Dean Roberts

Yep, as you can see with the scuff marks on the inside of the wheel, as I tightened nuts and tried to move it.. Real shame unless you can find a smaller caliper size or willing to grind off some. Would be interesting if any of the other calipers (like the Fiesta ST ones) were smaller? Steve mentioned it here (point 12) http://www.rhocar.org/index.php?showtopic=45205 I think same size disc, smaller calipers and no drilling, Steve may be able to confirm this.

Back firing on deceleration & only from near side exhaust.

As per workshop manual: General Specifications Firing Order 1,4,2,5,3,6 Spark Plug Gap mm (in) 1.3-1.45 (0.051-0.057) Spark Plug Type XW4E-12405 Silicone Dielectric Compound D7AZ-19A331-A (Spark Plug Connector) ESE-M1C171-A High Temperature Nickel Anti-Seize Lubricant F6AZ-9L494-AA (Spark Plug Thread) ESE-M12A4-A

Kit was misfiring only from the nearside exhaust on deceleration (release of the accelerator or when braking). Advice a little advice at Stoneleigh, I decided to change all 6 plugs: As you notice from the picture above all the old sparkies looked OK, a little scorched from overheating and a nice clean sparking end, except one. On the picture above please notice the middle sparky is covered in oil, could this be the culprit? Considering it was on the same bank of plugs as the exhaust manifold that misfires. Since changing the sparks and driving the car, it seems better but still misfiring slightly (just less frequent and more when the engine gets hotter). Any idea why one is oily and can this be causing the issue?

Added an extra feature to make setting up the front/rear brakes easier after bleeding in the future (remote balance bar cable): Hooray, no more climbing inside the foot well, turning upside down and getting trapped every time I bleed the brakes.

As promised some picture of the 16" and 14" wheels in place: 16" gap: 14" gap:

Just before the Stoneleigh Kit Car Show I had an issue with fuel running down the rail and onto the manifold and eventually all of the garage floor. It seemed the O-rings on the injectors failed and required replacing on the Jag V6 engine. Quick tip, Don't get the O-ring multipack from Halfords (which I already had) as non of them fit. Don't go to Jag for the parts required, they want you to purchase the whole injector £80+VAT each (which meant 6x injectors, ouch - (O-rings come free with the purchase (sarcasm...)) I needed to replace the whole set (12x O-rings), which are different sizes/substance for the top and bottom of the injectors. I eventually popped over to my local Ford parts dealer and a very friendly man helped source some O-rings which believe it or not, were from a Zetec engine and a lot cheaper. Top were a different colour, same size, but this was down to the material they made from and according the Ford guy it just to stop fuel leaks and it worked. Bottom were the standard black O-rings and were to stop oil leaks and these were from the Ford Ka engine.... Plopped them on the new injectors, put her back together, fired her up and tested OK:

Yes, I was looking at wilwoods, they look smaller and lighter, but easily £300 more and not vented. So for me a no brainier. You could look at the FiestaST option, which somebody else mention on my other post. Same discs upgrade but smaller calipers and no drilling required. Might be worth investigating. Meantime I will try and pictures up as ithese are around 3 mm to big and personally a little to close for comfort on 14" wheels.

Sorry dude, but I must be the bearer of bad news. I tested 14" wheels on the brake upgrade and these just catch on the inside of the wheel. I imagine if your willing, then you could maybe grind off part of the caliper to make them fit. I have photo's to show you, but both Rhocar and Photobucket have had issues with the login API to facebook. So at the moment I stuck without posting pictures until Photobucket fixes the issue, so bear with me.

Welcome dude and good luck trying to get some front wheel arches. Cycle wings a heavily sought after, whereas the clamshells are normally thrown out or given away (if anybody will take them). Most people end up buying them off GBS or eBay as stated above: http://www.kitspares.co.uk/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=377&search=wing&page=2 http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SHORT-Westfield-Cycle-Wing-LOcost-Cycle-wing-Tiger-Cycle-Wing-Kit-Car-Wing-/252877283454?hash=item3ae0a9207e:g:KFEAAOSwBahVS59G You will need to shop around for the style/size required.

