fiestaturbo.com

[MAD_Adamski]

i recon its slower than my 162bhp!!!!!

[mike_wall15]

One of the first pics from the front showing it on the stands... well they look as though they're all located in the centre of the car and it's balancing nicely!

Hope it all goes successfully, still not sure whether to come on saturday or not
I wish you the best with the power & 1/4 mile anyhow

[heeman10]

Thanks for all the comments and well-wishing

Mark - I think you need a FRST for a month or two to get that excitement back for a bit. Modification number one: SNOW CHAINS.

Ryan - I wish! Been a lazy baxtered for over a year now...it's just one of those jobs you put off till you can't actually drive it At the time I fitted the original diesel release bearing that will no have done 95,000 miles, and shortly after I found the brand new Ford Escort RS Turbo release bearing sitting on my bedroom floor!

Mike - They are all fairly central tbh, not that it rocks or is unstable at all with that spacing. You should come along tomorrow, we'll be there from about 9am till probably past 4pm...with the odd opportunity to go searching for fun roads in the wilderness every now and then I'm sure!

[heeman10]

Update

When my car went on the rollers at SCC last Saturday, we found it to be peaking at about 12psi for a fraction of a second, then backing down to around 10/11psi. It should be peaking at about 16 for a moment, and holding 1 bar, which caused it to make a weedy 178bhp as opposed to the 215+ it should be making with that boost pressure. This was all down to the actuator bracket I had made, as it simply isn't man enough, and deflects as the actuator spring force acts against it.

So just before lunch today, I pulled the turbo off (I'm taking the gearbox out tomorrow anyway, so if anything it makes things easier if the turbo and manifold are out).

Before:



And a shot of its new neighbour



Inlet, top water hose, charge carrier etc etc blah, this lot only takes about 6 minutes to remove, so no biggy, plus about ten minutes for the turbo and manifold (downpipe has one fiddly nut lol):



And here are some photo's of the offending bracket. It looks extremely weedy, though it is fairly stiff steel, and was bloody hard work to bend into shape. I'm going to see if any other standard brackets can be used first, perhaps with some modifications. If not, I'll need another, stiffer bracket making up:





I had a chat with Stu@MSD today and the car should be fine to run 15psi straight away. I was concerned, after the rolling road session, that the fuelling immediately ran rich as soon as the boost backed off at full throttle and high engine speeds. That, to me, suggested that the fuelling was being calculated from the TPS and engine speed as opposed to engine speed and MAP sensor signal After speaking to Stu, it turns out that it DOES (thankfully) go off the MAP sensor, and it made such a sudden vertical line on the fuel curve because apparently the next line on the OFAC map is 10 or 11psi!! It's so crude it's unreal! So basically at 10psi or slightly after, it'll start fuelling as though it were running 15psi, hence being so rich but making low boost.

And a random shot of my radiant red engine support



I managed to find my brand new ERST release bearing after about two hours of searching yesterday, so I'll get the gearbox out tomorrow and swap release bearings. 95,000 1.8D bearing for 0 miles ERST bearing. Hopefully the new bearing combined with a 25% power increase will allow me to dip below 6 seconds, and preferably under the 5.5 second barrier in the 0-60 dash

[allinking]

Looking good mate nothing like a power run to show up the 20 problems Just found my throttle is only opening 95% so another reason for the poor run

[heeman10]

Yeah, it's hard to get out on the roads and watch the boost gauge while flat out, so the rolling road was an invaluable experience, particularly showing up just how much power it's losing as a result of such a simple weakness. 95% throttle opening wouldn't be too major on a turbocharged car really, i normal power ranges, but it'll have a slightly larger effect on your N/A engine, get to it! What was the cause?

[mike_wall15]

Nice pictures Jammy

I hope the neighbour sticks to his side of the hut and doesn't cause too much trouble

[Max M4X WW]

Nice pair of y-fronts covering the turbo.

[Dave_B]

what a tart having to have the engine support matching the car

its always good having a rolling road as a 'check up' just to make sure and find these things out. especially with roads like yours i guess james, need an eye on them all the time, not on the guages!

must be nice having so much room to work on the car though.

dave

[Excursion]

@ primitive management.

16 years old though, desktop PC's back then were just on average 25mhz (386's) so it's not too shocking

[garyhurn77]

good work james hope you get it sorted sooner rather than later!!

[~nomad~]

5.5 seconds

seriously thou, looking good. send the (insert ghey rap term) to me for the treatment mate.

