brumster

It's too close to the top of the pedal; the piston is practically touching the pedal top so there's no room for a bolt and the clevis arrangement. So need to just space it towards the back of the car to let the pedal have some degree of movement/adjustment. I'll photo it at some point, will explain better. Remember it's a Ka m/c not standard sierra

Two weekend of DIY have slowed things down but I do now have a lovely comfortable office to work in More shiney bits turned up... SPA Dash system, which is basically a single unit of everything I need on the dash bar some switches. Speedo, rev counter, trip, integrated warning lights and so forth, water temp, oil temp, oil pressure, fuel pressure and fuel gauge. Playing around finalising the master cylinder position too, will need to space it towards the back of the car a little to get proper leverage on the pedal/pivot point, so more spacers to make up with the plasma and grinder slow process, I need a CNC mill !! Good news is 2 weeks off over christmas now so, with the exception of some apparent festive celebration that the missus tells me I need to be a part of, I should get some good work done over the next fortnight... if I'm sober enough :-S

I always liked the old-school approach of "going out and giving it a real good run" ie. thrap the knackers off it and blow out the cobwebs

Our local garage does this and swears by it, albeit I've only ever seen them really doing it on diesels. Having seen the state of some EGRs on derv lumps, I could be persuaded to try it out, but not on a petrol I don't think... having said that, I'm trying to think how it would get on with DPFs if it's clearing all that crud out... or cats for that matter...

Remember it's at the top 2 times per cycle look up something called "valve overlap". While they are closed on the end of the compression stroke, this is not the case at the end of the exhaust stroke.

You say "over the workbench", so the whole gearbox was out of the car? If there was no propshaft inserted into the end of the gearbox, the rear seal would have nothing to seal against, so pouring fluid out would be completely normal

No, they're different

Ooo... dunno if they are? I have the front ones, I'll try them on the rear calipers tonight and see if they fit... didn't think about that. Does anyone know for definite?

Sure, second hand is fine. There's a few on ebay but only as complete sets with calipers, hence £70 upwards.... but I guess if needs must. Will give it a month or so first, as no major rush on them, just starting to think ahead.

Ok, I'm not massively savvy with Zetecs but I'll cover some points from other engines. The forged rods/pistons achieve a couple of things. Firstly, it's clear they are altering the compression ratio in some way but I've no idea if that's by way of doming the top, a different rod length or a different piston crown height. Either way, it's reasonable to assume that the top of the piston is now closer to the cylinder head on the compression stroke. The second is that they are going to be lighter and stronger for use at higher revs, so they are really intended to be used with some performance cams and some fairly extreme ones at that. Given a target of 240bhp and as has been said you're going to be looking at longer duration cams. The concern then comes that, given that longer duration and possibly higher lift, you have no issues with piston-to-valve contact... particularly as you've upped the compression by changing these rods and pistons. So some clarification from the cam manufacturer of lift figures, coupled with some knowledge of how the pistons are different... just to ensure the two don't interfere with each other. Even if they do, it's not impossible to address, pocketing the pistons or fiddling with thicker head gaskets. It's all knock-on factors isn't it. They're oversized pistons by the look of things, so block will need a small overbore/hone. You've got the cams, which will need verniers to get the best out of, and you're not going to make a high-revving engine like that and not put ARP bolts on the rods, new bearings all round, new rings, work the head, new valve guides, maybe bigger valves, then you're re-cutting the seats, yada yada yada.... like you say, if it's all open, might as well do it right the first time. Before you know it that's a £6k engine.... if you're doing it all yourself So just go in with eyes open...

Howdy all, I've sourced some new rear calipers but failed to realise that they come only as the outer part of the caliper and don't include the sliders or the inner part of the calipers that they slide on. If anyone has any, or knows of a good source for the rest of the caliper, I'd be interested. So I've basically got this bit... ...and need this bit (might not be the exact part; just found it via a google search)... Cheers, Dan

I bet they last! Mine were dictated a little bit by the fact that I used Caterham engine mounts, so it was the easy option. I wonder if their mounts, albeit patterns of the original Jag, are in any way better engineered... fingers crossed . Thanks for the note, though, it's that sort of stuff that's good to know.

Thanks chap - you are right, they are Caterham engine mounts but they are basically Jag mounts as you have discovered. I bought these direct from Caterham and they served in the old Exmo for several years... but granted not a lot of mileage (probably only 1000 miles covered). I will keep an eye on them then... at least they should be cheap and easy to replace :-S !!

