Scott D's next MK1 Escort Project

[ozstang65]

Video of run 1 at Lakeside

[mightymk1]

Nice driving, pretty smooth for a first visit. What diff ratio are you using? Might be worth trying a lower one next time round.

[ozstang65]

It's got the 5.1 in it now. Would possibly like to try a 4.9 there one day.

[ozstang65]

Quick update, Noosa Hillclimb is in 2 weeks time, still a couple of things to finish off with the car. The clutch has been cleaned up and is back in. The oil leak from the rear extension to casing seal in the t5 has been fixed and it's back in the car too. Driveline angles are back to normal with the help of the new engine mounts so i hope that's taken care of the vibration that was coming through. The new alternator is in, only had to slightly modify the bottom bracket and weld a bit into the top bracket. Also got a slightly shorter fanbelt to make it fit a bit better.

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I bought an electric fan today so I need to come up with some brackets to mount that too. Once that's done and the carbies are back on it'll be ready to go again! Morgan Park 2 weeks after Noosa so hopefully there's nothing major to do inbetween them.

[ozstang65]

So, once again time is flying by. The mid-year Noosa hillclimb was mostly a wet weekend with the very last run on Sunday being the driest.



I had more issues with the carbies than I'd like, so a re-kit was performed before Morgan Park. During the rebuild, I found that the idle mixture screws were in the holes for the vacuum take-off (right next to each other and same thread). Don't know how I didn't pick up on this sooner, but explains why they never worked and it was rich as at idle (and un-tunable!). Maybe that's the reason the previous owner got rid of them, they would never have been right!

I went to Morgan Park two weeks later and ran on the Friday to get it tuned up a bit and played around with the main jets until the plugs were reading right. With the now much better running engine, overheating became an issue (running a bit leaner now that the idle circuit wasn't wide open!). So in all the events I backed off before the finish as the temp was getting a bit high. Later we realised that it still has the original 1300 radiator in it that came with the car, so a new one is in order. In the first timed event I lost the banjo bolt in the front carby which led to a lot of fuel being not where it should be! Luckily, most of it still ended up going into the engine through the air filter!.







I've got a new alloy radiator ready to go in this weekend, special, looks OK, we'll see how it goes.





I've got another set of 45's that I'm going to set up with 34 chokes and some longer ram tubes to see if it works better for the hillclimbs. A new set of Kumho softs might help a bit as well.

Next events are a Mt Cotton Hillclimb on the 14th/15th September then Lakeside the next weekend for a sprint format event....if I can get it back together in time!

today..

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[gen mk 1rs2000]

scott
that Alternator bracket scares me !!

[ozstang65]

Geeze Steve, just cause it isn't carbon fibre!...

Anyhow, it got some paint today, now going back together for next weekend's hillclimb.

[wannamk1]

Hi Scott,

I like the front flares set up.
Are they rolled or custom?
I don't wanna go bubble arches just flared out from standard.
any help would be great.

cheers

Greg

[ozstang65]

Hi Greg, they're Mk2 Escort 'eyebrows' welded in place. Because the mk2's had 13" wheels, they are much better shaped at the front (as well as wider) for when you've got a lot of extra caster.

[Cam]

Like that idea Scott!

[ozstang65]

Sofar, it seems to have worked well. I mostly run 175/60s on 7" rims which just fit under the standard guards. This will hopefully let me run 215/50s or at least run some alloy hubs (which add about 10mm). They sit about 5mm higher at the top of the arch than the originals, but nowhere near as high as twin cam ones. I'll get some pics when its back on the ground later in the week.

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New radiator in and ready to go. Should work a touch better than the original 1300 one!

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[ozstang65]

Got it all back together and ran at Mt Cotton last weekend, managed a new personal best of 48.83 on the 2nd last run. Very happy with the performance and no problems so its all good for Lakeside next weekend.

Back on the trailer in one piece

[Neville Bertwistle]

That's a great time for a 1600 Scott - well done

Will be interested to hear what you can do around Lakeside.

