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Minor update - the car is gone! It's gone to a specialist nearby to have the last few jobs finished off, as I was struggling to find the time to work on it. They will be doing the MOT, as well as giving it the once over to make sure it is all MSA-compliant. I did do a couple of jobs before it went, though didn't take any pictures. I replaced the short rubber fuel hoses that go from the pump to the pump cover with braided ones, as I wasn't happy with the rubber ones and did a couple of other little tidy-up jobs. There are still a couple of other things to do, but they can wait until it's back. Finally, I chucked a driver's seat and harness in so it could have the MOT done. The proper seats are on order, but haven't arrived yet. I thought I might as well take a few pictures of it in it's 'almost finished' state, after a quick wipe down: IMG_20180325_172904 by Jon Scoltock, on Flickr IMG_20180325_172953 by Jon Scoltock, on Flickr IMG_20180325_173012 by Jon Scoltock, on Flickr IMG_20180325_173023 by Jon Scoltock, on Flickr IMG_20180325_173118 by Jon Scoltock, on Flickr IMG_20180325_173137 by Jon Scoltock, on Flickr IMG_20180325_173232 by Jon Scoltock, on Flickr IMG_20180325_173250 by Jon Scoltock, on Flickr Last Monday it was collected... IMG_20180326_093828 by Jon Scoltock, on Flickr IMG_20180326_094436 by Jon Scoltock, on Flickr And then unloaded at the garage: IMG_20180326_110119 by Jon Scoltock, on Flickr IMG_20180326_113126 by Jon Scoltock, on Flickr Had a chat with the guy, came up with a bit of a plan and left it with him. No ETA for it's return, as told him not to rush too much. He said he would make a start this week. Annoyingly there are a couple of areas where he said it will need some modifications, one of which includes the mounts for the main hoop of the roll cage. That's a bit worrying, as that was done 17 years ago, so it's done plenty of rallies like that! Hopefully it won't take too long for them to sorted and, with any luck, I'll be able to drive it home from the garage, which will be pretty exciting. Until next time...
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GJUK
Part of things
Posts: 238
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Looks great with you, good job!
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Thanks, appreciate it. With it moved, it was the first time I've properly been able to stand back and look at it. I am pleased with the look, just hope it drives ok!
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Its looking nice. Be sure to get a wee video so we can hear how she sounds after please.
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Its looking nice. Be sure to get a wee video so we can hear how she sounds after please. I'm sure there will be a video or two! It's not actually as loud as I expected thus far, though obviously I haven't driven it yet. I did go fairly safe with the silencer size though.
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Apologies, not updated this lately. It's home! It had a much longer stay with the garage than expected, as getting over a clutch issue proved more of a challenge than first thought. Essentially, it had to come apart and be fitted with the clutch and flywheel from a 2.0 Focus, as the Escort set-up was never going to work. An annoying expense, but it solved the problem. For now, I am just running a standard flywheel/clutch, but may look into something lighter/better later. It passed the MOT without any advisories (other than one for it being a rally car), so that's good news too. Anyway, just to prove that the car doesn't only sit at my house, here it is in a lay by, where I had stopped to give it a check over, with my friend's rather dull Skoda Octavia lease-mobile: IMG_20180623_120742 by Jon Scoltock, on Flickr IMG_20180623_120736 by Jon Scoltock, on Flickr While stopped, the bugs got excited and thought it was a flower: IMG-20180623-WA0005 by Jon Scoltock, on Flickr IMG-20180623-WA0004 by Jon Scoltock, on Flickr And home again: IMG_20180623_135258 by Jon Scoltock, on Flickr Prior to my collecting it, the car had only done about four miles when the new clutch was tested, so the 40-odd mile drive home was a fairly nerve-jangling experience, especially when the temperature was in the high 20s. It stood up to it very well though. A minor coolant leak from the return hose seemed to be about the only issue, so I am very pleased with that. The brakes are far from good, as it's been sitting around, so I will have to see how they clean up. I have new pads to go in it, but hopefully I can avoid having to fit new discs too. There are a few jobs on the list still sadly. The MSA scrutineer advised that it needs some modifications to the cage feet and to the seat mounts (even though it's done several rallies like that) so I will do those, just to be safe. He also did a noise test and, apparently, 118dB is too much Some exhaust work required methinks... Anyway, driving it was certainly an experience. The MSA guy said the 'box felt nice and the ratios good and he isn't wrong. It might benefit from a quick shift of some sort, but it feels like a totally different car from the one I drove over three years ago. It could obviously do with more power, but it really does seem much more eager now. Seats are on order so, once they arrive, I will do the necessary work to the mounts, modify the cage feet and then fit the belts, ready to give it a proper test. Until next time...
