The Sludge

I hope you will find these FAQ of some use to you. Whether it saves you posting a question on the BB, or waiting for a question to be answered. I am not a mechanic, nor am I an expert on RS cars. All that is here is just from learning about the car itself over the years and getting my hands dirty by working on my own car.

There are also some articles by other RSOC board users


CONTENTS

1. Starting problems
2. Air leaks
3. Oil leaks
4. Water leaks
5. Brakes
6. Servicing
7. Cold starting problems
8. Electrical problems
9. Smoking
10. Rust proofing

11. Bumps and vibrations
12. Boost problems
13. Misfires
14. Dump valve fitting
15. Cam followers
16. Overheating
17. What petrol?
18. D.I.Y Two stage boost
19. Fitting a boost gauge
20. Chip identification in ECU

21. Rear disc conversion
22. Cleaning after market air filters cheaply
23. Changing valve stem oil seals the easy way
24. ABS removal
25. Water injection – what is it?
26. Lowering your ACT
27. Gearbox replacing and linkage overhauling
28. Bodykit removal and refitting
29. Sensors and their location
30. 90 spec – list of changes

31. List of all bushes on car
32. Paint codes for all series 2 cars
33. Bailey swirl pot – fitting instructions
34. Bailey breather – fitting instructions
35. Pace charge cooler – fitting instructions
36. GRS intercooler – fitting instructions
37. ACT gauge – fitting instructions
38. Buying guide for the Series 2 (1986 – 1991)

SECTION 1 - STARTING PROBLEMS

Normally the main reason a car won’t start is if the battery is flat or some cells are damaged. But there are other reasons as well. What I will do is list all the reasons I know of, and how I fixed them. I am assuming that the car runs OK here e.g. fuelling and timing are OK and doesn’t have any other known problems on it.

Starter turns but car won’t start. The battery isn’t putting out enough power to kick the car over. If you jump start the car with another battery it will work fine. Time to check each cell with a hydrometer and then see what the results are. Eventually when you turn the car over you will hear the ECU clicking madly, this means that the battery is virtually discharged and you will have NO chance of starting the car. The slower the starter spins reflects how worn it is, and how much power the battery is putting into it. I would get the battery checked and then replace it if need be.

Another common fault is the fuel injection relay blowing. This relay is a pink colour and lives under the dashboard on the drivers side. It is in a bank of relays. They do fail, but they only cost £15 new from Fords. Best to buy new rather than get a second hand one.

Starter won’t turn when car is hot. A very common problem on RS turbos, and basically the turbo is cooking the starter motor. All the cars should have heat shields on them, but not many do now. If you find yourself stuck then the best thing to do is to put the car in gear and rock it forwards and back wards, that might unstick it. Failing that you have three other options;

a bump start
wait for the starter to cool down, which might take hours
try hitting the starter motor with a hammer or wheel brace to unstick it

Starter turns, car runs, battery light comes on and all lights dim very quickly. Again I found this one out the hard way. The terminals to the starter motor get corroded and covered in rubbish over time. They need this part of the loom to charge battery but if they are black they won’t charge the battery too well if at all. What I did was to jack the car up, take the keys out, take the heat shield off, and then clean up all the terminals with some sand paper. Then reassemble it all. Everything was back to normal but the battery needed time to recharge itself.

Another reason the car won’t turn over might be the electrical connections on the ignition barrel, or the barrel itself might be faulty.

Over time the earth connections get dirty and corroded, especially with all the heat generated. I would recommend you either clean this up properly or run another earth wire on it’s own.

Car starts, but the battery light comes on then dims. This can be a few things. Normally it happens when the car hasn’t been moved for a while, or if the battery isn’t charging properly, or if the alternator is charging the battery up. Take the car for a run and after about 20 minutes the light should have gone out, if not then there is a fault somewhere in the electrical system. The best thing to do is to check the battery, the alternator and the loom that joins the two.

Another reason a car will kick over but not start is lack of fuel. Take the airbox off, and get someone to turn the car over whilst you push down on the flap on the air flow meter. Again it might not be the metering head it could be the fuel dizzy that has packed it. Try removing and injector and starting the car, and see if any fuel comes out when it turning over.

If the car starts and then idles then dies you might well have an air leak somewhere. The first things to check are the boost hoses.

Maybe the car won’t start, as the battery is flat. Have you thought it might not be the battery that is as fault? There might be a circuit somewhere in the car that is staying open, and that is what is draining your battery. The most common reasons are:

Head lights left on
Boot loading light not going off (time to put your mate in the boot and close it to see what’s going on)
Stereos and amplifiers taking to much power out of the battery

An open electrical circuit that should close when the car is off but hasn’t. Very hard to find. If you suspect a circuit to be open even when you lock the car then try removing the fuse for that particular circuit and seeing what happens when you start it in the morning.

SECTION 2 - AIR LEAKS

There are a lot of places an air leak can develop on these cars, and most of it is down to old age and parts wearing out, and clips and bolts working loose over time. The best thing to do is to replace the part with a stronger item if you can, if not then tighten it up then replace it as soon as you can. The following should be checked out, and when I mean checking, I don’t mean having a quick look whilst the part is still on the car. Take the part off, clean it up, and then have a good look at it. Sometimes you will find the leak straight away, sometimes you won't. Also check the parts are connected properly, and that the surfaces they are going onto are clean and that the jubilee clips are OK and are secured as tight as possible. Use a small ratchet and socket to get the clips very tight, as even after tightening a clip by using a screw driver, a socket will enable you to tighten them up better.

