Drying out the Duratec

[tut]

I can imagine how you felt when you discovered that.

Interested to hear what Caterham's response is.

tut

[Gourlay83]

Excellent post , keep them coming (with the Fancy Pics).

Sorry to hear about the Gearbox, how the hell could Caterham miss that ??? Real shame as its looks the Business otherwise.

Its all character building, you still have a good month before the better weather comes in. Thats what im trying to say to myself (also having issues with a few winter upgrades )

Alan

[David]

Sorry to hear about the Gearbox, how the hell could Caterham miss that ???
Alan

I am beginning to realise that Caterham have quite primitive version control - it all seems to be in the heads of a few individuals. This could have been nipped in the bud at day one, but I now face the prospect of replacing the bellhousing and clutch release assemble with the CSR version – probably only to find it won’t fit in a S3 chassis.

[David]

OK, a few beers later, and the problem became clearer. The options are . . . .

Argue with Caterham for the next six months

Return to the wet sump

Swap it for the Raceline dry sump

Buy a CSR bellhousing

Drill through the flange

Make an adapter.

The car was bought to enjoy and so I don't want to spoil this with a dispute, so that's ruled out. Going back to the wet sump is the safety net, but didn't really want to waste all the time and effort so far. Swapping it for the Raceline dry sump is the legal fall back, but this too seemed a waste of time and effort. Buying a CSR bellhousing may be the best technical solution but would cost money and I was also worried that other problems may emerge. Drilling through the flange was soon ruled out when I measured the thickness – just 5mm and not enough to take the loads of a 10mm bolt. That left making an adapter. This appeals to me, partly for the challenge, but mainly because it provides a low cost solution without generating further problems.

Watch this space.

[Gourlay83]

That sounds like the easiest solution, I wish I was that calm and collected.......

Alan

[David]

With the decision made to make an adapter, the first task was to design it. The only prerequisite was that it must be backwardly compatible and be possible to make in-situ. Logic told me that any alterations must only be to the sump.

A machine shop solution would have been to machine the whole flange surface to allow a plate to be inserted that could pick up on the two existing holes. But, as one of the nicer features of the Titan sump (by comparison to Raceline) was the added stiffness in main bearing cap area, I was reluctant to cut material from where it wasn’t really necessary. Weight was also on my mind and, as the left side of the sump was essentially OK, the design progressed to the smallest feasible 10mm plate grafted into the right bolt position.

This what I ended up with:


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There were some heart stopping moments cutting this back. The two lugs were left to provide a reference point for measuring the depth of the recess as it was ground flat. The holes were extended back to compensate for the loss of depth. The red colour is from my blood sweat and tears.


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The plate was cut from 10mm steal plate. It was from a previous project and had suffered a little corrosion from being stored outside.


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The left side simply required a new hole but I decided to drill through the top hole and manufacture a plate to spread the load. It is extended through the cooling fin.




This should put me back on track and the only concern now is that the Titan/CSR sump is wider and I hope it will fit in the car . . . . . . .

. . . . . . . we’ll soon find out.

[David]

One thing that need to be checked was the thread I’d cut in the mild steel adapter plate. Ideally I wanted to torque them up to 47Nm so I did a destructive test on a bit of scrap using a 12.9 cap bolt. At 75 Nm there was a noticeable yield follow by failure at 105 Nm. It pulled the thread cleanly out . That’ll do the job .


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A full set of bolts . . . . .


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And the lump is ready to go back in . . . . .


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Update on the roller barrels:

Two weeks later and Caterham are consulting the suppliers .

[Ferg]

very ellegant solution, great work.

[David]

Well, the engine finally went back in during the week


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Take a good look as this photo as it is the very last one my camera will ever take It just stopped working and, as it's a 10 year old digital camera, it is just not worth fixing. So the future posts may suffer a little on the picture front.

The last couple of days have been spent trying to sort out the plumbing. Of the five oil pipes I got from Caterham (3 with the kit and two replacements) only one came near to fitting any of the positions. I've kind of lost faith in Caterham's ability to sort this sort of thing out so I've ordered some Aeroquip hose and will remake them to the correct length.

Negotiations with Caterham resulted in the roller barrels going back on Friday, so hopefully I’ll get a matching set back by the end of the week.

Jobs still to do are modifying the harness and cutting the bonnet hole. All being well, I should have it running in the next couple of weeks.

[tut]

Never ceases to amaze me the level of knowledge and projects that members get up to on here.

Also the way that problems are treated when they go tits up, which invariably they do. Always makes good reading, and encourages others to try.

tut

[David]

This week has been a bit of a waiting game . The roller barrels haven't arrived from Caterham and, despite 'being in stock', the Aeroquip hose only arrived on Saturday. So really only one days work to report - and that was spent making up the hoses fitting them.


At £30 a shot you would expect the Aeroquip fittings to be good and they are nice. I salvaged them from the Caterham hoses that didn't fit


(photos are from my phone so small ones only I'm afraid)

All the external pipe work is low pressure so using the push-on fittings is not a problem. Gently warming the pipe and some rubber lubricant make them go together without too much trouble - but you do need strong hands.



The full set ready to fit. I bought a -12 aluminum spanner as it seemed a shame to damage the alloy fittings with a sloppy adjustable. The spanner is a precision fit and made a bigger difference to the job than you might think.



The cooler had to be raised 15mm to clear the bottom cross member as the radius of the fittings was greater than the old steel ones.



The plumbing is tight . . . .



. . . . . but overall I was pleased with the days work. Of interest in this picture is that the fittings are billet rather than extruded – apart from being even more expensive they are more compact and stronger. I guess Chaterham use them here as they are more exposed to the elements and flying debris.

[Mike Scib]

David, will you not have issues with the hoses rubbing?

Impressive project BTW

[David]

David, will you not have issues with the hoses rubbing?

Impressive project BTW

There's still a few cable ties needed but the original hoses were routed the same way - so hopefully there won't be any issues.

I did buy stainless steel braided hose but it was very abrasive and reading up on them it seems they can be more trouble than they are worth in anything other than extreme conditions. To be honest, the car has so much attention lavished on it that wear and tear isn't really a problem.

David

[David]

Another week of waiting Caterham were unable to replace the barrels this week - the excuse seems to be that their supplier has some manufacturing difficulties Any way I've spent some time tidying up the electrics and coolant plumbing and today I fitted the racing master cylinder to reduce the 'long' pedal I was experiencing



This increases the diameter from 3/4 to 13/16 inch an saves about 0.25 kg. If my maths is correct this is about a 20% increase in area/volume and therefore 20% more force to achieve the same braking effort. It'll be interesting to see how I get on with it. The racing cylinders are also shimmed to the reduced travel or 'dead zone' that the standard cylinders tend to have.

Fingers crossed I have the barrels next week

[David]

A bit of a 'non' post really . I'm still waiting for the replacement roller barrels from Caterham

I spent the week doing minor tasks like the wiring up of the DS tank temperature sensor, putting seats back, and servicing the breaks etc. But, the car is now essentially finished. Next post will be start up.