Engine Installation

The first thing to acquire before starting the engine install procedure is a suitable hydraulic hoist and sling. I managed to get hold of a Sealey PH10 crane and 1 tonne / 2 metre sling, and this worked out perfectly.

The engine install is definitely a 2-person job (minimum!), and I was ably assisted in this task by my mate Bob. First thing we did was to lift up the engine to the appropriate height and offer it up to the front of the car. It immediately became apparent that the legs of the crane would foul the axle stands supporting the chassis, so we decided to simply put on the two front wheels and raise them up on wheel ramps. This gave ample space for the crane.

My assistant Beaker (sorry Bob)

Manoeuvring the engine into place and dropping it down into the bay was actually a lot easier than we had expected - the most difficult part was making sure the tail end of the gearbox fitted in above its support bracket on the chassis. We used the trolley jack underneath the car, to support the back end of the gearbox at the correct height as we dropped the front of the engine down. Almost no fouling of parts occurred: only the washer bottle had to be taken off, plus an alternator bolt that I had mistakenly left in situ.

It's in!

The most difficult part of the whole operation turned out to be the fitting of the various engine mounting bolts. Taking the weight of the engine on the crane, we first loosely bolted on the two main engine mounting struts and checked alignment with the rubber chassis bushes. It looked OK, so I tried to put in the right-hand-side long mounting bolt. This promptly cross-threaded, because the engine was actually canted over slightly. It was very tricky to get the engine at the correct angle with the bolt also lined up on the bush, so what we ended up doing was removing both the mounting strut and the rubber bush from the chassis, bolting them together off the car, and installing them as a pair using the slack in their own long bolts to line it up. This was a lot easier. The rear two bolts on the gearbox mount went in fairly readily, and we lined up the gearbox by eye centrally in the transmission tunnel before tightening up.

Total time for the engine install was a shade over two hours - very pleased with that. Off to the pub for a pie and a pint (or a burger and several pints, to be more exact).

Gearbox & Engine Prep

First, the gearbox needs to be bolted to the bell-housing & engine. The bell-housing was delivered already bolted to the engine, with the gearbox as a separate unit (NB. I ordered a regular 5-speed box). So, first job was to unbolt the bell-housing from the engine, connect to the gearbox, and re-bolt to the engine. No problem.

Don't forget to check the clutch release bearing hydraulic pipe connection is tight before re-fitting the bell-housing to the engine! You don't want to have to remedy this later...

Now - moving on to the engine installation. With the Ford Duratec 2 litre engine, you are supposed to use the R400 chapter in the Caterham Assembly Guide. This chapter is roughly accurate, but contains many "ambiguities"....

There's quite a lot of ancillary bits & pieces to get sorted out before the actual engine install. First off, the windscreen washer bottle and pump needs to go in (all mod-cons in the Caterham!). The metal mounting bracket for the bottle was already installed by CC in my engine bay (excellent! I wasn't expecting that...) but I had to route the water pipe from the pump to the windscreen jet. No problem here, except negotiating the pipe through the wiring loom grommet in the transmission tunnel, which was a bit fiddly.

Next, the manual says you have to connect the water rail and L-shaped rubber hose to the engine. I couldn't find either of these items in my kit, so a quick email to Sean confirmed that they have changed the design and these parts are not necessary. I proceeded onto the rubber engine mounts....

Note that it is important to scrape off the black paint on the LH mount, which also contains the engine electrical ground strap. After the engine is installed and this bolt is tightened, I will cover it in copper grease to try and prevent corrosion on an important electrical contact.

Horns go in next, and I used a couple of large penny-washers on the brackets because the holes were a little too large to just bolt down.

Next job is to protect as much of the engine bay as possible with padding, in order to avoid scratches and dents when the lump is shoe-horned in. I used a mixture of 15mm pipe insulation and 2.5mm foam packing wrap.

Last but not least, I removed from the engine all the items which I thought would get in the way during the install: The two main mounting brackets, and the alternator & belt. The guide says you should remove the starter motor as well, but having read a lot of other people's build diaries this does not seem to be necessary.

Now: all that is missing is my drinking pals, who have kindly offered to lend a hand with the engine installation (in exchange for sundry beverages).

Total build time so far: 25 hours