Boost hoses, all four of them. OK the one for the throttle housing very rarely fails, but the others do tend to fail. Simply they just age, crack, split open and die. In the past I have gotten away with simply cutting the edges back and then refitting them. But once one fails you know they are all potentially on their way out, so its best to order a set once you get the warning sign.

The most common one I have found to fail has been the hose that runs from the turbo charger to the inter cooler. This hose always seems to split at the back so you can’t see it, I guess all the heat must take its toll over the years. Another thing to check for on these hoses is that they don’t collapse either. Personally I would replace all four hoses with silicone items. They are quite cheap now, less than £100, and they seem a lot stronger than the Ford items. Plus getting hold of Ford ones can be a pain to say the least.

Rocker cover gasket. These always seem to pack in after about a year on my car, I don’t know why but at £3 a go it doesn’t bother me. The best thing to do to get an airtight seal is to grease the gasket and then tighten up the bolts. If any grease runs into the engine, don’t worry as it will just burn, and won’t harm the engine at all.

Oil filler cap. Again, the seals go inside these and air will start to get into the engine, which will effect its idling, or it might even cut out.

Breather system. The best thing to do with the breather system that the factory car has is to change the crank case filter. Remove all the hoses and clean them out thoroughly, you will find that there will be a bit of rubbish inside them. Again all the clips for them should be nice and tight, and they should seal up well.

Air box. If you remove the air box you will find a large rubber seal where the box connects onto the air flow meter. Sometimes these are missing, or they get worn over time. Make sure it goes back on before you put the air box back on. Then tighten the 2 bolts up nice and tight.

Inlet manifold. Well both parts of it really. There are 6 bolts at the back of the engine that hold the inlet manifold and spacer plate onto the cylinder head. You should check these to see if they are nice and tight. Normally I wouldn’t expect the manifold to be have worked loose, but never rule anything out.
If you think its leaking spray some WD40 over it and if the engine speed picks up then you have a leak, but it might not be on the manifold.

Injectors. The things to check here are the injector O rings and the metal brackets that seal them to the manifold. As I have said above, spray some WD40 over them and see what happens. Make sure the injector retaining bolts are nice and tight too.

Exhaust manifold. Sometimes the bolts work loose slightly, so give them all a good tightening up. The same for where the turbo joins as well.

Brake servo. Over time the servo will develop a leak, and you don’t want that to happen at all. Normally when the servo is on its last legs you can hear it hissing, but you want to stop it before it gets that bad. Also check the vacuum hose that runs from the servo to the inlet manifold is ok. If you have to remove it be very careful, as the end that goes into the servo itself tends to snap off. I found that out the hard way.

Auxiliary air device. There are two hoses that go to this, and they need to be air tight, hence they have little rubber grommets inside to ensure they go on very tight. One goes to the back of the inlet manifold, the other to the underneath of the throttle housing.

Throttle housing. I have never come across a throttle housing that leaks, but your might. There are four nuts that secure the housing to the manifold. Tighten these up and that should be OK.

SECTION 3 - OIL LEAKS

It happens to us all sooner or later. You come out in the morning and you see oil under the car. There can only be a few places it can come from though. Try checking the following parts for leaks.

Sump gasket
Oil return pipe, from the turbo to the block
Rocker cover gasket, there will be oil on the inlet manifold
Sump plug and washer
Gearbox oil seals, both of them
Crank oil seals, normally the drivers side leaks with age
Cylinder head camshaft oil seal, cam pulley side
Cylinder head dizzy oil seal
Cylinder head gasket, normally the front left leaks when its gone
Oil pressure switch, at the back of the block
Oil cooler seal, which joins the oil cooler to the block
Oil filter itself, loosens off at the back

Another reason for an oil leak might be when you have changed the oil and filter and the filter has spilled oil on the block, and then it has run off over time. You will think you have an oil leak when you actually don’t have one at all.

SECTION 4 - WATER LEAKS

The first thing to check is the amount of coolant that is in your header tank. Check this when you know it is going to be cold. The best time to check it is first thing in the morning before you start the car. If it is down, then you might well be leaking water from somewhere. There are quite a few places to look and check, but if you follow the system from start to finish you will eventually find where the leak is coming from.

Header tank, over time these expand and crack and water will leak from the plastic mould joints on the tank itself. Any normal MK4 header tank will do to replace it. Also check that the cap seal is OK and that it is leaking out through the cap itself

Radiator, normally a tell tale sign is when the radiator is getting old and has changed colour from the original factory black to the green colour of corroded copper. Normally a vain gives way and you can see where the coolant has been leaking from straight away. If not start the car and see if you can see when the system gets pressurised.

Water thermostat, these tend to stick and eventually the gasket fails and water leaks out from there. Best to get a new thermostat, clip, gasket and seal. Test the thermostat in a pan of hot water to make sure it works before you fit it to the car.

Heater matrix, prone to giving way and covering your nice clean carpet with rusty, smelly water. As it is located behind the dashboard I would leave this until last. If it is faulty and you need to use the car, simply modify the pipes. In the engine bay, there are 2 hose that run through the bulkhead. On for in, one for out. Join them together in the engine bay and it bypasses the heater matrix totally. On the down side you will have no hot air in the car.

Water pump, these rot from the inside and eventually they give way, and then coolant leaks out from the camshaft pulley side of the car.

Cylinder head gasket, it might be on its way out, and as such you will be loosing a bit of water, or if you are seeing white smoke from the exhaust, a lot of water.

All hoses, check they are all OK and not rotten and brittle. Also make sure all the jubilee clips are on nice and tight by using a socket to tighten them up, not a screwdriver. You should also check the water feed that cools the turbo. It’s only a small pipe but it might be loose or split.

