New Caterham owner to say hello
Discussion
Hi all, after ten years (!) since my last post at PH I decided to re-join the site. Having been out for such a long time I guess I should start from the beginning.
I'm based in South Spain, very close to the Circuit of Guadix. After some BMW M cars which I've always ended modifying extensively for track days, I decided to buy myself my first Seven. Last winter I bought myself a Dunnell-Engines Zetec powered Westfield SEiW which enjoyed for some months. Now my brother is the very happy owner of that car. Reason for the quick sell? I found a LHD MY2004 Caterham S3 K-Series VVC on the market section of a Spanish forum. I thought that the standard chassis was too tight for me so I went to try I could fit in that car. Surprisedly I felt very confortable on it, so I bought the car.
To be honest, I didn't know too much about the whole Caterham options, models, etc. According to the paperworks, the car was originally manufactured as a LHD and sold to its first spanish owner in August 2004 in Spain, and it was a Roadsport (143 hp on papers) with a few extras from the Superlight. The car doesn't show any rust or corrosion after 11 years. It had 24.000 kms on the odometer which seem to be real.
I've enjoyed the car for a couple of months now with a lot of B-road spirited driving and 2 very short track days (more info on this later...). I've learnt quite a lot already about the K-Series engine, as I've had 2 major failures already (camshaft sprocket and oil filter housing).
I think this is enough for my "first" post here. I'll post some pictures in a while as I would like to get as much information as I can from the experts here and of course to help other owners if I can.
I'm based in South Spain, very close to the Circuit of Guadix. After some BMW M cars which I've always ended modifying extensively for track days, I decided to buy myself my first Seven. Last winter I bought myself a Dunnell-Engines Zetec powered Westfield SEiW which enjoyed for some months. Now my brother is the very happy owner of that car. Reason for the quick sell? I found a LHD MY2004 Caterham S3 K-Series VVC on the market section of a Spanish forum. I thought that the standard chassis was too tight for me so I went to try I could fit in that car. Surprisedly I felt very confortable on it, so I bought the car.
To be honest, I didn't know too much about the whole Caterham options, models, etc. According to the paperworks, the car was originally manufactured as a LHD and sold to its first spanish owner in August 2004 in Spain, and it was a Roadsport (143 hp on papers) with a few extras from the Superlight. The car doesn't show any rust or corrosion after 11 years. It had 24.000 kms on the odometer which seem to be real.
I've enjoyed the car for a couple of months now with a lot of B-road spirited driving and 2 very short track days (more info on this later...). I've learnt quite a lot already about the K-Series engine, as I've had 2 major failures already (camshaft sprocket and oil filter housing).
I think this is enough for my "first" post here. I'll post some pictures in a while as I would like to get as much information as I can from the experts here and of course to help other owners if I can.
Let me talk about the few things I've done to the car so far.
First of all I wanted to "re-set" the car in terms of maintenance, so I did:
- Changed engine oil (Comma 5W50 Motorsports) and oil filter (White OEM Rover). Didn't change the sump foam because it was perfect and could find it anywhere. The car has the standard wet sump but has a slightly baffled pan.
- Changed gearbox oil (Comma EP75W80 Gear Oil GL4). Gearbox is a Caterham 6 Speed with hydraulic clutch.
- Changed cam belts (x2) and tensioner.
- Changed spark plugs (x4) (NGK BKR6EIX-11).
- Tail lights. Changed them to OEM as previous owner had them painted in black (...).
- Revised some electrical connections.
- Exhaustive cleaning in and out the car to look for rust, not careful works, etc.
- Adjusted the 4 DIM pins speedometer accuracy (OEM Caerbont Automotive) with big success.
- Fixed a coolant leak by the bleeding bolt on the top of the radiator (apparently from the R500, but I can't say).
I still have to change the differential oil, but could determine if my Sierra diff case has got an open diff, a ramps/discs LSD, Quaife, etc. in. With both rear wheels up if I rotate a wheel the other doesn't do it at all. I've always found that open differentials make the other wheel counter rotate, and LSD make the other wheel rotate the same way. After reading a bit, I might have to take a wheel and transmission out and see through the side hole of the differential case what's in there.
I still have to fix a faulty oil pressure sender, and want to add an oil temperature sender. I'm thinking in getting another of the same coolant temperature sender, fix it in the oil filter housing top blanked thread and wire it to the dash temp gauge. A 2 positions switch (same as the low-high beam) should allow me to switch the gauge from coolant to oil temperatures. This location for the oil temperature sender will show me the temperature right after it leaves the oil cooler and before it gets into the engine. The right oil pressure sender I found it at Caerbont Automotive. I hope I can get the right coolant temperature sender there as well.
