d.p.n.s

immediately thought of you when i seen this.

wellllllll how's life after 13 months with a problematic st170. to be honest.....its not that bad... the engine check light is on all the time and the car has no issues... every now and then it feels like it loses some power...and when I check the code it's usually timing has advanced.... I've been clearing the codes and off we go again...it fucking hates 91 and seems better on 95/98 more than NPD 100. flew through a WOF in August that was the year ownership mark.. not as bad on fuel as all the brits complain about. just gave her a service today..new oil ,filter, air filter, some fuel system cleaner... see how the next tear goes... I fucking hate the dual mass flywheel....may do something about that.. apart from that ..I would love to get back to work on the mk3s....but I have my nephews mk5 here that needed a replacement motor....thats been a bitch and still not running ..need to swap another head on.... and I actually have mates that aren't into cars....( fuck I know....strange ay)..but those men have teenage boys now with cars aswell so I find my self pretty popular with shit cars living in my driveway .....makes me feel like I should apologize to my dad for some reason......and I get more contact from them than I do there dads now lol.... but 1 day I will get back to it........also had to work through this past lockdown.... hmmmmmmm next year maybe

or even cut the bottom of the gaurds off and move them out ....Zak speed styles.

yes to the 2 door and yes to the mk1 bubbles.............DO IT

also had a go at 3d printing a drill guide with stanless inserts 4x108 to 4x114.3

next was to finish off the dizzy/trigger 2/home signal . so the shaft is pinto with pinto cog... the dizzy housing is xf falcon with a home made bush and the small tab on the side drilled and slotted so i can bolt it down to the block.. made and welded a mount on for the 63mm 36-1 trigger wheel i had cut. (i have also had a mate test this for me and the signal works well.. so i made a small bracket for the cheer hall effect sensor to hold it and brace it. all the parts bracket screwed on made a alloy mount for the sensor (thanks browncorona for the tap to thread it) all mounted in place having a few beers with nismo_capri and he designed and printed me a 3d cap for it. all complete and finished and bolted on another off the list

next up was the thermostat housing replacement because i don't have a thermostat and i wasn't sure what rad i would end up using i thought i would just grab a Davies Craig 90 bend and just make the base out of 10mm alloy. ..i drilled all the holes about and tapped them all so i can have adjustment if needed.......didnt drill all the way through....lol but thats that done and the top hose should nice and easy ....apart from needed the turbo water out runnig into it as well.

i made a list today of what needs doing and its huge....man its huge. so i decide to try and finalize each part as i go... so 1st up was the fuel supply . i finished welding the pump mount face up. the tank needs to sit lower in the car so the pump has room under the floor and doesn't get squashed ...i worked out it need to sit about 40mm lower.and lucky for me i have some 40x40 so i cut some the length's of the rubber tank pads and welded them on and then glued the pads onto them. the filler neck needed to be extended as well the end of the filler is stuffed so i cut from a spare tank.......yes 40mm longer that was welded on and even tho i trust my welds i also learn from my mistakes so i took the time to seal all welded areas and check for pump clearance ..i also put the factory sender unit back in with the feed pipe cut and bent over the tank straps needed to be made longer . so did the tank strap bolts. fuel pump back in for the last time..breather run to the filler neck.. fuel feed and external filter added and a short fuel return....these will go to the hard pipes once they turn up and are made. and the tank all mounted

so you know when you think its going to be a nice easy straightforward job..... oil cooler was mounted...all i had to o was put the oil sandwich plate on and run the lines.. i center bolt for the sandwich plate must have been put in a real safe place as i cant find it.....so after over nighting parts from Auckland i bolted the sandwich plate on ran the hoses and cut them to lengh...........then i put the inlet manifold on and it seems that all the IACV stuff is in the way and then so is the dizzy...there is next to no room under there now and also noticed that the dizzy housing is also touching the IACV ( will clearance that with the flapper disc) and it seems that if i turn the sandwich plate down it hits the block and no room..turn it to the back and the engine mount is in the way. so i thought about cutting and shutting the engine mount and then i remembered the rusty old parts wagon had some pinto mounts i had never seen before ...so out came the mount box and these are that mounts that came on the rusty wagon the problem area mount mount comparison and bingo......problem sorted......well that problem..i need to get ne hoses now as the ones i cut dont fit. on another note i made mounts for the radiator 9thats a 70mm dual pass rx2 rotary radiator). then pulled the oil cooler , intercooler and radiator and mounts out and gave them a nice clean paint. oil cooler in intercooler in radiator mounts in radiator in made a shroud for the 14" fan shroud and fan in now tha battary tray hits the inlet manifold no matter where i put it ..and luckily enough these came in right and left hand drive and the sides of the engine bay are the same ....so i moved it to the drivers side...trimmed a corner off to move it back a bit (dont worry about the booster as i dont have brakes yet but i am planning on cylinder bolted to the fire wall and run a remote booster) and the air filter.....i made a head shelf hole cut for filter adapter filter in had to trim the light bracket also had to clearance the grill for the filter and oil cooler works well ......cant see much at all unless you look hard intake pipe for the turbo and the engine bay is starting to look much fuller..just got to mount over flow tank and washer bottle and breather tank on the passneger side.

