Light at the end of the (transmission) tunnel.

With the engine bay repairs completed it was time for the engine modifications. It all started with an ST170 engine from a 2004 Ford Focus...

When fitting a Zetec engine into a mk1 Escort a number of modifications are required. The engine comes from a FWD Focus, and we're putting it into a RWD Escort. As such the sump fitted to the engine originally is the wrong shape and would foul the crossmember in the Escort. Several more engine parts need replacing too.

Cue this quite expensive bundle of parts from Retro Ford. The flywheel is a Zetec item, machined to accept the Pinto clutch. Also pictured are the engine mounts, water rail kit, oil pick-up pipe and dipstick tube.

They are all pretty nice items. The sump especially is a quality piece of kit. There are cheaper options available to those wanting to do this conversion. A modified sump from a donor car made to fit might be slightly cheaper, but this sump does look the business.

These engine mounts sit the engine in just the right place in the bay. It was always going to be a tight squeeze. At this stage it wasn't yet clear just how tight it was going to be, but more on that later.

The water rail assembly streamlines the back of the engine and allows valuable bulkhead clearance over the standard items. Bulkhead clearance is something that is perhaps always going to be in short supply when trying to fit a bigger engine into an older car. Clearance in general is in short supply. Why make life easy for yourself?

So, old sump off and removal of old gasket!

After a nice clean up of the old sealant from the block face and journals it was time to fit the new oil pick-up pipe.

A special bolt (part of the kit from Retro Ford) replaces a stock bolt and provides support for the new pick-up pipe.

I was pretty pleased with how this all went together. When things go together smoothly it's an exciting time in any build. Visualising the first drive before the engine is even in the car. There's still an awful lot of work to do.

With that all tightened down and looking decidedly mechanical it was sump fitting time. 

Following the supplied instructions the new sealant was applied to the journals and not the block face.

Then the sump slipped into place..

  and the initial engine build was complete.

The Ford Type 9 gearbox is a pretty good choice for this conversion. It's found mostly in Sierras and later Capri's. The bolt pattern is the same on most Ford blocks/bell housings, which is handy.

The clutch fork can be seen here with new bearing in front of it. It is possible to go for a hydraulic clutch conversion. It's more expensive than the cable option. Benefits would include lesser pedal effort and possibly more reliability but the cable is a pretty simple set up really. It's not sophisticated but there's not much to go wrong.

Gearbox and engine are introduced to one another. Off they went into the engine bay smoothly without a care in the world.

Unfortunately that isn't quite what happened. The engine and gearbox had to have a temporary separation in a series of attempts to try and fit the two into the car. It turns out that with a standard gearbox tunnel the combination of Zetec engine and Type 9 gearbox simply will not fit. I had read that the fitting of a Type 9 gearbox into a mk1 Escort would only require minimal tunnel massaging. So I massaged minimally. Then I massaged slightly more. However this is when a Type 9 gearbox is added to an earlier engine thus leaving the location of the gearbox largely unchanged. Zetec conversions actually move the gearbox back a bit.

The solution to this is to chop out the existing tunnel and put a new, larger one in. So out came the angle grinder and sure enough..

The engine is now sat in place with the gearbox attached.

The next post will include details of the tunnel modifications and the making of a nice new gearbox mount! 

Bodywork and paint

To say that bodywork takes quite a while is a bit of an understatement. Templates, cutting out the steel, welding it in, preparing it for paint. All of these things take a lot of time.

In the last entry I detailed what my plans were for taking care of the rust problem in the suspension turret. The above and below photos give an idea of the size of the strengthening patch needed, albeit covered in a bit too much filler at the time of the photos.  

The adjoining bulkhead area received the same treatment. The existing lip section of the bulkhead had all but rotted away and a past owner of the car had used a fair amount of filler to provide a temporary solution. After stripping away the old filler, new metal was welded in, then filler used to smooth it out.

Next up was primer.

Followed by a lovely bit of blue!

 

I opted to use a cellulose paint with an acrylic lacquer. The results are pretty good in my opinion. Although I'm sure a professional paint sprayer would find fault with the finish, I'm happy with it.

The lacquer adds the shine in the sunlight. It just needs a bit of a polish up and then it'll be done and onto more assembly.

Hopefully the next post will see an engine between those wings. 