Cheers.
First of all I wanted to "re-set" the car in terms of maintenance, so I did:
- Changed engine oil (Comma 5W50 Motorsports) and oil filter (White OEM Rover). Didn't change the sump foam because it was perfect and could find it anywhere. The car has the standard wet sump but has a slightly baffled pan.
- Changed gearbox oil (Comma EP75W80 Gear Oil GL4). Gearbox is a Caterham 6 Speed with hydraulic clutch.
- Changed cam belts (x2) and tensioner.
- Changed spark plugs (x4) (NGK BKR6EIX-11).
- Tail lights. Changed them to OEM as previous owner had them painted in black (...).
- Revised some electrical connections.
- Exhaustive cleaning in and out the car to look for rust, not careful works, etc.
- Adjusted the 4 DIM pins speedometer accuracy (OEM Caerbont Automotive) with big success.
- Fixed a coolant leak by the bleeding bolt on the top of the radiator (apparently from the R500, but I can't say).
I still have to change the differential oil, but could determine if my Sierra diff case has got an open diff, a ramps/discs LSD, Quaife, etc. in. With both rear wheels up if I rotate a wheel the other doesn't do it at all. I've always found that open differentials make the other wheel counter rotate, and LSD make the other wheel rotate the same way. After reading a bit, I might have to take a wheel and transmission out and see through the side hole of the differential case what's in there.
I still have to fix a faulty oil pressure sender, and want to add an oil temperature sender. I'm thinking in getting another of the same coolant temperature sender, fix it in the oil filter housing top blanked thread and wire it to the dash temp gauge. A 2 positions switch (same as the low-high beam) should allow me to switch the gauge from coolant to oil temperatures. This location for the oil temperature sender will show me the temperature right after it leaves the oil cooler and before it gets into the engine. The right oil pressure sender I found it at Caerbont Automotive. I hope I can get the right coolant temperature sender there as well.
Cheers.
Edited by OutOn on Wednesday 2nd September 17:05
Hi again. After one year of ownership, some updates.
Installed a Titan LSD 30/90, big big change. I can't understand a Caterham without LSD.
I kept trying to extend my relation with the K Series engine, installed a remote oil pressure sender, a temperature sender, bigger oil radiator, new starter motor... but a month ago another cam sprocket (exhaust side this time) broke on a hot lap, with engine failure this time.
After some thinking (Duratec vs K Series rebuild), i thought it was time to move on. I ordered a Raceline Duratec-R 2.0 250hp and should be here in some weeks. I'll post pictures of the engine swap. Very excited.
Best.
Installed a Titan LSD 30/90, big big change. I can't understand a Caterham without LSD.
I kept trying to extend my relation with the K Series engine, installed a remote oil pressure sender, a temperature sender, bigger oil radiator, new starter motor... but a month ago another cam sprocket (exhaust side this time) broke on a hot lap, with engine failure this time.
After some thinking (Duratec vs K Series rebuild), i thought it was time to move on. I ordered a Raceline Duratec-R 2.0 250hp and should be here in some weeks. I'll post pictures of the engine swap. Very excited.
Best.
HustleRussell said:
Very nice. I find it strange to see a LHD Caterham!
The Duratec doesn't have the character of the k-series but should be more robust. You were very unlucky to break a sprocket, I have never heard of that happening.
I've thought a lot about the extra weight of the Duratec and its "lack of character". This has been one of the reasons why I decided to go for a highly tuned engine. I specced the engine with the compact bell housing too to try to move the engine as far back as physically possible.The Duratec doesn't have the character of the k-series but should be more robust. You were very unlucky to break a sprocket, I have never heard of that happening.
Regarding the cam sprockets, I also found the two catastrophic failures to be very strange.
Coming back to the owner experience after a year, I forgot to mention that I installed a slopped diagonal cross FIA bar as well. I found the OEM roll bar very low when wearing a helmet, and I'm not particularly tall by any means. Ordered a carbon aeroscreen too, but this seems to be taking forever to be available in Caterham Parts.
Best.
Steve Campbell said:
The Duratec produces way more heat and can lead to uncomfortably hot footwell on hot days in the uk. As you are in Spain, consider heat protection in the tunnel underneath before installing. I've seen a few builds where people do this on line.
That's a very good advice. The footwell was already a bit too hot from the K Series... I'll order some heat insulation stuff.Thank you!
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