|
|
|
|
 Latest NewsLast  on November 19 2008To bookmark this page on a mobile phone, use http://www.zetecinside.com/xr2/latestnews.shtml#MOBILE 2008 • Jan • Feb • Mar • Apr • May • Jun • Jul • Aug 2007 • Jan • Feb • Mar • Apr • May • Jun • Jul • Aug • Sep • Oct • Nov • Dec 2006 • Jan • Feb • Mar • Apr • May • Jun • Jul • Aug • Sep • Oct • Nov • Dec 2005 • Jan • Feb • Mar • Apr • May • Jun • Jul • Aug • Sep • Oct • Nov • Dec 2004 • Jan • Feb • Mar • Apr • May • Jun • Jul • Aug • Sep • Oct • Nov • Dec 2003 • Jan • Feb • Mar • Apr • May • Jun • Jul • Aug • Sep • Oct • Nov • Dec 2002 • Jan • Feb • Mar • Apr • May • Jun • Jul • Aug • Sep • Oct • Nov • Dec 2001 • Jan • Feb • Mar • Apr • May • Jun • Jul • Aug • Sep • Oct • Nov • Dec 2000 • Jan • Feb • Mar • Apr • May • Jun • Jul • Aug • Sep • Oct • Nov • Dec 1999 • Jan • Feb • Mar • Apr • May • Jun • Jul • Aug • Sep • Oct • Nov • Dec 1998 • May • Jun • Jul • Aug • Sep • Oct • Nov • Dec Wednesday 19th November 2008 Well, the Subaru now has 2,500 miles on the clock, which is a fair amount given that the car isn't 5 weeks old yet, and theres a niggling problem which I've written to Subaru UK about, which is to do with the volume of soot that is expelled whenever I accelerate. I've had the car back in to the main dealers once already, but they said that everything was within tolerances. However, the sheer quantity of smoke which the twin exhausts expel, is pretty embarrasing, and I cant even accelerate on the motorway without the lane behind me disappearing. I've tried different fuels, but the problem hasn't gone away. I wonder if any other Diesel Boxer owners have reported the same symptons. There is a Diesel Particulate Filter which collects the particulates and burns them off when the exhaust temperature reaches 600°C. But I simply dont believe that the filter could have the capacity for the extent of the smoke I'm seeing. Monday 10th November 2008 I've bought another Rally Design Mk2 Escort pedal box, which will replace the one thats presently in the car. The new pedal box has a hydraulic master cylinder for the clutch, as the IB5 gearbox is hydraulic activated. I'll be selling the one off the car, which I adapted in 2006 to work with the Fiesta clutch release mechanism, once I've removed it first of course. Sunday 2nd November 2008 I have clocked over 1200 miles on the Subaru already, from a very busy week spent toing and froing between home and Bury St Edmunds and Crawley. The car is superb to drive. The handling in the wet is far better than the Mondeo, and whereas before I'd opt to select a higher gear coming out of a roundabout, and avoiding wheelspin, with the Legacy I can just bury the throttle and the AWD system simply pulls it round. Amazing. I found a very intersting Subaru press release on the Diesel Boxer, which is a very smooth and quiet engine, given its producing 350NM of torque. And I'm getting 55mpg too.  I bought some M12x40mm high tensile bolts and M12 stainless washers from RSWWW this week, which I've used on the gearbox and engine mountings. Congratulations to McLaren Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton on winning the F1 World Championship today in Sao Paulo, Brazil. I've never seen anything quite so dramatic as that last lap win. Incredible. Thursday 23rd October 2008 With the gearbox bracket finished, I've taken the trolley out from underneath the engine, so the chassis is now supporting the weight of the Duratec engine and IB5 box, and more importantly my gearbox bracket seems to cope with the weight. 
Wednesday 22nd October 2008 Completed the gearbox support bracket tonight. Tomorrow evening I'll bolt everything together, and let the chassis take the weight of the engine and box for the first time. My new Subaru Legacy Sports Tourer arrived last Friday with 5 miles on the clock. Its the RE 2.0 Diesel, in Diamond Grey with black leather trim, and I'm now running it in very carefully. I've a new piece of contract work which involves a fair amount of travel, so the Subaru should make for a very comfortable ride. 
Friday 17th October 2008 The carbon bonnet arrived today from Performance Trim. Looks good, fits nicely, seems quite flexible and I'm hoping that it doesn't bow at high speed. 
Wednesday 15th October 2008 I've decided to use the Cosworth alternator mounting brackets for the Duratec. Their kit includes a belt tensioner, two brackets for the alternator, a pulley and a drive belt. I've acquired a bottom mount (thanks to AdamB) and just need the top mount, tensioner, belt and pulley, all of which are available from Burton Power.  
Monday 13th October 2008 I've almost completed the gearbox mounting bracket. I just need to brace the horizontal piece to stop it from flexing, and get it powder coated, and its finished. 
Friday 10th October 2008 Pictures of the first part of the gearbox mount are shown below. I'm planning on making an upright plate which will bolt to the inner wing where the XR2 gearbox bracket used to mount, and welding the two plates together with reinforcement. This will allow the plate to be removable, and saved me having to weld anything to the inner wing and ruining the paintwork. 
Wednesday 8th October 2008 The M-Sport gearbox mount arrived today, and the 3mm steel sheet I ordered from Ebay also arrived, so I've started work on the bracket that will support the gearbox via the new mount. Photos later. 
