Shaneo's 1978 Ford Escort MK2

[Guest shaneo]

I have been getting on the go with the jobs dropped the head off to Wade automotive needs a skim , values shaved and re seated and new value guide seals. So I went to plan b car has to running this weekend as it's away to Lead Foot next weekend so I cleaned up the head off the old motor I had.

Heli coiled the broken stud and its all ready to go on tomorrow now.

Fitted the new fuel filter and gave the temp controller for the fan an upgrade from the cable tie that had been holding it in place just need to find a nice little knob for it now.

Yes it is upside down and I have fixed it now

The wheels on the rear with a load in it all the work rolling and I still cant get it not to rub the wheels are to wide but look so good.

Have a few more bits on the way from Burton hopefully they should be here soon.

[Guest shaneo]

Up and running Many thanks to Max and his help. Still a few little niggles oil cap breather keeps blowing off . A small cooling issue had a look at the set up and must have been half asleep had the wires around the wrong way and the temp for fan start up far to high all fixed now. Speedo has stopped working no biggie but it appears to have fallen from the gear box should get on to that one tomorrow.

New wheels are on had to go with the 7 inch it would had just been un'driveible on the big wheels but I happy with how they look. Spent a few hours tonight setting up the dash ready for some gauges.

It's down on power with out the big value head on it and the double value springs.

[Guest shaneo]

with the list of jobs to get done before the nationals always growing spent last night making this up a little bit trickier

than I thought it would be still have to get another gauge and have them all the same but the hard work is done now.

so with luck I should get it all fitted up for the monthly meet tomorrow

[Guest shaneo]

Finished up the gauge holder turned out pretty good I think,Just got a couple to get all wired up before the weekend now.

Picked some older driving lights off trade me

And finally the new wheels

[Guest shaneo]

Weekend over good trail run for the engine to see how it would go on a long trip with load in it. Only a couple of things popped up that need fixing. One is get the big value head back on so it will run well and not values wont bounce at 6000 rpm . The Head lights stopped working. And the exhaust hit the ground a few times but it pulled well up the hills under load.

New wheels arrived today some 7" hot wires for the new semi slicks try the tyres out first to make sure it fits then a paint job for them.

[Guest shaneo]

The last of my parts arrived today so now I can set to and change the gearbox Diff and put the old head back on 2 weeks away from Nationals.Oh and get a WOF as well.

[Guest shaneo]

Been busy over the last week . Had the old small value head on which was OK to keep it running. Got the Rs stickers for the wheel caps look better than the branded ones

Head was due back today but they said it will be ready tomorrow now.The inlet values needed to be seated in properly and the base machined off them as they where not done to the standard I like at the start and they sat lower than the exhaust values and they wont leak air any more.

I do have these little goodies to make sure that I can tighten the head up as well as some fly wheel ARP bolts.

So a week and half away from a 600km trip in my car it has no head no gear box and no diff

The gear box is a problem I have a sport one missing 1st gear so I got all the parts from the UK all ready for rebuild only to find out I need a cluster as well so If anyone has one that would be great as I'm still lokking for one . I have 3 other gearboxes here one has a bent tail shaft and vibrates so cant be used. The other has so much slop on the tail shaft you would wonder if it was even connected at all. And the third one has very little play in the tail shaft but its an old worn out gear box so at the moment this is my only option.

Spent so time over the weekend and hooked up all the gauges and a good all round tidy of the wiring and found the problem with the lights not going.

It looks a lot tidier now. Ordered a pile of new bolts for the jobs on the go at the moment so will pick them up tomorrow. Broke a drivers bolt clean off the other week so they will need replacing for sure. The car is showing its age . I bought new wheel studs today for the rear I think I will do the front ones as well now. There are a couple of new gaskets being made as well

[Guest shaneo]

Diff head is in and had my axles checked had one bent which I had already thought so it's all fixed now very excited about how it

will drive now Have been told it will be a very different car now.

fitted the new wheel studs on the front and just the rear to go now so much longer

Head is back and on already, turns out that it had a low point on one side as well as the inlet and exhaust values not seating in correctly . And you can see the crack clearly now with the ARP bolts in it's a lot harder to turn over now while setting the tappets.

All going well it should be running tomorrow But I'm worried about the gearbox holding out with the engine output.

[Guest shaneo]

Was up early today and got the whole lot done and had it running it sounded flat when I started it up. Took it for a drive down the road a couple of Km all good did feel flat still thought it might be the timing. So came home had a look over couldn't find any problems when for another drive a little longer 2 km down the motor way and no power at all had to pull over wouldn't start.

Had to get rescued by the little Swift. At home had a good look over looks like a big end bearing is gone a air block in the oil so no pressure from start up hence the flat feeling.

Now I need more than just a little luck to be ready for next weekend

[Guest shaneo]

Engine has been swapped over head is on just the roker gear and headers to fit now then set the tappets and fire it up.

I'm intrested to see what it will go like as I put the big head on and it will have a 234 cam I hope it goes ok.

Wof check tomorrow. I'm cutting it so fine I wont get any time to test drive it heaps like I wanted to.

[Guest shaneo]

I finally got it all running ready for the Nat's and it even passed a warrant with two 5 min job which I was pretty stoked about. There was no time for test drives just put petrol in and go fingers crossed . I did have to fix the drivers headlight as it has always pointed at the ground around Auckland that is fine as there are so many street lights.

All went well on the trip down the car ran really well could have done with a 5th gear revs just over 4100 rpm for 110km. And a heater would have been great traveling at night down country was bloody cold.

Track day went well 2 drivers would have liked to have my semi slicks there but carrying them all the way down and back wasn't really worth it. Half way though the day I noticed that I had diff oil leaking out the drivers side axle had a look couldn't see why and cleaned it up and it hasn't happened again.

