fiestaturbo.com

[Brammer]

Good stuff jim, nice to see you thread move.

The mods sound interesting i look forward to seeing these new results

[MarkRS2K]

just seen this- didnt even see the mk6 at trax never mind, look forward to the new mods

Hope the business is going well

[heeman10]

Cheers Mark. First day of trading yesterday, things are looking promising in these early stages

Update

All the following went on nearly two weeks ago now, but I've just got round to putting the photo's up.

The Problems



With the cam cover off, the first issue was obvious straight away - the lobes on cylinder one of the inlet cam were deeply pitted on one side:





Directly above these two lobes is the modified secondary breather port in the cam cover. I can only assume that in sitting for an extended period at some point, emulsified oil (containing water) has been dripping on these lobes and damaged them. The factory breather port at the other end of the cam cover is baffled about 75% down the length of the cam cover. My modified breather port has no baffling. Secondly, I found six of the tappets to have minor damage to them, and a further one tappet with a significant impact indentation on the top. All were replaced when the new head went on.

The more major problem, possibly the cause of the noisy top end, was the state of the exhaust manifold stud threads. Drilling and tapping new holes in the Zetec head to match up with the ERST manifold stud hole pattern results in some extremely questionable wall thicknesses. In at least one hole, there were no more than three threads of soft aluminium taking the exhaust stud, all but one of which (threads) had been dragged through the head, most probably dumping shards of aluminium in the oil gallery which lies behind. I suspect that this swarf could've been carried round the head and blocked off tappet/cam oil supplies, or worse still, been carried further through still and directly caused some of the damage to the tappets. A replacement head was on the cards, mine was going no further.

Pistons all looking healthy still, if a touch rich:



Choosing a good head out of these was nearly a close call, but one was found to be good after a thorough clean-up:



James fabricating a tubular manifold for me in a hurry. We had a very short window to get a manifold made up with a Zetec head flange and T3 turbo flange, to work as a direct replacement for the ERST manifold in order to leave the downpipe as it was:



The finished article:



This is the first of its kind that we've seen, and will be improved in its evolutionary form. One such improvement will be the use of a CNC-machined turbo flange as opposed to the hastily stitch-drilled/filed flange you see here. Time is a blessing when it's there!

Head back on, new inlet cam, brand new tappets, and the manifold/turbo/downpipe etc back in position:





An oil and filter change later, the engine sounded sweet as a nut once more. Music to my ears! The very next day we used it for a day's training on our rolling road (by Mike Gurney, the UK Dyno Dynamics representative), and we found it to be making only 169bhp (flywheel) for many reasons, one of which was a very feeble boost curve. A new actuator will sort that, and once I've fitted and mapped my new Haltech ECU I think it should see past a genuine 230bhp. Whether or not the pistons will take that is another question, but they're cheap, and I consider this to be a development engine that's almost disposable. More updates to come in the future!

[Sphinx]

Nice update Any pics of the problem area tapped holes?

[JayC]

nice manifold hes made up there, any idea how much they would retail for ;)

[heeman10]

Mr Tom - I didn't take any pics. The head's still knocking around in Steve's van, so I'll try to remember to get some pics next time I see it.

Jay - It's great, and I haven't seen any other manifolds out there offering a direct fit to the Zetec head with a T3 turbo flange, oddly enough. They will retail around the £400 mark in the ERST manifold configuration, but they can be made to suit any other application too. Give us a call if you'd like to know more

[JayC]

well ide need to get my bottem end built first but ide certainly have one of your manifolds, i guess thats a first glimps into some PVE gear ?

[LeePFRST]

Great update James, glad to see it all back together again. Congratulations on the new business, wish i lived a bit closer so i could pop down, but would take me over 12 hrs to get there and back!

Anyway, hope all goes well over the coming months, and look forward to seeing you updates in the near future!

