fiestaturbo.com

[heeman10]

Gawy - Cheers, will keep an eye out for the Nova on the strip.

Mike - Indeed, I'll get round to it one day!

purple_fiesta - Ah yes, that is a bit further than just a nip up the road lol by all means do some "long distance" testing down this way though

Tom - 10 metre drive across the grass?! Woo!

[FezzR]

why would you put the switches there?

i would much rather have them in one of the centre console slots, or even move the head unit into the centre console and put the switches in the radio hole?

[heeman10]

why would you put the switches there?

i would much rather have them in one of the centre console slots, or even move the head unit into the centre console and put the switches in the radio hole?

For a whole host of reasons. I'd rather keep them in the console, as that would clutter up the dash less, but would prefer to keep all the switches together to simplify wiring behind the dash, and to stop having switches all over the place. I have the hi/lo boost switch on the centre console at the moment, but if I'm installing four further switches, I'd rather have the whole lot on one panel.

The launch control operation switch needs to be in a position I can reach while sitting back in the seat ready to leave the line, so having it down on the console or in one of the trays is of no use. The same goes for the other switches really, though their position isn't quite as important. In general, I don't like having to look down so far from the road to read and operate switches/controls. I don't want a big unit sitting on top of the dash, so this is my "only" option.

[festa-1.3]

Bonnet looks good. I think switches are gonna be in the right place. That is where i would put them.

[FezzR]

fair enough, im long enough to be able to reach the bottom tray of the concole with out any problem and the halfords sony HU adaptor made the loom long enough to fit my HU in the lower tray with out any hassle, this meant loads of room for everything in the standard HU position then.

but as they say, whatever floats your boat

[heeman10]

I must have short arms then! I have to lean forward to get to the lower console trays. Pushing the clutch pedal against the pressure of the AP paddle clutch pressure plate means you need your back solidly against the seat, so leaning forward while trying to keep the clutch pedal depressed is a non-starter.

[FezzR]

I must have short arms then! I have to lean forward to get to the lower console trays. Pushing the clutch pedal against the pressure of the AP paddle clutch pressure plate means you need your back solidly against the seat, so leaning forward while trying to keep the clutch pedal depressed is a non-starter.

hydraulic clutch with line lock

[heeman10]

Or just mount the switches where I intended

[purple_fiesta]

Your roads look good for testing! So yeh thats a deal, A ride in yours for one in mine

[heeman10]

purple - Yes, they are very good for testing! Maybe see you in a bit then

Update

I fitted the bonnet back to the car yesterday after a bit of a polish over the paint I'd just laid down. It looks okay, though as I suspected, primer is still visible through the various slats and cutouts I'd like to say I don't care, because it looks a hell of a lot better than it did, but it is a bit annoying. I also have a few lines of primer left around the edges from where the masking tape was. Should really have peeled it back a bit when it came to putting the colour on. Annoyingly I ran out of paint for the vents, so they're still a bit mucky. That said, my red paint would've been a mismatch with the topside bonnet paint, so it's no bad thing.

Hinges, looking rank and crusty:



Bonnet back on, and gave the hinges a random waft of red:



I wired in the launch control part of my rev limiter system today and had a play with it (Right Click, Save Target As...). Was going to lower the front end 5mm or so, but when I came to do it I remembered I'd left it at that height as it juuuust allows the trolley jack to sneak under the sideskirts, so it's staying as it is till I find a lower trolley jack.

That's about it - will give it a quick scrub and hoover tomorrow morning then head down to Silverstone at lunchtime. See a couple of you there!

[mike_wall15]

The picture shows it looks a hell of a lot better

You can show me the faults on sunday! Have a safe journey in the rain, hopefully see you on a dry sunday

[heeman10]

You can show me the faults on sunday! Have a safe journey in the rain, hopefully see you on a dry sunday

You'll see the faults from the entry gate! It cleared up into a sunny day by the end of today, so I'm hoping the "clearing up" spell has happened half a day early and it'll be dry. Time will tell, see you there hopefully!