SECTION 5 - BRAKES

Normally the brakes on the car are OK when new, again over time things get worn out, and things start to play up. The front brakes are normally fine, although the discs do tend to get scored or have a lip on them after a while. Mine did after 10 years. So I changed them for a new set. As for the rear brakes well that’s another story…

Why did Ford fit drums on the back? It was a bad choice if you ask me. Over time the rear cylinders tend to leak fluid out of them, so they need replacing. If you are unsure then take the drum off and get a mate to stand on the brake pedal and see what happens when the cylinders open up. No fluid should get past the seal at all. If it does then it needs replacing.

The brake shoes will obviously get worn over time, but at a lesser rate than the front pads. As the fronts do more work than the rears. Once replaced they shouldn’t need adjusting as they have automatic adjusters on them. But if they don’t auto adjust properly like mine then you should adjust them by using a big flat headed screwdriver.

The hand brake cable will need adjusting as well, the fewer clicks the better, on my car it works on about 3 clicks now.

Working on the front brakes is a doddle, even the PG tips monkeys can do it. The best way to change the pads is to open the bonnet and take the top off the brake fluid reservoir. Then put an old towel round the reservoir to absorb any fluid that comes out. When you take the caliper off and push the piston back in there won’t be as much force required to push it back in. When the pad has been removed, push the piston all the way back by using a g clamp.

If you need to change the discs due to warping or having a lip on them then buy a new grub screw from Fords as you will struggle removing the old one that secures the disc to the hub. If it won’t come out the simply drill it out, there is a spot on the hub provided so you can put another screw hole in if need be.

If you are having problems with your brakes you should check all the lines, as eventually the metal ones will rust away, and also check the rubber lines, as these are known to rot and then fluid leaks out. Not what you need at all. It’s a good excuse to replace your lines with braided items though.

Bleeding the brakes. This should be easy, but how many people know how to do it properly? Fords say you need a special tool, as the car has ABS. The tool is in fact the key in the ignition barrel and the ignition to be switched on. If you are going to bleed the brakes then try doing it this way, I think you’ll find it works rather well.

Remove the wheel from the car when bleeding only the front brakes. When you are doing the back of the car you should leave the wheel on the car, jack it up and put an old wheel under the wheel in the air and lower the wheel onto the other wheel. The reason behind this method is that the car has rear load valves, which sense if there is extra weight in the car or not, and they adjust the brakes to suit. You are in fact fooling the car into thinking that there is more weight than normal in the back of the car, so it will adjust its breaking system to allow the brakes to be more powerful at the back. By placing the wheel on something this allows the valves to open up a lot more, making the bleeding easier. Even the Haynes manual says that if you don’t rest the wheels on something then the fluid won’t come out.

If you don’t use this method you will find that either the fluid won’t come out of the bleed nipples at all or hardly any will. This might be down to seized rear load valves though.

It’s amazing how many garages don’t know this, and they wonder why people always re bleed their brakes afterwards. Even the big national chains don’t know about this trick. I found that out the hard way.

Anyway here’s the correct order to bleed them all in.

Rear right
Rear left
Front right
Front left

Something to bear in mind is don't let someone to stand on the brakes with the drum off without some way off stopping the cylinders opening too far, you could pop the pistons right out and wreck the seals, which means new cylinders.

Brake fluid should not be over looked either. It should be changed at least once a year, maybe more depending on how many miles you drive or if you do track days and brake hard all the time. The fluid in the reservoir should look clear, not a dirty brown. The fluid I use in my car is 5dot1 fluid. It costs £10 per litre and it has a very good boiling point. It’s available from Halfords and other motor factors. Cheaper fluid is available as well, and so is proper racing fluid. Use what you can afford, and change it regularly.

It is also worth considering buying a one man brake bleeding kit. I got a Gunsons kit from Halfords for £10 and it’s well worth the money in my opinion. No more messing round with putting fluid into the reservoir and getting a mate to pump the brakes, it also gets any air out of the system straight away too. One thing to note though it to make sure the nut that is inside the cap that goes onto the fluid reservoir is nice and tight or the fluid will leak everywhere. It happened to me the first time I used my kit.

The kit works off the air contained in the spare tyre being used to force the fluid through the system. You fill a bottle up with your fluid, attach the top to the reservoir and then connect it up to the spare tyre. Then simply loosen the bleed nipple at the corner you are going to bleed, attach the hose and watch the old fluid come out.

I find it best to use an old coffee jar to catch the fluid in as well. The hose that connects to the nipple is too short in my opinion, but I am fussy as a person. I am going to replace mine with a longer hose that reaches right to the bottom of the jar. You will also have to add more fluid to the rear brakes than the front ones, as the brake lines to the rear are longer.

Have a look at the brake fluid that comes out of the system and compare it to the new fluid that you have bought and you will see the difference in colour. The old fluid will be a lot darker and might well have little bits of sediment in it. It is almost definitely a sign that the fluid has been in need of replacement for some time. Just wait until you compare the fluid that has come out to the new fluid you are putting into the system. As you will see, all the expanding and cooling certainly has its effect on the brake fluid.

Before you open up a bleed nipple spray some WD40 onto the nipple itself and leave it for about 5 minutes to soak in. After that it should open up a lot easier. As brake fluid is often never changed on cars, the nipples themselves might never have been opened up in over 10 years. Then again you might be lucky and the nipples won’t have seized at all.

When you are bleeding the brakes on the car, you might well have problems at the back even after jacking the car up using the method I mentioned earlier. When I did mine no fluid came out of the rear passengers side at all, yet 2 weeks before it worked fine as it passed the mot. So I disconnected the brake line before the cylinder and no fluid came out of there either, which means either the brake line is blocked with rubbish, or that the rear load valve is seized or is just playing up a bit.