+1 the above, rolling road after the car is in a fully working state, or it may be a waste of dosh.

Quick starts: Just out of interest, is it coolant in the system or just water? My first kit just had 5 years worth of water in it (nice muddy colour), and this would not help matters at all. I quickly flushed it through and replaced it fresh coolant to make sure its running correctly. Then there's the thermostat test (mentioned previously) to make its operating correctly and opening up at the correct temp. Basically listen to the guys above run some tests and fix it at the cheapest cost and drive the car for the season. Arrange help and after advice maybe look toward ripping out the old cooling system and replacing it with the a new one in the winter months. . we also had a manually operated fan temperature switch. But remembering the switch was painful and eventually it will catch you out and the engine will overheat or a flat battery. I basically shopped around during the summer months (whilst Nikki drove it everywhere) and changed it all in the winter months - never once jumped above 90 degrees since changing the cooling system. Just to help out with bits n bobs and to work out any costs. Quick search on net shows: Alu rad for £97 - http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/3Rows-Core-Aluminum-Racing-Radiator-For-Ford-Escort-Auto-Manual-1971-1980-/262958290314?hash=item3d3989158a:g:~CIAAOSwjqVZA~w7 Big 14" fan for front £18 - http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/UNIVERSAL-PUSH-PULL-12V-RACE-RALLY-DRIFT-ELECTRIC-RADIATOR-8-12-14-16-FANS-/351184375919?var=&hash=item51c438506f:m:miX6FLxbKFOuupYHOFaxrKA Standard 88 degree thermostat & gaskets etc...£9 http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Ford-OHC-Pinto-Thermostat-1-6-1-8-2-0-Capri-Cortina-Sierra-RS2000-Transit-/142279550990?hash=item212085a80e:g:aD8AAOSwax5YpDR8 OR better still a 82 degree thermostat £8 - http://www.burtonpower.com/thermostat-82deg-ford-cvh-sohc-pinto-2wd-cosworth-qth371.html Thermostat & Temperature switch (2x different things): The thermostat will activate and flush the engine with coolant whenever the temperature reaches a set point (88 or 82) and keep engine running at optimum temperature. On top of this you will require a temperature switch fitted into the top radiator pipe and wired back to a relay and temperature gauge to tell the car when its to hot, activate the fan to cool down the coolant that flushes the engine. Some online manuals (look around and you can download the PDF versions), or beg, steal borrow from a member: Sierra manuals: http://manuals.co/workshop/ford/sierra A bit of aluminium sheeting cut to make cowling around the Rad will help, but is not necessary with newer radiator if everything else is done correctly. approx.. £20 for a huge sheet Hope this helps towards the cause...

Can confirm the brakes work much better after bleeding them correctly and fixing a minor issue with the master cylinder push rod not returning correctly. Just for note, I have a bias bar. All hydraulic pedal box & to bleed the brakes is different to a standard setup. You will require bleed bottles setup on back and front at the same time with the nipples open and bias bar reset and free. Handbrake off, choke wheels or axel stand kit. Bleed left side, then switch to right side back and front ( looking from drivers view). So in theory you require 3 people if in a pit stop. Pedal pusher, front left brake bleeder, rear left brake bleeder. Then switch sides. Or as I did - Nikki pushing hard in the cockpit, while I watched from the rear....( ooeeerr, just sounds so wrong). Tip: Use seethru tubes and clear bottles. U might laugh, but I have seen pictures online of people attempting this with a plastic bottle that's not clear. How do they see the air bubbles??? Will be interesting to see how it behaves on the MOT brake rollers after the failure last year!

Ok, I will settle in after a hectic weekend and one night this week shuffle them around and post some piccies of a 14" wheel on the new set-up if it fits.... curious myself as it definitely has plenty of room around the sides.

No problem, I have a set of 14" on my other car which I can fit on the front to see the breathing room? But when looking into a brake upgrade I was looking at the largest discs I could fit without compromising to much weight and being able to downgrade to smaller wheels if required. 15", 16" definitely fit due to these being standards on the original donor cars. Would u like me to fit 14" and take a snap or attempt to?