decided it may pay to run a oil cooler and i had one sitting on the shelf (may be bigger than i needed but it was there) i struggled to find somewhere for it ..i am trying my hardest not to just cut the shell up and remake stuff...so i removed the inter cooler trimmed 2 tabs off the oil cooler an mounted it on its side. remounted the intercooler for the 3rd time ...even had room to just snake the oil cooler hoses out by the intercooler outlet. i remove one of the grill mounting plates an decided to mount the airfliter there ..by the headlight an under the slam panel.. should get plenty of col air an i can make a shield to block it off from the engine bay heat.. the filter is a k&n with a 6"inlet lol....i knoe its over kill but i ha 6 filter adapters (6" - 2.25" )from the 6 cylinder cortina (was going to make trumpets out of them.......lo dint work) also may need to move the battary tray to the rivers side so ecided to use some heat ducting for the turbo to filter .....should work well.

small job done as i start finalizing things as it goes back together in the car getting ready for wiring. IACV idle air control valve ...this is something i wanted in place ..so i found a factory GTIR one but it wasnt working so i pulled it a part and cleaned it and now its good...nice and simple 2 wire on off job. it has another like pressure switch on it as well that i dont need but when i removed it it allowed air to bleed ...so i just put it back in. it has 3 pipes and1 is just a constant air flow so i cut it off ..jammed a bolt in the hold ..cut the head off and added a bolt through the side to keep it all in place....works fine. and just using stuff i have around the garage i got it all together ..its not the prettiest . ..but it is on the underside of the manifold .

i did a few things. the 3 little gauge set have this real nice clean white back light and the dash is pretty crap..so i did some searching and found some T10 wedge LEDs. lovely clean light i tried them and it was much better but still pretty dark so i removed these things as well made heaps of difference.........lights before and after i also uncover the white mk3 as i wanted to take the subframe out and use it as it saves me having to strip clean and rebuild another subframe just yet. i left the motor in place and just pulled it at least i know this has new bushes,ball joint,tierods and wheel bearings with a rebuilt rack. and with the same springs i used in the back and even without a motor in it it lowered the front of the black one by 60mm. i also dug out the gearbox ...replaced the out put shaft seal put a new clutch fork with new thrust bearing in,,cleaned up an old flywheel and used a clutch and pressure plate iv had here for w while and bolted it all up to the motor and put it in the hole.......and it fits 9the tightest part is the inlet plenum to top of the subframe......but it should be fine. and some pics i got even have room for a 70mm thick rad and fan.

ive had a issues with the wiring from time to time....sometimes it all works .others just some of it.... it doesnt really help that most of the loom is from the rusty old wagon and the rest is made up of 2 other part looms. it doesnt help that its old and sat in a car unused since 1984 .but i need to know the wiring is all good and up to the job before i go any further .. so im going to get rid of these. and replace it with a hot rod /universal wiring kit (its not really its just a fuse box with wires) so i pulled it all out again....removed the engine bay side of it for now and started to focus on the just the main loom. once i started peeling all the old loom tape off it started to show some treats so ive been doing this over the past couple of weekends trying to get it all sorted and see what's what and how it all works before i remove all the old fuse boxs and label what i need . while i was making sure it all worked and going through each wire i couldnt get the fuel gauge to work at all..tried 3 senders and jumping the wire and nothing...pulled the gauge itself out to clean it and found the small needle was stuck behind the small screw at empty lol.......few hours of my life i will never get back. all sorted and working 100%before i add fuse box i left it over night and thought about it somemore ....then in the morning i ripped all the wires from the fuse box and made it work. and then went through it all from the 100th time...made sure i had added extr wiers for all the extras and removed all the stuff un needed.. added wire to move fuse box into glove box (as i will with ecu and wide band gauge....and the wrapped it 70m of loom tape and last bit found some oldschool 3 gauge set for 15 bucks and bought them.....sanded the chrome and painted it matt black......and all wires are in the new loom.

