The Black Count

ok here goes:
At the end of 2015 I had a bit of an epiphany: my escort track car project is unlikely to be ready any time soon (thread to come and a lot more interesting than this, honest) and I had lost interest in my puma which meant if I am to get on a track in 2016 I would need another car.
On Christmas morning I placed a bid on a 4 door 2litre focus ghia which was local and ended up the winner or loser depending on your view, so a couple of days later I collected the car and booked it in for an m.o.t


The inspector found some small holes around the rear seat belt anchorage and inner wheel arch so over the next few days I removed the rear seats, trim and wheel arch splash guards and had a little poke around and what started as little holes became bigger and bigger and I also uncovered more holes in the rear of the sills

Glenn_

iTrader: (1)

Yerp the wifes 53 reg focus went there too.

The focus are a good car. Theres 2 in my house hold.

I used to have a puma too. I miss it still cause it was a fun car.

mk3ste

Unfortunately a common focus problem along with sills
Best thing any focus owner can do is rip out the rear carpet arch liner don't no what ford were thinking ��

Glenn_

iTrader: (1)

I did this on the wifes focus. My ST17O still has them in.

I think they also act as sound deadening.

The Black Count

Not wanting to spend any time or money on this wreck I got straight back onto ebay and bought myself an accident damaged 3 door 2 litre cheap.
Had lots of trouble getting it onto the trailer as the wheels pointed in different directions and the brakes were seized



After getting it home and having even more trouble getting it of the trailer a quick look revealed a bent steering rack arm



So I have spent the last few days removing the racks from both cars and swapping them over, as can be seen all work had to be done on the road side in the cold, wet and before it gets dark

The Black Count

With the help of oil and a hammer I managed to free the rear brakes so took it for an m.o.t
No surprise it failed!! but this time nothing too serious

4 off lights not working, a headlight, stop light, brake light and indicator
Brake pipes corroded and brakes binding
wheel nuts missing from rear n/s
exhaust emissions

several advisories also

So will be spending the weekend trying to fix as many as possible

Jonny_FRS

Looking forward to seeing how you get on with this

Glenn_

iTrader: (1)

So is the green one gonna get scrapped then.

The Black Count

The wife wants the green 5 door gone a.s.a.p. but I have other ideas for it. The problem is its taking up a parking spot that the puma should be on, the puma is at the moment parked on my parents drive but I'm not sure how long that can last.

PaulinhoT

Exactly the same place my ST170 went, again caused by a build up of damp dirt behind the inner wing carpet. I have "sorted" mine out, and removed the damp trap.

Good luck with the new car

The Black Count

Time for a long overdue update I think

I started on the rear by removing the rear brake callipers and wheel studs from the 5 door and fitting them to the 3 door with new discs and pads which was quick and easy to do. Next was the metal brake pipes but to gain access the exhaust had to be cut off to be able to remove the heat shield then the petrol tank and filter had to be moved out of the way, more on this later

I planned to fit st170 front discs with Mondeo mk3 callipers which I had to remove from my escort mk6 before it was sold. This meant buying, painting and fitting st170 hubs first which delayed things



The garage I use does free m.o.t re-tests within 10 days I was now on 14 days after but swapped the cats over and fitted a used sportex exhaust I bought



The exhaust did not fit properly, I think the back box is for the 1.4l but it was just good enough. By the time I arrived the main m.o.t tester had gone home and the rest were packing up but one of the others was persuaded to have a look, all was going well until it failed the emissions test again. Test over!!

part 2 and a happy ending soon

mk3ste

Did you not leave a crisp Ł20 note in the ashtray?

Sometimes it helps, I always find the crisp 20 vanishes but I get a still warm from the printer mot certificate

Glenn_

iTrader: (1)

Good brake mod. I had thes on the puma i used to own.

The Black Count

Ł20 where am I going to get that sort of money from? normally they are very good but I did catch them at the end of a long day and all he wanted to do was go home.
The brakes were temporary fitted to a relatives project puma and I did think about fitting them to mine but I did not like the colour

xr2john

Next time you take it for the test kick its head in before hand so it's nice and hot,works wonders for me. Even worked on my Sti with no sign of a cat

The Black Count

With the pressure now off I took a break and ordered some more parts.
First was some new petrol tank straps as they looked in a bad way, came across some stainless steel replacements so went for those, also replaced the fuel filter at the same time as I bet its never been changed



The sump was also badly corroded so a new one was fitted before putting some nice new oil in.
Needed to do something with the exhaust so bought a new Direnza stainless steel system which was fitted with new powerflex mounts





Now those emissions:
Reading the failure sheet a bit more carefully the co2 readings were good but the lamda reading was high, on investigation it would seem the engine was running lean. As the engine warning light was still on I thought about reading the fault codes so bought a Ł13 reader, this runs on a pc with windows 8 or older (not 8.1) so I dug out an old laptop and installed win 7 on it



The fault code was "engine running lean" which could have been a fuel blockage or air leak, in my case it was a split pipe on the back of the inlet manifold, which was quickly replaced by one from the 5 door

The wheels were then changed for standard st170 et49's up front and a pair of OZ et42's on the rear and driven back for another full m.o.t which I am happy to report it passed with no problems

Glenn_

iTrader: (1)

Glad it passed matey. Nice exhaust.

mattxr3i

I like these sort of projects, are you going to simply upgrade to ST170 suspension etc Manifold will give you good gains..

