fiestaturbo.com

[Smo]

That's looking well mate.What ecu are you using at the minute

Cheers! I'm using the DESK ECU at the moment

[MK4 Rick]

Are you going to try and run your throttle bodys off the desk ecu

[Smo]

Are you going to try and run your throttle bodys off the desk ecu

Haha, noooo

I have run them briefly on it, but it would be near on impossible to fuel and spark it right for the entire rev range. I have Megasquirt sitting here for them, however I'll probably go for something else, may be Emerald

[Smo]

OK, so a few things I can scrub off the to do list.

Steering wheel/airbag and instrument cluster all had to go!



The steering wheel has horrendous feel and I like knowing what my engine is revving at

So off came the wheel... If you look at the locking diameters, you can see there's a difference in the spacing.



This means the barrel housing needed to be changed also, so off that came too:



You can see the difference here:



The bonnet release lever is also different (this caught me out a few years ago!):



Slid the new barrel housing with old ignition barrel fitted in place, and simply connected the old instrument cluster from the white one to check it would work OK:



And then put everything back in place, including the old cowling from the white one, as the MK3.5 stuff doesn't fit correctly with the MK3 wheel.



Much better and much happier. So much nicer to drive!

Next...

I had no coolant temp gauge, oil pressure light, and the fuel gauge wasn't going below a quarter of a tank. The fan switch wiring wasn't long enough to take the correct route in the engine bay either! I was going to replace the car loom with my old one to solve the first two issues, as well as the fan switch wiring, but decided I couldn't be bothered in the end

So, first job was to track the coolant temp wire back into the car loom, chop it back and join it with a donor pin and pop it into the car/engine loom connector (pin 9). This then takes its feed from the engine loom as a normal 16v loom would





(Not been very consistent at taking photos recently )

Ta da:



On to the oil pressure light... This was kind of my fault. I rerouted the pin on my Si engine loom because my old 16v loom in the white one didn't have a separate oil pressure connector. So I simply reversed what I'd done annnnnd ... no oil pressure light! After a bit of fussing about, turns out the bulb was also iffy Once I replaced that, all was good



Er, one of those overexposed red lights is the oil pressure light, you'll just have to take my word for it!

After this, I extended (soldered and heatshrinked) the fan switch wiring using the old fan switch connector from my original 1.1 Popular Plus loom, and a good length of its wire, taped it back up and routed it correctly. No photos, but fan worked perfectly

Seats aren't particularly great either in the Azura, so for now, I've swapped the bases on to my rather worn XR2i 16v seats. The support is far better and I've always been happy using them on track:



Throttle cable also got swapped. What a nightmare job when everything is in place! The old 1.1 cable is too short to operate smoothly. Can quite clearly see the difference in length:



The pedal feels much smoother now

Last thing was the fuel gauge issue. I suspected this was the sender/tank. Firstly, I only swapped the tank originally because the old one from the white one was in quite a state, otherwise I wouldn't haven't bothered:



I guessed the float must be catching, so I took the pump/sender out and had a look to see if it was touching anything when it was going back in:



Ah, that'd be it!

So I compared the two (and had already guessed this) and it would appear that between the MK3 and MK3.5 transition, the swirl pots were moved ever so slightly.

MK3.5 tank:



MK3 tank:



Both tanks are in fact 1.1 CFI tanks; the rusty old one was from a 1994 car, and the much cleaner one that gave me this grief is from this 1995 car. Something to think about when swapping pumps and/or sourcing tanks for engine conversions!

So the fuel gauge now works, too! I have a video of the magic moment when I turn the key with no fuel and the needle drops to the bottom, but I fear no one can handle that level of excitement

Lastly, I swapped the Tony Law exhaust system over to an old Magnex FRST system to make sure I had no issues with any sound tests on track this year. For now, I've quickly welded a small tailpipe on (the same diameter as the rest of the system) which looks very subtle. I miss the sound, but it should receive a lot less attention, and obviously make sound tests nice and easy now





I've still got the Tony Law 4-2-1, and it still pops and crackles ... The pops and crackles are just a lot quieter

Still to do:

MC/servo
Tracking
Air box or air filter

12 days until Castle Combe... Eek!

[Turboboy67]

Nice work, the fuel gauge in my ZT doesn't work and I suspected it was down to the fuel tank.

I'm looking forward to seeing this at Combe

[Smo]

Nice work, the fuel gauge in my ZT doesn't work and I suspected it was down to the fuel tank.

I'm looking forward to seeing this at Combe

Where does the gauge needle sit?

And it's got to make it first

[Smo]

First job of the day was tracking:



Then brakes!

Old puny MC and servo:



Just as a comparison... Fiesta, Escort MK5, Mondeo MK2:



I'd planned to use the Escort one. I've had it for years but it had two incorrect fittings for my old white Fiesta, so never used it. The new Fiesta has four 10mm fittings, so the Escort one would have been ideal. I stripped it down but I wasn't happy with the master cylinder, so ordered a new one. However, when checking over the reservoir, I noticed there was a crack in the bottom I didn't trust, so decided instead of messing about anymore to just use the Mondeo one from the white one and use two adapter pipes for now. I could probably have just got some unions to do the same job but I didn't think about it at the time!

But anyway:



Last thing I did today was swap the speedo drive.

Only one photo:



Red one was the Escort RS Turbo one that came with the box I bought and had 19 teeth (I believe!) and the brown one was the old XR2i 16v one I've been transferring from box to box over the years as it's right for my wheel and tyre size! I believe that one was 20T.

So, left to do:

Bleed brakes
Replace a breather hose
Mount air box bracket and fit air box

That's about it really! For the essential stuff, anyway

[Turboboy67]

Nice work, the fuel gauge in my ZT doesn't work and I suspected it was down to the fuel tank.