[garyhurn77]

looking good james.... be nice to see it on sunday, jus hope the rain holds off as its rather wet in wales

[FezzR]

Was going to lower the front end 5mm or so, but when I came to do it I remembered I'd left it at that height as it juuuust allows the trolley jack to sneak under the sideskirts, so it's staying as it is till I find a lower trolley jack.

used to be a very popular accessory to carry blocks of wood, just wide enough that you could drive onto to make the car high enough to get a jack under, dont see it so often anymore, but where theres a will theres a way

[~Tony~]

i had to do that with my old xr2i a couple of places where the road was uneven to get my trolley jack under.

james whynot use the std ford jack to lift it high enough for the trolley jack, would only have to lift it slightly on the suspension, prob not even get the wheel off the ground before you could get the trolley jack under there.

well thats my plan if it gets too low for the trolley jack anyway

[heeman10]

Ian - I'm fully aware that driving the car onto blocks would lift it up higher, but thanks If I were to crash in such a way that the car would be driveable with a new wheel, but undriveable immediately after the crash, I wouldn't be able to drive it onto a block. Recovery men's jacks are often quite high too, which wouldn't help matters. I do all I can to make things easy with my car, be it maintenance or driving, and this is one area I don't particularly feel like compromising on, certainly not when I'm going over 200 miles from home!

Tony - There's no way I'm using the Ford jack on my car You're right, it wouldn't need picking off the ground, but nothing other than an emergency would see me fit that nasty little jack head up to the sills!

Coilovers allow adjustment of the ride height, so I've adjusted it to a useful height

[heeman10]

Update

On the long return trip from Trax on Sunday night, the car suddenly stopped producing boost, and wouldn't push past -2psi. I could hear no boost leaks, it felt more as though there was suddenly a lot of backpressure preventing the turbine from spinning, or as though the air intake was suddenly almost completely blocked. I pulled in at a service station and pulled off all sorts of hoses etc, looking for leaks or splits, but found nothing. From what I could see/feel (the engine was all still extemely hot of course, and it was pitch black, the only light I had being my phone light) the actuator rod was still secured to the wastegate lever arm with the split pin too.



The best I could find was a slightly-loose fitting brake servo vac hose. It wasn't rattly-loose, but was able to slide in and out of the plastic spring clip. I wrapped it in insulation tape anyway, to better the seal, put all the parts back on the engine and drove off. It felt exactly the same, and my brakes hadn't changed in feel from the start, so I was clutching at straws. With no light, limited tools and a hot engine, I opted to limp home at 65mph.

I've had a mate here the last few days, and have only just now had a chance to look at it all. Took the turbo out after dropping him off at the train station to find this:







The actuator rod was indeed still connected to the wastegate lever arm pin, but the pin is no longer connected to the wastegate. I'll be emailing pics to Turbo Technics for opinions and a quote. A quick chat has come back with suspicions that it's down to vibration rather than high temperatures - which was my main worry, after using the launch control on the day (and preceeding day) of the fracture. It seems repair will be in the region of £100-£150, which is cheaper than some of the things that were going through my mind on the way back

So I'm now left with this:



And this little pile:



I'm pleased it happened after the summer of shows and sunshine etc, and, as always, am weirdly glad to have another problem to think through, have my attention drawn to and resolve! It may also lead to something else even better too, but we'll see

[FezzR]

opps!

and why are you choosing not to simply weld it back on?

[BUTRE]

As posted before, I really don't like this launch control thing. Where does the bang happens? ex manifold? turbo? downpipe? It happens where there is more heat to ignit it: manifold and turbo.

It's hard to know if it was the launch control that put this pin under alot of stress with all the poping and forcing the wastegate to open.

It's hard to weld an exhaust manifold because they almost always crack right next to the seam but this is a pin and it's not the exhaust. I would first weld a new pin before buying a new wastegate housing and keep an eye on it

[heeman10]

Ian - You'll note that the wastegate lever arm is held to the shaft not by weld, but by having the external end beaten down with a hammer, forming a full mechanical stop to prevent it from passing back through the hole. I think the actuator rod securing pin must've been located in the same way, and I suspect the reason for this is that the temperatures get too high for conventional welding.

BUTRE - The exhaust manifold isn't the problem here, and I wasn't contemplating buying a new wastegate or exhaust housing. And what's this talk or "forcing the wastegate to open"? I'm not quite sure I understand what you're implying... The turbine is perfectly ok, the exhaust manifold's fine, it's the actuator rod securing pin that has fractured off. I wonder if a constant, fairly high preload (via the actuator spring) has caused this, along with vibrations and possibly elevated temperatures. At the moment I lost boost, I was cruising along at conservative motorway speeds.

