Day 25: oils and brake bleeding

I intended to start the engine for the first time today. But... shortages got in the way. The bottom LH corner of the radiator is missing a drain plug. I hadn't even noticed it when I put it on the car, it's not mentioned in the Assembly Guide, and Derek at Caterham was surprised it wasn't there, as they usually just arrive in place.

Oh well. So, nevertheless, I filled the gear oil with about 1.3l, and the differential with about 1.5l. The gear oil is easily reached, although the drain hole is very hard to access.

Like many other builders, I made my own tool from a piece of 3/8" steel, gripped by an old 3/8" spanner.

Dremelling off a section of 3/8" square bar from an unwanted socket set 3/8"-1/2" convertor

Gearbox overflow tool. Narrow enough to get between the tunnel wall and the gearbox

The diff oil is best attacked from above, removing the wooden and honeycomb floors. However, now that the rollover bar is in place, I can't remove the honeycomb floor section, so just propped it up (covered in masking tape, as it is very sharp and easily could damage the paintwork).

Filling the diff oil

Brakes
Then onto bleeding the brakes. I went for the traditional 2-person method, rather than use my Eazibleed. No real reason, other than I wanted to work on it with one of my kids, who sat in the cockpit for ages pumping the brake pedal.

Couple of things worth mentioning:
- it takes a long time
- there are two bleed nipples on each front upright. I only remembered this when I removed the front wheels to see why things were not improving. I bled both
- as the bleeding process goes on, the handbrake starts to be able to move, having been jammed on in the lowest position earlier

I think the brakes are due another round of bleeding before I'm happy with them.

So now, I'm just waiting for:
- stainless rear wing protectors (wrong size delivered)
- radiator drain plug

Day 7: engine preparation and anti-roll bar (a sailor's solution)

ARB
The anti-roll bar didn't look promising at first. Just offering it up showed how much bending was needed to seat each nylon ball in its socket. In fact, the first ball took a bit of persuasion (pushing, gentle tapping) to go in. But at the other end of the ARB, the ball stood out about 1" beyond its own socket. Hmmm.... My solution was to use a purchase to pull it in gently, as I wasn't convinced that I could just manhandle it in.

Controlled and gentle way of getting the ARB nylon ball into its socket

1. Tie off one end of a spare bit of polypropylene rope onto the chassis inside the engine bay (bowline is the ideal knot, of course)
2. Bring the rope through, and make a couple of loops around the upper wishbone and ARB, acting as a purchase
3. Gently pull on the rope, which draws the ARB close then just popped into the cup perfectly

LH ARB end from above , capped off and cable-tied securely

Engine prep
It was very satisfying to put together the engine, gearbox and other pre-fitting bits and pieces.
Nothing difficult here, except for one bolt which I cannot get a torque wrench to, so will have to be left to the Post-Build Check. I've marked anything for the PBC with a red luggage label, and all torqued up nuts with a dab of bright yellow nail varnish (Maybelline, from SuperDrug, if you're interested!).
The 'dowels' mentioned are actually rods about 3" long, with an M8 thread on each end. They need to be fitted first into the engine block, and then act as both the guides for fitting the gearbox, and then the means of tightening it all up. (In the Assembly Guide, they can be seen already fitted to the gearbox, but mine were loose in one of the many plastic bags of nuts and bolts).

Engine RHS, plus gearbox

Engine LHS, and ready to go into the engine bay

It is a fun exercise to figure out what everything around the engine actually does. (If you pull away the brown paper covering the exhaust manifold, you can see the tiny impeller that drives the turbo.)

Turbo impeller, inside exhaust manifold

The engine isn't as precarious as it looks... I've propped it underneath to avoid leaning on the oil filter cartridge and prevent tipping backwards towards the gearbox

Next job: install the engine