Doesn't look like much progress on the pictures front but in reality last weekend was quite busy I fitted the front footwell panels, the rear side panels (the infill ones with the half-crescents on them), and the rear cockpit panel. I guess most people are aware of the procedure for these, but just in case someone is using this as a reference... I put the panel in place, aligned it to the relevant chassis tubes, clamped into place and marked with a permanent marker where the chassis tubes cover it. It's then a case of remove it and mark it up for where the rivets will go - I spaced them evenly along each run at 3" or whatever fitted the measurement really. Used a press drill on the bench, 3.5mm drill bit, slow speed and nice a gentle pressure so you don't bend the aluminium panel by putting "dinks" into it. Then brake cleaner the permanent marker off it, refit to chassis, reclamp, then use the holes to drill out the matching holes in the chassis. 3.5mm cobalt drill bits only here, again a slow speed, moderate pressure, no need for any cooling lubrication at this size if you don't rush it. Remove the panel for the final time, and peel away the protective plastic covering from around the rivet holes (because if you leave it until after you've riveted, you'll never get the plastic pulled away from around the rivet and you'll be left with little tufts of the stuff). Resist the urge to rip it all off. Run a bead of Sikalfex 221 down each part that will rest against a chassis rail - a small bead, say about 6mm diameter or so, because it will squash up once the panel is fitted. Now refit the panel, using the ripped plastic as a convenient way to hold it on the covered side. Use some rivets to locate it along the holes, then rivet away. Be careful if you're using a conventional rivet gun that you pop the rivet as gentle as you can do to prevent the rivet tool jerking across your nice clean aluminium panel leaving a dirty great scratch . It'll happen a few times and you'll curse yourself like I did. It's a bit laborious but kind of therapuetic I think....! Anyway, the sunday was swallowed up with some 3mm plate, the plasma cutter, lots of bench grinder fettling and eventually I had finished making up some nice spacers for the lower engine mounts. I welded in a 3mm plate on the right hand side to fill the gap between the chassis legs where the new mount needed to sit. By the end of the day, finally, the engine mounts were in place. I also did the gearbox one while I was at it - which is basically just the standard mount but cut down to fit in between the chassis rails. I've mounted it on the top rather than underneath to give me some clearance from the ground; can't see any significant problem with doing this over underneath, other than making it an engine-out job to swap if it ever needed changing. Doesn't look much for a days effort does it where does the time go

Ordered some various nuts and bolts yesterday from both Westfield Fasteners and Namrick - all turned up today, so excellent service. Westfield cheapest on the bulk stainless stuff but there were a couple of fine and coarse thread bolts I needed (brake pedal, rear diff mount, bellhousing-to-gearbox) so Namrick turned up trumps on those, and some countersunk rivnuts and the IVA bolt head covers...

If you look on the pic of the following :- http://www.ebay.co.uk/ctm/Ford-Sierra-Type-9-Gasket-Set- You've basically got (from top, going clockwise) - The round cork gasket that goes on the input shaft/clutch release arm cover. - A bellhousing gasket (5 holes in it; the top central hole is not for a bolt but to clear the selector shaft) These are the two gaskets you'll be interested in, plus the actual rubber seal of course. The rest of the picture, if it interests you, is - Top cover gasket - Front seal, rear seal and I'm guessing speedo drive seal inside the top cover gasket - Intermediate spacer gaskets for either side of the ally spacer on the 5-speed HTH!

Price drop £250

Oooo bug eye get some gravel tyres on it ready for the snow

I had no issues with option 1 on my Exmo although fuel demands and lateral grip levels were probably a lot different to what you're going to be experiencing! Option 2 also sounds "sound", as long as the steel isn't stressed in any way it should be fine, we're only talking a small tank effectively acting as a swirlpot. Option 3 should work provided they are positive displacement fuel pumps - you will double the available pressure but will still be limited to the flow rate of the single pump (assuming both pumps are identical) - but any valves or diaphragms in the pump could be subjected to more input pressure than expected (on the 2nd pump). I've never seen it done but a quick google shows people who have apparently done it - but I'm not sure I'd trust the t'interweb in this regard I would check with a pump manufacturer if you was going this route - easier to just find one that delivers up to yout 5 bar, to be honest

From that comment, I would say just start the thing and take it easy for 200 miles, varied driving (no steady motorway cruising/revs for example), no full load.

Oh absolutely, I understand. OLED/LED/LCD certainly a lot more effort to make look 'pro'. And I suspect you'd get visibility issues with LCD, to be honest. There are some OLED displays that have the graphics driver chipset built into them, complete with a command set for doing rudimentary graphics (I've got one here in my project box to rig up some time and have a play). Half the reason it's gone nowhere is for exactly the reason you cite A thought for your project - how about factoring in a relay driver for a variable-speed intermittent wipe based on road speed? If you fancied another challenge

I would say new cams need running at a fast idle, so ABOUT 2000rpm, not above it (some people might read that as "give it 5k!")... but yes it is common procedure for new cam builds.Basically the loadings on the cam lobe are worse at low engine speeds (ie. at idle).

Excellent little project! I love playing with MCUs too, I did a little project to make a sequential gear position indicator on an Atmel MCU... My next idea, if I ever get to start it, is to make my own OLED/LED dash display to provide all information to the driver, but realistically it'll be months(years) before I ever get to pick it up and properly work at it. I was always looking at the Stack displays with a simple two-row character LCD and thinking boy they are milking people for some very basic technology there. There are also lots of LCD-based, non-dynamic displays like the Race Technology and ETB Digidash systems but they look a bit naff and cheap to me. Then you get the serious kit like the DTA XDash, Bosch motorsport and the Cosworth (Pi Research) motorsport displays, which are what I would want - fully configurable and dynamic in what they display - but not at several grand . Good on you - will watch with interest!

No, no, please do, I was working from memory! Agreed the rear seal is nothing to do other than getting to it, but given the location of the oil spill I guessed it wasn't this one. I'm with you on the front seal now though, I recall the carrier you're on about - it's not really a seal is it, just a cork or paper gasket? Or have I forgotten the seal as well? Maybe I have blurred the two. It's not coming from the intermediate alloy spacer on the 5-speed is it, O.P.? So I agree, should think more I put finger to keyboard - input shaft removal not necessary sorry!

The front seal on the input shaft? Nothing special needed although if I remember rightly to get the input shaft to disengage enough to remove it, you have to drop the layshaft a little. Certainly no need to do all the seals but if you're taking it apart you might as well - and check the bearings while you're at it. The rear layshaft bearing can be a bit of a pig if it needs doing but everything else is really easy - most I needed to do was fabricate some arms for my hub puller to pull 5th off the output shaft, only because it needs to be quite long to pull off it. But if you're purely doings seals/gaskets, you should have no need to do this.