[allinking]

Yeah, it's hard to get out on the roads and watch the boost gauge while flat out, so the rolling road was an invaluable experience, particularly showing up just how much power it's losing as a result of such a simple weakness. 95% throttle opening wouldn't be too major on a turbocharged car really, i normal power ranges, but it'll have a slightly larger effect on your N/A engine, get to it! What was the cause?

Cause was using focus parts on a fiesta need to take up 1-2mm of slack in the cable as there is no adjustment on the cable and less travel in the pedal looking at the tps reading i am only getting 90% of WOT but will be sorted tommorrow shame your not closer could of fabricated you a bracket with propper support ridges to make it stiffer

[MarkRS2K]

does this mean your be able to change gear properly now

[heeman10]

Mike - He'd better! It'd be an interesting fight though, torque beast vs...torque beast

Max - It's an old T-shirt, ACtually I still have offcuts from the leopard skin thing somewhere!

Dave_B - Hey you've gotta make these things match! I wish I had a rolling road nearer, they are really bloody useful. Everyone wants to know what power their car makes, and when you can be as certain of the figure the engine should be making as I was (i.e. 1800 with 7.8:1 CR and 15psi), it lets you know something's up if it's any more than about 10-15% adrift.

Terry - Yeah fair point, it's still facking terrible! You should've seen the boost/fuel plots Trailing curve on the boost as the bracket bent, then a vertical step in AFR

gary - Depends what else I do while it's apart!

nonads - Oi, watching back a video Bryan took of me on the 0-60 strip, I know it's entirely possible. I have my reasons for suspecting such times May well send the shiny tat to you actually, bit borderline in terms of time, only wanted it off the road for a week but spose I might as well do it now. PM me your addy again

allinking - Nice easy fix then I wish I were still at uni, I could've made up all the brackets I wanted then I'll sort it somehow!

[heeman10]

does this mean your be able to change gear properly now

Yeah, I'm really hopeful of that! The release bearing has been making a gentle grinding noise each time I bring the pedal up to biting point on downshifts, not surprised after 95,000 miles!! :lol: Massively looking forward to the slick changes my v v young gearbox should be capable of!

[MarkRS2K]

good stuff, look forward to the 0-60 attempts at FF next year then

[heeman10]

Yeah, man that's AGES away isn't it? Plenty of time for practising and tweaking though I guess, and yet another set of new tyres no doubt Think you'll be there? I heard about the black one getting away from you

[nick050]

that engine support is from Sealey we just bought one in our work alot better than the other one we had that slowly started to bend when any weight was put on it :O. Interesting stuff though about the actuator bracket actually decreasing bhp Im not in the know about turbo stuff so that came as a surprise to me a bracket making a difference

[heeman10]

Yep, it is a Sealey support, beefy bugger! The actuator is what controls the amount of pressure the turbo produces, and it does so by using a spring to stop the wastegate opening via a lever arm connected to the actuator rod. The higher the preload on the actuator spring, the higher the boost level. Since my bracket isn't stiff enough, it can't react against the spring force, which is why my turbo can't make more than 10psi.

I am driving to Fusion Fabrication next Monday for a new bracket to made up, which means I should be out on the road and re-setting the actuator preload on Tuesday or Wednesday, providing the gearbox is back in

[heeman10]

Update

I've hit some snags. Removed the gearbox on my own with very few problems, once the bolts were undone it took about 3-5 mins, surprisingly! But, upon removing it from under the car to replace the old, worn release bearing with my shiny brand new ERST bearing, I found two problems:

1. The bearing on there seemed absolutely fine, smooth as anything and not visibly worn.
2. The new bearing had too small an inner diameter to slip on.

I rang CTS just now to trawl through any suggestions they might have (again), because I want to go through every single possible problem with them before I go through the costs and hassle of posting the 'box off and potential labour charges if nothing is found to be wrong. If they can't think of anything further either, it'll have to go to them as I have to get to the bottom of this inability to shift quickly while the gearbox is out of the car.

~ Got all the travel I could possibly hope for, and more, from the clutch pedal.
~ Gearbox was built brand new by CTS for me in May 2005, so in theory shouldn't be causing problems itself, but that may have to be investigated.
~ Flywheel was skimmed before fitting.
~ Clutch isn't very old, but as far as I can see, if it were worn it'd be slipping if anything.
~ The rubber on the gearbox end of the selector shaft isn't stiff, as it was brand new with the gearbox.
~ Oil used is 75W90 fully-synthetic tranmission fluid as recommended.

