fiestaturbo.com

[black2]

A decent update for once yesterday the car has its MOT and it went straight through, no advisorys at all, which for a 25 year old Fiesta is extreamly good!

I did'nt really look round it this year either what with the bump etc, I just thought stick in for one and see what needs doing.....nothing!

Just need to see this week out then get some road tax and start enjoying it again. Felt so good to drive it to and from the MOT yesterday it feels so quick and raw which is just what i enjoy the most, imo the mk3 fiesta does not give me the same raw feeling as this, probably becuase the mk3 is better built and more refined

Gareth.

[knuckles]

any news of the parcel ?
or is it due tomorrow ?

[black2]

any news of the parcel ?
or is it due tomorrow ?

Just checked the tracker and it will be here today, its loaded on the van for delivery.

Gareth

[black2]

Been a long time since i have updated this, mainly becuase there have been no developments, lol

But the car sucsesfully compleated the trip and the track time at castle combe last week end.

Was a quality day & 413 trouble free(ish) miles. However it has highlighted some issues I need to sort out with the car, these are mainly :

Suspension
Fuel tank

My current suspension is just standard xr2 shocks with lowered springs, this is far from ideal for the track it felt a little soft. Ive known for a long time my fuel tank is s**t, it does have a swirl pot inside but its so small i get fuel surge especially around left hand bends.

The main thing which will be changing soon is the engine again. The current 2.0 runs fine but i suspect very very early signs of headgasket failure, for a couple of reasons, 1 I can always here the coolant gurggaling away when i turn the car off after a drive, and just when I turn the engine off I also hear shhhhhhhhh noise which is pressure coming from the header tank. Basically i think its ever so slightly pressuring itself most likly down to a weak HG, it also uses a bit of water. This became apparant on the track, as after 15 or so minutes of the 20 minute sessions the engine was getting hot and as such was smoking, a little. If i had one cooling down lap then go again it was fine ie the smoke was gone.


Any way the result of all this is its cheaper for me to source a new engine rather than repair this one, so it will be removed. I am now on the look out for a Black top 2.0l zetec, mainly because they are more readily avaliable, and they were fitted to three models rather than just one that the silver top was found in. So the updates will start again soon.



Only thing I have had to do since getting home from combe is, today I have repaired a fuel leak. I noticed on the way home from the track it was smelling strongly of petrol, and it turned out a small section of rubber pipe down by the fuel pump had cracked letting the fuel out.

More updates soon.

Gareth.

[black2]

Not much of an update but the car just went straight through the MOT.

And some pics i took the other day, nothing special its not clean, just trying out my new phone.







Gareth.

[jonyb4]

thats an awkward bump!


love the look of this

[jayrs]

not much more i can say mate, you know my thoughts on the mk2 but it makes me think i really gotta get my mk2 sorted

[black2]

I know, I was well chuffed with that. He said how solid it is underneath.

got some plans for the car over the next 12 months.

Gareth.

[Rs Adz]

brilant project

[black2]

Small update to the car.

First of all its not been on the road since March as the tax ran out. Its still Mot’d, but I decided to take it off and leave in the garage for a while, mainly because at the time I was very tight on money. But also because I knew it needs some work doing to it, mainly the rear arch.

You will see form the pics how bad the arch had got. I knew the drivers side rear arch was rusty when i bought the car, but 5 years with no attention only made it worse!
When i removed the rear spat I was basically greeted with a load of holes! A historic repair to the rear inner cill had also meant the exterior plate, which was welded (its the outside part of the car which has to be cut open in order to weld the rear inner cill) had completely rotted away as well. Basically because the inner wheel arch had rusted so bad water was going straight through to the rear of the cill area causing the outside plate mentioned above to rot out, as can be seen in the pics.

The passenger side rear wheel arch also required a little attention towards the lower part, but thankfully this arch was no where near as bad as the drivers side. At the same time the rear arches were done i also had a plate welded on the inner wing up by the header tank. 5 years ago when i bought the car i bought it for 2 reasons, one being that the inner rear cills had been repaired and secondly because the inner wings were immaculate and had never been welded, and for anyone who knows anything about mk2 fiestas, that was quite rare! Sadly now its had to have a plate on the drivers side inner wing now, but it had to be done or else it would of only failed an MOT.
The only other thing ive done since its been off the road is fit an adjustable rear panhard rod and i have bought some new suspension springs to higher the car, as it was just doing my head in before, it was so low, it scrapped on everything and was so hard to ride in! Ive fitted the rears but not the fronts yet. Iam going to get some new front shocks to go with the new front springs.

TBH the car is a mess at the mo, its covered in dust from the body shop and generally needs a good clean! Ive also bought a centre console from an xr2 to fit as well.
I had toyed with the idea of zt’ing it again towards the end of last year and started buying more parts for this, and stripped down one of my old 2.0 zetec engine ready to go for some machining work.....but i don’t think im going to bother again now. My plan is to re-fit the kit, fit the new suspension etc and probably sell it, along with the ST because I want a focus RS.

Time will tell though.










