May 2009
Saturday 30th May 2009
A new sponsor, Eurospeed, in Australia, are supplying me with an oil filter take off plate, that features two dash 10 hose fittings. This will allow me to run oil hoses direct from the block, to the remote filter and oil cooler. The oil filter take off plate from the Fiesta ST, hits the front cross member. So I would have had to fit the Raceline horizontal oil filter mount. And that would have allowed me to fit the Mocal sandwich take-off plate that I ran on the Zetec. However, rather than investing in the Raceline item, then having to run the Mocal plate, the lightweight CNC machined Eurospeed plate does away with both of these items, for approximately the same price as the Raceline plate. And it saves weight too. More pictures when it arrives from Oz.Why not take a look at the Eurospeed brochure (PDF format) for more Duratec parts.
I've cut the centre section of the front panel out, to give clearance for the throttle body trumpets. I used a large hacksaw, and it took about 15 mins to do. The centre section is going to be replaced with a length of 3mm aluminium box section, which will be removable.
M-Sport have dispatched the two tripod joints, so I should have those on Monday.
I've asked Quaife for an update on the gearbox, and I've also asked if they can supply the gear lever so I can work on the electronics to detect when the lever is being pushed or pulled, for the flat shift to work. I'll be using a 120 Ohm strain gauge in a Wheatstone bridge configuration, with some simple circuitry to pull the DTA flat shift signal low as the lever is operated. The tricky bit will be identifying where abouts to glue the strain gauge on to the lever, to give the greatest amplitude as the lever is moved. Details to follow.
Friday 22th May 2009
Collected the Fiesta today. Tony Law Exhausts have done a superb job. The manifold looks wonderful, with equal length primaries, and a 4-2-1 design. The system is 2.5" throughout, and there's a single silencer, and a lambda boss welded in the centre section. The system is already coated, to resist corrosion, and it looks very 'motorsport' doesn't it? I think we lost the sump plug on the way home, because the engine dumped its contents all over the new Buffalo board. Not to worry, the oil needed to come out anyway. (Sorry to anyone following). I averaged 39mpg on the way back, which was mostly motorways.
The aluminium I bought on metals4u turned up today, so I can get on with finishing the trailer and starting on the front panel. Now the zorst is done, I need to start the re-wiring, and finish off plumbing in the radiator etc. And finally, in this months Classic Ford (June 2009) there is a mention for the website (Thanks), in the engine swap section. And there's a great article on Matt Downers Duratec engined Mk2 Escort.
Wednesday 20th May 2009
Removed the ramps and their brackets from trailer, and slid the Buffalo board in from the rear. Then I drilled the ten 8mm holes in the board, and fastened it to the trailer using M8 stainles bolts, washers and Nyloc nuts. I'll run a couple of pieces of 1" angled aluminium underneath, to give it some more strength. I sealed the cut edges of the plywood with PVA wood glue, which should stop water from soaking in and ruining it. I think the end result looks very good. At least I have somewhere raised to sit / stand when spectating at events.
I'll be collecting the car from Tony Law on Friday morning, as the exhaust is apparently completed, with no snags either.
Tuesday 19th May 2009
Brian James Trailers at Daventry came to the rescue with the Buffalo board. They've sold me an 8ft x 4ft (12mm) board, with a damaged corner, for £30. I collected it at lunch time today. It took three trips between the carpark and their workshops to cut the board down small enough to fit in the Legacy. I'll fit the board to the trailer tonight. I just need to trim the largest piece down to size, and drill a few holes to bolt it to the trailer chassis.
I finished painting the garage floor last night, and I should have just enough paint left over to give a second coat to the last section I completed yesterday.
Monday 18th May 2009
Are you able to supply me with a piece of Buffalo board, 1.0m x 1.5m, in 12mm? I just need a small sheet for my trailer, and my local stockist in Wigston wants £50 + TAX for a 1.2M x 2.4M sheet, which is a lot more than I thought I'd have to pay. He said something about normally selling in bulk, and I'd have to pay a premium as I only wanted a single sheet. Email me if you have a piece you want to sell me.I painted the garage floor yesterday, using Blackfriar non-slip floor paint, and it dried very quickly. The second coat goes on this evening. I used a ceiling roller from B and Q, which only cost £3.98, and the finish is superb.
I've asked Tony Law to fit a lambda sensor boss to the new manifold, and also to make the system from 2.25" tubing, with just a single silencer, to keep the weight down. I never had noise issues with the Walker Dynomax silencer, so the Duratec shouldn't be that much louder, even though I'm aiming for approx 250BHP.
Newflash: John Beardmore is selling his stunning space framed Fiat Twin Cam powered Morris Minor convertible. Link here
Friday 15th May 2009
Dropped the XR2 off at Tony Law's this morning. The manifold will be a 4-2-1, and because the primaries need to be equal length, one of them may have to loop over the gearbox and back, which sounds OK, so long as the heat can be shielded from the manifold. I may end up wrapping it to keep the under bonnet temps down. Cant have the carbon bonnet getting burnt. The Subaru seems to tow OK, though it has nothing like the grunt that the Audi A6 had, but the Audi does have a 2.8 V6 petrol engine, and I daresay I used far less fuel yesterday on the 200 mile round trip than I would have done using the Audi.
The car should be ready for collection next week, possibly Thursday or Friday. They said the magic words "Leave it with us", which was music to my ears.
