Febuary 2014

 

01/02/2014
 
Had a quick look at the rust today, will need a new wheel arch on the rear drivers side. Front bumper and headlamps are out as well as the A/C compressor.
To wet to do much else.
Trying to find a cheap gazebo to cover the car when I want to work on it.

 
02/02/2014
 
Had a think and got the old parasol out of the garage and used that to help keep me dry while I work on the car. No more drips.

Got the starter out ok after, tapped it with a hammer and off it came. I’ll take it to work once I’m happy I’m going to use it and refurbish it.
What a **** to strip the engine in the car. I’m not putting my hand up to do a head gasket on the 1.6 engine.
The heat shield for the exhaust is huge and I’m not re-using the heat shield, I had to butcher it off because the 8mm head bolts had rusted smaller than the socket. I needed a crow bar to move the shield and then break it off. Same was done for the end cam cover. Couldn’t be bothered to save it so made life easier and snapped it in 2 working my way down. (The covers are £17 on eBay)

 

 

The only way I can see it being taken off correctly is to remove the engine from the car. I want to see what’s wrong with the engine as I strip stuff off. Water pump off.

 

There was some very strange stuff in the water housing at the end of the block (gearbox side) looked like copper grease but have no idea where it’s come from?

 

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The head is off along with the o/s top engine mount.
I’m now left with the block, power steering pump and cat to remove. Cat looks like it will have to be done from the bottom. I’ll remove it correctly and keep the rest of the exhaust system intact so I can hook up to it from the 2.0 exhaust system. Hopefully tomorrow I can take enough off so the block can be lifted out on Tuesday/Wednesday.

 

04/02/2014

 

Finally got the block away from the gearbox. Exhaust cat wasn’t as bad as I thought, just 2 bolts to undo from the back of the block and leave the cat where it is. The power steering pump is off but still connected to the system.

Had a small issue with the gearbox when the block came away. The drive shaft popped out without me realising and I now have a gearbox patch on the floor. Luckily the floor area stayed dry from the rain last night so I can grab some granules from work today and soak it up.

The block has been dropped to the floor. Next plan is to raise the font of the car so I can drag the block from under the car and out. I think the next plan is to then remove the gearbox from the car and offer it up to the blacktop engine. I should be able to put it on a bench in the garage. That way I can check all the bolt holes line up and fit the starter motor ready to cut away part of the lower sump.

Once that’s in the garage I can continue stripping the engine bay bits.

Removing the A/C pipes, power steering pipes.

I’m going to be using the power steering off the Mondeo if it will fit within the engine bay. It will need rerouting as the power steering on the blacktop is at the front of the engine.

I’m want to keep the power steering working as my wife will be driving it, the more std/normal I can make the car feel, the less I will get moaned at.

 

 

My brothers fiesta when in for MOT today and failed on loads of bits, mainly welding. He needs a new rear shock so I’ve nabbed the one off the fiesta to get it through the MOT cheap. He also needs an anti-roll bar link outer CV boot. So that’s my evening done sorting all that out.

I’ll use his old shock back onto the fiesta, I’m going to getting new shocks and springs in a few months any way so it will help prop the car back up.

 

 

07/02/2014

 

Got my brothers car through the mot, so i now have a leaky rear shock on my car, at least it’s back on it’s springs.

 

Only done a little this week because of the rain, I don’t really want to get wet.

Pulled the block out from under the car last night using a engine hoist on  the front chassis legs to lift the front end up high enough then drag the block out. Surprised how light it is with oil in it, block sump and flywheel on it. Probably going to scrap it unless someone wants something off it. Sump/Flywheel Clutch/Crank Pulley..

 

 

09/02/2014

 

I have ordered the ECU for the car today complete with remote fob transponder ring and central locking module for key fob.

The ECU is CERT which is EECV the same as the 1.6 fiesta EECV – 60 pins. Paid £27.99 +p&p.

Haven’t done anything today apart from roll the car back and clean the floor then roll the car forward again. Been tiling the bathroom.

 

 

14/02/2014

 

Again I haven’t done anything for a few days. Only thing I have done is attacked the rusted out wheel arches with Jenolite and sprayed wax oil into the spaces around the rust.