I guess I will have to remove them both and give them a good clean up and over haul to make sure they don’t seize up again. Which means removing them from the car and cleaning them up and make sure that fluid can pass through them under all circumstances. Due to their location, underneath the car near to the fuel pump, means it will be a complete pain to remove them. Once done I will add a guide on this.

If you are wondering why I haven’t mentioned the ABS on the car, it’s simple. I have only ever managed to get it to kick in about three times in about 4 years, and both times it has done its job, but its not the best system around. My advice would be to remove it from the car entirely to get better feeling brakes.

What pads to use on the car at the front is always a subject of debate on this board. I use Ferrodo ones on mine and they work well from cold and in all temperatures it seems. Some people say to use harder compound pads, but I have found from past experience that these pads are good once warmed up, but useless from cold, and being a road car, you need the car to stop when the pads are cold. By all means use a tougher pad if you are out on the race track, but not when you are on the road.

The front discs should be checked when you change the pads, to make sure they aren’t warped or cracked or in case they have a huge lip on them. I have been using a Black Diamond ones on my car for over 2 years now, and the grooves have worn down a lot, but they still haven’t warped or cracked yet. What discs to use is down to personal choice, I have only ever used these and standard discs, both have worked well and stopped the car from all speeds.

The rear brake shoes I use are always standard Ford ones. I have never bothered to use any other make and I probably never will do. They do they job well and seem to be quite cheap as well. Just make sure they supply you with the right size shoes for the car as there are many different types of shoes and drums made by Fords and we all know how clever most people on the parts counter are don’t we?

If you don’t feel up to messing with your brakes and finding any faults then simply drive your car slowly into a garage that offers a free brake check, and let their staff find the problem for you, free of charge. Then just drive away and get it sorted for a lot less money than what the garage wants to charge you.

SECTION 6 - SERVICING

A point that some people seem to skimp on for some reason. That’s down to them I suppose, I service my car religiously (too religiously if my girlfriend and parents were to speak to you)

The main thing to remember is that servicing an RST is fairly cheap. The labour to service a car isn’t though!

The best way to do things, or rather the way I do things is to do it myself. Get your hands dirty! Also you really should join the RSOC that way you can get a discount on all genuine Ford parts.

Also think about buying a Haynes manual for £10 or whatever they cost and read the thing. A bit of time learning things will save you a fortune. I dread to think how much I would have paid out to garages over the years for all my servicing on my car.

The main thing to remember is to change the oil and filter regularly, and to keep an eye on the oil level. Check it once a week from cold and top it up if you have to. The same with brake fluid levels, anti freeze and tyre pressures. It might take you 10 minutes, but it might save your car from damage, and your wallet from big bills.

Since owning an RS I have only used a few oils in my engine, and they are;

Castrol RS 10/60
Mobil 1 way back in 1997 when it was thick enough
Castrol magnitec

I don’t work for an oil company, so you’ll get no bias from me as to which oil to use. I thought Mobil 1 was too thin, so I only used it the once and my engine sounded a bit rattly, where as with Castrol RS and Magnitec it sounded fine. I can’t recommend or comment on any other oils as I have never used any other ones in my RST.

I always change my oil when it needs changing, e.g. before 6,000 miles, sometimes even less. In a turbo charged car you need good oil, none of the cheap £3 mineral oil will do. Again, some people say to use oil flush, some don’t. I have recently started using it, and will continue to do so. Whether you decide to or not is entirely down to you.

When you change the oil change the oil filter as well, as the old filter will contain a fair bit of rubbish, you don’t want your fresh oil getting contaminated with rubbish straight away do you? They only cost £4 so there are no excuses not to. If you struggle to remove the oil filter because of the ABS modulators then get a tool that attaches to a ratchet and use that to remove it.

Air filter, these should be changed as often as possible. Or if you have an aftermarket one clean it out when you can and re oil it. I run a panel filter and it gets cleaned every other month. The factory items cost next to nothing and they are stopping a lot of rubbish from entering your engine. If your filter looks very dirty when you remove it from the box then its time to change it.

Fuel filter, these should be changed every 6 months; you want good clean petrol getting into your engine, not petrol with all the rubbish from your tank. Sometimes if they haven’t been changed in a long time you will find your car will be down on power as they get blocked with sediment, and the fuel pump will be working harder to push the petrol through..

Spark plugs, change these every time you service your car. They are cheap and don’t last on turbo charged cars (as you would expect and probably know). I would also change the dizzy cap and rotary arm once a year as well.

Anti freeze, I would say to change it once a year, but also flush your radiator out as well, just to make sure there is no sludge in there blocking it up. You will be surprised what comes out of your radiator when you flush it out.

Cam belt, these should be changed once a year, but according to Fords they only need changing at 36,000 miles. They cost about £17 each, and they stop your engine from self destruction. Change it once a year unless you have the money to buy a new engine once a year.

Gearbox oil, yet another item that is over looked. Change it once a year and make sure you use enough oil, 3.1 litres, or you will loose fifth gear!

Alternator belt. This always gets my back up in winter! You always here cars that have their belts on way too tight and they make that squealing noise that drives me up the wall. Again I change mine once a year, before winter, as the less you have to do on your car in winter the better.

Brake fluid should be changed once a year, although Ford recommend doing it every two years. If you are driving a fast car then you need decent brakes to stop you. Don’t over look the importance of bleeding brakes, as the fluid does deteriorate over time due to it heating up and cooling down. Look at the colour of it in the reservoir and see if it’s dirty brown or not.