The Black Count

ok I did buy a manifold and pipe, even spent some time and heat wrapped it, got to say for the money it looked well made its just that it did not fit



it does not meet the exhaust and is hard up against the car body, forcing it to join the exhaust, instead of hanging from the mounts it goes up and does not allow the exhaust to fit correctly at the rear of the car




The company I bought it from were useless and were unable to supply another one so I purchased a replacement from another supplier only to find out its the same, so I have concluded that these do not fit a 2.0 mk1 so I got it modified





First was to remove the tube that is not required



Then 50mm was removed from the pipe section, this has enabled it to fit, not perfect and will need more work, but good enough for now.

The Black Count

The OZ alloys were in a bit of a mess and the tyres would not hold pressure so they were sent away for a refurb. They look a lot better now and more importantly the tyres stay inflated, even the bunny was impressed



Also noticed grease at the front, turned out the drive shaft was knackered so a new ones been fitted. Had a bit of an accident with the front wing, going to need a new one eventually.



Been working on the green 5 door as well, cylinder head is ready to be lifted off but I have nowhere to put it at the moment.

The Black Count

Sorry its been a while but here's an update

Decided to fit some cheap coilovers to the 3 door so ordered some by ta technics which took ages to arrive. On the fronts I had problems getting them to go into the hubs as they were slightly to big and finally when the wheel was fitted I was not happy with the clearance between the wheel and suspension so ended up fitting the lower offset wheels which were on the rear to the front, problem solved. Now on to the rears, all the bolts were seized up solid so some finally came loose others rounded and some snapped but the rear springs, dampers and 10mm axle spacers got fitted in the end



On the 2nd July I took the car to Llandow for a track day, only prep was to take the rear seats out. Did well for the first 2 sessions but on the 3rd I started to have trouble changing gear so came in, never got back out as the clutch had died!!
So before the next track day on the 13th August I need to sort out a clutch also I hope to fit some better seats, a steering wheel and some better tyres.

_Jimmy_

Had this problem on my fiesta recently when trying to fit some KW coilovers that wouldn't go into the hub because they were a fraction of a mm too big. Wasted a couple of hours of my life then gave up and sent them back to demontweeks for a refund.
How did you get them to fit in the end?

Bad luck on the exhaust, I've always thought those shiny ebay manifolds looked troublesome.

The Black Count

yes they were only just too big so thought it would be easy to make them fit, well it wasn't they are as hard as a diamond!! started using cloth then a file onto a grinding wheel and then a cutting disk and it still took an hour plus on each, found that the port holes in the exhaust manifold gasket are the correct size so just kept going until I could get the bottom of the strut to go through. I went with ta technics as I fitted a set to my puma with no problems and I have to say that once fitted I am very happy with them, they have just reduced the speed on the road I live on to 20 mph with lots and lots of bloody speed humps which both cars go over with no crashes or bangs etc although the exhaust on the puma does hit them if you don't get it right.

The exhaust manifold is listed for the 1.8 and the 2.0 but both cars use different gearboxes, had the same problem on mk5 escorts, they fitted fine on a standard car but not on my xr3i which had a mtx gearbox. Think I should have gone for a st170 version but that would mean fitting a complete new exhaust as well. As I said though the quality for the price is very good

Glenn_

iTrader: (1)

Gutted about the exhaust not lining up.

I like the pic with the bunny in. Me and the mrs have 2 house rabbits.

The Black Count

Exhaust still not perfect, have fitted a flange with gaskets either side which has helped but as I do not plan to keep the car long it will do.

Bunny started its life as my Grand daughters house rabbit whilst she was at college in London unfortunately when she moved her new flat had a no pets policy so we took pity on it, sometimes wish I hadn't like the other day whilst I was carrying the cylinder head from the 5 door it escaped from the garden, took over an hour to get it back in!! talking of the 5 door I am going to take the gearbox out as a trial run, started today but the pinch bolts at the bottom of the hubs are in solid so gave up grabbed a cider and will try again tomorrow

The Black Count

Got time for a little update.
I was having problems with the passenger side pinch bolt, well in the end I managed to remove the brake calliper (bolts solid again) and get the brake disc out of the way which enabled me to get a better swing with a bigger hammer and all came free in the end so onto the drivers side, pinch bolt came out easy but the ball joint would not come out of the bottom of the hub, the red mist came down I had had enough so grabbed the grinder and cut through the arm, the bolt holding the damper to the hub was well rounded so in no mood to mess about I just cut the hub off.