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brilliant mate looks great
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1978 mk2 escort mexico
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Have you looked into how to get more from the I4. I'd like to get mine remapped to lift the rev limiter but there doesn't appear to be much about. The rev limiter is a right pain. It doesn't sit on the limit like an Omex limiter, but instead cuts the power completely. Cool car.
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sridgett
Part of things
the only way is Dagenham
Posts: 434
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Bloody hell mate long time no see, I used to chat to you on the passionford site. Car looks good mate, well done.
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Mk3 capri, escort xr3i, mk2 fiesta,mk5 escort rs2000
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brilliant mate looks great Thanks mate. It's nice to see it almost finished at long, long last. Have you looked into how to get more from the I4. I'd like to get mine remapped to lift the rev limiter but there doesn't appear to be much about. The rev limiter is a right pain. It doesn't sit on the limit like an Omex limiter, but instead cuts the power completely. Cool car. Thanks. I haven't looked into it too closely I must say. Mine has a couple of very basic changes: It's had the air pulse system removed from the exhaust manifold, which is supposed to help things and has a 'chip' attached to the ECU. Whether that is helping or not I don't know! Thanks to my Q-plate, I can also run without a cat too. Once I have done a few miles, I will try and get it put on a rolling road, just out of curiousity. If it's making more than standard, I will be quite impressed to be honest! I don't know if too many places do off-the-shelf bits for the RS2000 anymore. Most of the old chipping companies have very much turned their attention to ODB based stuff now. I believe there is a company down in the south west called Sabre Tuning that has done a bit of work and managed to find a way to remap the EEC-IV on these, as I know a guy who is running bike throttles on a modified standard ECU. These engines seem to have a bit of a reputation for being hard to tune, but I think it's more just because most people focused on the Zetec as it was more common. A cam change seems to help and, I seem to remember that it would get you to around 170-175bhp with some matching exhaust tweaks and a chip. I think with cams and throttle bodies you can see close to 200bhp, but obviously it's not exactly cheap. Omex do a throttle body kit for the Zetec which I spoke to them about and they were happy to let me chop and change some parts in order to get it to work on this engine, but it would still cost well over £2000. In all honesty, I think if I go down the route of engine work, I would probably take the opportunity to fit a 2.0 Duratec from a Fiesta ST or MK3 Mondeo. I really like the RS2000 engine, I think it has a lot of character and is pretty tough, but the Duratec is plentiful and a good bit lighter. My car is now so chopped-about that it wouldn't be that difficult really and the cost of the new engine is relatively low in the grand scheme of things. Bloody hell mate long time no see, I used to chat to you on the passionford site. Car looks good mate, well done. Thanks fella, good to see you still about. PF seems to have died a death in the last few years sadly. Used to be such a busy forum.
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Thanks for the info. My engine is in a mk1 Escort so the standard exhaust has gone and now has a 4 to1 instead of the 4 to2 to 1 which I think may be loosing me a bit of torque. Other wise its standard. I had it rolling roaded at Mosley's in West Wales and it had 125bhp at the wheels. I'll look into Sabre to see what they do.
