Build 25. Plumbing Part 1 - Radiator

At first the plumbing seems like quite a daunting task, there are quite a number of hoses, some that need cutting and some that don't, and no one wants to cut a hose wrong and then have to order more. I first just got them all out and took a photo so I could see what I had and work it all out, It was very obvious from here that the two hoses for the radiator were the ones with the largest diameter (the squiggly one on the left, and the long one at the bottom of the photo). There are two other right angle pieces of the same diameter, and a connecting piece, it looks like these are for use on builds with a different radiator to me, so I've marked them as "unused" and also put them aside.

I'll fit the radiator hoses now and then sort out where the other pipes go in the next blog post when I start the water plumbing part. It's easier to work out what goes where when you have less parts!

I found this relatively straight forward, follow the manual positions and using some silicone lubricant to help get the hoses on. I started with the bottom pipe which did actually fit with no cutting, but other people had mentioned they needed to modify the pipe for the 420 build. It turns out they were correct you need to cut the stepped bit off the end and replace with the larger right angled hose. I had this information from Caterham after my initial install:

Apologies for not getting this information to you in time but I’m glad you got everything in place. The bottom hose will fit in standard form, but it will be sat at a sub optimal angle which can in some cases lead to an air lock in the system, hence needing to add the right angle section in place of the stepped down section.

This came with this image attached as an example (note that the pipe is running along the top of the steering rack)

Once the lower was on, I laid out the upper hose as this requires cutting. Be sure to have the oil catch tank in place as the hose will need to go around this, if you don't do this, you might cut your hose to short. Once measured and marked, I lightly clamped the pipe in the vice and then used a junior hacksaw to cut it in two. It was then trivial to connect this at both ends and tighten up the jubilee clips.

Timelapse