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so yea, it goes. had to push the throttle by hand because i haven't got the e throttle working yet. pretty stoked tbh, it goes fucking mint. if i can figure out the e throttle setup i might be able to drive it tomorrow. sorry the video is a bit shit, i was trying to doort and film at the same time.

Hey ladies & dudez. Just want to say thanks for making me and my not so oldscool-friendly Hilux feel so welcome over the weekend. Was great meeting you all and having a few yarns. I've got about 90 photos of most peoples rides - if you want to see them I can post them up (not sure what the preferred method for posting lots of photos is on here)

ive been doing a bunch of wiring tidy up stuff which is pretty boring really. i did manage to wire 4 coils round the wrong way and fry them. 2020-02-11_11-24-07 by sheepers, on Flickr which meant i needed to buy some new ones. 2020-02-11_11-23-59 by sheepers, on Flickr coils are from a 1JZ-FSE direct injection engine, a couple of others too. they required modification via a sanding belt to fit but what doesn't need sanding. what now? well, most systems are go and ive been trying to start it. it almost went, gave that phut phut im trying noise but no actual running yet. i have some weird things to sort out regarding how it was set up vs how it should be set up (cam triggers are not making sense at this point, was only getting LH cam triggers but the computer was configured to RH cam trigger, its exactly the same as it was in this regard but it still dont make no sense) but ill keep plugging away and in theory it should go.

Surprisingly I still own this. I figured i'd better update the build thread now, it has more metal in it now than it did 2.5 years ago. With a year of a long distance relationship, moving house, changing jobs, other cars and a fairly sizeable task ahead to fix all the rot, progress kind of came to a halt not long after the last update. In the last year or so though I have been chipping away at it, so far I have cut and welded the l/h inner guard, heater bubble, l/h floor pan, inner and outer sill section, rebuilt the bottom of the l/h A pillar, l/r wheel arch inner and outer, outer sill section, and probably some other small bits I can't remember. I also cut the front valance off, and I am very thankful for the abundance of pressed panels available new for old Fords in that I got a new valance, front guards, and a myriad of repair sections to stitch in, without these I probably wouldn't have taken this on tbh. Here it is on its way to its new garage: Some repairs to the firewall where every Escort rots - under the heater bubble. I've made an indent in the new heater bubble so water can actually drain away, rather than collecting in the bottom of the bowl and rotting through the seam that joins it. It mightn't look tidy, but it's solid and there's good penetration through to the other side, so I'm reasonably happy. The l/h side floor section was probably the most daunting repair in terms of size, I ended up cutting the floorpan back almost to the seat mount before I found decent metal, but after I zapped in the floor section the outer sill and pillar fitted up pretty nicely. This was the most recent repair - the rear wheel arch - which someone in the past has had a go at, not rust proofed behind the repair, and it's rusted again. There was a patch welded into the outer arch, which someone had beaten in with a ballpein hammer and shaped with bog, and a large patch on the inner which had gone rotten. It all had to go, I ended up cutting away the inner half and remaking it, and welding in a pressed section into the outer. All that's left now is the l/h C pillar and vent, probably the r/h C pillar too, the bottom of the r/h A pillar, a random little hole in the rear apron, make some new front guard supports and attach the front. I have a full set of factory bronze tinted glass and chrome trim mouldings for the windows, which will probably end up on the car too. And this is pretty much how it sits today!

You're running out of data arn't you

Well I finally found some time and got my ass into gear and finished straightening up the roof today. Came out pretty good i recon.

Treesus christ we're at least over half way

Started to make a new plenum. 5" donut chop, butchered the old plenum to harvest the bellmouths. so yeh hopefully this works.. Done some more butchery, to the suspension tower cover this time. I did buy some cast elbows, but didn't like them. diameter was slightly too small and real sharp bend. managed to "reshape" the tower cover to gain enough clearance so could use the ali bends i used for testing. They have a id slightly bigger than the throttles, should be good. Still pretty close to the tower, but looks like it will all fit in there. the runners will enter the plenum on a bit of an angle, and same deal with bellmouths, they wont sit parallel with the base of plenum. Seems like a better compromise than using sharp bends

So been chipping away at some tear down. Had a real oldschooler to give me a hand even, @chris r and I pulled off the drivers door and fender. I knew I had a rust hole but as normal it was worse Need to grab a wire wheel and strip off all the old underseal. What I scratched off with a screwdriver had good metal underneath. it appears that the heater core hasn’t ever leaked which is ace Even found some of my missing upholstery And a spare key of all things. Would have rathered a valuable rare coin but eh guess I’ll take what I get

Now I just have heaps of welding to do...

