fiestaturbo.com

[mike_wall15]

Ah yes, I remember the flexing Be good to get it sorted if possible.
Fair comment with the nuts

[MarkRS2K]

so hows it running then?

[mike_wall15]

so hows it running then?

He hasn't put it all back together yet
He's a slow one our James-lad!

[MAD_Adamski]

good its all sorted lets hope that weld holds this time

[MarkRS2K]

sort it out jim

[heeman10]

so hows it running then?

I'll tell you tomorrow! I didn't have any coolant last night to replace the 2 litres or so I had to drop when removing the top rad hose to allow me to remove the turbo etc. I picked some up this morning (had to run a 150 mile errand for my dad ) then had a dinner to go to tonight. Only have 5 minutes' spanner work to do then bleed the coolant system and take it out on the roads. Sure it'll run just the same as it did before, but that's good enough for me for now!

[xrsi]

i think then that the flex of the actuator bracket could be putting additional stress on the weld, not just the launch control and rev limiter...

may be worth thinking about, but im not sure how you will get round that without having either braces made or thicker plate for the bracket.

out of interest how far forward have you moved the rad? as mine has most of the catch assembly removed and ground away so that the rad can be almost touching it given loads of clearance at the rear of the rad, if you could do something like this is it has not alread been done may mean that an origional bracket could be used again solving atleast half of the possible the problem.

[heeman10]

James - Without testing it on a rig (i.e. introducing air at 1.2 bar to the actuator to see the real-world operation of the system) I can't say just how much the bracket is flexing. As you know, the actuator rod has a range of movement away from perfectly perpendicular to the actuator itself. I'd expect the motion of the rod caused by the bracket flex to remain inside that range of movement, but cannot tell without setting up a test rig as above. It's certainly not an impossibility. My radiator is as far forward as it can go - we all know radiator positioning is critical in the Fiesta! I've angle the bonnet latch bracket forward a bit, but the radiator's position is also constrained by the radiator fan, intercooler, intercooler fan and bonnet bar. All positions have been compromised to allow fitment of the fans, fitment of the cooler at the front of the car in terms of bumper position, fan position and position of the "out" pipe at the top of the intercooler with relation to the charge carrier and top boost hose etc etc. None of that will change

[garyhurn77]

good to see it back in one piece again mate!

hope all is well when you take it for a spin

[heeman10]

Well I've just taken it for a spin down some roads, first on low boost, building boost up slowly and watching everything...then up to high boost, giving it more and more until finally unleashing it full throttle to the limiter and all is fine....apart from the fact that it feels slower than the last time I took it out It was definitely more laggy, and didn't seem to have as much punch as it did previously. It used to have nigh on no lag whatsoever, and as soon as it was up to 3,500rpm it banged in full boost within a second and barrelled along. It might feel slower just because it was laggy, but I'm sure it was down on power.

I ran it without the dump valve - first time in around a year, so I'm wondering if the recirculating valve had been so effective that it reduced lag a hell of a lot more than I ever thought it would. Next step is to plumb the dump valve back in and take it out again. If I see no difference, it must be down to the damage to the compressor blades, as minimal as it is. Hopefully Turbo Technics will be a little more personable next time I call up, and give me some advice. The length of the chatter without the dump valve is unreal, lifting off to brake coming to a junction it'll still be chirruping away by the time I've stopped!

[Excursion]

Can we have some videos please.

[xrsi]

James - Without testing it on a rig (i.e. introducing air at 1.2 bar to the actuator to see the real-world operation of the system) I can't say just how much the bracket is flexing. As you know, the actuator rod has a range of movement away from perfectly perpendicular to the actuator itself. I'd expect the motion of the rod caused by the bracket flex to remain inside that range of movement, but cannot tell without setting up a test rig as above. It's certainly not an impossibility. My radiator is as far forward as it can go - we all know radiator positioning is critical in the Fiesta! I've angle the bonnet latch bracket forward a bit, but the radiator's position is also constrained by the radiator fan, intercooler, intercooler fan and bonnet bar. All positions have been compromised to allow fitment of the fans, fitment of the cooler at the front of the car in terms of bumper position, fan position and position of the "out" pipe at the top of the intercooler with relation to the charge carrier and top boost hose etc etc. None of that will change

yeah i know the difficulties of actualy getting the actuator to stimulate what is happening in real world conditions, it could be neigh on impossible actually getting it to show in a controled test what is happening as the car is driven as time of opening and force of opening could change dramatically.

as for rad, i have completely removed all the bar that goes between the latch and the lower cross member, this has not only enabled me to position both fans on the rad but also angle it slightly differently and also futher forwards. The intercooler i had modified extensively to what radtech actually sent out to me by them when i collected my rad an have been able to move it as far forward as poss by extending the top and bottom boost hoses.

however this could prove a limiting factor as i am sick of the look of the car with a cosworth front bumper on and am seriously thinking about going to a turbo bumper with cutout like yours, however the positioning of the intercooler could easily stop this from happening!