Cleaning out the fuel system. This is what I do on my car every now and again. Take all your boost hoses off, and take the air box off. Buy a can of carb cleaner and clean the air box out. Clean the hoses out, as even with a good breather you will get a tiny bit of boost left in the hoses (unless you re route it) and then clean the throttle housing out as well. Remove the auxiliary air device and clean that out. When its all back together the car will take a few more turns to start, but it will clear any rubbish out of the system.

Don’t bother using injector cleaner or anything like that, it just doesn’t work. If your injectors need cleaning then you should remove them and get them done professionally or even replace them.

Setting up, like I know how to do this as well (well not everything) The only thing I will say is to get the car set up as close to home with a decent well established company with a good reputation, not a dodgy back street garage. Afterwards the car should run and pull better. If you are unsure as to what they should be checking or setting up you should get the following checked (and more probably!)

timing
fuelling at idle
fuelling at 3,000 rpm and above when on boost, all the way to the limiter
throttle position switch
boost level
idle speed
spark plugs, right gapping and right heat range
fuel pressure

Any garage that knows its stuff should let you know if they find any problems on the car as well. In the past I have had little things wrong and they have been fixed for free. Sometimes the car can’t be tuned properly until a fault is fixed.

I am saying nothing about who to get to set up your car, or what the settings should be, I can’t be bothered with people starting a war over who is the best tuner. If in doubt ask on the board for some opinions.

SECTION 7 - COLD STARTING PROBLEMS

This seems to be a common problem on the RST for some reason. Even in the dead of winter my car starts and idles first time by using the key only, although it takes a tiny bit longer to turn over. There are a few things to check, and one of them involves checking for petrol, so don’t go checking with a fag in your mouth!

The first thing to check is the cold start valve. It is located in the middle of the inlet manifold and it has a red fuel line running to it. Remove it. And put something over the end of it. Say a small plastic box or an old coffee jar. Get someone to crank the engine over from cold, and it should pass petrol out (into your container). So we know that works. The next item to check is the auxiliary air device, which is located at the back of the inlet manifold, but to test it you can leave it on the car. Start the car up and when its idling you can crimp one of the hoses and if the revs drop, its faulty. If both items work then the thermo time switch might be faulty. These are expensive items, so make sure its not the other two items, or their loom that’s at fault before you order one. The thermo time switch is located at the back of the inlet manifold towards the bottom.

Another reason why the car might not start from cold and idle is that the fuelling ECU (black box next to battery) could be damaged.

I am not going into a full explanation of how the system works here, as it’s beyond the scope of what I am writing here, plus I don’t want to bore people to death either!

SECTION 8 - ELECTRICAL PROBLEMS

I guess this will be a short section then, as I only know basic electrics and electronics, I’m not an auto electrician by trade. Right let’s get on with it…

Assuming an item isn’t working, the first thing to check is the fuse in the fuse box. If you don’t know where the fuse box is then you’re in trouble. Check the fuse is OK and is the rate rating for the circuit. If it’s blown then change it, it should be OK. If it blows again you have a problem. Here is a list of all the fuses in the fuse box, what circuit it is for, and the correct amp rating according to Ford. What you shouldn’t do though, if a fuse keeps blowing is to replace it with a higher rated fuse, as this isn’t fixing the problem, it is only hiding it. Also, put some spare fuses in the lid of your fuse box too. There should be some there already but they might have been used.

Below is a list of fuses, their correct ratings, and what circuits they are for. Assume number one is the front left one in the fuse box, and number 20 is the last one on the right hand side at the back. E.g. four rows of five fuses.

1. Hazard lights & horn, 15 Amp
2. Cigarette lighter & interior lighting, 15 Amp
3. Heated rear screen & Electric mirrors, 30 Amp
4. Headlight washers, 30 Amps (never seen these fitted on a Series 2)
5. Central locking, 15 Amp
6. Fuel injection system, 10 Amp
7. Fuel pump, 20 Amp
8. Spot lights, 15 Amp
9. Left hand high beam, 10 Amp
10. Right hand high beam, 10 Amp
11. Heater, 20 Amp
12. Radiator cooling fan, 25 Amp
13. Flashers & reverse lights, 10 Amp
14. Left hand low beam, 10 Amp
15. Right hand low beam, 10 Amp
16. Wiper motor & screen wash pump, 20 Amp
17. Stop lights & instruments, 10 Amp
18. Electric windows, 30 Amp
19. Left hand side lamps, 10 Amp
20. Right hand side lamps, 10 Amp

It is worth noting that the fuse for the fuel injection system is sometimes marked up as the fuse for the heated seats on some fuse boxes. Mine doesn’t but a lot of others do. Best to put the fuse back in the system as it’s for the fuel injection system. If it’s not in then the car won’t run properly at all.

The cars electrical system also uses some electro mechanical relays.

Here is a list of what relay goes where, the numbers on the bottom, and it’s colour, just in case you ever need to order any from Fords, as they will more than likely sell you the wrong one based on my past experience. If you are intent on buying a new one then take the old one in if you can and check the numbers on the bottom are the same.

For most relays there will be multiple numbers on them, and for some of them it can have a variable number, EG the relays has three numbers, 2 are defined numbers, the third can be any from a list of numbers.

It is also worth bearing in mind that nearly all the relays in the series 2 are the same ones that are used on other fuel injected Ford cars of that time, e.g. Orion Ghia and the Escort XR3i. So if you need to get some relays quickly they will all be the same ones used in the non RS cars.

The only relay, as far as I know, that is unique to the Series Two is the Bosch KE relay.

From late 1989 the relays had a different FINIS number on some of them, but they are the same relay internally. Their colour is slightly different as well. As long as they are the same size and have the same numbers on the bottom then they will work fine.

Here is a list of all the relays used on the car and their gate numbers that are on the bottom near the connectors.