Hey Lewis, shit yeah heaps of progress, Ive just been really slack about updating my thread! The overreving thing was a combination of wiring and a split carb intake boot. Intake boot from the wreckers $15 and 15 minutes wiring for the old man and it was running OK. I was seriously running out of time for the big Urewera ride and as it transpired I loaded it onto the trailer and took a backup bike as the YSR had still never been ridden on the road. I installed. Larger rear sprocket (Which I had made myself on a waterjet) in the motel car park the morning of the ride and when we turned up @johnnyfive ‘S house I filed the teeth smooth in his driveway. The Urewera ride was my test ride. A 600km predominantly gravel test ride haha. Initially it was smokin and running quite rough, but as the pipe cleaned out it got faster and faster. It’s potential for tuning is still massive, its not half as grunty as it could be, but because its so light and small i still had it up to near 130kmh! I was passing cars on the open road haha. The gravel was a pretty tall order and in places I worked my way right to the back of the pack, not to mention developing a few cramps, but on the seal it was damn near untouchable and probably the 2nd fastest bike there (after @anglia4 s RG150). All the mods held up well and in particular the frame strengthening was really worthwhile. I had an issue on the first day where my float had jammed and the bike would only run at full throttle which was fucking sketchy on the gravel, lots of clutching, and the clutch was so heavy by the end of the day i was weaping in my helmet... and I spit my chain twice after gettting airborne fording streams... the second time bent my shifter shaft and caused a major gearbox oil leak, but we were so close to the end that I opted to ride on; and thus I completed the entire Urewera undertaking on the pole smoker. It is the third greatest achievement of my life after my two kids. This bike goes hard for what it is. I have not even sat on it since hahaha.

Roughed out the porting, N.O.S outer plate, port matched to the manifold and shaped according to Graham Bell's 2t performance guide Inner disk plate Case port Just about couldn't get my little finger through there before! Crank web doesn't shroud it as badly as I was worried it would Jonny told Andrew he tapered his crank to clear the porting and I have since seen a few guides that say to taper that web a bit more for max flow, may yet see if I can get some lathe time, but I dunno if it'll be worth it though as it looks to me that the port should flow more than enough? And it was hard to bring myself to do it But I just couldn't run a silver engine lol

But first, more important things! As I don't have radio, I've just been plugging my phone into this 222Wattts of retro power! With speakers in the front now, I was keen to get them going, luckily I have two 222Wattts amps. After way to much time trying to somehow fit them both under the back seat, I realize there's heaps of room behind the back seat, I was going to but this behind the back seat. But, without drilling holes in my floor there's nothing to anchor it's considerably weight to. So. Ye ol 6x9th, shall suffice. Tidied up the wiring. Been fiddling with settings, running the low pass on the 6x9, not bad. Had a stupid idea of just mounting the sub like the 6x9s as that rear area is pretty good box. Took the family out for a drive over to Devonport, they weren't that thrilled about not taking mums limo. Well not limo, but a 04 Odyssey is infinitely more comfortable that this tiny smelly noisy little car. Started off great, got on the motorway, had gone about 2kms and the engine stuttered and we're outta gas! Fortunately I always carry spare gas. Are we making memories yet! Had a swim and drove home our wet toggs with an ice cream, i always have to turn the car off a drivethu, cant hear the little man in the box! By the end of the day we all a most excellent day out.

Oil feed into the engine was blocked by the sleeve for the new intake but the new Dellorto carb has an inlet for 2t oil, so I cut the factory one way valve/banjo fitting off the factory hard plastic oil line and managed to adapt a fitting off a Zip oil pump into a hose joiner. Took a fair bit of mucking about to get it into the old Suzuki line, but I got there. That white fitting is a one way valve from a late model Suzuki, going to run it inline same as on a Let's 2/Yamaha Jog etc. Finally got the flywheel sorted, drilled out the rivets from the factory A50 flywheel, bored out the new one to fit over the back of the A50 hub and got it timed up perfect. Not planning on running those 3 M5 bolts, either going to go with 6x m6 + loctite + hope or I think there's a Vespa shop in Auckland with 6mm rivets in stock. Just need to mill/grind 3mm off the pick up mount and it'll be perfect

