Looking at the lower stud placement I'm tempted to believe the overlap needs to happen if the manifold is to have any hope of bolting up and working just grind the inside edge to match the zetec head at an angle which will help the gasses out OR enlarge the ports out on both the adaptor and the manifold if there is enough meat to use
No photos/video yet but the latest is that I've checked the engine isn't seized (turns over easily with a spanner on the crank nut). Unfortunately I'd forgotten to label the starter motor connections when I removed the old CVH engine so wasn't sure which wire went to/from the ignition. I decided to bypass the ignition entirely & tried the starter out with a wire direct from the battery - result was one engine turning over with no nasty noises from the starter/flywheel area so all is good there
My friend Muhammad (he's a wiring whizz) came round last night & found the correct ignition wire for the starter, so we sorted that out & the car now turns over on the key ;D He also tackled the fuel pump wiring. I'm intending to mount all the fuel pump wiring/relay/fusebox etc in the boot box to keep everything neat & tidy & protected from road dirt, water etc - the actual fuel pump is mounted on the drivers side rear chassis rail. It took us a bit of time to find a switched live (one that's live when the ignition's on) inside the car & the one we found is, I think, for the radio (not sure though) - the circuit works fine & the fuel pump now chatters away when the ignition is switched on. I need to to tidy it all up though which means connecting the fuel pipe & getting the boot box back in & removing various bits of interior trim so that I can run the switched live cable neatly - yet more dismantling!
Before all that though I'll refit the front shock absorbers/crossmember, which I had to remove so that I could get a spanner on the crank nut, & get the car back onto all 4 wheels! Then it'll be Megajolt time ;D
Not sure when I'll get chance to work on the car again as I'm going to be busy & drunk (my mates stag do on Saturday) this weekend but I'll post a proper update (with pics & maybe a video) as soon as poss
Last Edit: May 3, 2012 12:24:41 GMT by pauluspaolo
Another 3 hours spent slaving over the car last night resulted in a huge detonation of noise & smoke - after 4 or 5 years of making recalcitrant parts fit where they are not supposed to the bloody thing burst into life & actually ran for about 10 seconds As in sparks, fuel, valves, pistons, conrods, camshafts & a crank all meshed together in perfect harmony & I actually had a working int(f)ernal combustion engine ...... until I realised that what I didn't have was an exhaust system of any sort, children next door & that it was 9.30pm (neighbours not best pleased methinks) ...... to say it was loud is an understatement ..... to say that I'm a very happy bunny today is an understatement
Next step is to tidy the wiring & wire in the Megajolt ecu - at the moment the car runs on the Ford EDIS system which gives a fixed ignition curve of 10 degrees BTDC. I don't pretend to understand how it works but it's used by banger racers as a cheap way of getting their cars running well enough to race. When it's used with a Megajolt it gives you a limp home facility should the main ecu fail. It's good practice to make sure the EDIS system works on its own (it does ) before going ahead with wiring up the Megajolt ecu.
HUGE thanks to Muhammad who did all the wiring
All I want to do now is work on the bloody thing but I'm not going to have time to do anything else to it until Sunday at the earliest!
I take my hat off to you and eat it...because i want to. Been a good project and the feeling when she roared (rather loudly) into life must have been brilliant. Mines a long way off but cant wait. Make sure you post how you wire up the megajolt as thats the route I'm going. Keep up the good work.
No Video unfortunately but will try & borrow a flipcam from work next time I start it up
The EDIS didn't seem that difficult to do - though Muhammad's a whizz with the soldering iron & made it look easy - even with the instructions I was unsure where to start! Make sure you've got the right connectors for the cank sensor/coil pack, I had an old Mondeo wiring loom & stripped that down for the right ones. New connectors were included in the kit but I think you need a special crimping tool to fit these correctly. You'll also need some decent shielded cable - some is included in the kit but I found some better stuff at work & used that instead.
Anyway I'll try & take some photos of what goes where when I next get into the garage - not till Sunday at the earliest unfortunately
Last Edit: May 25, 2012 10:12:02 GMT by pauluspaolo
Well here's a short video as promised - the voiceover at the beginning belongs to my Westfield owning friend Matt - he's an amateur thespian in case you hadn't guessed
The car took a lot of getting going last night with some fairly spectacliar fireworks/mushroom clouds from the carb! It eventually fired up (sort of) but won't idle at all & I'm not convinced it's firing on all 4 cylinders - it's quite hard to tell without an exhaust (the lack of which will also affect how the car runs). Having read a bit about DGV/DGAV carbs I'm going to check the basic settings when I get home tonight - though the carb was new so I sort of assumed that it had been set to the basics already
Muhammad's seen this video & thinks he may have got a couple of wires crossed in the EDIS loom (it's a wasted spark system so 2 plugs get a spark even though only one of said sparks is used to ignite a mixture air/petrol) so that may be causing the rough running. We'll have a look at all that tonight as well. Not sure if the Megajolt will get wired up tonight or not ......will have to see how we go .... there's possibly more important stuff to check/do first.