The Quest for Power

I'd always toyed with the idea of increasing the power a bit. The 1275 non-Cooper models for the most part came with the hif38 carburettor and quite an easy way of getting a bit more power is to fit the larger carburettor from the hif range, the hif44. To buy them new is silly money, luckily there are plenty around as they were used on many different vehicles.

To compliment the new carburettor, a new exhaust manifold, inlet manifold and air filter were purchased.

The difference in size can be seen here. On the left is the hif38, and the right the hif44. The simple theory of more fuel in, more exhaust gasses out smoothly carries on when the shape of the exhaust manifold is considered..

The replacement manifold, as well as being lighter than the old one, is also a better shape. The 'LCB' or 'Long Centre Branch' exhaust supposedly increases torque over the standard manifold.

Quality piece of kit!

As my car is a 1994 model with a catalytic converter I needed to make a piece to fit between the end of the new manifold's Y-piece (seen at the far end of the pipe in the above picture) and the cat itself. I used the flange cut off the old exhaust and bent and welded a new short section in to bridge the gap.

The new carburettor fully mounted up on the new inlet manifold.

All fitted into the engine bay nicely.

The next step is to get it rolling road tuned properly. It's running at the moment and certainly feels like it's got more grunt than it did before but to really get the best out of it the rolling road is next!

Back in black.

The wheel arches were looking a little sorry for themselves - rough around the edges and wearing a few scars from their initial fitting. So in the garage/workshop/paint booth/storage area/anything else it needs to be until I somehow manage to afford to have a large work area this week... I got on with the job of prepping and painting!

Painting is a tricky task. It's a fact often overlooked until a rushed job results in a bad finish but with the right guidance a decent finish can be achieved using modest tools and equipment. Sadly the budget doesn't yet stretch to a professional set up so spray cans were the order of the day. 

Preparing a surface for primer requires a 'key' for the primer to stick to. The idea being that if the surface is completely smooth before you begin the primer won't want to stay where you're spraying it. Roughing up the surface ever so slightly provides bumps and ridges, a bit of texture to aid the process. 

At the point of the above photo it's probably quite normal to be having second thoughts about the mess you're potentially making. 

A few coats of primer. It dries quite quickly and providing the spraying action is as smooth as possible it gives a smooth, even covering. 

A very fine grit sandpaper will smooth out any minor runs/lumps and prepare the primer for the next stage. This is over 24 hours later though, having allowed the primer to dry thoroughly. 

Lovely, glossy black! For a spray can job they've not turned out badly at all.

I've used a small finishing strip to sit between the arch and the body. Purchased for around £1 per metre it just gives a nicer finish than the edge of the fibreglass and provides a little rubber buffer to achieve a better fit against the body.

That's all for now!

Time for a new clutch

The clutch on this car had been contaminated by the oil leaking from the oil seal on the primary gear. There's a post about that here. At the time I didn't change the clutch plate. I'd hoped the clutch slip would be over soon as I'd stopped the oil leak.. no such luck! As it turned out the damage had already been done. So my Saturday afternoon task (a mere three months after my last post - oops) was a clutch change!

The trouble with changing the clutch isn't the clutch itself - it's all the other bits of machinery and whatnot in the way that have to be removed first. And as charming as the Mini is, the engine bay isn't exactly spacious. Bruised knuckles, fatigued finger tips and grime-covered forearms are pretty much guaranteed every time there's a job to do in the under the bonnet. But.. a little while later and after a few expletives the clutch and flywheel assembly was out.

Even though having the clutch and flywheel assembly out again made me think deeply about the beauty of hindsight, it did allow me to check the oil seal work I'd done. Every cloud has a silver lining.. I suppose.

With the pressure plate removed the clutch plate itself is revealed. Oily and slick. As the job of the clutch is to provide friction these are two pretty bad qualities to have.

A smear of leftover oil can be seen on the friction surface below. Oil where there shouldn't be oil is about as useful as a calculator in a Spanish exam in this setting.

So for a lovely, grippy and friction-filled time a new clutch plate saved the day.

 

A few more words of wisdom you wouldn't want your grandma to hear and a bit of struggling later and it was all back together. 

With the test drive complete having experienced no discernible clutch slippage I think the day could be declared successful! 

I'll get around to painting those arches sometime..