Escort RS Turbo EFI Project II E353 HPC

[Danster76]

Bought this car a while ago now. Some might recognise it. There is a pretty well documented build thread on here from a previous owner. When I got her she was no very well. The 1.9 longstroke was dead and gone and had been replaced with a 'so called' freshly rebuilt 1.6 bottom end. Car was over fueling and running like a pig with a misfire. Compression test indicated low compression on #4 pot (100psi against 1,2 & 3 at 150). Head off revealed two fine cracks in the head between the inlet and exhaust manifold (great) but more worryingly on the block pot 4 piston was slapping around in the bore a fair bit. So I'm in for a new head and bottom up rebuild...let the work begin and the savings dwindle

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[RS 5tu]

Great looking car, What are your plans keeping it 1.9 or 1.6 CVH?

[martinmilne]

nice car any more pics good luck with the rebuild

[Danster76]

First things out and off were the 88 spec indoors, the carbon bonnet and the m3 mirrors. Replaced for standard mirrors and bonnet and 90's chairs. Treated her to new lights all round to freshen it up.









With the engine out and the bumper off decided the front end needed overhaulling









Crank just before she goes for a regrind.

Trying on new sump


Tired out


Panel work is now done.
Painting begins Monday.
Rebuild begins next week when burtons deliver

Cheers

[Danster76]

Cleaned the bay this afternoon ready for painting. Got covered and killed the jet wash but its degreased now. Got some pics on the way.

[Danster76]

New tray and bulkhead repair panel





Degreased bay



Messy part!





Back home drying out...I'm off for a pint!


Cheers.

[Rs-Simon]

Looking good fella, hope everything goes ok. Oh yeah thanks for the interior.

[Danster76]

No problem mate. Going well so far

[boothy]

looks well mate....

[Tonyt1t]

fancy selling the carbon bonnet???? lovely thread cars lookin gorgeous

[Danster76]

Originally Posted by Tonyt1t

fancy selling the carbon bonnet???? lovely thread cars lookin gorgeous

I would have Tony but its sold already
Regretting selling it really. For what I got I'd have sooner kept hold of it for a...spare or whatever!

[Danster76]

Got the paint brushes out this evening
First scotched her off then masked her up before dusted etch primer over her...Masking up took a while as had gearbox, loom, braking, steering and suspension still in situ.







Then got some paint on.
Two pack ici diamond white, shade 1 (whitest), mixed 2:1 with hardener.















Brightened her up a bit. Fortunately it doesn't look yellow in the flesh! The pics were taken under artificial light using my Sony Ericsson camera phone Fair pics considering!

Still waiting on engine components from Burton's so thats it for a few days.

Cheers

[tommytxr]

looks gr8

[craig2351]

looking good mate

[Nick.W]

looking good mate, Lozz said to me that you were having the bay painted up. Good work mate,cant wait to see it all done and up together. I'm going to have to start pestering Lozz to get mine done.....(Series One)....

[Danster76]

Hi Mate,

Its getting there. Can't wait for it to be 'finished' lol as if! your S1's not too far away is it?

No doubt I'll see you up the farm soon. Got her back over my place now. Engine work can get underway as soon as the pistons arrive. Should have been here by now...Hopefully Monday

[Danster76]

Burton's Delivered
Hopefully Pistons will arrive on Monday and work can begin.

[Lloydey--10]

I nearly Bought this car when it was Upfore sale

but decided not to... and Bought the One i have Noww And never Looked Back best thing i ever did

Iv done a restore on mine.. completley Stripped the whole car.. atm its in the Body shop havin a Full respray


But nice work feellaaa will be stunnin once donee
the white ones are deffo the best

[Twins]

Fantastic ,looks great

[Nick.W]

Originally Posted by Danster76

Hi Mate,

Its getting there. Can't wait for it to be 'finished' lol as if! your S1's not too far away is it?

No doubt I'll see you up the farm soon. Got her back over my place now. Engine work can get underway as soon as the pistons arrive. Should have been here by now...Hopefully Monday

Ha a car like that is never finished....Check my restoration thread out if you haven't already (C71 SGW) you can see how far it has come, just want to drive the bloody thing now, I have owned it for 4 years and haven't driven it once lol... See you soon mate.

[Danster76]

Here's a pic of the old AE piston which was causing the problem.



The new ones arrived today from Matt Lewis Motorsport which saved me a fair few quid over Burtons.



Over sized 0.5 or there about...



I'm off to take the crankshaft for its regrind and get the pistons pressed on the rods now. I'm using these guys locally, Owslebury Crankshaft in Winchester. http://www.ocservice.co.uk/index.html












Oh, cleaned the block ready for painting too!
Cheers/

[Danster76]

Got my paint brushes out today and blue'd the block

Wire brushed her first







Happy* enough with that. Cheers

[Brian]

Looks good nice work

Brian

[Matt carter]

looking good

[hevangel]

good work mate, where abouts in southampton you from??

[jammerrs]

looks amazing

[bigryrs]

coming along nicely mate well done

[martinmilne]

good progress mate lookin good cant wait to see it finished

[Nelson]

Nice work

[Danster76]

Picked these beauties up from the engineers today
Crank re-ground bigs and mains -0.25mm undersize


And my new mahle +0.5 pistons now pressed on the rods.