Friday 3rd October 2008 You may remember that a group of us from XRTWO.COM placed an order with Performance Trim in May for five Carbon Fibre bonnets for the Mk1 Fiesta. Well, today is October the 3rd and there is still no sign nor any news of the whereabouts of the bonnets, which is very disappointing. I've given the company until October 17th to produce and deliver all five bonnets, or the order will be cancelled. Very poor. Tuesday 30th September 2008 A quick trip over to UPS at Tamworth this morning to collect the M-Sport engine mounts, I'm very impressed with the quality of the CNC machined aluminium alloy arm, with a black anodised finish. It even has an M-Sport hologram stuck on it! The rubber mount looks like it'll make a big difference too. 
Sunday 28th September 2008 I'm selling more surplus ST and Fiesta Mk4 parts on Ebay.  Click here to see the itemsFriday 26th September 2008 I ordered the engine mounts from M-Sport yesterday. I also spoke to Raceline about their front mounting alternator bracket. But alas, its not designed for use with the Brise 49A alternator, so I contacted Brise to see if they could provide me with one of their brackets, so long as it was front mounting and the alternator sat beneath the water pump. Monday 22nd September 2008 More progress today on sourcing an competition spec gearbox mount (or Left hand engine mount). I spoke to the parts co-ordinator for the Fiesta Sporting Trophy, at M-Sport, and it turns out that there is an uprated mount for use with the IB5 gearbox. There also exists a replacement rubber for the right hand engine mount. ALLOY ENGINE MOUNT KIT RH - BN11020023A - £214.12 UPRATED ENGINE MOUNT KIT RH - BN11020017A - £67.76 Left hand M-Sport gearbox mount (Part number TBA)  UPRATED ENGINE MOUNT KIT RH - BN11020017A  Friday 19th September 2008 Whilst looking on the www for IB5 gearbox mountings, I've found that the Fiesta Sporting Trophy series have discovered some problems with various aspects of the Ford Duratec and IB5 gearbox in rallies. For example, there is a different arm available for the engine mount, which is about £200. I've emailed m-sport to see if they have any more details on the upgraded mounts. The following website lists all the bulletins released to Fiesta ST150 competitors. http://www.fiestasportingtrophy.co.uk/?ViewAll=1 Fitting the right hand engine mount http://www.fiestasportingtrophy.co.uk/downloads/10%20Fitting%20RH%20Engine%20Mount.pdf Right hand engine mount studs http://www.fiestasportingtrophy.co.uk/downloads/6%20Engine%20Mounts.pdf Uprated parts list here http://www.fiestasportingtrophy.co.uk/aboutFST_parts.asp More mods http://www.fiestasportingtrophy.co.uk/downloads/8%20ST%20Options%20List%20v1.2.pdf Another site selling uprated parts http://www.ramsport.com/ws_varer.aspx?KatID=87 The uprated engine mount itself 
Thursday 18th September 2008 Finally managed to spend some time outside in the garage this afternoon. I've bought a Fiesta Mk4 gearbox bracket and rubber mount, which I'll be using to support the weight of the engine and gearbox. The ST150 gearbox mount doesn't fit so I'll have to ebay it. I have managed to fit the ST150 engine mount. I've cut some threaded rod, and fixed it in the end of the engine casing. I've drilled three holes in the inner wing for the engine mount, and bolted it all in place. After moving the engine closer to the original position that the Zetec sat in, I realised I cannot use the rear mounted factory alternator due to clearance problems with the pulley. So I'll be fitting the Brise alternator at the front of the engine, and removing the water pump pulley. The water pump innards will be removed, and an electric water pump fitted. These plans may change. I had to take the oil breather tube out the gearbox (2nd picture below) before the mounting bracket could be bolted to the gearbox. It simply lifts out, after some persuasion with a screwdriver. 
Sunday 14th September 2008 Here are the first pictures of the Jenvey inlet manifold fitted to the Duratec engine in the Mk1 XR2. There's little clearance for trumpets or an air box, so I'm going to have to make more than a few cosmetic changes to squeeze everything in. 
Friday 5th September 2008 Jenvey has provided me with an inlet manifold for the Duratec. It arrived this morning. I'll post some pics over the weekend. Monday 1st September 2008 I had the privilege of spending an afternoon at Race Technology HQ last week, on the first of their monthly training sessions. I learnt all sorts of information, about how to analyse the data captured by the DL1 datalogger, including time slip and G-Circles. I'll have to sit down with the data I captured at Snetterton in July to see how I could perhaps have driven round the track even quicker, bearing in mind I was nursing broken suspension. I've added a five star rating system to the foot of every page. This will hopefully give me some useful feedback on the relevance of the information contained on the web site. The overall statistics show a 100% increase in web page access over the last two days, compared to previous stats, so I'm hoping that all the hard work in improving the site's access is paying off. On the way to Nottingham last week I dropped in at Donington Park race track for my lunch, and I managed to time my arrival with a test session by the new Superleague formula one style single seaters. The cars have V12 engines and 750BHP with sequential boxes and the sound coming from the track was mind blowing. Security was tight, but I still managed to drive through the main entrance and park near the exhibition centre for a view through the fencing. The cars didn't look that quick as they passed under the Dunlop bridge, but they sounded incredible. :D |
| Rate this page |
Tuning