Tristan's "WallyKa", ex challenge car, with added everything

[tristanh]

on the back of this thread, retrorides.proboards.com/thread/156083/ford-ka-fiat-punto?page=5 , here's another of my projects. almost 20 year old, so darn near Retro!

Ok , it started in '07 or '08 , while gonads deep into building myself a house , I got so fecked up of the stress of tradesmen breaking my heart , that I went off and bought a "cheap" rally car to blow off steam. I used to Kart , then AutoCross(similar to AutoGrass) and Night Navigaton trials (Road Rallying in the UK), and ours is a rallying house, so I had it in my blood. After looking at various options , and due to the fact it had to be a sub 1650cc car (you need to finish 4 rallies in a sub 1650cc before you can rally anything bigger in Ireland), I bought an ex Ka Challenge, Ka . The main reasons of picking it over say a Civic, or mk2 Escort were price, ease of repair, and the package that they came with for the money .

So , brief spec, as received, it had a respectable bolt in cage, very good Sparco "wraparound" seats, ProFlex remote reservoir coilovers, several sets of wheels, Ford Motorsport ratios in the gearbox and a Torsen LSD, and a gutsy feeling engine running on Motec ECU . Said stove is the Endura 1300 , all cast iron , single cam , 8v , pushrod (ask your Father!) , with limited mods allowed by Ford for the class they ran in. $ branch, control cam, mild headwork, bigger throttlebody and injectors and the Motec. I eventually got it dyno'd at an earth quaking 95bhp/100lb ft torque . heady stuff indeed......  . 















On closer examination in our workshop, The car was in a bit of a state tbh, the wiring was a mess , tired bushes , brakes and gear linkages , hell even the speakers were still in the doors! But I patched what I could.... and entered my first rally a week or so later , with one of my best friends, Keith . It was in the woods near CarrickAnSuir in South Tipperary, with the rally starting in the very early hours....in Darkness! We robbed/borrowed the 2 Cibie Oscars off Keith's mk2 Escort, and dived into it, headlong and headfirst . first time rallying- and in the dark, first proper spin in the car , first time using pace-notes , and on  fecked up and perished old knobbly tires ..... to say it was a culture shock is a total understatement .

But oh Lordy.... the exhilaration, the sheer joy, and the feeling when I drifted through the final time control.... Well it honestly brought a lump to my throat. The car ran almost faultlessly all day aside from a scare with a weepy brake line , and whilst slow , we didn't make many mistakes , and collared 4th in class. 

[tristanh]

I did a couple of seasons with the 1300, and tidied it up best I could, ended up with a new clutch, new mounts, bushings etc, stripped out loads of redundant wiring, improved the brakes and rebuilt the dampers. I was getting the hang of it, got a class win on Tarmac, and in a forestry rally in the Midlands, we were on fire, I was absolutely pegging it around and was leading the class (against cars with up to 190bhp and dog boxes!), when on a very fast downhill section, into a left and uphill....I picked another gear...

and...

nothing.

A box of neutrals . I was gutted.

It was only a little linkage in the inside of the box , but not a thing I could do stranded on the roadside.
That spurred on the engine change idea...

sumpguard gets a hammering in the woods.. exhaust sometimes too.




typical forestry rally tire



Oh, remember my Project Transvestite thread?


Original 1300 powerhouse


some of the redundant wiring


one of several fupped engine mounts..

[pistonpopper]

Hooraaah! Bookmarked! I'm sure as this progresses I will have questions!

[tristanh]

on the 8v, heres the bigger, homologated Throtte body compared to a stock one.



Bear in mind, when I fitted the 16v, it was like fitting a VW Tfsi engine to a mk1/2 Golf 5 years ago. Everyone reckoned it could be done, and there were a couple of threads online of one's done, but no real details and some of the work was rough enough, like the whole front panel chopped out, solid brackets for engine mounts, cut and shut driveshafts etc. None of which appealed to me, especially in the rough and tumble of competition.

But nothing ventured, nothing gained, so when a rally mate bought a Puma 1.4 to repair his Super1600 Puma rallycar shell, I took it for a good spin to see how it drove, then did a deal for the engine and box. I really wanted to use my own gearset and diff however.

So I hauled out the 1300 8v. The 1400 16v has a different bell housing, but the Puma and Ka use the same gearbox (IB5 is the Ford code), just with different Bell Housings, so I fitted the Puma BH to the Ka gearbox. That sorted 2 of the 3 engine mounts. Speaking of which , I beefed up the rear one and the LH one.




The RHS one, not in any way shape nor form similar. I didn't want to chop too much in case I wanted to return the car to 1300 guise... So I propped the engine in what measured to be the right place,



and made a bolt in Mount that would work. quite a snug fit, but it fit nonetheless!
Just some sheet steel that was lying around and a "bobbin" type rubber mount that is typically used as a buffer for tractor cabs!
I'll have to dig up some pics of it once I remember where I saved them.
it's hiding behind the funnel here!


