Baxter

Range rovers are famous for their off road abilities. Id rate them higher than a Landcruiser as well

Yeah, two words - Darien Gap

I have a nice set of vented Sierra front disks lying around...

Anyone know if they can be easily adapted to fit a Mark 1 Escort?

Nah man, 1600s have bigger valves. but you could get the 1300 and put the 1600 valves in it. i think the 1300 head is higher comp too but im not too sure on that one.

1300 head doesn't have combustion chambers, i.e: it's completely flat, therefore higher compression.... flows less though, and will be wayyyyy to much compression on a 1600 with 1300 pistons, and crap anyway

Um, not really.

Neither the 1300 or 1600 heads have chambers (other than some rare ones) so they are totaly swapable with each other.

BTW measure your valves, as some 1300s and 1600s have the same or similiar sized valves so it may not be a big problem.

It also depends on your shock/spring setup. Some will be more bouncy than others...

Bingo!

When ever you alter your springs' characteristics (travel, length, firmness) by any significant amount you need to change your shocks to match, or you have handling problems.

Choping:

In my experiance you can reasonably safely chop off one ring from most car's springs (provided you don't bodge the job) and improve it's stock handling.

It's almost certainly not legal, and it won't sack your ride out, but it will sharpen things up reasonably safely. And the drop will probably be less than 1/2 inch so if you do a tidy job and paint the spring chances are no one will notice anyway...

Rear Leaves:

As for rear leaves you can have the firmness, and height reset to suit your needs. Far better than blocks and it used to be pretty cheap (about a $100 if you took the springs out yourself) a few years ago...

It means that the battery is not getting/holding enought charge from the charging system.

Either: 1 Battery is 'fuct', or 2 a wire has fallen of so charge can't get to the battery from the charging system, or 3 the alternator/generator is 'fuct' and is not making enought charge...

I dont think all GT's came with a slighty flaired front guard but 1300sports did and anything with a type 49 shell

I'm 99.9% sure all genuine GTs left the factory with front flares. Some genuine GT cars will of course have had standard guards fitted over the years as replacements etc.

The 1300 Sports as far as I can tell is a GT with a different name (perhaps Aussie-NZ only variation??) and yeah were all fitted with GT flares.

The type 49 shell is actually pretty similiar the the 'export' shell we got as NZDM. The 49 is slightly stronger than the standard UK market shell and was used for all UK GT, RS, and Mexicos models.

The NZDM shell has some of the extra type 49 strengthning, but not the front strut reinforcing, flares or hole for the GT dash. And apparently doesn't rust as easy as a 49, but then that could just be all the salt the poms put on their roads...

I'm not sure if our GT & Sports models were imported from the UK (ie type 49 shells), or built here using'export' shells with flares and GT dash - I'm guessing the GTs were imports (49s) and the Sports were local versions ('exports' shells). But that's just a guess...

Yeah they are very close, but I don't think they are a safe fit.

to be in old school it originally had to had have a black number plate!!!

if it has been re-registered its alrite aslong as it had the black number plate originally!

Ah ha - so the CR-X is old school afterall...

Yes the basic BODY of the mk2 wagons and vans is very similiar to the mk1 wagons and vans (other than the front panels of course).

However, all the running gear (engine, etc, rear springs included, I'm pretty sure) and trim (interior, etc) are mk2 spec.

Ring your local ford dealer/service agent with your chasis number and they should be able to tell you what year it is etc...

Interestingly, the rear doors off Escort and Anglia vans are so similar they are swapable with a bit of fiddling. And I must say the old '50s Thames/Anglia van rear doors don't look that different either...

Yeah, Dunedin.

But I only have Hondas on the road at the mo'...

having an opinion on a car does not make me an ignorant twat...

Yeah true.

But the opinion you have sure sugests you are quite likely to be an igorant twat...

Anyway, the pipes out the front of the N360 are the exhaust pipes!

Yes and no.

There are 2 types of factory flares for the mk1.

All mark 1 GTs left the factory with slightly flared front guards, probably only noticable to Esky fans.

The big bubble arches that you are probably talking about were a factory option, and could (in theory) be fitted to any mark 1. They were mostly fitted only to RS and Mexicos, and cars intended for competition right out of the box.

Also, you could buy genuine factory arches and fit them to your Esky, as indeed many rally cars had done in the '70s. There were also a large number of copies of these arches available that you can still buy today.

as far as im aware, any mods done on the car before 1992 do not have to be certified, but still have to be up to standard,

Yep that's true (I though it was '91 though?), but you need a justice of the peace to sign a statutory declaration saying the mods were done before 1991.

I'm guessing since that's so long ago now you'd need some kind of proof for the JP, eg photos with awful '80s haircuts, or old registration papers with a larger engine capacity listed, etc...