few things done today. god the old diff out and rebuild LSD aussie diff in with rear swaybar..just need to sort some shocks and get the drums and rear shoes done.. l decided to put the springs in that came in the white mk3 in as they seemed lower ...not sure what make they are bur not cut and totally different to standard spring way harder and as it turn out 55mm-60mm lower i also thought i would try the wheels i have. now these rims arnt normally the sort of thing i would buy buuuuuut i wanted 15x7 .4x108 and 0 offset and these are just one of those .....but blood cheap and brand new..so i bought them as they are 15x7 but have fwd offset and 4x100 stud pattern so with some adapters could make the fit perfect ...and they were so cheap. and as a mate is finding out there may be a lot of 15x7 rims in 4x108 with0 offest about ...but no one has stock....so i tried them and to be honest i like it. and made a start on the fuel tank.....just basically did what i did with my other mk3 but no drop tank and i keep the wheel well BA rx6t intank pump...some plate with welded nuts on the back....made sure it wouldnt stuff with factory sender and cut a hole...,tank looks to be in good condition just has to bash some dents out...got a few small parts to cut and weld in and tack some spaceres to the top of the tank so the fuel pump doesnt hit the floor

had a few bits turn up...wastegate actuator .. could find a good 2nd hand evo actuator so i just bought a universal one with a differant spring for alllllllll the boost the only real problem i had was the evo actuator must be mounted real low judging buy the flap arm movement.. so i just cut the arm off locked the flap shut and the welded the arm back on in a better place...then made a bracket for the actuator . the gauge for the FPR turned up so got that sorted. and the injectors i was told that evo injectors will fit the gtir fuel rale and work in the manifold well. so i found a set of denso 800cc injectors for an evo 1-8. they are 2nd hand but have been cleaned tested and flow matched and come with new plugs and was less than a 2nd hand set of untested factpry gtir injectors.

coil packs ..i went for GM/LS cop (coil on plug) with built in ignitors ..just to get things simple lol i looked at the motor for hours wondering where to mount them as the throttle linkage is in a funny place and having 4 intakes theres a lot of moving parts and i had to think about wiring as well. so ended up with this.

i got a few things ticked off the list today. trigger 1..i bought a 36-1 trigger wheel for the pinto but it bolted in front of the pulley and i didnt like the look of it ...so i made the hole bigger and mounted it on the back...just a few tacks for now till the sensors turn up and i decide where to mount them. then it was on to trigger 2..i bought a 63mm 36-1 trigger wheel as it was just small enough to fit inside the pinto dizzy buuuuut.....didnt even think about the dizzy to inlet manifold being a problem....well it turns out it is. i thought about cuttng it down but remembered i had a xd falcon dizzy on the shelf that i had gutted and used with a drill to pump oil around the 4.1 in the other cortina. turns out it fits the hole in the block for the dizzy and it a wee bit smaller .so i trimmed all the stuff not needed off it and made a slot on the side to be able to bolt it down...i then cut the pinto dizzy shaft down and made a bush for it in the falcon dixy....made a mount to bolt the wheel to and all done...)will make a cap when the sensors turn up and i sort out mounting)....was told i could just use a 1 tooth wheel so see how the sensor works with this small wheel first. both triggers in place i also stripped cleaned and rebuilt the intake manifold repositioned the dipstick got the factory vacuum all together so i can even plum the brake booster in. managed to turn the full TPS setup upside down aswell for more room. still got to sort out idle air control.....the injectors are on the way and i need to mount the coil packs and also sort out a breather for the block under the inlet manifold .....and im thinking some sort of brace for the manifold aswell. but its strating to look pretty good.

