fiestaturbo.com

[heeman10]

Lee - Cheers I reckon I've built a nice "standard" car like yours now

Superal - Hopefully any mistakes I make will save you a few pennies

Richy Rich - Glad you've enjoyed it! You get the good stuff and the bad stuff without the bills at the end of it all :lol: Funny you should ask about price, as my mate asked today. I promptly made a list which included most costs of the conversion (including brakes and FRST steering rack and bits) and, well....it's safe to say it's more than I thought I'd ever spend

Ad - They're not my pants, they're my steering wheel cover...a generous gift from Scort :D:D

Rhinopower - The charge carrier mounting tabs were both bent, and I've had to bend them back, unavoidably cracking the chrome. The inlet manifold also got scratched by something in carriage on the way back. Obviously they still work, but perhaps once it's all together and running it'd be good to get them perfect

[andyhardy]

Funny you should ask about price, as my mate asked today. I promptly made a list which included most costs of the conversion (including brakes and FRST steering rack and bits) and, well....it's safe to say it's more than I thought I'd ever spend

It's the little bits that add up - people think that an engine conversion or swap is just that. They don't seem to realise that you have to replace so much to get a new engine to work properly including things like: gearbox, clutch, turbo, intercooler, radiator (if needed), hoses, bushes, uprated mounts, adapter plates, suspension, brakes, gauges, breathers, alloy bits and bobs, fabrication work, chroming/spraying costs etc.

The totals for projects get silly after a while - one day I'll probably be able to post up exactly how much the FRST has cost me so far, but I really don't want to right now as I think I'd cry!

Cheers,

Andy

[Superal]

what about if u are just turbo'ing an engine that is already in the car?

[andyhardy]

what about if u are just turbo'ing an engine that is already in the car?

You can do it on the cheap - but if you want hassle free motoring expect to uprate loads of stuff you haven't even thought of.

Cheers,

Andy

[FezzR]

what about if u are just turbo'ing an engine that is already in the car?

the fact you have half the main parts helps but to do it properly your gonna remove strip and rebuild the engine
engine works never cheap

[heeman10]

Update

A mate of mine's come up with me from uni for a couple of days, and the result was....I started it up last night Cranked it a bit with no fuel to get the turbo oil feed pipe full, poured oil into the turbo, connected it up...and prepared for takeoff

I stuck the exhaust manifold and exhaust system on just for the purposes of checking it would fire up ok, they'll have to come off again for the radiator etc to be sorted, but it fired up off the key with no problem whatsoever We only ran it for about five seconds, as the idle was a bit high and it had no water, but it's very satisfying to know it starts so easily!

Radiator will be with me on Tuesday, as will the bulkhead fittings which will allow me to fit the brakes once and for all. So work will commence once more next Thursday probably. I can't get a proper seal at the fuel filter, top or bottom, which is frustrating, so that needs sorting.

[FezzR]

cool beans

should have started it without exhaust did it with me mates 400bhp scoob, and the plaster board roof didnt like it lol

might sound stupid but you have got all the seals on the fuel filter aint ya?

[Captain Tightpants]

Most excellent!

Steve

[andyhardy]

Great news James - I know exactly the situation you're talking about with hearing the car fire up

might sound stupid but you have got all the seals on the fuel filter aint ya?

I'm with stupid!

AndyBlackFRST found the same thing recently when fuel came peeing out of his fuel filter!

Cheers,

Andy

[LeePFRST]

Congrats mate, glad to know it's finally getting close to being finished. Keep us updated on how your getting on!!

Cheers
Lee

[heeman10]

By "seals" do you mean the copper washers? They weren't sealing, even after sanding the connectors I got from a 2i in a scrapyard till they were nice and flat. A fibre washer seems to have done the trick, so had it running for about 10-15 secs today, sounded beastly

I've had to come back to uni, so I'm now waiting on the correct fittings for my brakes and my radiator, both of which will arrive back home tomorrow! Looks as though I MIGHT be able to make the live map date after all, if I put some very hard work in!

[heeman10]

Why would I not be getting any activity from the rev counter?

[MotorcyclesFish]

Why would I not be getting any activity from the rev counter?

Cos the car's not running.


Or you've got a ground in the wire from the coil/ecu out to the tacho. Or you've forgotten to run a wire from the coil/ecu out to the tacho.

[heeman10]

I have a full XR2i loom going into the FRST ECU and FRST clocks...will try reverting back to my 2i clocks to see if they'll give me revs.

[andyhardy]

The rev counter clocks are the same mate - it's got to be loom related.

Look at the connection to the EDIS module - the green wire from there is the rev counter signal, see if it's broken by checking with a multimeter for resistance.