Engine bay now cleared and whilst the sub frame was out I replaced the steering rack. Waiting for parts now.

The Black Count

Took the 3 door to Llandow for a track day on the 2nd of July unfortunately it did not last very long before the clutch expired!!
Managed to get the gearbox out making a bit of a mess of the street and found the clutch friction plate in pieces, new one now fitted and just putting the car back together again

H3lsing

Clutch!, what clutch haha. I'd say you get it's worth out of it anyway :bananna:.

The Black Count

Car made it back to Llandow yesterday for another track day, a minor miracle really as a couple of days before it was still in pieces and had a last Minute problem getting gearbox oil, nobody local had any in stock!!
Anyway car performed really well and was still running at the end of the day with just a little problem with the exhaust that needed to be sorted, apart from that the car is still in one piece.
Had to abandon the planned mods/upgrades except for the fitting of braided hoses to the front brakes and 2 off vibra-technics competition spec engine mounts

PaulinhoT

How did it preform on track fun I bet.

The Black Count

Hi, for what the car is a Ł100 160,000 mile wreck with cheap coil overs and st170 brakes it was a lot of fun and went really well doing the lap in around 58 seconds which is only 10 seconds slower than "the underdog" and his st170 and if I didn't still have the black leather seats fitted making it so hot inside the car that we had to wind down the windows totally destroying the aerodynamics who knows?
But on a serious note the problems are the budget road tyres (prestivo) and a lack of POWER
Will try to sort out a video if I can work out how to

The Black Count

My intention has been to keep the 5 door and to use the 3 door for a couple of track days then get rid of it so all work so far has either been maintenance or easily reversible mods. That has now changed, the new plan is to get rid of the 5 door and keep the 3 door turning it into a more focused (intended) track car, work starts tomorrow.

PaulinhoT

All sounds good, and yes Steve's car is building a rep for being pretty quick on track

The Black Count

Hope to go back to Llandow very soon so got a lot of work to do if its going to be faster. Not able to add any more horses under the bonnet so will try and make it easier for them, so as of today the car is on a diet



Just out of interest I have started to weigh some of the parts removed nothing too accurate but close enough:

after removing the rear seats all the brackets left behind weigh 2.2kg
rear seat belts 1.5kg
all 4 speakers 2.5kg
foam inserts from doors 0.8kg
airbag 1.3kg
rear wiper motor 1.2kg

So an easy start of 9.5kg

The Black Count

Not having a good time with the car at the moment so have had a little play with the video from the August track day you can find it here


Thank You

The Black Count

Been busy on the car the last few days, at the end of last week my plastic window kit from ACW Motorsport Plastics arrived and I've been doing the doors, the drivers window has a slider whilst the passenger side is plain. Whilst I was at it the cutter come out to play again, need to finish it but you will get the idea.





The door glass weighs 3.25kg and the plastic version 1.95 so that's 1.3kg less and the electric motor assy 2kg, metal panel from door 1.8kg, unused wires 200grams and the door card 3kg so in total that's 8.3kg removed from each door

Glenn_

iTrader: (1)

Lol at cutting through the bottom arm. Thats one way of removing the hub.

Cragrat

iTrader: (4)

Surprising how much weight you can lose in each door

Reading this with great interest

The Black Count

It can get quite frustrating when a simple task does not go to plan, rounded bolts, bits that wont come apart etc. etc.

As can be seen in a previous photo I took the steering wheel off, needed to move the car so thought I would put it back on, its only one bolt how hard can that be? well impossible is the answer!! the black plastic collar has come free allowing the spring to expand and the shaft that the steering wheel bolts too has gone inside the column, ended up removing the whole thing and replacing it with the one from the 5 door.

Today's plan was to remove the air con, same thing, the aux belt tensioner has seized up solid, didn't stop me from getting the parts off but I can not fit the shorter belt until it's sorted and it's a bugger to get at





And for the all important weights:
The compressor and mount 7.5kg the evaporator 1.4kg condenser 2.6kg pipes and clips 0.5kg so in total 12kg

The Black Count

Little update on how the diet is going





As you can see I have removed the passenger air bag, the air bag and mounting bracket weighs 3.8kg and the dash lid 0.8kg the glove box has also gone saving 1kg and the lower dash cover for the obd port saving another 0.6kg along with the steering column surround 0.4kg for a total of 6.6kg

Inside the car the rear door cards have gone 4kg for the pair, rear door plastic 1.1kg black plastic trim in total another 2.4kg centre console 1.6kg and beige plastic trim 2.3kg totalling 11.4kg

Bigger update tomorrow if all goes well