On a more positive note the clutch seems to work as I reversed the car .... despite there being no drivers seat or brakes & with the engine running as rough as a bear's bum
Last Edit: May 30, 2012 14:02:36 GMT by pauluspaolo
Yeah, It definitely doesn't sound like its running on all 4 legs, probably just the two if anything which would make sense if it's a coil down on the wasted spark.
The pop out of the carb also suggests wonky ignition timing!
After all the spitting back through the carb & rough running (see previous video) I decided to check the timing. I'd fitted a new timing belt ages ago but upon checking it was found to be a bit loose. So off with the cam cover, cams locked, timing belt removed, crank turned over until TDC on no1 piston was reached, timing belt refitted & tensioned. Result a much tighter belt & better - though still not perfect - running. My friend & I also checked the tightness of the carb onto the inlet manifold which meant grinding a couple of spanners down as access was very tight! We also fitted the exhaust so that we weren't deafening ourselves or the neighbours!
It's much better but still popping back a bit & the amount of blue smoke coming out of the engine was incredible - I've never seen a car smoke as badly (think of a dragster burnout & you'd be somewhere close) We're not convinced that it's running on all 4 cylinders (there is a decent spark for each one) so it may that the timing's still not set properly.
We altered the mixture settings as all the plugs were very black & sooty (too rich??) & checked the plugs after running the engine again - plugs 1 & 3 weren't too bad, while plugs 2 & 4 were still pretty bad with lots of carbon build up. The smoke situation improved too, though it's still not great, & I'm going to check the compression tonight - I probably should have done this before now but I'd forgotten that I even had a compression tester as my friend's had it that long! I'll also check the tightness of the manifold nuts as it may be something as simple as a vacuum leak (here's hoping).
Opinions & advice more than welcome
Last Edit: Jun 27, 2012 9:56:26 GMT by pauluspaolo
Progress continues (slowly) & I've been having quite an eventful time with the car recently! Over the last 2/3 months the project’s taken a good few steps forward, many steps backwards & finally it’s starting to go forwards again!!
I ended up changing the 110,000 2 litre Zetec for a low mileage 1800 Zetec. The “old” 2 litre engine ran ok but belched out clouds, & I mean CLOUDS, of blue smoke. Due to this the project sort of stalled while I decided what to do about the presumably knackered engine. I was seriously considering going down the engine rebuild route but my friend Matt (who owns a Westfield) found a newly rebuilt 1800 Zetec being offered on the Westfield Owners forum for a very good price, less than I’d have to spend rebuilding the 2 litre. Even better was that it was close to where I live & the seller would deliver it free of charge. So the deal was agreed, but delivery was delayed while I went on holiday for 2 weeks. Once the engine had been delivered there were a couple of problems to overcome: the 1800 Zetec oil pump wouldn’t allow the engine bracket to fit, so I had to buy/fit a 2 litre oil pump, & one of the screw in oil gallery plugs was found to be missing – fortunately this was found before I tried starting the engine & the old engine provided a suitable replacement.
I then had to wait for the engine hoist to become available - I borrow it for beer money from a chap at work so can't complain if he's using it when I need it. Once I'd got my hands on the hoist the old engine came out easily enough & the clutch/flywheel were swapped over onto the new engine. It then took 2 attempts to get the new engine in – no idea why but it wasn't having any of it despite my friend & I trying to get it in for 45 mins - we gave up eventually. On the second attempt the engine went in first try ... what the f*** gives? Once in everything was bolted back to it: coil pack, carb/inlet manifold, exhaust manifold/exhaust system, alternator, all coolant hoses etc, etc, etc. Once that was all done it was time to try & start it; it took a bit of cranking but soon fired into life ........... & sounded awful due to a couple of sticky tappets & there were, once again, clouds of blue smoke, just as bad as the 2 litre Maybe I'd bought a diesel engine by mistake?!
