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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?

Also, @Thphantum has obtained some food for roadside eatin' tomorrow (Friday), and @MaxPower is willing to cook a tub of something on Saturday night. Just an FYI, I wouldn't rely purely on these meals, but its might mean a bit less to carry all weekend. Many thanks to these two for their help.

is this a project thread or a discussion/i love the spare forlornly falling out after the roll

Luggage checked in, almost time to put on a mask and climb into the big metal bird.

Ooh, I've got one of those in my slot car set. Looks like you got a bargain there @d.p.n.s

Is it time to go yet? Fizzing more than a warm Doubro is the bottom of borts backpack after 150kms of gravel corrugations

I like the fact that you could not find the right vehicle to suit your needs so you just made one. Good work!

prius motor swap its been a long strange trip on oldschool.co.nz these last 15 years. But here we are

I checked up on the Mk1 yesterday. Panelbeater is doing a great job, and it is getting very close to final paint! https://oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/45289-browndogs-1972-v8-transit/page/4/

So obviously the motor was pretty much junk - the eccentric shaft was about the only usable part. This wasn't too much of a problem, as the car was comparatively cheap, and I'd bought it expecting to rebuild the motor anyway. We priced up all the parts, and it was going to be about 6k to do it correctly. I mulled on it for a while, and decided for not much more money, a crate motor would be a far better option. All new plates, all new housings, as well as all the little fiddly bits and pieces that come with the crate motor just made it a much much better option for longevity. After all, I just wanted a nice fun weekend toy that I could cruise around in! Also while the motor was out, I decided to fly up to Auckland and give the engine bay a quick respray, as it was in fairly awful condition. Rotaries and their under bonnet temps tend to melt paint off, and obviously this thing had seen some time at race tracks! So for a real quick and dirty spray job, it actually came up really nice. And this is where things started to spiral out of control...

Conveniently, the car was in Nelson, and I'd actually booked a trip there for the school holidays with my daughter, so I paid a deposit, then a few weeks later went to go check it out. Now my original criteria were: * Preferably sub 100k, but not critical. - 124, close enough? * Closer to stock bodywise, the better - aside from a vented FRP bonnet and headlight cover, yep * Not red - yes! Mostly. * Unfucked with interior - bolt in roll cage and the rattiest Sparco seats I'd ever seen, and typical JDM trinkets ruggedly mounted all over the place, close enough? * Not really after a project, ideally something I can turn key and go - uncomplied fresh import with low compression, close enough? However, my best mate Jon offered to build the car up for me so I figured, what the hell. The car had lots of cool bolt on bits, like a 4" thick GReddy intercooler, HKS downpipe into a Knightsports highflow cat and 4" Apexi tail section, Power FC - all the typical things you'd see on a mild tune FD from the mid 2k era really - so I figured that with a fresh engine and tune, it'd be a bit of a weapon! It duly turned up at Jon's workshop about a month afterward, and he sent me some pics that in daylight, made it look far worse than I'd recalled. Now epic magnetic JDM service stickers aside, it would appear that honorable previous owner-san was a bit of a tinkerer - things like the odd cut outs in the bumper, and some hodge podge installation of electronic gizzmos inside the cabin would suggest this. But it also appeared that he had a crack at replacing the front crank seal, which if you aren't careful with, can lead to bad things happening. Bad things such as this:

On a side note, $5 per meter fuel hose from Trademe that has Chinese writing on it... not very good.

Rope worked better than air in my shitty old 4g63 when I did the stem seals. Was just lucky I had the piston at TDC and it caught the valve that wanted to drop lol

Some fabrication on the intake , nothing fancy but it will do the job

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.

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