Technically my Mark 1 Esky doesn't need certification for it's 1600, disks, etc. I stll have the original declaration sitting at home - though I never actually needed to get a JP to sign it...

Make sure you have your guards painted or clear-coated after they are rolled, as it actually cracks your paint and will rust otherwise...

Yeah sure certification should be a requirement for modified cars.

But having to fork out engineer's rates to have someone OK a well known and proven modification as a 1600 in a 1300 is simply over the top.

WOF guys should be able to OK modifications that use factory or approved parts.

No. Not quite.

The splines slot into the clutch plate's boss, hence this hole will be the exactly correct size for your gearbox's input shaft.

However, the hole in the end of the crank has a bronz bearing called the spigot bearing. The non-splined tip of your input shaft slides into this bearing. And yes I think the auto does have a different sized spigot.

It will run with this hole to big - but, yes, it will wear out quicker than normal. Though it's not like an Escort box is the harest or deaest thing to replace. And having said bear in mind that there are many such conversions been done that have lasted for ever.

It probably wouldn't be too hard or expensive to fix this problem properly - you may well simply be able to swap the auto spigot bearing with a manual one...

Several mark 1 CRXs, but apparently there not old school enough for some...

And a Mk1 Escort, that I've had for years with various engine combos.

They are not called Mk 3, 4, or 5 here, the pre-74 Mk3s are called TC, the post -74 Mk 3s are called TD, Mk 4s are TE, and Mk 5s are TF. Don't ask why.

TA = mk1

TB = mk2

TC = mk3

TD = mk3 facelift

TE = mk4

TF = mk4 facelift (aka mk5)

I my experiance most V6 Cortinas are nothing special, really slightly grunter and admitidly a lot torquier than a stock 2-litre, they chew through gas and dodgey put together ones constantly need repairs. Having said that a friend had one years ago that was a great deal of fun (when it was on the road).

I actually like the Aussie six-cylinder Cortinas. They are actually very different cars from UK Cortinas: different floor-pan, steering rack, suspension, dif brake, falcon bucket seats, etc. I used to have a 2 litre version as a hack and it was heaps better than the UK 2 litre Cortinas. (and it canned all the other Cortinas at a Best of British gymkhana, despite being Australian ).

Actually an Aussie one would be a great base to dump a V6 in if that was your kind of thing - the best of both worlds then...

Would anyone reccomend just running it for awhile to see if the crank eventually knocks the sump bigger? its hitting on the side of the sump with the corner of the nut holding the big end bearing cap onto the conrod... Its either gonna knock it big enough or put a crack in my sump, advice please

It might beat it out, but it'll take ages and more than likely make a hole in the sump.

If you have a welder and want to avoid taking it in and out again, a wee trick that sometimes works is to weld a wee tag on and try and pull/hammer it out.

Best bet though is to get a 1600 sump of a mk2 esky, there should be heaps about and cheap enough.

The Warehouse sells something called Supreme Sheen, it works very well (though ofcourse fades like other products).

Though it's cheap enought to just keep reapplying...

... blah, blah, blah, some illrelivant crap about killing children, blah, blah...

Anyway, as I said, contary to your advice, welding a diff will make your car difficult-to-undriveable in what most people call normal driving (ie anywhere but on a race track or in a straight line).

And for the record welded is pretty crap on the track as well compared to a real limited slip...

firstly have you ever had a lock diff in ur car?...

...and when driving normally down the road u cant notice the lock diff anyways

Um, no.

You'll certainly notice a welded diff driving normally - like not being able to do U-turns!

A mate had a welded dif in his PP RX7 and it was a total bitch to drive anywhere but on the track.

Yeah the Serria 5-speed fits in the tunnel with a couple of bashes in the right places.

and now for a bit of history

In fact I believe the original factory rally sport manual reccomended this as the official modification to fit the ZF 5-speed in!

your in your 30s

im in my teens

you think a crx is oldskool and i think a cortina is old skool

sounds round the wrong way dosnt it

Yeah, weird...

Ahh yeah, that good old what is and isn't a classic debate...

I pretty much would have agreed with kyteler until I think of young people, and that their definition of what is old school to them isn't the same as it is to me. I'm happy to take a slidding approach to definitions as society changes.

Certainly I'll always feel cars of my youth (ie '70s) are more old school to me, but I'm happy to include '80s cars as old school to others...

Maybe we need different levels of "old school"?

Personally I feel the important definition of old school stops when cars started losing their character, and while a mk1 CR-X doesn't have the character of my mk1 Escort, but it does still have plenty more character than modern cars.

I just find it a bit odd that someone would post a link to a heap of injected, plastic bumpered, etc, '80s cars descriding them as "old skool phatness! ", and then in the same breath dis' a CR-X for these very qualities:

The CRX having what? a fancy EFI engine?

sounds a bit high tech to be old school!