M_C

Pre-gasket saga I took the car for a test drive on some private industrial land resulting in a huge grin as hydrocarbons were turned into noise and some motion. Very happy to find the Haynes bible 144hp and 192 torques of the standard big lazy 3L V6 essex were enjoying release with the warm cam and extractors and their first run in a Long time. She was happy to wheel spin first and second gears from a standing start, although this may also be due to the weight of the essex over the front axles… This lead me to wonder how low the diff ratio was as she ran out of legs quite quickly. From my vast experience on one track day I know the back straight of Hampton can be quite boring with a low ratio diff and four speed box resulting in hitting the rev limit at the end of the sweeper before the straight. I was told it’s a hilux diff but have no idea of type or year. Spinning the wheel and counting I calculated a ratio of 4.55. Releasing my inner geek this calculates to a top speed of 150km at 6,500rpm. Hmmm, need more. Question time: How many rpm would a stock essex engine withstand before I am looking for trouble? 6,500? The only modifications are a warm cam and extractors. Heads still have press in studs for the rockers and points ignition. Are hilux diff heads all interchangeable, or are there versions I need to look for? Are standard hilux LSD diff’s a reasonable option for casual track days and time trial races or more suited to mud plugging? There is a 4.1 LSD on TM $550. 10 bolt 8”?? And open 4.1 on TM for $250. Thoughts and comments appreciated. Cheers!

Whilst partaking of garage beer time a mate had helpfully (Gleefully) pointed out a water leak on the inlet manifold. Bugger. Spot the green mark down under the dizzy. It was quite damp even when the engine was sitting cold so needed attention before the Hampton caning. After stalling for time I got into it somewhat concerned that my enthusiastic use of sealant may not be such a good idea when it come to pulling the engine apart again... A little brute force resulted in a surprisingly easy disassembly. 3 month new inlet manifold bolts already rusty hinted at some nastiness building inside. The inlet manifold gasket was an old one that came with the car that I used instead of the nice new one in the gasket set I bought. Seems like it has been acting like a wick for the coolant and weeping it everywhere! Very Strange! Pretty happy to have found this now before more interesting things were brewed inside the engine on a hot lap. Now happily going back together with new gaskets. Not far off a good drive now!

Got a few little details done. Mostly while avoiding doing the mission critical water leak on the inlet manifold. Fixed the fuel filler. Old wussy hose clamps and the bottom left. New man sized hose clamps bottom centre needed to close up the big hydraulic hose. Just because nothing is easy the filler is 44mm and the tank inlet 40mm. Straightened the inlet and found a cap that fits better even if it’s a bit ugly. Rather a bit ugly than petrol painting the side of the car. Cheap wing mirror $21 at Repco. Didn’t look that great on the shelf, but for some reason looks much better on the car. Painted the dash. Mainly because it was bare metal and a little surface rust was appearing. While the paint was out I did the underside of the bonnet.

Paul Burns runs Marua Automotive and came highly recommended to me. He fixed Clark Procter's race cars for may years. Very happy with the tune he did for me. 579 3315, 166 Marua Rd. Or for the full dyno treatment a mate with a V8 race commodore uses Protune, 18A Joval Place, Wiri, 912 9912. Cheers

The tentacles of OldSchool reach far and wide as I found some local Escorts and promptly invited for garage + beer + car intro. I hope the neighbors enjoyed the bike carb’ed valve bounce test on the worked 1600 as much as I did… Great to see 3 more Escorts lined up in the drive but beer and BS distraction means no photo so here is one of Felicity in the new garage. Yes confession time, I have named her Felicity in honor of the first owner in Christchurch Felicity Logan from the original ownership papers. Suggestions of Slime, Kermit, Snot and others were quickly dismissed. Consideration was given to Charlize Theron, but I can just hear the brownie points going up on smoke with the line “Honey, I just going to the garage to play with Charlize…” and there’s no point burning brownie points unnecessarily. The favorite of the many very tasty cars for Hampton in the weekend. Running an ex NASCAR Mopar V8 of stupendous noise and horsepower! Hampton car park eye candy. Wonder if I can get both into my garage? Nice headers