ABS relay, numbers 1,2,3,4,5
Fuel injection relay (pink) numbers 1,15,30,31,87
Heated rear screen relay numbers 5,15,30,31,87
Heated front screen relay numbers 5,30,31,61,87
Low beam headlight (left hand) relay (white) numbers 85,86,87,30
Low beam headlight (right hand) relay (white) numbers 85,86,87,30
High beam headlight (left hand) relay (yellow) numbers 85,86,87,30
High beam headlight (right hand) relay (yellow) numbers 85,86,87,30
Ignition relay
Hazard warning light relay
KE relay (brown in fuse box) no numbers on it
Intermittent wiper relay numbers 85,86,87,30

If it isn’t the fuse that is faulty or blown it could well be the part itself. Try changing the part for another one and see if it works. If not then you will have to check the wiring to it. Normally the best thing to do is to clean the earth up for the circuit. Earth’s on Ford cars are brown. That might help things along, and it won’t do it any harm. The thing to remember is that some circuits have common earth points, so you might not find the earth straight away.

If after that I can’t sort it then it goes into the auto electricians. You could spend hours trying to find the problem and still not find out what is up, auto electricians work on cars day in, day out, so they will probably know what is up and will be able to find the fault quickly and fix it.

If your car is running a lot of extra electrical items, such as extra fans, large ICE system, and what not it might be worth buying a 90 amp alternator, available from Fords, or fit a voltmeter or an ammeter to monitor current drain.

SECTION 9 - SMOKING

Obviously not about tobacco this section. Right, when your car is warming up you will see condensation coming out of it, not a problem, all cars do this. After it has warmed up it should run fine and not smoke at all. If it does then read on…

Normally there are 3 colours of smoke the car will produce, blue, white and black.

Black means the car is over fuelling, which means the mixture is too high.

White means water is getting burned, and normally means that the head gasket is failing and is about to let go. When it does go it will in a big way too.

Blue means that oil is getting burned, which can be put down to a few things. It will probably be a combination of the following.

Valve stem oil seals have worn, £8 for a set from Fords, and you don’t have to take the head off to change these, although most garages will tell you otherwise. See another part of this guide on how to change these easily without removing the cylinder head.

Turbo oil seal has gone, time to get the turbo changed

Pistons rings, oil control ring might be failing, or the bore might be worn.

Oil in the air box, maybe from the breather system. Give the air box and the breather system a good clear out with carb cleaner.

Another reason why the car may be smoking is that the crankcase breather is full of rubbish, or the breather system can’t contain the crankcase pressure.

SECTION 10 - RUST PROOFING

Ideally you want everything cleaning and sealing with wax oil or hammerite paint to stop the rot before it starts. Prevention is better than cure. Here are the areas I would do.

Inner wings
Fuse box
Battery tray
Bulk head
Chassis arms
Floor inside car
Spare wheel well

Underside of car (after cleaning it all)

Chassis
Floor pan
Boot floor and wheel well
Fuel tank

Also think about opening the sun roof and greasing the runners, and oiling the petrol cap with 3 in 1 oil once a month as the fumes from the petrol tank can cause the cap the seize. If you have the time, remove all the body kit as well and clean behind it and rust proof as well. Remember to take your time when rust proofing and to clean off all the dirt before hand. Once done it will be worth it.

SECTION 11 - BUMPS AND VIBRATIONS

These could be anything. Try checking the following

Tyre pressure (its free)
Wheels balancing
Tracking
All suspension bushes
Engine mounts
Wheel bearings
Wheel bolts are on tight
Brake discs are not worn or warped
Brake calipers are not sticking on
Rear discs/shoes are not sticking on
Suspension springs haven’t snapped
Steering column bushes aren’t worn
Steering rack is OK
Track rod ends are OK

There’s not too much to say about this. Find out where the knocking or vibration is coming from and just listen and locate.

SECTION 12 - BOOST PROBLEMS

Right before I go into this, make sure you have the right ECU for the right car. Some tuning companies won’t touch the car if it has the wrong ECU on it, and some will. Best to check if you don’t want to be turned away.

Blue-Red-Blue = Series one cars (B, C, D)
Blue-Red-White = Early series two cars, with no knock sensor, mainly the first D plates
Blue-Red-Black = Series 2 cars with a knock sensor (E, F, G)
Hearts & Diamonds = 90 spec cars, with a knock sensor (G, H)

If you are wondering what the knock sensor is, it is a green plug that is on the right hand side of the inlet manifold.

Right to test the boost on the car, the first thing to check are the boost hoses and jubilee clips, this will cost you nothing. Moving on from there the next thing to check is the Amal valve. It is a small electric solenoid, and it is attached to the gearbox, if you look below the water thermostat housing you should see it sat there with three hoses running to it. When you switch the ignition on, it should click. If it doesn’t it might well be dead.

The easiest way to check the boost is by a boost gauge, and that’s why most people fit them to their cars. A standard RST should be boosting at 7 – 8 PSI. If not then there are a few reasons why it might not be.

First up the actuator. This might be worn, or it might be set up wrong. To adjust the boost you have alter the length of this rod. To increase the boost shorten the rod, to lower the boost lengthen the road, and don’t forget the clip for the end of it either.

Another reason the boost might be wrong are the hoses that run from the turbo to the Amal valve. Check they are OK and that they are secured tight. Another hose to check is the one that runs from the ECU itself to the inlet manifold. Don’t run a car without this hose!

Another reason why the car might not be holding the boost is that the turbo might be dead. It might have worn internally and so it can’t create any boost at all, or debris might have got inside and damaged something. But only assume it’s the turbo as a last resort, as it’s the most expensive part to replace.