I decided clearance around the PAS pump and alternator was too tight, so swapped them top to bottom when I took the engine out to finish the mounts etc. Nothing fancy, just a bit of steel lying around. Lot of careful measuring though to make sure the pulleys were exactly in line! I did a rally without PAS first, but with the faster PAS rack fitted ,but it was hard work, so I simply had to get the Pas pump installed. It's the original Ka one.
Puma Engine, Puma BH on KA gearbox.
I scored a slightly damaged Puma 1.7 sump on eBay, which is baffled as standard.





Anyhoo, engine in, and fitting well, there was other faffing around with moving the rad and squeezing it in, and a fan, mix and match of coolant pipes, joining the Ka and Puma engine looms etc. The exhaust was a Fiesta 4 branch I had to modify, to clear the rhs driveshaft, runs close, but worked OK. Didn't damage the CV boot when rallying!

[tristanh]

Up to now, aside from buying the engine, I'd spent sweet eff all, the wallet took a pounding for a bit then. The exhaust above was the first hit...
Then a pair of Piper rally spec cams.

Then uprated con rod bolts.. Oe on the left.


I ported the head a bit, little to nothing in the actual ports, mostly just reshaped/tidied the throats and seat area, deshrouded the valve seat area and back cut the valves. Standard valves, but uprated springs with the rally cams.
As an aside, if doing it now I'd find money for Hi-comp forged pistons, and use a head with bigger valves.

stock head, just as I was starting




Modded, better! And shiny! haha





Not a bad head design, Yamaha designed it for FOrd. Exhaust is a bit compromised on No1 and 4, but otherwise ok. And plentiful, and cheap!



Naturally , I couldn't reuse the Ka inlet mani... So a lot of head scratching and scrounging of bits of hardware hose, roll cage offcuts and steel plate... And a set of GSXR 600 throttle bodies, ended up with this..




Not the nicest thing I ever made, but space under the bonnet and an empty pocket over-ruled thoughts of an off the shelf solution. at least my standalone Motec ECU could work pretty much anything.
I didn't want the bike injectors, so I whipped them out. But I reused the holes they were in for inlet vacuum, to work my fuel press regulator and brake servo. Really fancy, expensive fittings.... Or possibly bits of campervan water hose, I'll let you decide! lol.

Fuelling was simple, the Zetec SE injectors are mounted directly into the head, not on the mani. I used 1.7 Puma ones, in the optimistic hope I'd need the extra fuel to go with my headwork.

Again, more faffing about with wiring, fuel pipes etc. And I made a new exhaust, out of 2 inch pipe. the old one was a wee bit small bore I felt, and was tired anyway at this stage. Had to make subtle tweaks to the floor...







But eventually... One fateful night...


No trumpets, and not mapped, and running mad rich. It would idle, but as most people here probably know, with new cams you always keep changing the revs to bed them in.

[tristanh]

Up to TrackDayPerformance woefully early one morning, and got it kinda mapped, there was a problem with the ECU, I'd inadvertently blown something in it by wrongly wiring up the throttle pot. But it ran clean enough to use... just as well, as I was entered in a rally in a few days! Another bloomin' night rally, at that!



That was my bestie JAckie "testing" it, obviously on a closed road, Officer.......


It's all a bit snug in there, but it all fits. PAS, Full size battery, screenwash tank, servo and brake linkages etc.
Individual filter socks aren't in any way ideal, but at that stage I was skint. and the lack of space wasn't helping.



so as mentioned in the paragraph above, I had another rally looming, rapidly. Bear n mind I work 6 days a week, 9am-7.30ish pm usually
A big bucket of MidNight oil , and fingers crossed, once again borrowed Keith's Cibie Oscars, and up on the trailer. The rally was in Carrick an Suir the same as my first ever one, and some stern opposition in the class. Another (professionally built in UK) 16v Ka, with 19o ish bhp , and a 1400cc Suzuki powered Escort Mk2, running around 200, with a serious pilot behind the wheel, chief amongst them . But tbh , I was just hoping for a clean run with nothing falling off my home-brewed special.



Anyways, through scrutiny and out into the woods. This rally started in daylight, and ran into the night, the opposite to the first one I did. Rallying at night is equal parts insane, amazing, terrifying, exhilarating and fantastic. Everyone should do it at least once!

Luckily , I had help from my friends in ETM rallying, ie Eoghan, Tom and Michael, plus my best friend Jackie.
random shot of car in service... cos I like it.


We were going ok, not setting records, but there or therabouts. I was rusty, and the lack of PAS wasn't helping (didn't refit it til after this rally), it was a lot heavier than I expected. Then, after what seemed like a "normal" pothole , or stone or similar, there came a sudden, loud, death clatter.....

DUGGA DUGGA DUGGA DUGGA, like a conrod making a break for freedom.