That is one incredible project you have there! Any chance of some specs and pics of the fuel filler and cap you used? I only saw a brief mention of it in your epic build. Cheers

Stirling Brake & Clutch in Onehunga. They sell them each for not a bad price. Cheers

After a long time out of the garage with life choices getting in the way I finally made it back. Moving house, working overseas bla bla bla... Some progress Bonnet is now on with extra big cut out to fit engine and alternator. Nice BIG garage! Critical requirement for new house... Better shot of seat rails. Incontinence pad under the car. Hey, she's 42 years old and this is Old School... Happy to get the grill back on with some cool plastic clips. Another of the minor challenges. A test drive around the work carpark revealed fuel painting the outside of the car on hard left hand turns. Probably should sort that out... Some munter had a go at the fuel cap with this result. First off I will try to straighten it out and get a cap to replace the existing one to see it I can get a better seal. Hopefully easier than trying to source the oddball fuel filler.

Being very happy my engine whispering skills had progressed from Zero to Engine Start after a rebuild I am no where near guru status and figured before spanking her on the track I had better make sure the timing was right and she wasn’t going to lean out and/or blow up on me during some enthusiastic driving. So asked around to find someone good with oldschool machinery. A friend of mine has a mint Serria Cosworth and highly recommended Paul who runs Marua Automotive. -166 Marua Rd, 579 3315. Amongst other things he had been Clark Proctor’s mechanic for many years during Targa so knows how to fix fast cars. He did a great job. It was quite cool looking through his Ferrari glass spark plug at the explosions in the combustion chamber. Paul is pretty keen to work on more oldschool and race car stuff rather than to soulless plastic modern cars. I put a shout for him in the trusted workshop section as highly recommended. Car now idles beautifully. Sounds So Cool! Of course I had to take her for a quick spin around some private roads and came back with a Huge smile on my dial! Gets tail happy pretty easily… Bring on the Track Day! Now just lots of detail work. Things like swapping the plastic cable tie holding the fuel line by the extractors for a metal P clip, secure the fuel tank properly…

Not going to get as low as your beaut car without some serious work. Just moved into a new house and didn't realise how much of a hump there was in the drive until she scraped the exhaust cans backing into the garage the first time. I'll have to redo the exhaust completely to get properly low as the headers down too far, and I still need to get into the garage...

About this much gap. Approx 30mm with the car sitting neutral. Pretty sure they don't hit but have only had limited runs in the car so far... Maybe it I get airborne the diff may drop enough? Guess I had better check that. Now where's the nearest jump?

The Brakes Work! After picking her up from being aligned I bribed a workshop with some beers to put her on their rolling road. Excellent news to find good stopping power. No idea on balance of front to rear except front has more. The comment “that’ll stop her alright” made me a happy camper. Sorry guys for the donut when trying to get her out of the rollers… Just so its not a picture-less update here is family play time installing the 5 point harness.

Nice Escort!

Does my ass look big in this green? Alignment day! Yay all the wheel going the same way! Still loving my front brakes Also love the side pipes, but hate how the cans scrape on the driveway at the new house. Be a shame to take out such a good sounding S/S exhaust but look like I have to before lowness can be acheived.

And now for WTF #2. Seller’s description was “Needs a bit of attention under the rear guards.” Well he was not kidding… Beautiful job on the bubble arches looking from the outside. You would think the inside would be sorted first before going to all that trouble? Looks OK from the inside. But the original arch has been cut back, then very roughly welded together leaving a nice jagged edge ready to slice the unsuspecting tire. I measured the travel to the bump stop hoping I really didn’t have to go there. But a good 40mm of interference with the tire at the top of the suspension travel spells bad news for the tire. With free inclusion of bodge job riveted plates. Here is some of the tire killing material I cut out after much swearing, blood, sweat but not tears, that was just the grit in my eyes. Neighbors loved me for running the compressor and angle grinders for a few hours… “Dad, Mummy wants to know if you have finished making all that bloody noise and are going to come in and look after us before she goes crazy.” (Note the innocuous looking little arc of steel on the floor. It really did not want to come off the car!) “Not before I quench a thirst.” Special boot cooling ducts.