This was the extent of the pass rear arch rust (above)




Dropped off at the body shop


Driver arch during. All rot on outer and inner arch was cut out and removed, new inner and outer arch fitted.




and home back in the garage, which is how it stands now. Nice solid rear arches and fresh paint Ignore the vertical line in the paint,
its me doing some machine polishing, doing a 50/50 comparison.



Gareth.

[jayrs]

common rot places mate, ive seen far worse in my time though, so from the pics, i wouldnt of said it was too bad considering its a mk2

[jonyb4]

i love this car, shame its going to make way for the RS, but it aint a bad thing either!

[black2]

Update

Got the rest of the kit stripped off now because i am going to have the kit re-furbed....

Removing the front skirt has revealed some rot on the front panel, this will be cut out and a fresh panel fitted in its place. I have the panel, so its just a case of dropping the car back upto the body shop to have this work carried out.
Also fitted the xr2 centre console, bit of a fiddly job especially seeing as my mk2 is a very early one and the brackets for the console were from a later mk2. I measured up my brothers mk2 so see where the 4 holes needed to be drilled for the brackets but when i came to install the console in mine, it appears Ford changed the floor pan of the car....when i applied the measurements taken from my brothers mk2 (a later one) to my car, it would have lined up totally different! So i had to improvise and work out where to fit the brackets etc. Took a while but its all done nice and neatly now.

Other than this all i have done is give the interior a good clean up.

Ive got a mondeo brake servo coming tomorrow, so i need to order a non abs master cylinder for this, then get it all fitted up. I will also be taking the car for its mot later this week...they cant fail the front panel as it stands can they?








Gareth.

[knuckles]

nah that front panel is not a mot failure. that rust is not a structural issue

[jayrs]

good to see a update mate./
as clark said, that aint a MOT fail at all.

as for the centre consol, i dont think ford changed the floor pan between early and late ones

[black2]

Cheers chaps.

Jay my floor was defo different on mine compared to my brothers. His is 88 and it was an auto, not sure if that makes. A difference.

Gareth.

[jonyb4]

when i fitted the centre console to my popular, it doesnt fit right, ive not corrected it yet either, sits too far back (toward the hand brake)


i love this car so much, its stunning, even without the bumper lol

[jayrs]

hmm, strange one, ive not done much work on std models before, well not much on the underside, always mainly been xr2's, so maybe there was a different?
I reckon the auto prob had something different, but ive never worked on a mk2 auto before so cant say

[black2]

Update



The shed had its MOT today and passed. Its done just over 600miles since the last mot

It looks so terrible at the moment, no kit, grotty front panel, grotty front arch, faded paint etc.

Its also horrendous to drive at the moment, brake pedal has travel due to the s**t servo and big calliper combo. This will be rectified soon as I now have my mondeo servo to fit and i also won a non abs mc and reservoir for £4.95 yesterday. The gear linkage is like stirring soup, so this will either be re-furbed or ideally upgraded to a puma linkage, but i have read differing things regarding the ease of fitment for this. Also the suspension is ni on unbearable its so hard! I dont know how i used to drive this car as a daily driver!

I noticed last evening as well that the dip beam head lights are boarder line dangerous, when a car is coming the other way I cant see a thing!!! So my bulbs will be upgraded as well, hav'nt got a clue which ones i need!

I have a few advisories for the MOT as well, both rear wheel bearings have very slight play, and 2 brake pipes are showing signs of corrosion, so these will either be replaced or painted etc.

The underside of the car is also due to be wax oyled again.

Plans over winter are ;

Check rear brake linings and replace if needed
2 new rear wheel bearings
May as well renew the wheel cylinders at same time
fit mondeo servo and mc
New head light bulbs
Check / renew brake pipes

Get body kit refurbed
Replace lower front valence
Maybe wheels re-furbed

So basically the car is desperate for some TLC. I will not be using the car till spring, so this gives me opportunity to freshen the car up over the winter. I want to get it looking respectable again, and i want it decent to drive because i want to go to castle combe in it a bit next year for some track days.

Gareth.

[black2]

Mondeo servo.

Gareth

[jonyb4]

good news, nice to hear shes due upgrades, bulbs are H4 btw mate

[black2]

Update

Removed the standard 1100 master cylinder and servo tonight.

Offered up the mondeo servo to see where to open up the bolt holes etc. It appears that only the bottom two holes only require attention. As far as i can see they just need slotting slightly and the servo will bolt up.

Clark – When you fitted yours is this what you had to do to your bracket?

I also noticed this evening that when i bolt up the mondeo master cylinder to the mondeo servo, there is compression of the servo spring required for the master cylinder to bolt up. Is this correct?

On the existing 1100 servo, the original master cylinder will slide in with no compression on the servo spring. I fear the reason why this is happening (on the mondeo parts) is because the servo and master cylinder were sourced separately... I have read something similar to the above on xrtwo.com.

I wont know fully until i have got it all together if there is further work required to sort the above, if indeed it is an issue.

Heres a few pics any way



Old vs new



Offered up



Pic of bracket, these are two bottom holes that require attention.

Gareth.