[ozstang65]

Thanks Nev. 66.97 was my best time on my first go at Lakeside so i'd like to think there's a bit of room for improvement!

[ozstang65]

Once again, time flies... so it's time for an update.

Like previously mentioned, Lakeside was the next event but unfortunately the oily clutch problem reared its head again so I only got a couple of runs in before I called it quits, managed a best of a low 67 from memory. It's taken a back seat for the past couple of months while i've being doing other things.

So I've had all the bits for a while, now its time to pull it apart and fix the oil leak. Actually, its time to do some work in the yard, but anyway...



Time to get dismantling..





Luckily, the 1600 is easy to dismantle in the engine bay so I can leave the gearbox and tailshaft hooked up.



and onto the stand.



and a couple of hours later...



looks like number one exhaust valve is still just touching the piston, will have to relieve it a bit more...



got the head all tidied up, valves re-lapped and ready to go back on. Bottom end tomorrow..

[ozstang65]

Another hot day in the shed, a bit more of the rebuild done.

Anyone for a course of boiled clutch for lunch? Add clutch to boiling water, a dash of liquid sugar soap and boil until tender... i mean clean.



and the rest cleaned up ok as well. I attacked all the machined faces with a siastrip disc to remove any glazing. the siastrip discs are brilliant for cleaning off gaskets too, just gotta be careful on aluminium.



Number one piston, once cleaned a bit, you can see where the exhaust valve has been touching the piston top. I filed off another 20 thou, should be good. No other pistons marked this time. I think the carbon buildup was mainly from before I got the carbies running properly.



I'm not going to take the crank and cam out. Stamp on the end of the cam says BCF3 which is supposedly a Kent Fast Road spec, that is, unless its been reground. Should probably make a better set of extractors for it too..





Pistons all cleaned up and ready to go back in.

[mickas]

How did you end up shortening your strut tubes?
And what front springs are you using?

[ozstang65]

From memory I used a cutoff wheel dropsaw and took out 40mm. I kept the threaded end and welded the tube back together, the join is midway under the threaded sleeve. I used Permatex Bearing Mounts For Close Fits between the sleeve and the tube.





Springs and sleeves are from Otomoto.

[ozstang65]

A bit more done in the reassembly this weekend.

I'm going to make a new exhaust for it soon, so I took the time to measure up the cam. I used to have a degree wheel but I couldn't find it so I made another one. From the measurements taken it looks as though it matches the BCF3 specs and is timed accordingly.



Got the pistons back in on Saturday also. We finally found a 1600 sump for it but the sump plug threads were a bit dodgy so I grafted another socket/plug into the sump.



Head and oil pump were the last additions today. Not much left to go before dropping it back into the car.

[ozstang65]

It's all ready to go again for next weekend's khanacross at Willowbank which will be a good shakedown for Mt Cotton 2 weeks after that.

Reassembled and ready for lifting in..





I disconnected the steering rack and moved it out of the way which made it easier to slide the engine in. It was a little tricky to lift the engine out with the rack in place, so with the 1600 sump being 10mm lower than the 1300 it would have been impossible to get it back in with the rack in place. In the end, it went back in really easily.



Reinstalling all the other bits that make it go, I replaced the gearbox mount with a new one and also fitted a new rubber over the clutch fork opening in the bellhousing.



The trumpets had a habbit of coming loose so I fixed up the studs in the carbs. After reducing the choke size before the last hillclimb last year it was running a bit rich at idle and down low so I also replaced the 50F9 jets with some 45's.



All back together with the bonnet reinstalled.





And it works! It fired up straight away, good oil pressure, no leaks. Tweaked the knobs on the carby until it ran better and moved the timing back a couple of degrees.

I've got a new set of hubs to go on it, getting the studs this week. Depends on how much time i have later this week I may have a go at fitting them. One needs the holes drilling out to suit the studs.