Cheers,
Lee

[purple_fiesta]

Looks good mate, Would say.. a T34 sit further from the manifold using yours as mine practicly rests on my standard one?
What sort of power/torque would expect from it
Like is said before good luck with the buisness

[onslack]

good update james

i do like the look of that manifold

[mrorange2]

looking good as always james

[niracka]

design and make me a 1.8 series 3 zetec manifold and exhaust for my foci please

ollie

[heeman10]

Jay - It would definitely help if you had a bottom end to bolt a head to, which in turn could have manifolds bolted to it!

Lee - Thanks buddy, I trust all's going well with your latest Mk3?

Dan - I sent you a PM a few days ago IIRC, did it get there? Is your T34 currently sitting on an ERST manifold? If you wanted, the manifold could be made to sit the turbo closer into the block, unless that would create clearance issues to the rear of the turbo. I didn't reeeally manage to get any direct comparison figures with mine, because I fitted a new head, tappets, inlet cam and re-timed it between the 161bhp (!!!!) run with the old setup and 169bhp (!!!!) run with the new manifold etc. I would be lying if I said I could guarantee that that 8bhp gain was down to the exhaust manifold, but there's a chance.

niracka - It's all doable Is there any chance of you bringing the car to us?

[purple_fiesta]

No didnt get it mate, PM'd ya

[Sphinx]

I've only just noticed you don't have the coolant pipe that runs above the manifold, what have you done there?

[heeman10]

Over the exhaust manifold? No need for one there

[Sphinx]

Yeah, the metal one that normally rusts. Have you re-routed it somewhere else?

[ianFRST]

Yeah, the metal one that normally rusts. Have you re-routed it somewhere else?

you dont use that on a ZT. iirc it goes to the rad on the zetec engine? well, what ever it is / does, the ZT engine dont need it

[niracka]

Well I know you live in cumbria quite close to my gran. So I guess when I get some money together for my manifold I'l get in touch and pop to see her (you guys ) for a few days and you can see what can be done. What kinda price do you think I would be looking at??

I'v seen a few different shapes for focus manifolds so really not sure of a design. I'v also heard the ST170 manifold offers decent gains.

Have you managed to install that power director Cd i gave ya at fitp yet????

ollie

[heeman11]

[JayC]

lol???

[heeman10]

Ignore heeman11 - I promise it's not an alter ego of mine!

Ollie - Am I right in assuming I replied to your post above? I don't live in Cumbria anymore, For-Tune PVE is down in Somerset!

[ianFRST]

may aswell build a monster spec 2L engine as use it as a show car????

[heeman10]

Ian - I would like to do that, but I want any power increases to be proportional to acceleration and outright speed increases. Unfortunately, FWD cars don't allow that once you move on past even 200bhp, let alone double those figures, so it would be a waste. Over this last year, the draw to move to a RWD car has been growing in strength, and particularly over these last few months, the urge to get a Skyline has been very hard to resist. As much as I love the Fiesta, and as difficult as I would find it to sell my first car (a gift from my parents for my 18th), and a car that holds so many good memories, I've been thinking that way the last month or two. Can't really decide what to do, plus I genuinely believe I would find it hard/impossible to fit a Skyline into my garage here at home - very possibly not long enough!! If I were to go with a Skyline, it would be straight up to 300bhp for a few months, then I'd be looking to bump it up past 400bhp as soon as time allowed.

[XRMike]

Ian - I would like to do that, but I want any power increases to be proportional to acceleration and outright speed increases. Unfortunately, FWD cars don't allow that once you move on past even 200bhp, let alone double those figures, so it would be a waste. Over this last year, the draw to move to a RWD car has been growing in strength, and particularly over these last few months, the urge to get a Skyline has been very hard to resist. As much as I love the Fiesta, and as difficult as I would find it to sell my first car (a gift from my parents for my 18th), and a car that holds so many good memories, I've been thinking that way the last month or two. Can't really decide what to do, plus I genuinely believe I would find it hard/impossible to fit a Skyline into my garage here at home - very possibly not long enough!! If I were to go with a Skyline, it would be straight up to 300bhp for a few months, then I'd be looking to bump it up past 400bhp as soon as time allowed.

You cant sell the Fiesta!!, in my eyes the car is a legend! . Shame you cant store it anywhere.