Just waiting for the the matching -0.25mm HD bottom end bearing sets to arrive from Matt Lewis Motorsport now and then will have all the engine components ready to begin the build

[Matt carter]

[Danster76]

Began the bottom end rebuild today. But incorrect high pressure oil pump stopped play
It appears my EFI bottom end has a S1 crank in it! whatever. No wonder the oil pump was wrong. Needed a S1 Pre '86 pump. Managed to find a genuine standard ford pump on ebay which should sort it out.

Took a couple of pics. Not very interesting but the crank and pistons are in.







Cheers

[Matt carter]

Looking good mate.

[Danster76]

A quick update on how its going. Not got a lot of time so am going to let the pics do the work!

Cars finally out of paint after having had a few problems with the colour. Finally got it right though. The old m3 mirrors and carbon bonnet are gone and replaced... horrah!

So, This is whats been painted.

Engine bay
New slam panel
New cross member
Bonnet and vents - smoothed (Plate welding in badge recess)
Scuttle panel
Wings
Mirrors
Front bumper - minor chips
Rear bumper - ditto

Been easier to list what hasn't been painted! Doors, quarters, tailgate and roof! lol
The car was totalled in 2004 - before my time, and is still pretty good anyway, I have bought enough gear to do the rest in due course but for now she's good enough.
















First time she'd been on the road for a while - albeit on a tow bar!

Engine build is almost finished. Hopefully the key may turn towards the weekend fingers crossed.

















Have started putting the 'new' 90 spec interior in.
An 82 degree stat turned up today as promised from Matt Lewis so thats in.
Will take more pics as it progress's to completion. If its ever finished!

Cheers

[Danster76]

Wont be long now.

[Robs Frst]

Looking good

[Matt carter]

nice one

[Danster76]

The Engines in and running and sounds sweet Good to hear her chattering away again. Had a couple of teething problems - electrical and an airleak but they were quickly sorted.

Have decided to replace the pace charge cooler with a GRS front mount and twin fans. Both should arrive tomorrow.

Have spent some time sorting the loom out. Previous owner had left the old MFI loom in complete which was looking messy so cut out everything unused and shorten/ lengthened as neccasary which has sorted it right out. Only fooked up once by cutting out the washer pump plug by mistake. Good enough! Got hold of some split, corrugated tubing which I've put the loom in which looks much neater.

Also, Lozz has been busy and made up a couple of brackets. One fixes the ecu neatly and the other fixes the map sensor, mixture pot and EDIS module (Also had the pump for the Pace cooler which is going tomorrow). They used to float around in the engine bay!

The end is in sight now but still need to finish the loom, swap coolers, bits and bobs to refit - heater blower, some shiney bits, fans, front bumper...Then I guess, run her in and get her set up.

A few pics below and will get a sound clip tomorrow. I'd have taken more but forgot in the excitment! Will get snap happy tomorrow lol

Cheers

[Puss2]

Superb

[Danster76]

Been busy again this weekend.
I have now have covered 120 running in miles on rebuilt engine and it feels good

Yesterday I got the emissions checked...It would have passed mot if needed

Allowed Actual reading
Co 4.5% 0.14%
Hydrocarbons 1200ppm 264ppm

This'll need richening up a bit

Today I removed the rad which had oil over it from a previous dodgy breather/ blower set up and consequently was splattering oil on my new engine! arrghh.

Throughly cleaned the rad and flushed it through while it was off.
I then fitted the new slimline fan to the rad as I decided I would remove the pace intercooler and fit the front mount.

With all this out the way and the car cold I quickly lengthened the actuator rod to minimise boost while running her in.

I made a pair on mounting brackets for the rad as I wanted to move it back as much as possible to make room for the cooler.

I've mounted the cooler by using the holes available for the spot like brackets and made two new holes (broke my heart doing this on the freshly painted front panel) I used some rubber door stops (b&q) to space the cooler from the fan and it worked a treat! even the colour matched! I didn't have the bumper with me today to offer it up but am 99% sure it will fit without needed to modify it.

The plug which goes to the fan switch by the thermostat had melted in a previous life so I replaced this and now both the engine cooling and fan work perfectly. Cruising as 65mph temp gauge is between the blue and the 'M' of NORM which I was pleased with and its not going much over half way with the fan in when hot and stood. Happy about this.

ACT temps taken from the pendulum chamber (spelling) were around 32-34oC while cruising at 70mph in 5th. Going to be hard to see how much difference the front mounts added until its run in and running some boost.

All in all I was happy with the temp results bearing in mind its been probably the hottest day of the year today so far around 26oC ambient.

For now, I've taken this car about as far as I want to and have a short list of 'to do's' - Well a lot shorter than it was!

So, my 'to do list'. For me really lol:

1. Remove, replace, refit sump gasket! The bugger is leaking a bit - bolloxs!
2. Fit ECU in bracket and attach to bulkhead
3. Refit Blower motor and bling box hiding as much of the loom behind, beneath as poss.
4. Refit front strut brace
5. Refit front bumper
6. Change brake fluid and service front 4 pot cos callipers!
7. Indoors - Refit glove box, removed to do battery tray (anyone keep gloves in theirs!?)
8. Weld a couple of plates below, nothing drastic! two little holes in floor pans and spare well.
9. Run it in/ drop oil and filter (again!)
10. Fresh map hmmm...

Shopping list:

1. Top boost hose. One in use was cut to suit Pace cooler and is a tad too short for the new one.
2. Steering wheel - 3 or 4 spoke Rs with horn. Anyone got one spare?
3. Get spare keys cut!
4. TBC lol

A few pics to follow.

Cheers