Work and real life have been pretty busy recently, so haven't found much time out in the garage. Students are back next week too, so work is likely to be a bit hectic for a bit. I did manage to get the ignition leads built this afternoon. It's really starting to take shape. SOOOO many nickle and dime jobs to do though. Still need to machine that trigger wheel. I've tapped the fuel rail for M18x1.5 fittings that I'll seal in with bonded washers... But the M18x1.5 -> AN6 adaptors are coming from China, and everything out of there is on the go-slow due to the virus. Not that I'm complaining (much), its got to be pretty horrific. Once those fittings are here though, and I can permanently fit the fuel lines, I can sort the front thermostat housing. Really really procrastinating about that... :-/. Also, I really need to build a garden shed and get all the gardening gear out of the garage.

So been slowly plodding away at this still. Chrissy is hard to keep some steam up. But the back of the car is nearly finished. Fuel tank is all done and fuel lines sorted to the front of the car. Had to modify some top arms, but the wheels are on and everything kinda basically works lol

Then we ended up with a little munchkin on the way and decided to move back to New Plymouth. In the mean time dad and my brother were getting into the idea of bucket racing as well, so we approached the local kart club who were quite open to the idea so long as we executed it properly and above all, didn't damage the track or their reputation. A couple of months of organizing and planning and we had access to the track for a shakedown. I hadn't managed to finish any fairings/tank at this stage, so the bike was totally bare bones. It went really well, and fantastic fun to ride.

Ok so still havent got that relay to work so will make up a new one/buy one. Took the crown for a hoon down the road. Went ok... ish. The steering isnt quite centered and turning right sucked. Need to re center. And apart from the no exhaust and motor running like pooes it was a success. Still need an exhaust if anyone knows someone keen I'm in pukekohe. Wanting mild steel. Will use factory 4m cast extractors. Also cleaned up and painted the grill and surrounds flat black. Also connected up the throttle linkages so accelerator works off pedal. Getting close.

I also made it look heaps better, cos if its gonna be slow its gotta look good doing it.

Fusebox all working. But not before I realized I'd wired 9 out of 10 relays backwards. Woops. Lucky was easy to fix. Also, I've always hated the idea of an external FPR, its just so big and shit looking compared to the OEM ones direct on the rail. Since I'm making an effort to keep things tidier though, and this will sneak in behind the cam cover and look discrete. Pinched from the Redtop engine's factory setup. Think I'll give it a hoon. Has the secondary benefit of that I can just run a smaller EFI spec rubber return line hose back to the firewall tucked under the inlet. Rather than a full sized AN-6 line from the rail to the FPR. These FPRs all only regulate to 300kpa (43psi) down from the 60psi I've been using. I havent managed to find a 60psi factory FPR, funnily enough because the only cars that run 60psi or higher are returnless systems. So let me tell you a punishing story about why that is. Traditionally, EFI systems have run at around 43psi. This is a good trade off between how hard the pump has to work/reliability, how much fuel it can deliver, and good atomization. Also, as you raise the fuel pressure the l/min rating of the pump decreases. So keeping the base pressure lower effectively gives you a higher flowing pump for same hardware = cheap. Look how much flow rate a Bosch 044 loses when pressure goes up. It also means that as you add boost, and the fuel pressure needs to go up to suit. Spec sheets for electric fuel pumps show that most start to creak and lose heaps of flow after 65psi or so, and with reduced lifespan. With 43psi base pressure and 20 pounds boost only means 63psi required at the pump. Which is considerably better than trying to achieve 80psi. So, why do modern cars run 60psi base fuel pressure instead? When emissions rules are really tight, Fuel vapour emissions are a big problem. When you heat up fuel at the fuel rail and send it back to the tank, it creates heaps of vapour. As well as that when you open the gas cap, this pressurized hot fuel vapour rushes out which is also an issue they need to minimize. A secondary problem here is that fuel isnt just made of 1 thing, it's made of lots of different chemicals which have different boiling points. My understanding is that the additives that turn 95 octane into 98 octane, are the first to flash off into vapour. So minimizing the fuel heating reduces your octane level loss over time. The fix for these problems is to make sure fuel that goes to the rail, never gets back to the tank. Hence returnless. But now the problem is that at 43psi, if it sits long enough in a hot fuel rail it reaches its boiling point. So 60+ psi raises the boiling point above where this is an issue. Which is also why they dont vacuum reference the FPR in the gask tank on returnless, because you never want to drop the fuel pressure below 60psi absolute. And a modern ECU can just deal with a varying differential fuel pressure a lot better than old shitters can. So in my case, going back to 43psi will be fine but with lower pressure the injector duty cycle will need to creep up a bit. As at 60psi Altezza injectors are 450cc/min Injector, at 43psi it's only 370cc. So I'll need 21% more injector opening time. Currently I only get to around 63% duty cycle at lots of RPM so that'll end up around 76% duty cycle instead. No drama. I will just need to be mindful of when controlling the fuel pump with PWM, that I'm not setting the flow rate too low that it'll have time to boil the fuel. Although these engines have a fairly well insulated fuel rail compared to some other engines where they are stuck in a valley or whatever. The other problem is that my fuel pressure sensor now has nowhere to go, as previously went into the FPR. I managed to find an AN fitting that has a pressure port on the side, so I'll mount this with the sensor whacked in somewhere after the fuel filter on the inlet hose when it turns up. I got the Bosch E-throttle all working nicely, it's very snappy testing via ECU. It looks like I'll need to ramp down the PID settings a bit compared to Altezza one. Will take some 100hz logs and try fine tune it. Speaking of which, this PID tuning explanation is bloody amazing So now I've gotta sort an E-throttle pedal. I've got two options so far to try, but isnt looking as easy as I'd hoped. First is RX-8 pedal, on the left. Convenient option but it doesnt really fit nicely in the available space. The other issue is that the APS sensors are built into the entire pedal assembly. So if it shits itself, you have to rebuy the whole thing which seems stupid. The other option I've been looking at is a 350Z APS sensor, which looks like a normal TPS but has a little bar on it to be moved by a pedal somehow. This doesnt particularly look like it wants to cooperate with the factory pedal, so need to figure out something else there as well. However it does make it a lot easier to keep a spare and replace if it packs up. But I like the idea of keeping the factory pedal, so if I end up using a cable again to test something I've still got the option. Although I guess I could just refit the factory pedal anyway in that case haha.