[heeman10]

Can we have some videos please.

I'll have to get out with the headlight/interior camera again when there's a sunny day. There's one particular road about 20 minutes away from me, and it takes about half an hour to drive the whole thing. I badly want to go there, but would prefer to take someone with me and position them out on the fell with the tripod to take some proper footage. Any takers?!

James - I can imagine the Cosworth bumper helps quite a bit when it comes to freeing up more space...can't have it all eh?!

[D.J]

Really strange question but i'm gonna ask it anyway, would it be possilbe to position your camera (securely) under the bonnet in the direction of the actuator bracket to see what movement there is on it?

[~Tony~]

ireckon it would be possible, but would be very tight in the bay to get the camera in, that and if anything moved just a little bit to far it could prove an expensive "what if".

ALso i'd imagine to see it clearly camera would have to be low down so could get hit by stones etc

[heeman10]

Really strange question but i'm gonna ask it anyway, would it be possilbe to position your camera (securely) under the bonnet in the direction of the actuator bracket to see what movement there is on it?

Not too strange a question The underbonnet temperatures make it a pretty hostile place for anything electronic, particularly anywhere near enough the turbo to give the camcorder a clear line of sight to the actuator, so that's pretty much a no-go.

However, the camera CAN be secured in the headlight I made, which I did again today - two 4-minute vids will be online tomorrow, from inside the car and from the headlight cam A fairly near-miss also came out rather well...a van decided to take to my side of the road while I was overtaking him...makes for erm...fun viewing at least!

[heeman10]

Two videos of the car, taken on Thursday out and about near me

Right-Click and Save Target As:

http://smoweb.co.uk/uploads/videos/Part1.avi

http://smoweb.co.uk/uploads/videos/Part2.avi

Thanks to Smo for hosting them!


Update

After fitting the turbo back on the car on Tuesday, I blocked off the dump valve hoses to see how the car ran without it. It's been on the car for well over six months now, so I thought it was a good time to see what difference it made to the car's driveability when it was removed. Upon taking the car out, it immediately felt flat and extremely laggy, although it was still boosting to the same pressures it had been before. I hoped it wasn't anything to do with the turbo, and gave it all a thorough testing, building from low boost levels, gradually up to full boost at the rev limiter and all was fine.

On Thursday, I fitted the dump valve and the recirculating hose back to the car and took it out to film the two videos above. The difference was incredible - lag was dramatically reduced, both from very low revs off-throttle and at high revs coming on and off the throttle. This dump valve clearly has a huge part to play in the throttle response I get from the car in terms of spool-up times, and I'm glad I've finally assessed its performance in such a clean-cut way

I'm in the middle of giving the whole car the best clean it's ever had. Today saw me washing it with a microfibre wash mitt, followed by a bloody long claying session. The next step will be polishing it once I've ordered my polishes from Gaz, and hopefully it'll come up better than it's been for quite a while. Will stick pics up once it's all done

[richard_p88]

Thanks for the video's, downloading but it's a bit slowwwww. Oh well...

Nice DV assessment too!

[MarkRS2K]

good stuff mate and you wont be dissappointed with the results from the clay/polish sessions

[DaveRom]

That time white van man tried to side swipe James.

What a c**t

[heeman10]

I'll get him back...somehow...anyone got a bigger white van for sale? How's tha doing Dave? What's all this talk of beiges and chips?

[heeman10]

I forgot to say...since leaving the turbo insulation off to allow me to keep an eye on it for a short while, and to make actuator tweaks, I've noted what I thought might happen. When I fitted the kit, the car hadn't been running long at all, and during the summer (being British) the temperatures were fluctuating a lot.