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Wow, haven't update this for a while! Been a bit slack, but plenty has changed. The cage was removed and the required updates made to the reinforcement plates, along with new seat mounting tubes. Things were then reassembled and the new HRX seats and a new steering wheel fitted: IMG_20180916_184403 by Jon Scoltock, on Flickr IMG_20180916_184413 by Jon Scoltock, on Flickr IMG_20180916_184423 by Jon Scoltock, on Flickr IMG_20180916_184445 by Jon Scoltock, on Flickr Another thing the scrutineer didn't seem to like was the position of the cut-off/extinguisher pull, so I moved those to a panel between the seats: IMG_20181002_175918 by Jon Scoltock, on Flickr A few other jobs have been completed, including replacing the crank oil seal and sorting the lamp pod. Yesterday afternoon I took the car for a quick drive over to my friend's work, where he has access to a weigh bridge. Not the most scientific approach, as it only weighs to the nearest 20kg and has a ridiculous tolerance level, but it came out at 1120kg anyway. About what I expected, but would be good to get it on some proper scales at some stage. I could get plenty more weight out of it if I fitted a GRP boot and bonnet, but it is what it is for the moment. IMG_20181208_152446 by Jon Scoltock, on Flickr IMG_20181208_155208 by Jon Scoltock, on Flickr IMG_20181208_152437 by Jon Scoltock, on Flickr Pleased to have covered a few more miles in it, but a couple of observations: I need to move the seat forward a touch as I am too far back, there seems to be a bit of an issue with the spots, which might be the relay or switch but, most significantly, the brakes suck lol. They do need a bit of bleeding , but I think there might be a master cylinder/caliper mismatch, as there really isn't much bite. As I'm running on 17" wheels, I might use it as an excuse to just fit something bigger to be honest. We're almost there though.
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Feb 20, 2019 23:33:28 GMT
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Time for an update following my first rally. It was a disaster  It's been an eventful couple of weeks to be honest. As you can see from the previous posts, I replaced the Wilwoods with Brembo four pots. One problem I hadn't anticipated - none of my wheels fitted over them - D'OH!!!! This was a bit of an issue. To be safe, I needed something around ET30/33, which isn't very common, so I had to have a rethink. One thing I had noticed when trawling eBay/gumtree/Facebook was that the 17" wheels from a Focus ST170 are common and pretty cheap. They're ET49 but, with a suitable spacer, I could get the clearance required. So, I ordered some 16mm hubcentric spacers and then set about buying a load of ST170 rims. When I say a load, I really do mean a load - 18 to be precise  That might sound mental, but I bought one set with decent road tyres for MOTs etc, then enough for my wets and a few dry options. This is where the mighty Vectra wagon comes in useful; 14 wheels in it here... IMG_20190208_225421 by Jon Scoltock, on Flickr Of course, with a big pile of wheels in various states of kerbing and corrosion, my co-driver and I set about roughly preparing them for a quick blast over with some black paint: IMG-20190213-WA0007 by Jon Scoltock, on Flickr All very exciting. I haven't done them all, but did about half of them for now. I will buy some bolt-on spacers at some stage, but the ones I bought got me through for the moment. One little update was to add a sun strip: IMG_20190212_110306 by Jon Scoltock, on Flickr The plan was to take it over to my local scrutineer last Monday, just for a quick check over before the rally. So, early Monday morning, I defrosted the car, checked the tyre pressures, put my helmet/hans in the car (needed MSA stickers) and thought I would check the wheel nut torque. Smart move that was.... IMG-20190211-WA0005 by Jon Scoltock, on Flickr ...a nice sheared stud to contend with. I didn't think this would be too much of a problem, as I had a spare hub so, ten minutes after starting, the car looked like this: IMG_20190212_111714 by Jon Scoltock, on Flickr This is where it really started to go wrong lol. I offered up the new hub and it wouldn't fit over the spline of the outer CV joint! I spent hours trying to get it to fit. Eventually, several frustrating hours later, it was on, but the idea of having the car checked over before the event was long gone. A couple of days away for work then meant I didn't get back to the car until Friday. The hope was to collect the hired trailer and get to Snetterton for scrutineering on Friday evening. Cue another mishap - the trailer wasn't there. Lost a couple of hours because of that cock-up (the fault of the hire company) and meant scrutineering would have to be done Saturday morning. The drama wasn't done yet either. Before loading the car, I took it out to bed-in the brakes. All was fine, got them up to temperature, then the pedal started