SECTION 13 - MISFIRES

Not to be confused with hitting the rev limiter. Normally a misfire is down to a worn component, or a few worn components, and the first parts to check are the spark plugs. Check they are OK and not worn out, they should be a grey brown colour if all is OK, and that the gap on them is OK too. The next thing to check is the HT leads and the coil lead. In the past I have had lots of problems with number 4 lead breaking down on my car, it was always number 4 for some reason. Other items to check would be the timing, rotary arm, coil, dizzy cap and even the dizzy itself, as if the dizzy packs in the car will just fire when it feels like, which isn’t good for the engine to say the least. Another item that could be worn is the cam itself. This would cause one of the valves to not open properly.

Other items that might cause a misfire would be a wrong setting up, and over fuelling, although it won’t be a misfire as such, just unburned petrol popping as it hits a hot exhaust.

SECTION 14 - CAM FOLLOWERS

Normally the cam followers start to rattle on the CVH. This could be the followers themselves being worn, low oil pressure due to an oil leak, or worn oil pump, or the cam itself might be worn. The engine might even be low on oil or the oil could be too thin.

One way I have found to quieten then down is to remove all 8 of them and slowly squeeze them in a vice. Take note of which follower goes in which lobe, or just take them out one by one, and then slowly squeeze all the oil out of them using a vice. Move it slowly and you will see all the oil come out. Don’t squeeze them all the way otherwise they will pop and the top part that can be pushed in won’t come back up, and the lifter will be scrap. Once you have done all 8 put them back in and re assemble the rocker arms and nuts etc. Start the car up and it will sound rattly. After a while the followers should quieten down. If not then they are probably worn and need changing.

SECTION 15 - DUMP VALVES

You either love them or loathe them! I used to run one on my car but I don’t anymore when I found out what they do. Right then, they are very easy to fit on an RST, and most of them don’t require any messing about, just add it, cut into a vacuum pipe and away you go.

Normally the dump valve is added into the large hose that runs from the top of the intercooler to the cross over pipe. You can either cut into the hose and use a metal T piece, or simply buy a Samco hose that has a hole already moulded in for the dump valve. When I had mine in, I just cut the hose and added the T piece. The dump valve then joins to the T piece by using another hose. Or if you want to be flash and save your hoses, you can get a dump valve welded to your cross over pipe, it’s entirely down to you.

Then it all depends on what dump valve you are using. For all modern ones you just add the small hose from the end of the dump valve and join it to the hose running from the right hand side of the inlet manifold, the one that runs to the ECU. That should be it! Make sure all your jubilee clips are done up nice and tight and then take it for a test drive. You will know by the sound if it is working or not.

For the older types of dump valve read on. Your car might have one on it, and it might have a bleed valve with it as well. Not a problem. The installation is the same apart from you need to adjust the bleed valve and adjust the cars idling. The bleed valve goes into the hose that runs into the air flow meter, and the bleed valve goes into that hose. They can be a bit of a pain to adjust properly, that is why all the modern dump valves don’t use a bleed valve.

SECTION 16 - OVERHEATING

This shouldn’t be a problem on the RST, but if you are having problems with the car then you should sort them ASAP, a turbo charged car should run as cool as possible. The first thing to check is the cylinder head temperature sensor and loom, located (surprise surprise) at the front right of the cylinder head. If you switch the car on and gauge rises straight into the red from cold, or the gauge doesn’t move when the car is warm then it might be this.

Other things to check are that the cooling system has enough anti freeze in it, this should be diluted with water so it’s a 50 – 50 mixture. Drain it once a year and flush the radiator out, to remove any rubbish or blocks in the radiator.

Also check the water thermostat in the cylinder head. Buy a new one and change it over. But test it in a pan of hot water first to make sure it opens up when the water is hot and that it closes when the water cools down.

Another thing to check is that the header tank is OK and not cracked, and that the cap seals properly. In the past my header tank split and hot water leaked everywhere, not what you need when you are driving along. My car now has an alloy one on the car. Plastic header tanks are still available from Ford.

What I wouldn’t confuse overheating with is the car being hot after a hard run. You would expect the car to get warm after the run when you are running down or you get caught in traffic. To be honest my car never gets too hot when on a run, the needle normally sits by the O on NORM on the gauge. If you find your car is getting too hot then there is a problem somewhere. If you don’t like the idea of your car sitting in traffic and waiting for the fan to come on then do what I did. Connect the fan to a manual switch so you can control when the fan comes on and goes off, but the car can still switch it on in case you forget. Here’s how to do it.

Parts needed; 1 x toggle switch, 2 x lengths of cable, 1 x 1metre long, 1 x 20 cm long, the same gauge as the loom on the car, or thicker but NEVER thinner! 1 x junction block

Time to fit; Roughly 20 minutes depending on skill

Firstly connect your 2 wires to your switch, they might need soldering on depending on what type of switch you have bought. On my car I mounted the switch on the choke blanking plate on the car, and simply drilled through the front part and glued the switch to the front of it. The 2 wires pass neatly through the hole on the rear of it.

Connect the smaller wire to a live on the ignition barrel, I chose yellow so the fan won’t work without the keys in the car. Feed the second wire through the cars bulkhead down into the engine bay. If you look to the right hand side of the thermostat housing there is a blue connector with 2 wires on it. Cut the black/red wire in the middle and join the long wire you have fed through to one end of the wire you have cut. This part is tricky as there is very little room around this part of the car, and if it is still warm you might burn your hand on the thermostat housing, so take care.

Join both wires together by wrapping the ends together then put a small jab of solder onto them to make sure they stay joined together. Next put bother wires into one end of the junction block, and put the other end of the wire you have just cut into the other end of the junction block and tighten the screws up.