Cheers mate. Very happy that minor details like clutch, brakes, diff and gearbox work! Sorely tempted to a bigger drive rather than 6 point turn to get her the other way round in the garage but our drive has the hell drop off down to main road. Imagining the choice on realizing no stoppers: big tree in drive, or take my chances across a busy main road and meet the fence on the other side… After the saga of my first brake bleed I thought discretion was the better part of valor. Got a contact where I can put her on a rolling road for a box of beer to see how the brakes work which sounds a better idea.

Car had them when I bought the Project. Has a Hilux diff so 5 stud there. Then custom ally hubs were made for the front in 5 stud. Reasonably nice jobs on the hubs appart from some bonus tolerance on one that took some head scratching adjustment. All part of the fun.

First drive! And it all works! How hard can it be? iY0zcJx0dws Some tentative testing of brakes and shaky video holder. I think the handbag was worried I might end up in the neighbours... Next up alignment, tune and brake test before a proper run. Sounds easy when went you say it that fast. Oh and the second WTF section of the car.

My auto sparkie has seen two of the brass tee peices work harden and break off with less than ideal results for the engine. Anyone else seen this? I am planning on mounting my tee under the dash to avoid engine vibration possibly causing work hardening and maybe make it from steel.

Yeah, definitely need more lowness. I'm going to check with my cert guy how low he will let me go. Is this a hard and fast rule? Or depend on the car & application? I am planning on getting a motorsport authority card. Currently the big muffler cans are the lowest point. May have to change them to get properly low but will miss the side exit exhaust if I do.

Wiring is Done! (Well enough to get to a track day anyway.) Big Thanks to Rob & Andre. Quite proud of my little dash I made. It got a big green start button too! Its a "4 foot finish" as I only had basic tools in the garage and was in a rush to get to my auto electrician so I can drive the car. Had good fun laying it out making sure it was reachable when strapped in, visible etc. Looked at the birds nest wiring that came with the car. Numerous additions and changes. Hmmmmm. Best to rip it all out and start again as some of it looked pretty suspect! Only basic wiring so far for track days. So stop lights, ignition, fuel pump, charging and radiator fans. Car came with a banged up fan for the engine crank that didn't look like it was going to do much and an uninstalled electrical fan. Off to pick a part for a electrical push fan and put both in the nose ahead of the radiator. I figure the V6 is create a bit of heat sitting under the bonnet! Both fans are just manually switched so far. Anyone know what lights I need legally to get her re-complied for the road? edit -Question may be a bit dense so here's a bit more info. On a 1969 vehicle, do I need: Hazard lights? Side/running lights? Reversing light/s? I assume I need: Headlights, dip & high beam. Stop lights. Indicators. Rear number plate light?

Picking the car up from a mate's machine shop after having the seat mounts welded in. Thirsty work. Pushing the car solo up the imperceptible incline outside my garage was a bit of an effort! Didn't help I was in a major rush... Only just managed to get it clear of the trailer so I could get out. After I got home and kids to bed spent 45 minutes getting the alignment closer than my first rough guess. Rolls much easier now! Proper alignment to come. On advise from a scrutineer I made 3mm plates contoured to the inner sill and tunnel and 3mm box section between them to mount seat. The theory being this will give more side impact resistance and stop seat pull out of floor if I have a biggie. Thoughts?

And another outside shot.

Glad it was ugly, means I got it at a good price! Had similar discussions at Kuemu yesterday drooling over car porn. I have been offered minilites in the same size and stud pattern as the steels. Tempting, But the steel look good I think, and Everyone puts minilites on Escorts. I'll spend the mag money on other things first I think. Its got a nice rumble that the YouTube vid's don’t pick up. I love it. Just hope it goes around a corner with the V6 up front...

I think I have the brakes sorted now. It was a bit of a mission being my first time, new system and some of it plumbed wrong, bad technique... The booster was new and engine not running so it never had a vacuum. Not sure if this made a difference but got I there. Call it a learning experience. Peddle seems good now.