I was gutted to be honest but really didn’t want to pull the engine out again! After pondering what to do for a while I decided to ring Northampton Motorsport. The reason being that I’d read an article in Retro Cars about a Ford Anglia van, into which the owner had fitted an 1800 Zetec with a single 32/36 carb, running Megajolt ignition. He’d got the car running quite well on a standard Ford x-flow map (120(ish)bhp) but once he'd had the car rolling-roaded at Northampton Motorsport it was giving 140(ish)bhp. The chap I spoke to at NM remembered the car quite well because they were surprised that the car produced such a decent amount of power from a fairly primitive set up – a single carb with megajolt ignition isn’t the most sophisticated system around apparently. He asked what the problem with my engine was & said the excessive smoke could only be one of 2 things: a worn engine &/or poor crankcase ventilation. He explained that the crankcase breather, as fitted to a Mondeo/Escort etc is normally connected to the inlet manifold where crankcase fumes/residue is burnt during ignition – so improving the engine emissions. The inlet manifold creates a vacuum which opens a valve in the crankcase breather system. As my breather isn’t connected to the inlet manifold this valve isn’t opening so the crankcase pressurises & forces oil past the rings & into the combustion chamber … so causing excessive amounts of blue smoke. This valve needed the innards taking out of it so that it was effectively open all the time. He also said that I should fit a proper catch tank instead of the small filters I’ve been using.
I must admit to being a bit dubious about this but nothing ventured nothing gained so I took the crankcase breather apart, found the valve, gutted it (basically turning it into a tube), refitted everything, started the engine & was amazed by the result. The smoke hasn't gone completely but it’s massively reduced & the car runs much more smoothly - even the lazy tappets have freed themselves ;D Hopefully the rest of the smoke should disappear as the engine beds in – it hadn’t been run for at least a year before I bought it. This does make me wonder if the smoke situation with the 2 litre engine would have improved as dramatically had I done the breather valve mod instead of buying a replacement engine. The 2 litre certainly didn't smoke badly in the donor Mondeo ..... but then the crankcase breather would've been working as Ford intended it to so it maybe wouldn't have smoked badly anyway ..... who knows?!?
Since all the above I’ve removed the rear wheel arch liners & tightened up the rear trailing arm bolts. I removed the liners because I needed the weight of the car on its wheels & couldn't reach the bolts with the wheels fitted & the arch liners in position. I've also refitted the front crossmember (in readiness for a pair of new shocks) - this was a complete was a pig of a job & I needed to use a couple of jacks to spread the chassis - the crossmember hasn't been fitted for months so the chassis must have settled in slightly due to the weight of the engine (bit worrying really)! I've also tightened up the rear shock bolts - I've been meaning to tighten them up for ages but never got round to it. I've also used proper rubbers (instead of cable ties) to hang the exhaust but haven't fitted any clamps yet.
I'm beginning to think that the car is finally getting there
Jobs left to do - in no particular order - are: Buy enough brake fluid to fill & bleed the braking system. Check the headlights work & flip up as they should. Buy an air filter. Refit centre console & switches/heater cables. Refit driver’s seat. Refit bodywork - boot liner/boot lid/bonnet/nose cone. Put proper coolant in the cooling system. Change the oil & oil filter. Get the car Crypton tuned so that the mixture/emissions are somewhere near to where they should be. Wash it. Try to MOT/tax/insure the thing. Drive it (hopefully), enjoy it (hopefully) & weep when it breaks (which it will)!
More updates when more progress has been made
Last Edit: Nov 23, 2012 11:19:06 GMT by pauluspaolo
good project , very familiar with zetecs myself (into my fords) also these don't like the wrong oil in them , 5/30 is recomended , although some run ok on decent 20/50,.
Is it just me or are those upper wishbones modified Chevette/Kadett items?
Many thanks for the positive feedback it's much appreciated
The whole front suspension/steering is based around the Chevette/Kadett. Reliant modified the upper wishbones to accept inboard shock absorbers. Not sure if it's down to the extra stresse/strains put on them by this mod but they're prone to cracking round the upper balljoint area & other SS1 owners weld in a reinforcing plate around this area. Mine seemed as sound as a pound though so I cleaned them up, fitted new poly bushes & painted them. I also added an extra bit of bracing (can be seen in one of the photos in the thread) as I was intending to use coliovers on the front. Unfortunately I've since found out that fitting these isn't quite as simple as I thought so that idea's been put on the back burner for now. The lower front wishbones are also Chevette/Kadett items. These can break but it's rarer for these to go than the uppers I think. Even so owners reinforce these as well. Mine seemed fine though &, as I'm only intending to use the car on the road, I just cleaned them up & fitted new (poly) bushes.