Much like with the dump valve, I have no become accustomed to the ACT's I can expect with the turbo insulation kit in place. Now that it's removed, I've noted a marked increase in temps, possibly as much as 5 degrees Celsius. The underbonnet temps are much higher too, as expected, so I will be cutting another two layers of insulation and fitting them back at some point. The bumper/cooler/radiator need to come off to do that really, so I'll wait for a convenient point to make the changes.

[Excursion]

Nice post mate, can't beat a bit of development reporting.

I use exhaust wrap from http://www.thinkauto.co.uk, they supply some BTCC teams with it, it's comprised of thick strands and it's only £2 ish a metre!

[heeman10]

I love their site You'll probably recall that my exhaust manifold is all wrapped in 1" exhaust wrap, as is my downpipe till just after the sump, double wrapped at the starter motor/alternator. I had a specific turbo insulation kit fitted to the turbo, which is far better and neater than the usual exhaust wrap. Here's a shot of it in place before I removed it when I sent the turbo away:





There were no such kits in the UK at the time so I imported this DEI kit and still have enough left to make up another kit

[Excursion]

Yeah I know that bud but I thought you were going to wrap it all up with twice as much? Must have been dreaming again, done that lots today!

[heeman10]

Dreaming indeed, I mentioned no such thing

[DaveRom]

I'll get him back...somehow...anyone got a bigger white van for sale? How's tha doing Dave? What's all this talk of beiges and chips?

Not bad kid

It was to put me on while main project is on going. Couldn't sell turbo for what i wanted or 175 chip so putting it back on road while Mark gets busy.

It looks like a proper fiesta turbo again now, green stripes and original bumpers

[heeman10]

Well then why haven't you put pics up? Bet it looks reet good What's happening with Brunters?

[DaveRom]

Well me boss is going on maternity leave after today chap so i planned on having 3 days this week having a phone around and seeing what can be sorted.

I'll post up all details either way.

You'll have to wait for car pics. I put a door strip on wonky

[heeman10]

Good news about the boss going on maternity leave - I hope everything works out for him You been sticking things on after hitting the streets of Barnsley? Will await details of Brunters

[DaveRom]

Free phone calls mate

Its the passenger door one. I don't know what went wrong. Looks a lot better though now.

Need to modify the front bumper though like yours. Looks a pig to do. I might just chop it for now and not make the box section.

[heeman10]

Dave - Get pics up, I want to see your wonky green lines

Update

My car hadn't been properly polished since God knows when - Ford Fair last year I think?!! As a few of us have done, I bought a few products from Gaz, and altered my cleaning technique. I wanted to make the car looks as good as it used to until 2-3 years ago when it seemed to start ageing. It needs a respray, but I've made do with a bloody good wash > claying session > ClearKote VMG (red T-Cut on the front bumper to help cut into my rattle can spraying and to bring it up to match the rest of the car a little) > Optimum Car Wax. I've also blacked everything that needed blacking, and I must say it looked a hell of a lot happier for that lot. All in all it's taken around 5-6 hours I'd say, and I haven't done the interior, engine bay or underside in that time!

Seeing as it was such a damn nice afternoon and my parents were out, I nicked my dad's old Mavica digicam (beats my cameraphone) and went for a 4-5 mile drive to get some shots. Fourteen in fact, so take your pick!













This camera is extremely good at showing the red of my car usually, but in certain light conditions (pretty much all the shots today!! ) it can make the car look quite orangey...this one would've been quite nice if it hadn't come out orange!!













Original filler cap area still going strong






Needless to say the drive home was a lot more fun than the drive there, when I was trying not to brake and get dust everywhere

I must say I don't really have a lot of plans for the moment. It's still blasting along as well as ever, but since I should be moving into a place of my own within the next couple of months, I'm not going to start anything major. Someone offered to trade my car for his Escort Cosworth last week - the new challenge and beginning from scratch again was a little tempting I must say!

[heeman10]

P.S. I've just noticed that by saving the images at 770 pixels width as opposed to the 750 pixels I usually use, the web page is all annoyingly stretched out. Sorry!

[Mish]

Love it.

Great thread, just had a read of it today- you certainly no your stuff

Cars amazing, I love it....something I hope mine is like in the future.

[Max M4X WW]

P.S. I've just noticed that by saving the images at 770 pixels width as opposed to the 750 pixels I usually use, the web page is all annoyingly stretched out. Sorry!

Not if you use a proper resolution!