August 2010
Tuesday 31st August 2010
This Sunday (5th Sep), I'm on the Fast Ford stand at the Trax show at Silverstone. Come say hello. In preparation, I've polished the acrylic windows in the car with Meguiars Plast-RX clear plastic cleaner and polish, which is excellent at removing fine scratches and restoring the windows. I've also fitted cable ties to the underside of the floor to hold the lambda cable above the exhaust pipe to stop the wires getting fried. And I've removed my gearbox mount and sprayed it with satin black paint, and I'm touching up all the scratches on the body work from the last two years to get the car looking its best.
Some of the videos from the dyno session on Friday are now on my
channel (www.youtube.com/a269fej)
This is the Fiesta Icons feature in this months Classic Ford magazine.
Saturday 28th August 2010
After a very long day yesterday, with all sorts of delays, at around 6:30pm we managed to coax 199BHP at 7000rpm and 159 lb/ft of torque out of the Duratec, with a lot more to come.
Here is the dyno plot from the last run. Remember, this is a stock engine, with Titan Roller barrels, 100mm trumpets, Tony Law race exhaust, and IW031 injectors.
Thursday 26th August 2010
I'm in this months Classic Ford magazine! The XR2 is shown on a page titled Fiesta Icons, along with Mike Johnsons beige Mk1, and a picture of Roger Clarkes Mk1 rally car. What an honour.
The IW031 injectors have arrived, so I'm all set for tomorrows trip. I'll video the session, and post updates during the day on Twitter. And the Legacy had its service today, and Subaru has finally agreed that the clutch judders, so it needs booking in for a strip down and inspection. I reckon its the dual mass flywheel thats causing the judder.
Wednesday 25th August 2010
All set for the trip to Northampton on Friday, I've asked them to supply a set of four Green IW 031 injectors, rated at 270cc/min (220bhp). I ran a set previously with the Zetec/Jenvey setup, but sold the injectors with the Jenveys. The ones in the engine at the moment are Blue IW 030's, which are only rated for around 165BHP. I'm hoping to get around the 200BHP marque on Friday, if everything goes according to plan.
Friday 13th August 2010
My Pictures from Ford Fair on Sunday
Thursday 12th August 2010
Racing Green Endurance in their Radical SR8, driving down the Pan-American highway, have just crossed the Mexican border.
Tuesday 10th August 2010
I've booked the Fiesta in at **** on the 27th August for the suspension alignment, followed by a rolling road setup. I've ordered a Mocal oil sandwich sensor plate, to replace the leaking one on the car. The Mocal version has a recess for the rubber gasket, which means that it should seal against the Mocal remote oil filter housing, preventing it from leaking.
Monday 9th August 2010
The attendance of FordFair was just incredible yesterday. I have never seen so many Ford vehicles (new and old), and people, all together in the same place. The queues on the A43 in to Silverstone were around 1.5 hours at times during the morning. I arrived at 7:30, and parked the Subaru over in the trailer park, unloaded the Fiesta, and drove carefully over to the B16 area where xrtwo.com were based. I had a couple of opportunities to give the throttle pedal a quick poke whilst in first gear and second gear, and saints alive, the Duratec engine pulled the fiesta along like a train. I shall have to get her mapped so I can take her out on to the track for some giant killing.
I met Karl Hacken (kustomengineering.com) and his wife, over from Minesotta (USA) for the show, and Karl seemed suitably spurred on to finish his Duratec Mk1 Fiesta.
Roll on Trax on September the 5th, again at Silverstone, and hopefully the car will be mapped by then so I can get some track time under my belt.
Saturday 7th August 2010
Drove the car for the first time in two years today. The clutch works perfectly, its a really well positioned bite point, and the brakes work fine too. I ran the engine up to temperature for the first time and the cooling fans came on, and nothing appeared to leak. The Fiesta is now on the trailer ready for tomorrows trip to Silverstone FordFair, and I'll be on the xrtwo.com stand.
Friday 6th August 2010
Fitted the Lifeline extinguisher back in the car, and plumbed in the pipework to feed the nozzle in the engine bay and the one in the cockpit.
Thursday 5th August 2010
Adjusted the gear selector cable last night, so I can now get all the gears. There are two cables used with a cable change gearbox. One cable transfers the forward-rear selection, and this cable is not adjustable. The other cable, the one that transfers the side to side movement of the lever, is adjustable. So with the cable clipped on the gearbox, you need an assistant to move the lever fore-aft, and side to side, to establish the best position to lock the adjuster in place. Once its done, you can easily select all the gears, and its a much smoother operation than the old rod style selector used on the previous BC gearbox. Hopefully a bit lighter too. :D
Wednesday 4th August 2010
Refilled the gearbox with some cheap oil I bought from Halfords. I say cheap, but it was still £14 for two litres. And I've adjusted the tracking by eye, so the front wheels appear to be in parallel, which will do for the limited driving I'm going to be doing prior to the car being setup properly at ****.
Tuesday 3rd August 2010
The XR2 MkII steering rack turned up, and I've fitted a lock stop to the drivers side, and bolted the rack in situ. I've also fitted the Cool-It thermal acoustic sheet to the under floor, where the exhaust manifold passes closest, at the front of the car. Easy enough to fit. Just clean off the Dinitrol with some solvent, and stick the sheet on. Simples. It follows the contours of the floor too, as the sheet is fairly mallable and easy enough to smooth down by hand.
I just need to fill the gearbox with oil, adjust the tracking, and load the cold start map in to the ECU and I should be able to see if the clutch is working in time for FordFair on Sunday.