A pair of Ford boot kits turned up on ebay, so I bought them both. These are for the inner driveshaft couplings, and come with circlips, rubber boots, and lots of grease. Meaning I just need to get the tripod/trilobe joints, which Paul at Coordsport reckons he may have found a suitable equivalent part number for. Hopefully they're for a driveshaft with 22 splines.
Its Fiesta in the Park on Sunday, same venue as before, but this year, I'll be painting the garage floor! Which is another job I've not done before, so that should make for interesting reading too.
Wednesday 13th May 2009
I loaded the car on to the trailer tonight, and pushed them both back in to the garage. Then feeling particularly adventurous, I reconnected the starter motor, connected the earth lead to the block, and turned the battery isolator switch to 'On' to see if there was any juice left in the battery. To my surprise, all the instruments swept round, and there was 12V indicated on the voltmeter. So I gave the starter button a prod and the engine span over very quickly, with no dramas. Apart from a small puddle of oil on the floor, because I've not fitted the oil filter housing back on the car yet. What a relief. Although I've had the engine since July 08, I'd not even tried turning it over by hand, so the signs are very good.
I fitted the injectors from the ST, using the Titan fuel rail. I then set about fitting some new headlamp photos to the surrounds, so the car looks once again, like it has headlamps fitted. I think they look better than those black covers I fitted last year.
M-Sport phoned me. They reckon that they can source some tripod/trilobe/spider joints for me, by splitting the driveshaft kits that Ford charge a fortune for. I'll wait for Coordsport first, to see if they have any joy in getting the Puma equivalents for me.
Its a great feeling, having the engine turning in the car again. And once the exhaust is done, there's relatively few jobs left to do. Its a shame they're all quite large though. Rewiring shouldn't take too long, and plumbing in the radiator should be straightforward. I dont want to have to fit the cable gear linkage for the IB5+ box, as it'll only need stripping out for when the sequential arrives. Fingers crossed that it wont take Quaife too much longer to put the sequential boxes in to production.
Tuesday 12th May 2009
Removed the radiator and throttle bodies last night, and refitted the bonnet and front grill. I ordered a rear number plate for the trailer yesterday, from www.platecreator.com and it arrived this morning. I'm very impressed.
I've made some progress trying to track down the tri-lobe or spider joints as they're sometimes called. I need a pair, for the inboard ends of the driveshafts, but Ford appear to sell them in a very expensive kit, so Coordsport are looking at tracking down an equivalent part from the Ford Puma. Once I've located and bought a pair, I can establish if the inner ends of the driveshafts need a different number of splines to the tri-lobes I ran previously with the BC box. Recoprop need this information prior to manufacturing the short driveshaft for the drivers side. Until I can confirm the requirements to recoprop, they cant kick the manufacturing process off.
Saturday 9th May 2009
Rolled the car out the garage today, and turned it around ready for loading on to the trailer during the week.
Wednesday 6th May 2009
Painted both of the engine steady bars. I've asked RecoProp for a price for the new driveshaft. Moved the car forward in the garage, to allow access to the rear of the car, so I can look at fitting the Kustom Engineering rear end, and I've had a sweep up to get rid of all the dust and dirts that built up under the car since last August.
I went to London on Tuesday, to VMWare HQ in Southwark, to hear about their new vSphere 'Cloud' operating system for DataCentres. I went specifically to get information on ACE which is their new remote access solution, using Virtual PC's running on host PC's, that in turn have a SSL VPN setup to connect back to the corporate network, but we only spent 30mins talking about ACE. It was still an interesting day out, and I need to compare the merits of ACE compared to BeCrypt Trusted Client and the Juniper SA4500 solution that I've been working on for my client.
Saturday 2nd May 2009
RIP Allan Staniforth, who passed away on May 2nd 2009. Allan was 85 years old, and wrote many great books on chassis design and setup. We send our condolences to his family and close friends. The paddock at Harewood will not be the same without the presense of this great man, who up until last year, was still a regular competitor at the Leeds track.
Friday 1st May 2009
Removed the ring gear from the LSD. Turned out to be quite easy to do in the end. Quaife used Loctite on the 8 bolts, but I mananged to undo them using a T-Bar with an extension to give me some more leverage. I also removed the driveshaft from the outer CV, using a pair of snipe nosed pliers to part the circlip in the CV joint, then knocking the CV with a rubber mallet. They soon parted company.
I refitted the front hub, and measured the distance between the hub CV face and the intermediate drive shaft on the engine, and the gap is 28cm with the car jacked up in the air, and 275mm with the car sat on all four wheels. I'll order the new driveshaft next week.
I also made a second steel tie bar, to replace the one I made from aluminium, to match the lower tie bar I finished this week. I simply weld a nut on to both ends of a length of steel tube, then grind the tube down to give a tapered finish. Fairly easy to do, though very messy with all the metal filings produced by the bench grinder.
Tony Law Exhausts in Leeds have given me a very good price for a manifold and complete system, so I've booked the car in, in a couple of weeks time. This'll be the first time I've towed with the Subaru too, so lets hope its a sunny day for the trip North.
I'm delivering the gearbox on Saturday, then the rest of the weekend is taken up with keeping the kids amused. Looks like I'll be at Loughborough Great Central Railway tomorrow, as its my lads treat to have a ride on the trains (and Dads treat too of course)
