Leaderboard

Sorry about the IG photos, didn't take any other than saving them off my story, whoops.

Heads all back on, timing done, exhaust back on, wiring underway. Been tweaking some bits in the bay, re routing wiring to hide it below the manifold etc. Starting to tidy up really nice, waiting for distributor to come back then I'll mount the carbs permanently. Hopefully at the tuner early December.

Back to the story at hand - with the motor now ported, it left me with quite a dilemma. I bought this car with a specific budget to get it all done and dusted. I procrastinated for a few months while figuring out the next step. I even debated using the stock twins and the existing bolt on stuff, but deep down I knew that the stock turbos would just end up hurting the motor. One of my other good friends is a bit of a encyclopedia for turbo knowledge so I turned to him for advice. I was after something that could flow 400-450hp without giving away too much response. The ideal turbo would have been the Borg Warner EFR8374, but I couldn't afford a $4500 turbo. So the next best option was this guy: A Borg Warner S300SX-E, sorta the poor man's EFR8374. I chose a slighter smaller than usual 1.0 AR twin scroll turbine housing in an attempt to keep the boost threshold at a reasonable point, at the expense of some top end power. Given the most powerful car I've owned before was a 220kw turbo 4age, giving away some horsepower wasn't a real concern! I made another trip up to Auckland to dress the block up and install the motor - the turbo looks fucking huge compared to a bare bones 13B! And pretty snug in an FD engine bay too Because pedantry, I replaced most of the bolts on the motor, and engine bay, with shiny new gold passivated ones. I also splashed out and bought new coolant and washer fluid bottles, as the ones in the engine bay were all fucky. I also made the unusual (apparently) call to retain the stock OMP. Everybody says they fail yada yada yada, but I've not seen any concrete evidence that the electronic ones do. And also modern ECU tech can control them, so why the hell not? Modern ECU tech also means I ditched the Power FC once again, but this time replacing it with a Link G4 plug in It also meant a decent fuel system upgrade in the form of 1050cc primary injectors and 1550cc secondaries fed by one of the other wonders of modern tech, a brushless drop in fuel pump, capable of suppling well over 500hp worth of fuel. Thank god the days of Whinebro pumps are over! With this in the hole, only minor fabrication was needed to get it ready to fire up!

so i bought a new (for me ..actually the newest car I've ever owned ) daily driver.(had it since august now) its a 2003 mk1 ford focus st170. i have wanted one of these for a long time and we didnt get many at all here in nz so they dont come up for sale ...very often .. they are problematic and are known to had issues from the day they came off the production line. but that problematic nature got me a good deal..it was $6900 from the dealer and had been traded in..(177000 odd ks.......should have imploded by now)..but evertime time someone test drove it the check engine light came on ..so they returned it...i drove it 3 times over the space of a week and the light came on within the test drive each time. (5min -30min). so i went back and just said i would take it off they're hands for $3500 with no warranty ....just slap a wof and reg on it and ill take it...(dont think they did much reading up on it.) few days later and probably a few other test drives they rang me and i went and picked it up...(engine light came on on the way home.) but as im pretty updo date on these things i also know that nothing the engine light comes on for will put it into limp mode....and some have had the light on for 10 years in the uk lol....they even say you should be concerned if it doesn't come on.... so a small run down on these mk1 focus st170. the motor is a 2.0 zetec (not duratec as it says on plug cover).the motor was developed by cosworth and is 2.0 block with forged pistons and a 10.2 compression. . alloy high flow head (the flow is shit to be honest and people have had huge gains porting them) , vvt on the intake (problematic) dual stage intake manifold (the controller is problematic ) stainless 4 into 2 into1 headers and high flow cat..and a sports exhaust ( sounds good) ..has a pre and post cat o2 seonsors (also problematic ).has a factory cold air feed to air box that doesnt acutallu go to the airbox. a dual mass flywheel 9 that i cant stand)and all of this is good for 170hp and the cut is 8000rpm. has a close ratio 6 speed box , quick rack steering , huge brakes front and rear , factory 17s with 215 tyres, traction control , factory reacrao seats , . and being a jap inport it doesnt have the uk rust ( and these things are dropping down in numbers daily due to the rust issues.)...its a blood fun car and handles well......even cocks a leg when you throw it into roundabouts.. since i had it ive had the inlet runner controler apart and cleared that code...replaced the pre o2 and cleared that code....(engine light came back on the same day lol). replaced the plugs (not cheap and need to be gapped at 1mm no more and no less...runs like shit otherwise)...i do have a new coil pack and leads on the way as well... i pulled the inlet manifold off last weekend (complete arse of a job) re greased the moving parts and changed the broken vacume hoses ..made a cold air feed and thats where im upto now.... i do have some plans for it slowly as it is my daily (seems better on 100 octane as well)..and just fix things as they go wrong......... and here she it......in imperial blue as well......mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm imperial blue

This morning after dropping out the minuscule fuel tank I temporarily refitted the front suspension and pushed the Thames out into the sunlight. It's the first time it's left the shed in about 6 months. I couldn't resist taking a few snaps of it in daylight. It's sitting pretty high with all of the weight removed. It's going to stay outside until I've cleaned up the underside. Tomorrow I'll crack into it with some degreaser and my pressure cleaner.

