September 2008
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