Theres quite a few areas I’m going to have to sort out on the doors.

 I’m off to the Wyedean Rally this morning with the 4 year old to see some action.

Hopefully be able to get a little more done this afternoon as well as test the ECU.

 

 

15/02/2014

 

Had a good morning at the Wyedean rally. Only stayed for a few hours but saw some nice cars powering round the forest stage.

 

Fitted the ECU I got of eBay. Tested it and it puts out the pats light and primes the fuel pump, now all the ECU needs is a engine and then wire in 2 wires to the dash for the rev counter and water temp.

 

This afternoon I got my arse into gear and sorted a couple of bits out.

Had a look at the reason I’ve got water coming into the boot.

The boot latch is very rusty, not sure if it is surface rust but I will have a look another day. The water looks like it has got under the boot seal at the bottom and where the 2 skins meet. The skins had started to split though the spot welds look fine. Using a wire brush I cleaned up the joins, I then sprayed loads of wax oil down the gaps and all along the seams. I got the hammer of Thor to hit the seams together, then went over it again.

 

 

Cut off the cat from underneath using a angle grinder, not the easiest but because the cat is not attached to anything above you can move the exhaust around to get the grinder right round.

 

Disconnected the gear linkage and undone the bolts that hold the gearbox in place. Can’t remove it yet because I need to remove the o/s driveshaft. I started to remove the o/s hub.

Undo the caliper with 7mm hex socket or use a allen key, then 13mm to undo the caliper bracket. Lucky everything came off easily, surprised because everything was rusty or covered in crap.

The lower ball joint bolt came undone easy, but that’s as far as I got. I’ve order a set of spring compressors and hoping i can pop the lower ball joint of with no difficulty.

 

 

16/02/2014

 

Got a few things done today. The lower ball joint on the driver’s side came out extremely easily, the easiest on any car I’ve worked on. With the ball joint off the hub is free to move around so the drive shaft just popped out of the gear box. I unclipped the slave cylinder hose and left a container under it to collect any brake fluid. Next undo the clip on the passenger side inner CV boot so the gearbox can be free. Got the gearbox out with an engine hoist, up and over.

With the gearbox out I used some degreaser and a pressure washer to clean it through, putting the drive shaft back in to seal the gearbox.

Started on the radiator next, couldn’t see how it came off so I took off the plastic trim that sits under the bumper which is held on with 4 torx head screws. With that off you will see the 8mm bolts that hold the bottom of the A/C condenser in, undo both. The lower frame has to come off which has 2 10mm headed bolts on each chassis leg holding it up. Undo the bolts and get ready to support the frame as it will drop when the last bolt is out. The radiator fan is attached to the frame and will come apart with a little pull. My radiator was stuck on the condenser. A hammer soon sorted it out.

With the radiator out I flushed it through a few times to get any crap out of the pipes. I did it until the water came out clear.

Had a look at the rust on the drivers rear wheel arch and luckily it doesn’t go too far. I have treated the area with a bit of black paint and sprayed wax oil all over the inside.

 

 

17/02/2014

 

Took the bottom bracket for the radiators into work today to clean. Got the rust off with a wire wheel and a grinder then treated with jenolite. I just need to buy some black metal paint; Wickes seem to have some good looking stuff.

The Focus Zetec SE flywheel arrived today which should hopefully fit. It is a 220mm flywheel suitable for the clutch I’m planning to fit. All the clutch information has been supplied by a mate at LUK technical.

Got a costing of the clutch kit for a RS turbo and slave cylinder (hydraulic) at around the £100 for a LUK type delivered.

 

 

18/02/2014

 

Looked at the alternator and charging circuit today.

With the focus ECU it uses a smart charge system that is controlled by the ECU and then tells the alternator what to put out and also tells the dashboard whether to put on the alternator light on or not.

The 1.6 Zetec ECU and loom which the Focus ECU bolts directly too only has a Light and DFM on the alternator and the DFM is not really important to make the alternator work correctly. The fiesta dashboard uses the standard system for the alternator light in order to make the alternator start charging.