The steering rack is also Chevette/Kadett based. I think Reliant made some changes internally though as while the Chevette rack does fit the wheels rub on full lock (they don't when the genuine Reliant item is used).
Just about the only non-Chevette/Kadett items in the whole fron end are the wheel bearings - these are specific to the SS1 & cost a ruddy fortune to replace. A mod that's getting more common with SS1 owners is to fit the front uprights from a Chevette, this allows the use of cheap Chevette wheel bearings but also allows bigger (Carlton) brake discs to be used.
I'm on the lookout for some Chevette hubs if anyone has a pair please let me now
Rear suspension is a combination of Ford Sierra diff/driveshafts with Reliant designed trailing arms/brakes/drive flanges. The wheels pcd is 4 x 100 not the usual Ford spacing of 4 x 108.
The car very definitely a bitsa & even though it's a true manufactured car (i.e. it was built in a factory, by workers employed/paid by a company) it still shares many similarities with kit cars!! Build quality is very similar to the home built (not by me!) Midas Bronze I owned years ago (fantastic little car).
Last Edit: Sept 12, 2012 7:36:36 GMT by pauluspaolo
Look's like this has tried your patients but glad to see your getting on top of it. It's good to have a wiring boff as its all french to me too . Lol you'll have to change your title to 'almost 2 litre Zetec'
I finally got round to fitting the new, shorter & firmer front springs that I bought from the Scimitar forum back in 2010 (I think)! I’d been intending to fit them before now but more pressing jobs kept cropping up so it’s something I never got round to doing. For anyone tempted to swap their springs it's a fairly simple procedure & there’s no need for spring compressors: the old spring(s) can be removed once the lower balljoint is separated & the lower wishbone moved out of the way (I found it easier to loosen the lower wishbone bolts to make moving the wishbone easier, as well as undoing the anti-roll bar link & releasing the track rod end from the hub). Fitting the new spring was even simpler (as it’s shorter) but make sure you get the lower end of the spring located in the recess in the wishbone cup, I then raised the lower wishbone back up with a trolley jack until the lower balljoint located in it’s hole in the hub & the nut could be screwed on. As can be seen from the photo the new springs are much shorter than the old ones
To go with the new springs I fitted a couple of AVO (TC693) shock absorbers. No problems fitting these beyond the fact that I found that 10mm bolts wouldn’t fit & I had to find some 3/8” UNF bolts to do the job. The lower mounting bolts are too long (hence all the washers) but I’ve bought some shorter bolts (2 ½” as opposed to 3”) & I’ll fit these tonight.
No photos unfortunately but I’ve also fitted the passenger’s side wing mirror so that I now have matching wing mirrors. They look great (I think) which makes it all the more annoying that I’m going to have to change them. I’d never been entirely happy with the rear view from the drivers side mirror but thought that I could probably get used to it, but now that I’ve fitted the passenger’s side mirror I realise that I can’t see anything out of it at all (from the drivers seat I can only see half the mirror!) This must be down to the design of the mirror I think as I’ve mounted them both in the same place (on their respective doors) & they’re as high up the door as I can get them! The reason for changing them is that the electric originals didn’t work & I couldn’t manually move the mirror into quite the right place – plus I thought the replacements would look nicer – shame really but it’ll give me an excuse to start sifting through the parts catalogues again
Last Edit: Sept 28, 2012 8:12:55 GMT by pauluspaolo
I’d fitted these Porsche style mirrors to both doors but could only see 1/2 of the passengers side mirror (from driver’s seat) so despite them looking good (I think) they were useless really. I knew I had a different pair of mirrors kicking about in the garage somewhere so after a bit of a search I eventually found the black pointy mirrors. To be honest I’ve no idea when/why I bought these – I just pick up stuff on the off chance that I’ll find a use for it eventually – most of this stuff ends up on Ebay!
A couple of views of the Porsche style mirror on the passenger’s door – it’s to low down the door & there isn’t much space (an inch maybe?) to raise it up much further. Also if I raise it up then the holes for the original mirrors become visible (hence the alloy plate(s) behind the mirrors):
The pointy mirror I’ve since fitted – I’ve not fitted the passengers side one yet. This suits the SS1 styling well I think (it’s pointy like the car), is a bit larger so you get a better view of what's going on behind you & it sits a bit higher on the door which also helps with the rear view.