Be calm, confident and patient. I'm not a mechanic and my first car had overheating problems. With a good sierra manual. Lots of support from the guys on here I managed to striip down, purchase everything needed off eVILbay and upgrade all of the cooling system on the Pinto engine. Absolutely runs like a dream now, but alas sits in the garage staring at the newer model. As per everybody else's comments - try to replace the radiator, fix a more efficient fan, flush system and replace thermostat. Make sure you have thermostat kicking in at the right temperature for the correct engine to keep it running efficiently. My Pinto runs between 80-90, whereas the V6 runs around 90-100. I think some more modern engines run hotter (Zetecs 120???). I just returned from the kit car show and can confirm a lot of members will be tied up until later as they are also in transit.

16" fronts, 17" backs. Car stops much better now (like a normal car) and since the crash course on bleeding bias systems (front & back) at the same time and fixing the master cylinder (which wasn't returning to its correct position). I'm a lot more confident driving it. In fact it flew to Stoneleigh and returned in the moonlit hours. Sunny open top trip there and trial by fire (night driving in the rain with covers on and new braking system returning home). I will attempt to stick some pictures up of this setup and of the kit car show when I get chance. Also had other issues I had to contend with 3 days before show.... Dead battery due due to electrical drain. Fitted cutout switch and battery to bypass slow drain over SORN period. Fuel leak from injectors, replacing custom o-rings instead of using standard (expensive Jags ones). Next on the agenda get some mileage on the Kit and look at the backfiring when decelerating (spark plugs hopefully???) Setup bias- bar for a more 60-40 ratio on fronts. Replace leaking ball joint ready for MOT.

Cheers guys for the last minute support.

Ok after stripping down front brakes, flushing whole system front and back. Put everything back as piping, discs, calipers are functioning as intended. I then removed braided pope from master cylinder and got Nikki to pump it hard (oooorrrr mrs) Noticed every time pedal depressed very little fluid moved they the cylinder and the pedal didn't return correctly. So reset bias bar to free, neutral position, reconnected everything and commenced with operation bleed everything. Bottles set up on front and back filled up reservoirs and got Nikki to gently and slowly push and pull until satisfied and no air was left in the system. Then repeated the same process again on opposite side front and back. Plenty of air removed and finally Nikki was satisfied with the firmness. Just taken it for a spin and it seems good and the brakes are warm ( not hot) as expected. Only thing do do now is take it to Stoneleigh and setup bias bar at a later date. So looks like bias bar, master cylinder and air still trapped in the system are the culprits. Proof will be when I attempt a drive to the show. Wish me luck.

Ha, ha , ha...... Me & Nikki have just discussed this over dinner whilst reading the Tilton bias braking bleeding document. Time to start putting everything back together and look at bleeding the system in the morning b4 attempting a trip to Stoneleigh again.... Thanks everyone, time to go to work and will keep u posted on the outcome. Fingers crossed!

I will have a look around. Under the impression the bias is set up after bleeding system. I do remember you need to bleed servo brakes furthest first. Not sure about bias systems?

New bigger discs, new bigger calipers, new bigger pads fitted. Dave fitted new braided hoses, new cylinders, new reservoirs and pedal box with bias. Original setup worked but didn't stop car. New setup when brakes pressed work better when cold. But when overheating nose dips, both front wheels lock up to the extent rear wheels spin and fronts lock up leaving 2 nice black lines in the road. In fact if this how good the brakes are supposed to be when you press them hard, then they are very good and the car won't budge. Is heat causing the fluid to expand and because I have braiddd lines it's got no where to go except push out the new pistons? Being both lock up at same time logic makes me think the same as you guys faulty master cylinder, but it's newish? Or just the push rod not returning correctly due to bias bar? Emptied brake fluid, removed wheels, calipers, discs, master cylinder and now checking everything Methodically and testing each part.

The fact both discs lock up completely after a short distance makes me think same as Steve and Florin. At the master cylinder or bias bar. As when the brakes were done everything ran freely, now even after cooled down are tight to move and will easily overheat.

Flushed system and used identical fluid and previous setup.

Any way of testing the master cylinder is working ?