[knuckles]

Offered up the mondeo servo to see where to open up the bolt holes etc. It appears that only the bottom two holes only require attention. As far as i can see they just need slotting slightly and the servo will bolt up.

Clark – When you fitted yours is this what you had to do to your bracket?

I also noticed this evening that when i bolt up the mondeo master cylinder to the mondeo servo, there is compression of the servo spring required for the master cylinder to bolt up. Is this correct?

On the existing 1100 servo, the original master cylinder will slide in with no compression on the servo spring. I fear the reason why this is happening (on the mondeo parts) is because the servo and master cylinder were sourced separately... I have read something similar to the above on xrtwo.com.

i just ellongated two of the bracket holes then it fitted up perfectly. I never took my master cylinder off the servo so dont have a clue about the spring compressing.

the tricky bit was carefully bending the pipes to refit the unions into the master cylinder.
I also had to extend the vac pipe which goes from the servo to manifold. I cut the hard pipe then used a flexy rubber hose to rejoin them back together as the solid pipe was too short

[black2]

I have been fitting my mondeo servo to my base spec mk2 Fiesta.

I have opened out the holes on the bracket as required and the servo slots into the bracket nicely. But when its in position and the 4 nuts done up, the master cylinder resiviour is not level! Its sloping towards the front of the car. Is this right? Anyone got any pics of their mondy servo’s fitted to base spec Fiesta’s? Will it be ok to leave it like this?


The other problem i have is as described in this thread:

http://www.xrtwo.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=105398

Basically I have noticed that when the master cylinder is bolted upto the servo the servo spring was compressed slightly? Where as when i checked the same thing on the standard 1100cc fiesta servo and cylinder, the master cylinder slides straight in to the servo with no resistance / compression of the servo spring.

PICS:







The servo is from a mk2 mondy with abs, the mc is from a mk2 non abs :



This is my (pre modded) base spec bracket (car was a 1100cc):




Gareth.

[black2]

Also which brake pipe goes to which out let on the mondy mc? I marked them relative to which road wheel they brake on the original mc, should it be piped up the same on the mondeo mc?

Gareth.

[jonyb4]

with all due respect, your making this conversion look difficult, its practicly plug and play, some minor filing and your done

[black2]

with all due respect, your making this conversion look difficult, its practicly plug and play, some minor filing and your done

Oh i did'nt realise you have done this to your car...............ahhh you hav'nt

The "minor filing" is the easy part. Its the other issues I have that are not "plug and play".

If you do some research you will see its not as easy as you think, especially if the servo and mc are sourced seperatly.

Gareth.

[Excursion]

Gareth,
The actuating rod is adjustable so that the MC can be fitted with a very small amount of preload on the piston, and it sounds like yours has been wound out. With the MC removed you should see an M8 locknut on the actuator.

Cheers,
Mark

[black2]

Thanks Mark, is this the rod that requires adjustment?



Gareth.

[Excursion]

Thanks Mark, is this the rod that requires adjustment?



Gareth.

That's the one. On my MC the nipple on the end was screwed onto the rod, which was threaded. The hard part is securing the rod so it doesn't twist when you try to adjust the nipple. You'll find that the brakes will bind if there's anything other than the tiniest amount of preload.

Cheers.

[jonyb4]

ive fitted the mk5 escort one, theres nothing between them fitting wise

[black2]

ive fitted the mk5 escort one, theres nothing between them fitting wise

Clearly there is, as explained in this post.

Gareth.

[black2]

Finished the servo today. I don’t really have much time to spend on the car, but today i bought a mondeo auto reservoir as they have the take off for the hydraulic clutch already blanked off. Then bled up the brakes.

Once all finished i drove the car out the garage and up and down the drive a bit, the brakes feel a lot sharper now and there is no where near as much pedal travel, its not quite as good as i had hoped but still a significant improvement over the standard pea sized servo. In the end i had to wind that threaded bar in as well, this is not straight forward as there is very little room to work with to get the necessary grips on the shaft to stop it turning while trying to adjust the bar. I experimented first by taking it out altogether, but then winding it in all the way. With it wound in as far as i could get it, I still had compression of the servo spring when bolting up the mc. So i had to take the bar out again, put it in the vice and grind the end down a touch, refitted it and now its perfect. Then i noticed that because the pedal sits ever so slightly lower than before, this was resulting in the brake lights being permanently on this was very easy to sort though because the brake light switch is adjustable to suit differing pedal positions, all I had to do was click the switch down in its mounting a touch and job done.

Got some new rear shoes coming so im hoping once their fitted, along with any necessary clicking out of the rear brakes this will improve the pedal feel further. I know at the moment the rear brakes need clicking out as the hand brake is high.

Looking out for a Puma gear linkage next, then make up a bracket to get it all fitted up nicely.

Gareth.

[- Danny Boy -]

Good old Jony thinking he knows everything. What a complete tool.

Good work on the upgrade! Anything is better than the standard servo I guess!

[AW3K]

when i did this to my mk3 i found a mk1 cyl , much rarer with non abs pipe already blanked off. with rear bias already fitted , also the wiring plug is the same as mk3 so just pluged in.

mine had a little resistasnce on the spring but not alot.





Andy