I ended up removing the passenger upper and lower control arms and I've replaced all the bushes including swaybar. I picked up my pitman arm looks good My inner tie rod also arrived. Before I removed the old one I marked where to wind it in till and matched it up with this one. All back in and steering feels really nice now you beauty. I've wired up my park lights and theyre working mint now, replaced a couple of blown bulbs in the rear too. Tomorrow I'll weld in a center exhaust hanger and should be ready for the re check friday afternoon.

Dynafari! how good!

Ha, that was the first thing I did when I got home just to make sure it actually happened...

I had a close call the other day! A rather high truck popped its tow ball bang into the center of my tail light, no panel damage thankfully. They agreed to sort it out and paid for a set of brand new rear lenses to be shipped over. In the mean time I had 1 old L/R lens on the shelf so I could keep on driving. We've managed to put 8,000km on the old girl in the 6 months she's been back on the road! Up and down the South Island with no problems so far. I've probably been a bit hard on it in my excitement because the clutch is feeling like it may need replacing soon, might pay to bed the next one in properly first... I still want to lower it some time, but the current height is pretty handy with how many gravel roads I find myself on. Perhaps air bags are in it's future? We'll see, for now it's too much fun to drive to put it back in the garage.

Gotta up my fancy game as there is a new CT125 on this trip.

@Dudley trying to flex on us with his extended lca with fresh black paint. probably got a ndt crack test done as well Oh an yeah the car isnt that broken, just lca poped tyre, and shock needs more oil, maybe seal stuffed. Hydro bumps worked good. watching the roll in slow mo looks like the steering arm over centered and the wheel jamed, along with lack of oil in shock done the weird bouncy thing and over she goes. extended lca's should make it a bit more stable and get rid of some of that positive camber when suspension droops

awwww unluggy

Not even my car @Dudley , but is amazing. Ke20 with big block 4k beyond repair. but instead of getting parted or scraped, it lives on

We made it

Send him down the paddock. The mud will be soft

dont forget the battery falling out the other end. and yeah nar this isn't the discussion thread this is:

Tori go get brents spare motor

Welded on an exhaust hanger tonight and did a bolt check, everything's buttoned up and ready for wof re check tomorrow. See what wof man says.. turns out those red springs are lowering springs.. and completely slammed the crown. Juuuust under 100mm to cross member

Have had to pull the pin on the riding part of this weekend, but I will still be in Gisborne tomorrow night, and Waikaremoana on Saturday night, and likely tail you during the day on Saturday. Looking forward to some punishing sharns and refreshing beverages. All whilst knowing I will be sitting in air conditioned luxury transport during the day.

Fuck I'm slayed. @Thphantum has stitched me up. Currently at @HighLUX house. See you kearns some time

No one likes a bent cigar.

/first boat nats was about 10 years ago...there were 2 boats

i did mate and i willing to work through the issues....might eliminate some later on down the line with a black top head and maybe inlet ....turbo and a link ecu. lol

i look forward to the inaugural OS boat nats

Still plenty of parts available for those old johnsons Find the right model on crowleymarine.com and quote the part number you need at the local boat shop Iv just resurrected a 87 4hp and 89 15hp with a couple of days work and $120 of parts between the two

Ahem. Seagull...

Im loaded up and fizzin

So both Jon and I are rotary guys from way back - we met back in the 90s while both driving FCs, and hung out in Paraparaumu. People from the region will know of the reputation it had for breeding some rowdy, rough, rugged and the occasional pretty quick rotary. Legend has it the very first rotor DX came from there! Naturally because of this, Jon wanted to build a bridgeport motor for this car. I wasn't super into the idea, as to do a bridgeport justice, it'd need way more serious gear than the car came with. Plus they aren't the most user friendly things for low speed, around town, general cruising, and I really just wanted something pretty quick but still usable. The stuff the car came with would easily support 220kw, which is heaps for a road car in reality. So I put the kaibosh on the idea. Stock ports are fine for what I want!. I get a message from Jon a few days later "Hey, it looks like they must test run these crate motors" Ahhh, why do you say that??? 'There's a bit of rust in the cooling jacket..." Oh FFS, I guess this is happening then. I got many pic updates over the following days as he quite gleefully hacked into my BRAND FUCKING NEW irons Now the first issue that I'd need to tackle anyway, was a decent clutch, because even a mild tune REW would torch a standard clutch without much hassle. No worries says Jon, I've got the old clutch from my Skyline, it'll be perfect for this. An OS Giken TS2B twin plate, with the necessary pull/push converter. Had done sub 1500km before he did a big upgrade, so ideal, albeit overkill for what I wanted. While it was in bits, I figured that I might as well get it all balanced, just for peace of mind. So the whole rotating assembly was sent off, returned all matchy matchy, and duly assembled.

suspension was on point tho. till it broke. think a shock blew out aiding to the rollover. this wasn't the biggest jump..