was thinking about temp sensor for the ecu and where to put it.. couldn't put iy in the factory position as the factory sensor was there for dash temp gauge.. thought about the hole in the head between #3 and #4 inlet port but there is no way with the linkages for the inlet manifold... so then i thought about the frost plug at the rea of the head...there is about 30mm from the rear of the head and the fire wall and when i popped the plug out and measured the depth i had ..that was 60mm from head surface to 34 cylinder wall...........and the temp sensor itself is 60mm long. soooo i garbed a new front plug....gutted it and got some thick pipe and cut that to size and then a washer.....welded it all up and fucking back.......sorted.. andits about 10mm of the cylinder wall. and as paranoid as i am with it leaking and being in a spot that the motor will have to come out if it does....i plasty dipped it twice. tapped it into place and it should be fine. also trimmed the adapter plate for factory temp sensor. .port matched it to the inlet manifold.. port matched the head to the adapter plate (will do for now ...this motor is to only get it all running..i don't have hope for it lasting long)..gave to surfaces some belt sander love ..some lock tight on the socket head screw.....a gasket and some extra sealant and bolted it on the last time .....(well till she epode's ) cheers

yeah man seen most of them. its a pretty good motor...would be way better in a lighter car. I'm trying to get a complete head sent out from the uk to give to a mate at kennelly cams.....see if he can give me a hand to get it over 200hp at the wheels with itbs. just hard to do with the car being daily...lol.

whats that classic ford magazine. a bona fide moder classic

hi mate. how's the car getting on now...still holing together?. hay getting back to the oil spray bar for the bores..the issue you had with oil pressure being low. would that lrob8still be there if it wasn't a criss drill cam. I'm building a turbo pinto and I would like to use the cosworth bore oil squirter.

hhmmm page 6 ay... pretty slack. sorry for lack of updates but in my defense i haven't done any work ...at all on them...due to a small health issue and my body letting me down on more than 2 occasions .. and i have taken this year off the cars to get some stuff done around the house.....and if i try and do that and find time to work on cars ill just get fucked off...so year off. the cars are still there i have been playing with pintos tho as less room and just keeps my mind ticking over. i had sorted the falcon CPI for fuel injection and was starting to make a hat for that for boost. .....but ive had a nissan gtir inlet sitting on the shelf that i was planning on using on my focus.....but it got the better of me and i had to see.....(now it does need some cleaning up and i need to do some port matching but this was all by hand with a battary drill...and the socket head bolts cost more than the inlet manifold0 i had a pinto gasket and i made a cardboard one for the gtir..they do share a common bolt hole so that was enough for me. i had some 10mm alloy so i sorted the pinto part first. once i port match the head it will be fine....only had a 44mm hole saw then sorted the gtir side tryed it on the turbo motor......looks awesome.....love it i just need to find a better tool to port match gtir to pinto and back and find a fuel rail and maybe some bracing .....and thats good to go. cheers

one of the issues with these is the inlet manifold runner control (IMRC) they have a small motor in the with a spring some cogs and some other shit...they can stop working... what they do is the inlet manifold is basically a drum and the runners to the motor are on the top edge and are short ..the IMRC controls the extended runners so when you start the motor the IMRC pulls a rod with extended runners on them and rolls them up to the inlet runners (for low down torque) and then when you get about 5000rpm it removes them........its on the firewall behind the inlet and the cable snakes around and under half the shit in the engin bay to just below the TB so i found a guyn in the uk that refurbishes them and had it landed for about 100 bucks. i broke a few of the fragile vacuum pipes with my fat finders and massive dick beats trying to get it out....only had some washer pipe from the cortina around but that done the job and got it all back together. also the puma front hubs arrived and all thought i thought they spaced the front wheels out about 15mm it turns out they space them out exactly 10mm.....but still much better and easier than trying to find 17 x8 rims in a wired offset and oldschool ford 4 x108 rims.

we in the vain of preempting all the problem parts ..i fitted a new coil pack and 8mm leads to go with the new plugs..(the old leads and coil pack hasnt failed YET so i put them in the spare parts box i have under the spare wheel for breakdowns lol) there is a thing that i actually hate and thats the rear wheel tuck ..they should have moved the axle out or gave it wider wheels...the front isnt to bad but i will do something with at somepoint .. as for the rear they have been racing and rallying these things for years so you can get parts and people have figured out interchangeable parts ..so i got a set of axles mounts from a ford puma sent out from the uk and its a bolt on and all the st170 parts bolt onto that and it moves the rear wheels out 20mm each side......much better

I got mine from America of all places....landed for $400. i also have a copy of the flange i had cut from auto bend and a die a mate made to form the tubes in a press...if the helps.