Robbed the R-T spec trimmed disc from my OG engine Really should have forked out for a new clutch basket, bushings in this one have a little play, but they are available so maybe in future I'll swap it out. New springs are up-rated over the originals, which is a nice surprise! Offered up the cylinder, might trim a little off this corner of the sleeve to stop it restricting the port, will measure up first It's not that bad, but more flow is more flow. Not too long now till first nang!!

A small package with lots of mandarin writing on it that I can't read arrived today. I get pretty dam excited by these, it's like Christmas everytime...as I've usually long forgotten what it could be inside, so its always a fun surprise opening them up. Ah yes, I remember...a choke cable. No, not the one my wife ordered from the 50 shades catalog (we're still waiting on that one), a choke cable for the harley. Looks easy enough to install, I'll just unbolt the old fucked one and put it back together with the new replacement as it's a direct factory part eh? Ummmm no...no I won't...cunts!!!! Someone in china decided that they'd mix imperial and metric. To be fair Harley's already are, been a mix of American and Japanese parts as is. But then the Chinese get involved in the aftermarket parts world and fuck with it again. Yup, wont fit. My engine steady/choke mount is 5/16UNC in size. The part supplied is M10x1.0!!!! WTF???? Who makes a M10x1.0 bolt for a non specific application??? No one in their right fucking mind is the answer. This isn't the be all in tap and die sets, but its fairly comprehensive. Nope, no M10x1.0 in here, nor in my other 2 tap sets either. So fuck it...drilling it out and getting rid of the thread altogether. I looked at it and thought "hmmm, why does it even matter", it's got a collar on one side and I can use the nut supplied on the other side...then drilled the fucker out to 10mm. And it works perfectly. So problem averted.

Annnnd it turns out the noises that Sparkle thought was the clutch is most likely the shift drum/forks being fucky. Got a box full of grinding sounds, tight gears and false neutrals. Thankfully Jonny Brasill hooked me up with a couple parts engines and @GuyWithAviators got them up to me, so I should be able to split the engine again and swap in the bits from one of them. Wish I'd tested the gears before I stripped the engine though, going to need to change at least the case gasket if I'm lucky. Crank bearing as well if not.

That man deserves a DB. How good was the McDougalls tent situation. So good.