Cheers,

Andy

[heeman10]

I was going to swap the clocks to see if it was a problem with the clocks themselves Good point about the E-DIS, I have another one lying around, will swap them over and see what happens, cheers Any news on the camera?

I'm going to go home again tonight. It dawned on me today I need it to be in for its MOT next week No time to be hanging around, and I got word back today that the re-re-modified radiator turned up back home, so I will fit that tonight, and hopefully get some way to mounting the intercooler. As soon as that's done, and the brakes are on (new fittings for the brakes arrived today too), I'll roughly plumb the rad in and get the car out on our private road for some testing. No bonnet going on yet though

[Mikee_RS]

Bravo

[Syorme]

Good lad James glad it's all getting sorted and coming along

[heeman10]

Not going so well today. My modified downpipe is now fouling on the front of the car and the sump. My custom actuator bracket isn't quite right, due to Lee and I having to guess the compressor housing position from photo's I had. My radiator came back yesterday after being modified AGAIN and the mounting tabs are in the wrong place AGAIN (not all his fault). I'm ready to mount the intercooler now but it physically cannot be done by one person, so I'm stuck again. Chances of it being ready for its MOT in a few days? Ummmm

[heeman10]

Bit of an update....

I've played around with the bumper and intercooler today, and they now both fit on the car. A few problems to address: Fans are really very close to the radiator. This shouldn't be a problem, as they're mounted to the intercooler, which is solidly mounted to the car, and the radiator's quasi-solidly mounted, so they should be able to run at minimal clearance. Intercooler interferes slightly on part of the bumper, which will be cured with 30 seconds of angle grinding. The intercooler is about 2-3mm lower on the left than the right, which is easily cured (2 minutes' file work). The dirty great big black squares you can see on the cooler face are the fan retaining clips. I think I'll use stainless locking wire instead, as it ruins the appearance of the front of the car.

Other than that, I'm happy with the look of it from the front. Not sure whether or not to mesh the bumper to protect the cooler...I really can't stand mesh Also, there is a smallish gap between the bottom of the bumper and the bottom of the cooler. I'd like to fill that with something, perhaps a rubber skirt, to improve the ram effect and reduce ACT's further.

Pics:







A great deal of care and attention has been taken to ensure the intercooler sat under the top face of the bumper. I didn't want it to protrude for a few reasons; it would reduce flow to the radiator further, would make the car very obviously a "performance modified car" (no good in terms of police attention, or giving away status to Saxos and the like ) and would detract too far from the standard look for my liking. The big cutout is bad enough, but a lump of aluminium poking over the bumper would really spoil it for the look I want. The "care" taken to ensure it sat the way I wanted included all the difficulties I've had having the intercooler made to the right dimensions in the first place (which it still hasn't been ), a large amount of time spent aligning the radiator, intercooler and bumper relative to each other and the car, the modifying of the bumper, accurate drilling of intercooler mounting brackets and small modification to the front of the car to allow the cooler to sit precious millimetres lower than it wanted to. The end result is very pleasing

The other part of the front end which is particularly satisfying is the size of the radiator. I wanted the biggest radiator physically possible to allow the car to be driven hard in all weather conditions, and to allow traffic-sitting without temperature concerns. It's hard to plan for things like intercoolers and radiators when dealing with people over the phone and emails, rather than being able to drive to them for physical trials and fittings to make sure things will fit. I have been left with a radiator which couldn't me much bigger, and spans both fans on the back of the intercooler, so I don't foresee any cooling problems.

And the actuator problem I'm still facing to a degree. You can see the distance between the wastegate lever arm and the eye in the end of the actuator rod. It's around an inch, though I'd reduced it a bit since that pic was taken:



I'm now going to modify the bumper and cooler those last few bits to get them perfect, then I'll have to look at the coolant system and what pipes/hoses I need. If I had those, I could be taking it out on the road very shortly!

[andyhardy]

Your intercooler's wonky!

[Excursion]

Ahh how long these projects take!

Can you not bend that actuator bracket by hand mate? Or knock it round with a hammer?

[MotorcyclesFish]

Your intercooler's wonky!

L O L !!!!

It's quite the "in" thing amongst the youngsters, I'm told.

[RS_Rawli]

we should start our own club

[Richard_xr2i1800]

Looking good mate, not long now , i was going to put mesh in front of mine but it looked crap, i havent had any bent fins yet just some big bugs stuck in it.

Rich

[MAD_Adamski]

good goin james keep it up bro

[andyhardy]

Looking good mate, not long now , i was going to put mesh in front of mine but it looked crap, i havent had any bent fins yet just some big bugs stuck in it.

Rich

Yeah - I was strongly advised against putting mesh in front of my intercooler as it acts the same as a wall in front of the cooler, virtually no air gets through to the core!