As you can see not me driving Jenn wanted to have a go only girl on the track for the day and she loved it.

Thanks for the photos guys

[Guest shaneo]

after this event i ended up with this all our friends drive way

which wasn't ideal but ok it was still going strong. It was only a old engine from under the work bench and a $60 gearbox that I borrowed. As for the LSD it's magic well worth the money will never look back now makes it a different car to drive. So we went on the curizes and had a great time. My heavily packed tool box hadn't been used, more by other borrowing bits and bobs.

then the Gymkhana now that was so much fun. Jenn entered again and had a blast . I had loads of fun as well I had the foot up it quite a bit more and was getting it a little warmer than Jenn

So got home that night and it was still going. So not broken don't fix. The next morning I had a good look over as we had the big drive home. Found the over heating problem it had been seeping water out between the block and the water pump topped it up and all ready to go needed about half a liter of oil as the catch can was 3/4 fill all those Km on the open road at over 4000 rpm it would have spitting it out of the top of the rocker cover.

All weekend I heard from so many different people on how many Liters per 100 km. So far all I knew was that every day I went to the gas station to top up. I also knew that my set up on the carbs was for the bigger cam in the old engine and I was running a little rich turns out I worked it out when we got back 13.8 lt per 100kms which was pretty poor but we had so much fun who really cared. A 5 speed might been on the cards now if I want to take it to the south island Nats.

on the way back two days after sitting in the garage this was the pain that I had inflicted on the little engine.

Went to monthly meet took it for another drive last Saturday and the starter motor is playing up and wont go. So I have decided to pull the engine out again and rebuild a bottom end . And we got hit by a big ass stone on the way back the window screen has a big chip in it now might be a replace job.

[shaneo]

I have taken the engine out for the mean time the plan was to build two into one but that has since changed. After stripping down the engine that run a bearing well it turned out to be 3 bearing and bent the crank and stuffed 2 pistons. It was not healthy. So I managed to pick up another good crank keep my L18 crank for another power plan I have. And the block needed a hone not to much for the block all things considered.

I have got a new oil pump and mains and big end bearings and should have the block back later in the week I have some ARP conrod bolts with the head studs I thought it might be a good idea to get ARP mains bolts to make sure its held together really well as it used to rev past 7500 rpm.

I currently have two cams to choose from a BCF3 3000 rpm to 8000 rpm nasty to drive around town great on the track and a kent 234 great around town but I miss the grunt from the BCF3 so on the look out for a more drive able option.

So as this year has been for most of it my car sits broken yet again bugger. Only to come back stronger lol

[shaneo]

Thought I should put a couple of pics up

[shaneo]

Been slowly collecting parts for my engine rebuild but where do you draw the line the options are limitless. I have decided to go with new pistons ARP head mains and con-rods I have a new oil pump I thinking I might change it to a high volume one.And the cam is to be like a Kent 234 I need the car to be drive able on just more than a track . The longer it sits in the garage not going the more I want to do to it.the first job will be to fix the type of hoses I used for the catch can. I was in a rush to get to nationals and the only good length of hose I had lying around was heater hose so the oil is seeping though. And a flasher pump bottle

 

 

Also got gifted a starter motor which is good due to mine dying.

 

 

The plan over the next couple of nights is fix the engine that leaks oil and get it back in and running so I can at least use the car.

[shaneo]

I have found the motivation to get moving again on then car due to fact that I really miss driving it. The old engine has all new seals put in and a new paint job today ready to go back in tomorrow is the plan. So i hope no more oil leaks should be all good. Run it for a few weeks and then sell it to fund the bigger engine with all the fancy bits it should raise enough funds to order the last of the bits to have a very strong engine. The red is for selling only red doesn't match my cars colour at all.

 

 

Was very lucky to have had these made for me a little unsure how 2 x 22 mm sway bars will be in the front but at the moment it's on the list of things to do first is to get the car running again and get a strong engine built and running.

 

 

I was very lucky to be able to pick up a part that I only ever heard about and never seen one before Very big thanks to Max . I now own a original front spoiler for a sport there is a little bit of work to do to the support but nothing major. I have sat it in place looks good.

 

 

 

 

All going well it will be running tomorrow with no oil leaks aiming for a track day next week.

[shaneo]

Pic less post but its alive and running well so far only been a couple of small drives but fun . Still miss the bigger engine still looking for Pistons bugger and a few more parts to get before I put it back together.   

[shaneo]

So what else do you do on a rainy Sunday attend a advance drift session down at Hampton downs. Myself and M_C's v6 went and had a go with all the high powered Jap cars and we done quite well due to mother nature will line up again for another session will add pics when I get them. 

 

 

Sorry don't have many good pics due to the heavens opening all morning long but loads of fun the learner course

 

[shaneo]

The sport has been feeling a little left out lately but have been collecting new parts for the engine. And jammed in there 

 

[shaneo]

Had the car out a couple of weekends ago and entered in the Fiat Tarmac series it was great fun after round one I was in 7th place. Round 2 came along and the right foot devil came in and a spin here and there and it all went pear shaped but it was great fun ended up finishing the day in 23rd out of 32 looking forward to the next event.

 

 

The days prep was a wash on the Saturday prob a waste of time.

 

Had the new spoiler fixed so today I went about taking the old one off and seeing how the new one will sit.

 

 

Its messy under where the old spoiler sat and the new one sits lower

 

 

 

It is very different. Has a steel frame across the bottom but no where to bolt it into so I will have to fold the bottom lip down and drill a few holes to fit and I also need to use the heat gun in a few places . And some paint before the fitting is all finished.