I have finally sorted gearbox with a stock ctsv cadillac tune for the trans, it is like butter now... Will attempt to get to a night speed dragwars meet one night see what she does down the 1/4. I have put 4000 ks on it so far and back to daily driven...

motor in. pretty stoked tbh. its funny how quickly i forgot how little room there is around this thing when its back in the bay. also the bonnet fits. 2020-01-24_05-44-54 by sheepers, on Flickr 2020-01-24_05-45-02 by sheepers, on Flickr 2020-01-24_05-45-10 by sheepers, on Flickr

my son and i have got another little project pick it up yesterday

Send some bits away to get chromed and bright zinc plated. Fresh chrome looks amazing, points cover and the suspension fork bolts are now perfect. Wasn’t cheap but those parts aren’t available new anymore. To be fair they were pitted badly and most of the time was probably spent tidying up the parts before chroming. The bright zinc was super cheap to get plated, like $20. However no prep is done. If I’d known I’d have polished out the pitting marks more but for 20 bucks it look a million times better than it did.

1. Got all the air burps out of the cooling system? 2. Someone told me a yarn about 1uz heater circuits years ago. If you have the heater outlet looped at the back of the engine it needs a restriction in the loop otherwise the water can hoon around the engine getting hotter and not going through the radiator 3. Radiator hoses the right way around? Probably doesnt matter with a cross flow rad but I had a customer with an uppy downy rad where the hoses were the wrong way round at the engine and it got hot 4. Put a bloody 302 in it like it's meant to have, you bloody wanker

Hey guys Thank you for those who responded to this post and have private messaged me about possible in Chch. Ive now got one a new job Wayne.

Good hoons.

All back together

Made use of a couple of spare hours today - engine out, sump & oil pump off. Presuming its seized on the rings as theres no evidence of anything drastically wrong.

The last piece of the puzzle to date has been the engine itself. My search for that elusive horsepower led me down the rabbit hole of port timing. I raised the barrel 1.5mm Raised the exhaust port roof 6.6mm (+ the 1.5mm) Lowered the floor of the inlet port 10mm Cut the inlet side of the piston skirt 10mm This theoretically results in port timings of 195°Ex/128°Tr/185°In, however I haven't checked it with a degree wheel yet. Originals were 155.5°Ex/118°Tr (didn't bother to measure inlet because of the reeds). As well as taking the 1.5mm back from the top of the barrel, I machined the head about 1.1mm and used a thinner gasket to get from 17.5cc to 13.7cc (8:1CR to 10:1CR - Uncorrected) This gave me a squish band of about 1.8mm, which is about 0.8mm higher than I would like it to be. These engines have a bizarre piston port/reed inlet system that suzuki trialled in the 70's. Basically it just ends up being shit at both. So I've blocked up the reed port and massively adjusted the piston port to make it a piston port engine only. Comparison of before and after inlet port sizing: Have you ever seen someone precision machining their piston with an angle grinder? You have now!

For fucks sake, I can only be so erect

Hi Alex! Pics are rad, keep em coming, post them a few at a time, like above. Everyone will be frothing to see them. You dominated your first Wagnats!

look at the rust in the old rail

got both new rails on today , next is to build a flip front

Since I had the wheel apart I thought I'd paint a bunch of stuff... Stripped old bits... And sprayed with Durepox primer, a mix of grey/black depending on the final colour, when they chip the undercoat of epoxy should be similar in colour... And just top coated with VHT wheel paint. Will be interested to see how this goes... Brake plate was quite pitted but seems sound, smoothed out quite well with few coats of primer and paint... And spokes look as good as possible I guess, seeing it's only silver paint... And lower triple clamp looks pretty sharp. Had some drips on this from spraying too heavy but wiped them smooth and the wheel paint seemed to recover itself... Sort of waiting on Ali new rear rim to arrive now to give me some enthusiasm to start rebuilding shit, paint will harden in the meantime...

I've been meaning to start a build thread for this for ages. When we were living in Nelson I decided to get into Bucket Bike Racing. @Duke Blackwood was parting out a CBR250RR, and @Bellicose (I think) was selling a TF125, which seemed like it might be a good combination. So some deals were struck, Blackwood picked up the TF and stripped it down and put the lot on a pallet destined for Nelson. According to the timestamp on my photos it arrived on the 14th of September 2017. It didn't take me long to start mocking things up and get the motor mounted, it was a very easy fit in place of the 4 cylinder donk!

didnt do the sill today cut the front chassis off instead