Wasn't having a dig at your work earlier James - just find it amusing that people had a go about mine only for them to find out that it's an absolute ball-buster getting them to line up straight after you start driving the car (they tend to move a bit from where you position them under engine load).

Cheers,

Andy

P.S. Good work with the progress - hopefully the coolant side of thing will be sorted soon and you'll be able to drive the beast

[heeman10]

Mandy - No offence taken at all! Like I said, that was the first fitting, and it needs very slight adjustment (which I've now done) to get it level. No probs It shouldn't move under load, but I guess I'll see.

Geoff - I have manipulated the bracket quite a bit. Space is so very tight there (actuator head next to boost hose) and it's a very awkward shape to bend in the right planes. I think it's good enough now.

Richard - Streetdragster's used black mesh, which is hardly noticeable really. I'll be leaving it open for now.

Update: The alternator is confirmed to be bust. It is being re-conditioned and should be ready on Wednesday. Bearing in mind the car is supposed to be at MSD on Saturday morning, and an MOT is still due, it gets tighter every day. The exhaust can't go on till the alternator's on, or radiator, bonnet bar, intercooler, bumper, coolant hoses etc....you get the picture!


I went back up after dinner to fit the driver's side Wilwood calliper and disc, and fit the braided lines with their new connectors. The hub mount holes also needed drilling out to 12mm. I bled the brakes last night with the help of my dad and they feel superb Pedal travel is fine, so thankfully I won't need to upgrade the master cylinder to drive it.

I decided to heat shrink all the injector loom yesterday for tidy appearance and protection, which involved removing every connector from the loom. Naaaasty job, as the connectors do not like being taken off. Result? Broken connectors and broken loom. Picked up a Mondeo injector loom from the scrappy, so will have to settle for soldering the injector connectors from that onto my loom for now, then heat shrink them. There were some split wires and dodgy solder/spade connections on the loom anyway, so it's still a step forward

Also picked up loads of hoses, which ought to help me get close to plumbing in the coolant system. Still a fair number of "finishing touches" to go with this, it'll be a miracle if I get it to MSD in time!!

[andyhardy]

Here's a song to cheer you along the way James! (right click and save target as - 860Kb)

Ball Buster!



Good luck mate!

Andy

[heeman10]

Thanks for that...I'll leave it on repeat while I'm working on it this afternoon Same as before...if I can cobble together some water hoses I'll bolt everything in temporarily and go for a short drive to check things out. Doubt it'll happen though :lol: Gayyyy

[Excursion]

Steve- Mikee purchased that alternator and AFAIK it was brand new - might be under guarantee?

[CRF]

Looking good James.

Good luck getting everything ready for the mapping etc.

Mesh wise, i've used soem black plastic mesh, looks good and dont have to worry about any paint chipping off etc. Also has quite large holes in it so should get more air through than the usual type of aluminium mesh available. Available from the chive section in Halfords stores everywhere.

[heeman10]

Gordon - It certainly looked very very new. I'll try to get hold of Mikee, see what the crack is.

Chris - I was in Halfords today, and forgot why I'd gone in. Now I know!! Black plastic is definitely a good route though, Matt's looks good

Update:

As I said, some of the injector connectors didn't like being taken apart, so I sourced a Mondeo injector loom. I replaced the FRST injector connectors with these (cutting and soldering so as to avoid a repeat) which allowed me to use heat shrink on all the injector wires, CTS wire and TPS wire. I think it gives a tidy look, and protects them very well. Non-adhesive loom wrap was used to finish off the loom.

Before:

Note the soldered joints (done by me as a v temporary replacement for the screw-in block connector that was there!! ) and spade connectors circled in red


Stripped down a little:


Fully heat-shrinked and loom-wrapped:


And back in the casing, which was modified to allow for the extra cable thickness:




The CTS wire to the thermostat housing was overly long when I got the loom, so I cut it down to keep things neat. It's taken some time, but I'm glad it's done. All plugs were tested for continuity to the correct pins on the multiplug and all is well

A view of the back of my bumper for anyone interested:


People ask what "things" you always need to buy during a conversion like this, and what accounts for the spiraling costs you can never account for...here's a taster (some of today's purchases):


As those of us who are doing/have done a project like this know, you will find yourself placing orders for, or buying outright in shops parts which set you back 30-100 pounds many times each week, and they certainly add up in time!

Tomorrow will be dedicated to The Great Coolant Hose Sort Out! *Yawn*

[andyhardy]

Oooh - shiney shiney jubilee clips!

You magpie you!

[CRF]

Bloody expensive for what it is and how much you get though!!!

Where do you get your jubilees from James? The local motor factors to me are bloody expensive to buy individual ones, could do with somewhere to buy a bulk lot of varying sizes.........