......My heart fell out through my boots! A quick look around, water temp fine, no warning lights.... I lifted off and coasted... noise stayed the same. Hmmmmm..... dipped the clutch, revved it.... noise again, stayed the same! At that stage I was happy it wasn't the engine, so I reckoned it had to be in the gearbox. I swerved around a bit, tried the brakes, all seemed ok, or as ok as anything can feel on a surface made of big stones!


so I said "fc0k it , she"ll go , or she"ll blow!" , so carried on til the end of the stage , albeit at way less than 100%. The noise seemed to ease too , which cheered us up somewhat.
While waiting to start the next stage , I noticed I'd a soft wheel on the front, and one going down on the back too! Fired on the spare . Only one spare naturally with me, so had to put it on the front.
Back in service.... holy Guacamole! the lads fired off the wheels....
rear wheel...




Pretty shocking as these are quite tough and the rally tire is a high profile, hard carcass tire.

But even more shocking was the front! same side.




see that groove wore into the front one? That's where it was rubbing the Track rod end......
That was my dug a dug a dug noise!

And the strangest , worrying thing , neither of us could recall hitting anything in particular!

Anyways, swapped tyres onto undamaged rims, luckily the tires were ok, forestry ones being immensely strong in the sidewall. We'd lost a share of time over the aforementioned issue... and were happy just to keep going to get to the finish. However.. one of the opposition faded away in the night stages... then Emmett in the mental mk2 Escort got a puncture too..... all of sudden things got interesting...

at the final reckoning , high on adrenaline and delighted to have it home just in one piece there was a pleasant reward for the debut with the cobbled together 16v Ka.

[lightyearman]

cracking build mate. I'm surprised there aren't more ka builds, they are still ten a penny!

[rustydan]

Good read so far, bookmarked, I want a ka again now, and I want to go rallying too!

[tristanh]

Thanks guys, I wasn't sure if my particular style of waffling would appeal to anyone. I'd be tempted to build one as a road car with a stockish 1600 zetec se, just as a sleeper. The rhs engine mount is the only stumbling block, and even that isn't a big deal as you'll see when I find pics. Even the radiator is the stock Puma/Fiesta one.

[Coakers]

Brilliant and informative. You've made me want to try out rallying now.

[georgeb]

Jan 31, 2017 0:06:23 GMT tristanh said:

Thanks guys, I wasn't sure if my particular style of waffling would appeal to anyone.

Please waffle away. I'm lovin' it!

[penski]

Jan 31, 2017 1:33:37 GMT georgeb said:

Jan 31, 2017 0:06:23 GMT tristanh said:

Thanks guys, I wasn't sure if my particular style of waffling would appeal to anyone.

Please waffle away. I'm lovin' it!

What George said.

I want one of these with good suspension and tyres as a b road weapon

*n

[tristanh]

You'd shock a lot of people with just a set of -30 Eibach springs, the Mondeo /Escort front brakes, Puma m/c, Focus drums, and some slightly wider sticky tires.
If it wasn't for my rally one still not finished, and my mk1 and 2 Golfs, E30 and E39, I'd be making another 16v one for trackdays and road rallying.

[craig1010cc]

This isn't helping me not want to actually build a Ka for B road blasting. I did nearly buy (well swap for my old Passat TDI) a Ka with the 1.7 puma lump in it, but it wasn't the best looking conversion, and had a horrendous bodykit.

I'm surprised to hear how easy the hybrid gearbox is to make, it always sounded like a bit of a bodgy weak point so people went with cut and shut drive shafts instead. But looking at yours, it seems a simple and sensible route to go.

[penski]

Swap bellhousing, fit engine, win?

Stock ratios and 13x7s with lower profile sticky tyres to get the final drive down?

*n

[tristanh]

Yup, simple as that.
Even fitting the b/h is a doddle, the diff isn't shimmed "solid" like most boxes, instead it has a Belleville type washer as I recall to preload it. The IB5 box is in LOADS of Fiestas, Escorts, Kas of all ages so getting one I'd easy. I think even the Fiesta RST had an IB5, and that has an LSD.

[tristanh]

Jan 31, 2017 12:21:41 GMT craig1010cc said:

This isn't helping me not want to actually build a Ka for B road blasting. I did nearly buy (well swap for my old Passat TDI) a Ka with the 1.7 puma lump in it, but it wasn't the best looking conversion, and had a horrendous bodykit.

I'm surprised to hear how easy the hybrid gearbox is to make, it always sounded like a bit of a bodgy weak point so people went with cut and shut drive shafts instead. But looking at yours, it seems a simple and sensible route to go.

I've no idea why they'd mess with custom shafts tbh. Unless it's the iron block Zetec engine cars, or if they tried to use the Puma/Fiesta intermediate shaft for the lhs.

[tristanh]

[tristanh]

Engine mount that I made. You could possibly build a standard Fiesta/Puma chassis mount on, but its longer, and would probably end up fouling the inner wing.

It looks crude, because, well it is... but it's simple, cost me nothing only time and it works. I built it deliberately a little lower than I measured, so I could shim it up to the exact height.

[mk2cossie]

All looks very good in there, although possibly a tad of a squeeze

What horsepower is it making with the 1400cc Sigma lump on the throttle bodies though? Sounds bloody epic for one of them