I'm looking forward to seeing this at Combe

Where does the gauge needle sit?

And it's got to make it first

Right at the bottom

Basically it shows nothing, Max never got around to changing the tank so the problem must be the same as yours, which tbh, is fine, at least now I know that when I change tanks the chances are mine will then work as well

[Smo]

Ah yeah, it may have caught the other way to what mine did. When I had it all out and was seeing where it was catching, it could easily catch either way and either be forced to the bottom or float anywhere above 1/4 of a tank. Pain in the arse!

[Max M4X WW]

I kept the 1.1 tank as the tank I got with the engine was seriously crusty! Didn't realise the insides were different!

[Smo]

Yeah, that was my plan, too!

What a stupid idea that was

[Turboboy67]

Any updates then ?

The car looked great flying around Combe

[hb69]

Simon has a thing for lift off oversteer

[Rhinopower]

Simon is rather preoccupied with a damp house at the moment poor sod

[Smo]

Haha, cheers, Shaun! I'd love to see what it's like from the outside

Yes, two things: Don't get cocky on cold tyres (I'm not posting that video!), and I don't like damp houses!

So, not done a huge deal, managed to get the car ready in time for track, though.

Air box fitted:



This was the only way I could do it for now, but it's only temporary until the throttle bodies go on. The cable tie actually serves no purpose; the bolts were more than enough!



K&N in place. The lid was a nightmare to get on with the Mondeo MC and servo! (No photo, but I'm sure you can imagine what it looks like!)


Strut brace fitted:



Excuse the mess, I was in between moving stuff between cars - the Fiesta was full of half a Popular Plus


XR2i 16v front seats fitted, just because they're so much better than the standard ones for track!:



... but long term, I'll change them for something more suitable.


Had two passengers for the trip, so I decided to fit my track wheels before I left and take just two road tyres as spares:






Spare had a screw in it:



... and doesn't fit over the front brakes anyway, so left it out and removed the tray as well.


Swapped the headlights as the white one had near new Valeos from Ford and the red one's were misted up:





... although the red one's are now perfect having had a couple of weeks to dry out in the back of my Polo


Car performed brilliantly on track, I think the combination of track tyres, the increase in negative camber from the FRST lower arms, and the Quaife diff made a massive difference - I can't begin to describe how much confidence I had in the car; too much at one point The gear ratios are pretty much the same as my old iB5, so still too long, but the engine was well behaved and everything else was as the white one, brakes were great, etc.





Does look awful on the RS1800 wheels, but the track tyres needed to go on something quick last year! Will put them on another set of steels at some point.

I'll upload some videos when I get round to it!


Apart from that, I started taking a closer look at the bodywork the other day. So far I've just looked at the inside of the driver's side arches, and just general shuts. The rear arch is perfect, not one hint of rust, but there are some small amounts around the front, although nothing I'm overly concerned with at this point. The wing and door obviously still need sorting, and you'll see there's a few spots on the driver's door sill/shut that need attention. Once the house is sorted, I'll be spending some nice summer weekends on it!

Some pics (pre clean!):



(Awful photo!!!)






















It looks worse than it is because of the various sealer and muck that's been applied, but I'm very happy with it. I think the worst bit is around the brake hose. Will pull the arch liner off the other side soon and see what that's like.


The other little bits:






Probably the worst bit of rust in the whole car:




Then a bit more about mid way along the bottom edge of the door sill lip:



... and from the inside:



(Excuse the dirt, still haven't cleaned the inside of the car since buying it!)


Window rubbers all need replacing:



I'll use the ones of the white one for now as they're perfect.

About it for now. So no real work, just a very successful track day, which has made me much more positive about the car... and actually get some love for it now! I was starting to regret doing the whole Fiesta thing again, but it's paid off, and I met my target of getting it to Combe (with a massive help from all those that attended the swapover weekend in February! Cheers, you lot ). I'll get on with sorting the rust out during the summer and hopefully have the throttle bodies fitted and mapped by September Action Day

Oh, and with regards to Henry's comment about lift off oversteer, and mine about being cocky on cold tyres - I took an apex cone out at Quarry getting it a bit wrong. I felt it dragging so moved over to the grass the other side, causing it to pop out from underneath. However, I now regret removing the spare wheel because it might have prevented this:







I can't complain really, I was being stupid

I broke the front plate too

[Turboboy67]

Nice update, I think it was well worth me asking

My rear side window rubbers are the same, the sun has really been to work on them,
I priced them up at Ford and they were too silly a price for even me to comprehend buying

Shame about collecting that cone and the damaged it caused, nothing a big hammer wont put right though.

[Smo]

Yeah, it is only that very bottom lip, thankfully! The main valance shape hasn't been affected at all (kind of hard to tell in the photos!).

I must stress, I've not even begun to start on any bodywork yet, but it's just to give an idea of what I want to address. At the moment the car is still just 'thrown' together (much like the Popular Plus, really ). The difference is, though, this is definitely worth making good... I've seen enough of the car now to know it's solid. There's a couple of other bits I've forgotten to take photos of, so if I remember, I'll do that at the weekend.

The engine bay looks terrible at the moment; the cam cover is still in its untouched oxidised state from when I picked the engine up from Norfolk, the blue intake hose was only a quick fix about three years ago , as was the blue breather hose and coolant overflow line... It will all go, along with the airbox and bracket, when the TBs are properly fitted.

[hb69]

I hope the garden hose is staying though?!

[knuckles]

Ain't been on here for ages ....

Plenty of progress on this one I see.
Keep it up