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