So I'm pretty stuck at the moment - any suggestions from anyone?

[MAD_Adamski]

personally i'd scrap it













but tbh mate if there seems no prob with the rest as i know you have changed many things, i'd send the box off...

[ianFRST]

hmmm, maybe just resign yourself to the fact its nothing down to the equipment, and thats as fast as it will change gear may sound stupid, but did any1 else think it was changing gear slow? did any1 else drive it? i mean you thought it had 230bhp, no offence like

[heeman10]

ad - Good point, I'll weight it in tomorrow Just spoken to Bernie for ages and we can't come up with anything better than "possibly the oil", so I'm sending it down to them. If only I'd been thinking I could've gone to them while I was down in Herts the weekend before last

Ian - I'm not giving up on this at all! I've been in 120,000 miles XR2is that shift effortlessly, almost dropping into gear just with the momentum of the gear lever. A brand new 'box, now with 6,000+ miles on it should be slicker than them all, which was backed up by CTS, who said their gearboxes are renowned for allowing fast gear changes. I let Rawli and Mike Wallis have a drive of it, though I can't really remember what they said Neither tried a full-bore 0-60 run and only had a lap of Brunters to play with it, and nonads had a brief go around the showgrounds at Trax, again..tricky to get the feel of it. But I know from feeling Rawli and Cl@ssy's gearshifts as well as others, mine is not as fast as it should be. And yes, it will have at least 210bhp with my new stiffened actuator bracket, hopefully past 220bhp. Will have to get a power run somewhere when I've bolted everything back together, ideally at SCC but that's MILES away!!

[ianFRST]

have you only used this gearbox in it then?

if cts say nothings up with it, id find a decent erst box and give that a try

[heeman10]

Nope, I've used two gearboxes. The first was a Harvey Gibbs gearbox, which turned out to have a diff that was in many more pieces than it should've been The fact is, this gearbox was built to order, and CTS gearboxes aren't cheap. If there's something wrong with it, they should find it and rectify the problem, FOC AFAIK. Bolting another gearbox on there won't solve my problem really. When I get my gearbox back from CTS it should be better if there was anything wrong with it. Annoyingly, I may not definitively know what the problem was, because I'll be filling it with different oil when it gets back. If it STILL isn't okay then, the car will be weighed in

[mike_wall15]

Ah rubbish
I can't see the oil being a problem, that's the right stuff to use as far as I know. What else you thinking of trying?

To be honest I can't really remember driving it. It probably did go in ok because I was only driving it really soft.
You'd certainly know if it wasn't getting into gear correctly, I don't think you're imagining it.

Hopefully if you send it off then it'll all be sorted once and for all

[ianFRST]

thats what i mean, what if cts dont find anything wrong with it?

you refit it, and its the same?

[Excursion]

Shame I didn't have a spin at SCC mate, give a second opinion on it.

Have you used genuine Ford Synthetic oil? That's what I've always used and it makes the boxes behave a lot better than with the thicker stuff.

[purple_fiesta]

Nothing to do with the linkage is it?

[Dave_B]

i had just the same problem with my release bearings, when i fitted my s2 lsd box, the drive shaft has a sheath on it making it a larger diameter. so that may just be the release bearing itself, maybe need a fiesta one?

although the bearing doesnt seem worn, there may is a much larger pressure put on it changing gear other than you spinning it in your hand.
i know its a pain to put gearboxes in and out ive tried! but maybe a new bearing oil and all back together may fix the problem.

if bernies stumped you now your causing trouble!

dave

[~nomad~]

I should have had a proper drive at SCC mate, as I said at Trax, its so hard to tell when you dont have a chance to drive the car properly. I could half see what you were saying, but at the same time I couldn't say it wasn't just because the car was new to me. Are you sure this is not linkage related thou?

[Excursion]

i had just the same problem with my release bearings, when i fitted my s2 lsd box, the drive shaft has a sheath on it making it a larger diameter. so that may just be the release bearing itself, maybe need a fiesta one?

That's the ib5 main shaft, it's larger.

[garyhurn77]

weigh it in you'll get £30-40 maybe if your lucky, would pay for a few pints to drown your sorrows

on a more serious note, hope you sort it out asap and get some good times in!

[MAD_Adamski]

stand by my suggestion, my box was s/h off gatman, BUT i used my old linkage and a new bearing asnd mine is fine james! so IMO send it off defo...