My plan is to use the alternator off the Mondeo (Bosch) which is different plug layout again but I’m going to put a Ford Transit regulator into the Mondeo alternator so that the system can charge using the Alternator light on the dashboard of the fiesta and keep the fiesta loom the same.

Though I do not know what the Focus ECU will think because it will not be connected to the 2 contacts on the alternator. I don’t know of any fault codes produced when we have wiring faults on the smart charge systems other than the alternator light coming on the dash – this is normal on the focus because of the ECU control.

Hopefully this makes sense.

 

 

19/02/2014

 

Got up early and had a look at the gearbox engine etc. The Mondeo black top is completely different to the 1.6 fiesta gear box except for the top 2 bolts J I don’t really want to start changing the engine round to make it fit so I’m looking at focus gearboxes 1.8 etc. Only thing is it needs to be non cable driven to change gear and I’m not sure if they made one.

Besides the gearbox not wanting to fit, the fly wheel I got looks the same as the one off the fiesta only the fiesta had a 210mm clutch on which makes no difference. I’ll double check that tonight once I can get the flywheel bolts off.

Thinking about it, if the focus gearbox will fit it may also be able to take the flywheel and 240mm clutch from the Mondeo saving me money for a new clutch. (the Mondeo clutch has done about 10k)

The crank sensor is also to close to the crank for the 1.6 flywheel to work properly. If I undo the crank sensor bracket from the end of the block, it can then be rotated round to move the sensor further out from the crank. A new hole will need to be drilled and tapped, but because it carries no strain it shouldn’t be a problem.

 

 

21/02/2014

 

Started looking more closely at the gearbox/engine arrangement.

The Black top won't fit on to the 1.6 gearbox. The bolt pattern on the gearbox is wrong for the bottom (sump) on the engine. The starter is high up and would need part of the engine block removed where the crank sensor sits.

I was thinking about fitting a MTX75 gearbox from a focus into the car. I wasn’t to worried about the gearlever, cables, but more concerned about mounting the gearbox in the fiesta. I would have to get a lot of welding/fabricating done to make it work, and also get the drive shafts changed too.

Currently looking for a 1.8 focus/escort engine block with the sump, pick up, dipstick and tube attached. I'll take the bits listed above and fit them onto the blacktop engine, that will sort out the bolt patterns to make it fit onto the IB5 gearbox.

This will give loads of choice on the gear box I need to fit.

The fiesta 1.6 has a hydraulic clutch and rod gear changes. The starter location on most of the IB5 boxes is at the front either top or bottom. Some of the gearboxes have the starters at the rear which will make fitting a lot better and no need to  cut the blacktop about to make it fit.

Having a look around with the huge help of Sav, a KA box has all the requirements I need except the back end (main box) doesn’t have the mounts built onto it so it cant be attached to the fiesta chassis leg. I could adapt 2 gearboxes using the 1.6 gearbox and the KA bell housing to make it work though i won’t be able to get back any money from old bits.

However though not as common (from looking) the 1.3 Fiesta Endura box has everything, rear starter, hydraulic, rod change and the mounting point to attach to the chassis leg.

I’m going to aim for this box (which will allow me to sell the 1.6 gearbox at a later date) but if I have no luck in the next few weeks I’ll get hold of a KA box and do a swap around.

I will also keep my eye out for a complete car/rust bucket I could rob from and sell the rest of the stuff.

 

 

29/02/2014

 

Been a bit quiet for the past week trying to get my head round how I’m going to get the engine mated up to the gear box, Ii mentioned a few different ways so have now decided to go with the sump off a 1.6 silver top and a 1.3 IB5 gearbox off a fiesta.

I’m not rushing as I will use the 1.6 gearbox as a mock up in the mean time to fit the engine into the engine bay.

Missed out on a 1.3 Endura engine fiesta the other night for £340, gutted as the car looked in better nick than my current fiesta, also it was 3 door.

Bought a 1.6 silver top off eBay for £110 which comes complete with ancillaries, flywheel and clutch. It looks to solve the alternator mounting problem too and means I can start to sell a few spare parts that I will no longer need.

  January 2014 March 2014