to go spongy. When I got home, I noticed a leak from the banjo bolt on one of the front calipers. I nipped it up and bled the brakes, then we loaded up the trailer and van: IMG_20190215_222621_1 by Jon Scoltock, on Flickr IMG_0326 by Jon Scoltock, on Flickr IMG_0328 by Jon Scoltock, on Flickr Was up stupidly early on Saturday to get to Snetterton in plenty of time. I was feeling pretty nervous by this point, having never done a rally before and not feeling very confident with the car (I've barely driven it). Thankfully, we passed the noise test with ease: IMG_0330 by Jon Scoltock, on Flickr Then we promptly failed scrutineering for a seized pull cable  Managed to sort that and we were ready for the first stage. IMG_0417 by Jon Scoltock, on Flickr
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Feb 20, 2019 23:34:03 GMT
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I was definitely crapping myself now! We pulled up to the start line, both nervous at what was ahead, but I was relieved to have finally got there. The relief soon disappeared though. First, we jumped the start (oops!) but a bigger problem soon became apparent. The clutch started to slip and, with every application of the throttle, was getting worse and worse. We were going round the circuit backwards on the first stage, following a section in the paddock but, by the time we got to Agostini, drive disappeared altogether and we coasted to a gentle halt. curse word. IMG-20190216-WA0010 by Jon Scoltock, on Flickr IMG_0336 by Jon Scoltock, on Flickr I really wasn't sure what the problem was at this point but, despite the breakdown, I wasn't feeling too bad. The pressure was off I guess. We had to wait until the end of the second stage to be recovered, which was a little unfortunate: IMG_0339 by Jon Scoltock, on Flickr My friend Mat (who owns an Escort Maxi) was soon in action, trying to find the problem. When he released the clutch bleed nipple, fluid shot out of it. We bled it but couldn't find much wrong, so tried to go out for stage three. Sadly, the problem soon returned, so we limped back in after just one lap. Not a great start to my rallying career. Mat got back to it and we decided to change the master cylinder: IMG_0417 by Jon Scoltock, on Flickr He changed this and, when reassembling, noticed that the lock nut for the actuator rod had come loose and that the rod was permanently putting a small amount of load on the master cylinder, meaning the fluid couldn't bleed back through (hence the pressure). When messing with his own car, he had noticed that this caused problems, so we adjusted the length so there was a bit of free play. A quick drive round the service area seemed to suggest it was ok, but we would only tell once the clutch had some load put through it. Third time lucky we thought, so we set out for stage five (we missed four due to trying to fix the car). I launched off the line and, to our great pleasure, the clutch worked perfectly! Finally! Sadly, what still wasn't working was the brakes. The leak was back, the pedal was long and the stopping power extremely limited. A shame, but we managed to complete the stage, which was a massive moment. After the breakdown on SS1, I really thought it was game over. With smiles on our faces, we went out again for stage six. The clutch was fine again and the brakes were still rubbish, but we were a good chunk faster all the same. Two stages completed, then a bit of a break while they did the final change around. Mat bled the brakes a bit, but the pedal was still pretty bad. There wasn't really any more we could do, as the problem seemed to be that the banjo wouldn't seal against the caliper. Anyway, we went out for SS7 and started to push a bit more (as much as the brakes would allow), but it seems that we were only going to be allowed so much luck. The oil pressure light started to come on around some of the right hand corners and, by the end of the stage, the top end was a little tappety. With that, we decided that, rather than destroying the engine, it was better to skip the last stage and call it a day. It had been a challenge from start to finish, but I am still fairly pleased overall. The car handled well, the gearbox is really nice and it was good fun while we were running. To have got to the start line of rally is something I am pretty proud of and, despite the issues, to have completed almost half of the total mileage in a car nailed together on my driveway with virtually no outside help is not bad at all. In terms of times, we weren't really anywhere. I have had a quick look through the time sheets and there are things to be encouraged about at least. There was a Clio R3 Access there and, while we were over 1:30 off him on our first complete stage, we were 1:08 off him on SS6 and 59sec off on SS7, so the times were going in the right direction, especially when you keep in mind that we had zero experience, less than zero brakes and about 50bhp less. I think there is potential in the old bucket, if I