

 

[williamwashere]

I'm just thumbing through the build guide instead of doing my actual job, and I haven't built mine yet so this is a shot in the dark, but is that the connector that goes under the car towards the Lambda Probe in the exhaust?

 

Edited April 21 by williamwashere

[williamwashere]

Eh, it doesn't have nearly enough wires. At least compared to the figure in the build manual, so seems unlikely. Sorry!

[williamwashere]

Okay, not the Lambda probe, but @jmaz this looks like it would be helpful for you!

[jmaz]

1 hour ago, williamwashere said:

I'm just thumbing through the build guide instead of doing my actual job, and I haven't built mine yet so this is a shot in the dark, but is that the connector that goes under the car towards the Lambda Probe in the exhaust?

 

 

No, not the Lambda.  That's a green connector that's zip-tied lower down on the chassis

[jmaz]

1 hour ago, williamwashere said:

Okay, not the Lambda probe, but @jmaz this looks like it would be helpful for you!

 

Thanks.  The 2 wires are brown/black and orange/white.  I'm not seeing any connector in the diagram with that combination.  AI suggests perhaps a wiper motor/motor parking role, or a brake reservoir fluid-level sensor role.  I'm not seeing any compatible plug within range of it though.  The plug is close to the reservoir but the reservoir already has two spade connectors attached.  I've read that there can be unused connectors, so I'll just move on and see if something crops up later

Edited April 21 by jmaz

[11Budlite]

I have that same connector on my 310S and it wasn't used on my car. I just cable-tied it to an adjacent harness. Not sure what model it was used on and what it was used for.

 

Yes, the MAP sensor port is left open to atmosphere.

Edited April 22 by 11Budlite

[hahuang65]

On 4/20/2026 at 3:08 PM, Vovchandr said:

I just noticed a center filler cap.

I quite like the symmetry, especially with the stripes...

 

It does remind me of a Hobbit door:

[jmaz]

7 hours ago, 11Budlite said:

I have that same connector on my 310S and it wasn't used on my car. I just cable-tied it to an adjacent harness. Not sure what model it was used on and what it was used for.

 

Yes, the MAP sensor port is left open to atmosphere.

Thanks.  Josh Robbins at RMC just confirmed that it's indeed unused.  (Its intended for an exhaust solenoid that only fitted to EU models).  To be fair to CC, the assembly guide does mention that some connectors might be extra.  They just don't say which ones...

Edited April 22 by jmaz

[jmaz]

3 hours ago, hahuang65 said:

I quite like the symmetry, especially with the stripes...

 

It does remind me of a Hobbit door:

 

No tall, gray-bearded person has scratched any dwarf-runes on it yet, as far as I can tell

Edited April 22 by jmaz

[jmaz]

There's been some discussion in another thread, "What you wish you knew before ordering your car?", regarding headlight+indicator pod options.  One of those is to not install the indicator pods at all (to achieve a more simple, stream-lined look), and instead use the internal turn-signal capability of some types of replacement LED headlights.  If I go with the standard look and install the pods, I'm wondering if there's any reason to not extend the indicator-circuit wire into the headlight pod so that there's a connection available for an LED headlight turn signal, if (when) I install LED headlight upgrades.

[hahuang65]

7 minutes ago, jmaz said:

if there's any reason to not extend the indicator-circuit wire into the headlight pod so that there's a connection available for an LED headlight turn signal, if (when) I install LED headlight upgrades.

 

Assuming you're running LEDs, I think there's more than enough voltage to run them in series...though double check random idiot on forum talking.

 

If you're planning on running both the pod and the LED blinker, then I would assume that's the most straightforward way to do it.

 

A reason not to do it now is that it's some small amount of extra work and if you're (possibly) not gonna need it, then don't do it now.

 

Though, for what it's worth, I grounded my pod blinker in the headlight bowl, so you're gonna be running a wire into there already anyway.

 

I suppose it can save you some re-tidying up wires if you're anal about that kind of stuff though, but just achieving illumination in both lights would not be an extraordinary amount of work, if I recall my own installation properly.

Edited April 23 by hahuang65

[jmaz]

As you did, I plan to route the ground wire from the pod into the headlight bowl anyway, so adding the second wire wouldn't be hard.  I'm trying to keep the wiring as neat as possible so doing it now would make sense since I can tweak the heat-shrink arrangement, etc. easily, at this stage of the build.  I'd likely replace the indicator bulbs with LED versions as well, at some point.  (Which LED headlight options to go with is a whole different topic - but I'm leaning toward Morimoto Sealed6.  Expensive but get good reviews)