[BUTRE]

heeman, if you get detonation on the exhaust manifold the rest of the exaust will be aware of it also. Because of all the detonation on the manifold that the launch control causes the wastegate will be forced to open. Actually it doesnt open but it stresses all the wastegate linkage.

welding exhaust manifold's is hard and they crack. This is only linkage so I would say that can be welded and will not crack due to thermal expansion of the material (the internal stresses done by welding will not be enough to crack it on thermal expansion)

[FezzR]

indeed it is evident that its not welded before, the reason for this could be anything i would still much rather weld it and have it fail again knowing ive tried before forking out that sort of money.

another option would be to have another little shaft made (im sure steve has loads of free time ) and have the troublesome end held on by a clip the same as the other end currently is

im not convinced that the actuator would get hot enough for a good weld to fail though, the conditions the actuator and exhaust manifold are under are very different

[BUTRE]

indeed it is evident that its not welded before, the reason for this could be anything i would still much rather weld it and have it fail again knowing ive tried before forking out that sort of money.

another option would be to have another little shaft made (im sure steve has loads of free time ) and have the troublesome end held on by a clip the same as the other end currently is

im not convinced that the actuator would get hot enough for a good weld to fail though, the conditions the actuator and exhaust manifold are under are very different

yeap, I've seen welded actuators and their linkage.

[heeman10]

BUTRE - Sorry, but exploding exhaust gases in the manifold shouldn't be doing anything to the wastegate. With the launch control in action, on full throttle at a standstill the car was making 0psi boost (i.e. atmospheric pressure at the inlet as opposed to a vacuum). Since the preload on the actuator allows 15psi of boost, and the cross-sectional area of the wastegate is significantly smaller (perhaps 0.3 times the size) than the main exhaust outlet in the exhaust housing, I can't see it operating the wastegate with only 0psi boost.

Ian - I can't say I'm sure enough to make the decision, which is why Turbo Technics have been involved. I think a shaft with a hole for a split pin on the top side of the wastegate lever arm (as well as the underside for the actuator rod) would be asking for trouble. With any free play in that short shaft, I think I'd be asking for trouble. The preload force from the actuator is pretty strong, so small movements would soon turn into bigger movements and sloppy free play. But yes, the conditions the actuator and exhaust manifold are under are very different!!

[~S1~]

In that photo it looks like its welded where the shaft goes though to the wastegate. I really cannot see any problem with welding it, there is no way it will ever reach a high enough temp to melt what has already been fused. The wastgate/shaft will melt long before that part gets hot enough.
IMO

[FezzR]

The preload force from the actuator is pretty strong, so small movements would soon turn into bigger movements and sloppy free play.

agree and i wouldnt use that method personally but is an option if you dont want to weld it and cant afford to have it replaced

But yes, the conditions the actuator and exhaust manifold are under are very different!!

So what is the issue with it being welded then?

[heeman10]

Paul and Ian - As I've been saying to people asking on MSN etc etc, I don't want to jump in and do something before consulting people who carry out such repairs on a daily basis. Garrett/Honeywell test turbochargers to destruction before putting them on the market. Before I KNOW how the pin was originally secured for a fact, I don't want to secure it any other way, whether it seems as though it should be fine or not. They may have assumed the same thing but found that after 50 hours of operation it failed. For that reason, I'm not keen on using split pins/circlips/welds etc unless I know it won't fail again. I don't want to be pulling the turbo out every other week. It's not a case of what's cheapest or easiest, but a case of what will repair it reliably, once.

[MAD_Adamski]

bummer and the car too but serious maybe much cheaper option would be a small bolt and lock nut??? just a suggestion unless boost is going to be played with regular?

[BUTRE]

ex manifold and ex turbo housing detonations put internal wastegate linkage under stress.

I would weld it... properly weld it and not just a tiny seam.

[Excursion]

Mate you're thinking about it too much, weld it!

[Ollybee]

Another awesome thread I've managed to let slip by me un-noticed.

[heeman10]

adamski - It's not in a place that affects actuator rod adjustments

BUTRE - That bit is true, the internal parts of the wastegate would be under thermal stress. From what you said above it sounded like you were saying explosions in the manifold would be loading up the actuator rod/opening the wastegate.

Mark - That's what everyone else is saying, but that goes no way to explaining why it fractured in the first place, or why it wouldn't do it again! I only know one guy near me that welds, and he sprays half the room he's working in with weld!!

ollybee - It's been here long enough!

[Excursion]

Mark - That's what everyone else is saying, but that goes no way to explaining why it fractured in the first place, or why it wouldn't do it again! I only know one guy near me that welds, and he sprays half the room he's working in with weld!!

LOL fair enough, would be good to set up a camera in that area to see what goes on. I would think this is just a feak accident though

It facking rovved it

[heeman10]

I hate putting stuff down to "freak occurrence/coincidence", but it looks like that's where this one is going! It happed on the second of two days I'd had the launch control up and running, which set alarm bells ringing really. As I've said, I'm not sitting there banging for ten seconds till the exhaust manifold's see-through, so I don't expect to damage things. How far are you from Northampton matey? PM coming

[Shannon]

Talk about thinking too much into things. Just fix it and if it happens again you'll know its not a freak occurrence/coincidence.. simple