[heeman10]

I would truly hate selling it - I would've done so over a year ago by now if I had no issue with it, because I want much more. To keep it, I realistically need to spend in excess of £3,000 having the shell perfected and resprayed (been wanting a respray for over three years), then to get the performance where I want, no less than a RWD conversion to take the 400+bhp I would like in it, so I'd be looking to spend well in excess of £10,000 to make it the car I want to have. I could have a 400+bhp Skyline for less than that sum, plus could potentially have the money from the sale of the Fiesta to build it. It's a tough one matey, something I've been mulling over for a good couple of years but don't have the heart to let it go.

[~nomad~]

i wish i had a bit of you mindset Jim. I am the total opposite, I find it really easy to get rid of cars, and often regret it. The only exception is the 280zx, I cant see me getting shot of that.

[heeman10]

Have you misread something Dave? I'm saying I would've sold it a year or two ago if I found it that easy - I've wanted to move forward for quite some time now, it's just emotional ties and soft-hearted stubbornness stopping me from selling it and moving on!

[~nomad~]

no i am an idiot and wrote hard instead of easy! editing the above post now!

[Sphinx]

4wd it you fool
(then once you and steve know the ins and outs of doing that a mk3, you can do mine )

[heeman10]

Dave - Gotcha

Tom - That would definitely make a fun car, but for massive cost. Also, I've been looking forward to the thought of a new project car, and one I can apply my current level of learning/knowledge/understanding to (albeit a low level ). There are lots of things on the Mk3 I'd do differently now, but that's not surprising, given that I started modifying it over six years ago! So that's a major driving force for me really - wanting a new car to do differently, so if I had no problem letting it go, I probably would've been the owner of an R33 Skyline GTS-T for a year or more by now.

[ianFRST]

my mates gots a nice gts single turbo skyline with a monster spec engine in it, but has also just bought an r33gtr shell, so eveything on the gts is not going into the gtr so there might be a nice cheap shell going, that woul dbe nice for a project

[heeman10]

Catch you on MSN matey

[paniK]

I know its hard letting go of something you've had for that period of time but logic tells me that it would be wiser investing the money in a chassis more capable, like you said, a skyline.

A very close friend of mine had a Stage 1 FRST was good well and even bought a 1.8 Zetec with the mindset of doing a 1.8 Zetec Turbo. He loved that car and so did I actually, was sad to see it go but it was going to cost a fair whack doing the conversion plus ideally the car needed a respray along with other bits and pieces. He had an interest in evos and one thing lead to another and he ended up selling the fiesta and getting an Evo6 Ralliart.

One of the things that decided it was that the fiesta was a FWD small hot hatch which already needed a lot of work doing to it to get it into near perfect condition and it would never match the evo in terms of performance. This evo was newer, fitter, looked absolutely and was running close to 300bhp. So the car got sold and the bits and the evo was bought and he had never looked back since.

I don't know how attached you are to the car but I can only presume its like a child to you so parting with it would be heartbreaking but unless you start spending absolutely ludicrous amounts of money on it (adding to that which you already have) you are not going to get up there with the skylines/evos etc in terms of performance.

In which case, another option may be in keeping the fiesta to where its at in terms of power (get your 200+bhp) and leave it at that and if you can get yourself another toy if funding permits and keep them both.

Its your decision at the end of the day and whatever you decide to do, I'm sure it's going to be a great success

[heeman10]

I'm sure that story was crafted for my benefit alone But yes, sense yells to get something with a useful drive configuration and potential. Oddly enough, I would rather leave my Fiesta at the spec it's at now, and do nothing but perfect the shell and bodywork. That way, it could sit as a timeless remind of what I achieved and learned with it, for a decade or two. I have this desire to be able to open the garage door to my boyhood dream machine when I'm in my 40s you see! Storing it back home in Cumbria and squeezing a Skyline into my garage here (if possible) may be the way forward, then I can give the Fiesta to my trusted bodyshop in Cumbria as and when so it can be brought back to brand new appearance.

Why do we get attached to metal? Cheers for the contribution - I think buying a Skyline and perfecting the Fiesta's body will be yet more incentives to make the business succeed...like I needed any more!