can sort the brakes and get some more time behind the wheel. Some pictures of the car when it was actually on the stages: IMG-20190216-WA0013 by Jon Scoltock, on Flickr IMG_0404 by Jon Scoltock, on Flickr IMG_0450 by Jon Scoltock, on Flickr The 2019 Snetterton Stages 16 by Jon Scoltock, on Flickr The 2019 Snetterton Stages 15a by Jon Scoltock, on Flickr The 2019 Snetterton Stages 12a by Jon Scoltock, on Flickr The 2019 Snetterton Stages 6a by Jon Scoltock, on Flickr The 2019 Snetterton Stages 1 by Jon Scoltock, on Flickr So that's that, first ever rally completed (sort of). To be honest, the last couple of weeks have been quite draining, so I'm going to have a couple of weeks away from the car to just relax and enjoy the fact I have reached such a milestone and achieved a dream I've had for many years. However, when I do get back to it, I'll get the front calipers off, get the mating faces for the banjos cleaned up and hopefully that will sort the braking issue. Then I need to have a look at the engine and make sure it's ok. A decision will have to be made in that regard though, as the oil starvation problem will need to be addressed. I'm not sure a baffled sump will be possible but, if it's not, I might have to look down other avenues. A forged, throttle bodied Duratec would be nice, but isn't really realistic. We'll see. Until next time...
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Congratulations on the results. I suppose it's inevitable that your were going to get teething problems on the cars first event. Let's face it, you didn't bin it, and with poor brakes that's hell of an achievement.
The top end of my engine always rattles after every stage/test. I think it's common on these engines. I've asked on the fb page and some said use thin oil and others said use thick? I just let mine rattle. I have a rear bowl sump on mine off a twincam Sierra. I have baffled it and so far have had no surge issues but the events I do have lower speed, sharp manoeuvres like handbrake turns, chicanes etc. They don't have long sweeping corners where surge can be an issue so I don't know if it's totally bomb proof. I'd like to do a track day this year so may find out then.
One reliability issue that's comm on with these engines is the throttle body quadrant clip falls off giving no throttle. I have drilled the throttle shaft and put a split pin in mine after it happened to me.
Once again, a great achievement
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Feb 21, 2019 10:27:19 GMT
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... or you could go dry sump ...
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Feb 21, 2019 11:48:24 GMT
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Congratulations on the results. I suppose it's inevitable that your were going to get teething problems on the cars first event. Let's face it, you didn't bin it, and with poor brakes that's hell of an achievement. The top end of my engine always rattles after every stage/test. I think it's common on these engines. I've asked on the fb page and some said use thin oil and others said use thick? I just let mine rattle. I have a rear bowl sump on mine off a twincam Sierra. I have baffled it and so far have had no surge issues but the events I do have lower speed, sharp manoeuvres like handbrake turns, chicanes etc. They don't have long sweeping corners where surge can be an issue so I don't know if it's totally bomb proof. I'd like to do a track day this year so may find out then. One reliability issue that's comm on with these engines is the throttle body quadrant clip falls off giving no throttle. I have drilled the throttle shaft and put a split pin in mine after it happened to me. Once again, a great achievement Thanks. Yeah, teething troubles are unavoidable. A shame on the clutch, as it had been fine with 80-odd miles of road use. That's interesting to know. I run 10w40 in mine rather than 5w30 but I have been advised to run it slightly over the maximum level too. I'll whip the cam cover off and look at the bores, see if there are any signs of damage, then go from there. Would be nice to fit a Duratec really, but it's more money. Thanks for the kind words though, really pleased to have finally used it!
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Feb 21, 2019 11:53:44 GMT
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jonomisfit
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 1,754
Club RR Member Number: 49
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I see you made it onto to msn rally footage for the last round. I think it was the hairpin by the pits.
Keep it going. Good to see.
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I did! Have given Paul O'Neil some stick for his "sedate" comment lol.
Have removed the front calipers and the mating face for the copper washers is in pretty bad shape, so in need of a skim. Hopefully that will sort the brake issue.
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