Thoughts on next monthly meet going for a cruise to say out the whangarei heads? Grab some fish n chips and do usual yarns, park up for scenic pictures even..... it is summer so yeah. Any interest?

CT for Tori

Yeah it's bad value for sure. One of those 2.2L cylinders probably costs the same as a full size cylinder refill. Costs a bit more up front, but having a cylinder tucked away means you can weld as much as you want. Could pick up a cheap reg off trademe and a cylinder off there too for not silly money. Test every 5 years ~$100 (with co2 fill) and no other costs other than refills. If you really have super limited need, just give someone a Rutherford to bring their welder over and get it sorted. Rental options when I first started were super limited, so I purchased a cylinder. The bunnings deals seem all good now. $250 gets you a 5KG co2 cylinder delivered (trademe) plus ~$70 for reg delivered (trademe). Bit more than the above combo of 2.2L cylinder + a reg. But you'd get 50 times the repairs done i'd say.

For anyone wanting to put their mind at ease, here ya go. http://metvuw.com/forecast/forecast.php?type=rain&region=nzni&noofdays=5 A little drizzle Friday morning, and should be ok till we race the weather back to J5's house on Sunday.

The courier dropped off my 12 volt cooling fan yesterday so I positioned it on the Thames radiator to check clearances. Looks pretty good. The box type uprights on the front beam are all welded up. Just need to give it a final tidy up and trim the crush tubes. The box uprights are still only tacked to the chassis mounting plates as I want to get the van on a wheel alignment machine to make sure everything is true before finalising those welds. Apologies for the pic quality.

Congratulations! I really want to see this flinging mud high into the sky from all 4 wheels, black smoke pouring from the exhaust, even better if there's a picture of you completely covered in mud other than a wide pearly white smile.

Made a quick pressure test rig (out of some wood and cork gaskets and screws to hold a seal) to test intake for leaks, which it has, and I will have to fix a couple of pinholes but there's one spot I can't get the tig into to weld so going to have to get creative to weld that as its leaking air maybe a bit of bad planning on my part. Tested the water jacket/port too and one of my fittings needs a bit better seal also, all things that happen but easily fixed outside the car. And engine mounts are in and final and driveshaft bolted with some slightly modified bolts to fit them in place

The back fell off, but the side's looking good.

Fitting up well. Inserts and removable pieces are looking good. Its going to take a bit of bog before paint and a lot of sanding afterwards.

Trumpets are perfection. Faster and cheaper than I could have got anywhere else and made to order. Highly recommend Spun by Hutty (Phil)

Had a little accident before first test run. they were a bit close to the ground . so yeh fail. think they would have done ok, if made it into the paddock and not hit bit of concrete on side of driveway haha enter v2 these were front strut inserts. so bigger shafts. sealed gas shocks, you know the ones that say dont open or heat. i did neither of course. they are twin tube, so the outside bit just holds oil and nitrogen pressure. they have a pretty basic shimstack that bolts to end of shaft. i drilled out the rebound bleed holes and modified the shim to bypass more oil on rebound. done this so they return faster. plus the other butchery can plainly see in pic. the only real pain in the ass was the seal at the top. it just pushes up against the outer housing. so i had to preload the housing when welding them back together. put 90psi compressed air in them. one had slight leak with air in it alone. but seemed to fix itself once put oil in them. So.. they actually act like real hydro bumps. as the shaft goes in it compresses the air more and acts like a spring. along with the compression valving. the dumbed down rebound valving lets them pop out fast but not too fast, so shouldn't push the car back up. should be able to mess with oil level and air pressure to make them harder of softer if dont explode first. they have 50mm travel

So then old mate @Dudley with one too many clutch kicks snaps an axle. then winter comes along, so been parked up for many months. fast forward to now'ish. the paddock drying out and the gc begging for some upgrades first up the front shocks. still had the og toyota shocks in the stuts. which means can be pulled apart and modified cut the internal stop off and welded it back on 40mm lower down done some janky mods to the valving in the shocks so has more compression valving. plus ae85 springs = 40mm more travel. 9inch in total got em in there just full droop, should be enough to pass a cert on the ground, pretty much textbook offroad spec 50/50 droop compression

Yeah I'll probably take the back seats out but that's probably about it. Definitely not going to chip off underseal and all that. It's genuinely a nice car so I'm trying not to wreck it too much. But anyway: Apart from the throttle centers being a little to close together for the linkages to work, this is all fits up great in terms of clearance to everything. The dipstick can stay where it normally is, the radiator cap fitting needs to move a little but no big deal, and it clears the alternator easily without doing anything. The standard throttle cable will work, will just need to depin and repin the TPS but that's easy enough. Once I've got the throttle spacings sorted I'll get some nylon and try bang out a proper one!

Skeet skeet felt really good to finally drive it again, change gears, and get past 7000rpm. the falcon has been ok for daily duties but it’s not in the same league. Might need to sandbag it to get back to old ride height now there’s no towbar and less bog