The fan should now be able to be switched on or off from your dash mounted switch, as long as the keys are in the barrel and the ignition is on (and probably with your immobiliser/alarm unarmed).

Next up start the car up and switch the fan off. Let the car warm up as normal and let it warm up of it’s own accord. Eventually the fan should come on as normal.

Why Ford never built this option as standard on the car I will never know.

SECTION 17 - WHAT PETROL?

The RST was designed to run on 4 star leaded petrol, but now its no longer available at most garages. Some companies do still sell it, but not by me, and I have been told its on sale for about £1 a litre. The first thing you should realise is that normal unleaded petrol is no good for turbo changed cars. It is has a RON rating of 95, which is too low for our cars to use. If you use it you might find the car will pink and damage your engine. So what about 4 star unleaded I here you ask? Well I have been told that the additives in the petrol can damages the blades in the turbo. I have never used it so I can’t comment on it.

The only two types of petrol I would say to use would be Super unleaded or Shell Optimax. These have a high enough RON rating for the engine.

Also you can run your car on these without having to worry about changing the cylinder head or getting an unleaded head conversion. Most car magazines and the press would have you believe that you need the cylinder head valve seats changing over to run on Super unleaded or Optimax. This is a load of rubbish!

All RST cars have toughened valve seats as standard so they will be OK to run fuel without lead in. You just need to run unleaded fuel of the right RON rating. Save your money and don’t believe the rubbish printed in car magazines is my advice. If the head ever needs re furbishing then by all means get the work done, but don’t remove the head just to get the work done. Spend your money on other things.

SECTION 18 - D.I.Y 2 STAGE BOOST

Why pay £40 for a 2 stage boost kit when you can make it yourself for under £5? All you need to do for the 2 stage boost is it interrupt the signal from the Amal valve to the ECU, and then the boost will get lowered by the ECU.

Your cars chip must support an Amal valve and all three hoses must be connected up for this to work as well. So if you are using a bleed valve it won’t work!

Here’s what’s needed and how to do it.

1 x switch, length of insulated wire, 2 x junction blocks

Cut into one of the wires that runs to the Amal valve, you decide which one and where to cut into it, it doesn’t matter.

Add the new wire to the cut you have made and join it by using the junction blocks or soldering it if you like.

Feed the wires through the bulkhead of the car.

Add the wires to your switch and position the switch where you want it in the car.

When the circuit is broken by flicking the switch, you should find that the boost level will drop. When the circuit is joined the boost should go back to its normal level. Best to check it out by using a boost gauge so you know what boost level you are running on low and high boost. I find this method is ideal for motorway cruising on long journeys or if you are driving in the wet.

SECTION 19 - FITTING A BOOST GAUGE

Ok you’ve got your boost gauge but where does it connect to? Simple! The boost level is displayed by the gauge by tapping into the right hand hose that comes off the top of the inlet manifold. This is the same hose that runs to the ECU and that the dump valve connects to.

It’s down to you were to mount the gauge in the car. Sometimes people put it in the coin holder if they don’t have a fuel computer. Or you can get pods form NOMAD that mount on the A post, or pods that replace the centre heater vents. The choice is yours.

SECTION 20 - CHIP IDENTIFICATION

The main chip for the RST lives in the silver ECU, behind the black heater box. It should have one of the four following symbols on a sticker on the front of it.

Blue-Red-Blue
Blue-Red-White
Blue-Red-Black
Hearts & Diamonds

The four symbols above are the only four ECU codes used by Ford on all the RS turbo cars. The first two do not support a knock sensor, the last two do. It is possible to swap them between all cars, regardless of knock sensor or not, but it’s best to try and get the right ECU for the right car, as some tuning companies will refuse to work on your car if it has the wrong ECU on it.

To see if the ECU has been chipped you will normally have to remove the ECU and open it up. Some tuning companies put a sticker on the back of the ECU to make it easy to identify.

If you suspect the ECU to be chipped and you have a receipt for the ECU why not phone the company up and see what they have to say. Anyway to make sure 100% you should open it up and see what’s inside it.

Remove the black shrouding for the heater motor. Behind it is the ECU itself. Remove the fixing screws and remove the hose that runs to the inlet manifold.

You should now have the ECU on it’s own. To open it up remove the screws on the back using a stubby Philips screw driver. Once open you will see the circuit board. Remove some more screws so you have got the board out of the ECU casing completely.

You should see metal shield covering one of the large chips. Remove this using a flat headed screwdriver. If the ECU has got a sticker on it, the sticker should say who programmed the chip, when and what stage it is. If not and it is just a Motorola chip the chances are it will still be the standard Ford chip.

Another way of seeing if the ECU is chipped is to try and turn the boost up. I know for a fact the hearts and diamonds ECU can run 10 PSI of boost, so try and turn the boost up to 15 PSI and see if the car will hold the boost or not. If it does then the ECU is chipped, if it doesn’t and the car shuts down when going over 10 PSI then the ECU isn’t chipped. To adjust the boost you should shorten the actuator rod, or adjust the bleed valve.

Just don’t turn the boost up and run the car with higher boost, you need to adjust the fuelling to match the boost being run!

SECTION 21 - REAR DISC CONVERSION – By StevenRW

Parts required

2 x 2WD Cosworth rear callipers
2 x 2WD Cosworth rear discs
2WD Cosworth rear pads
RS2000 MK5 handbrake cable (disc model K 1992)
Brackets
TAS Bias valve

All parts are available from Mike Rainbird at a damn good price. Mail him at mike@rjpipe.demon.co.uk

The first thing to consider is reconditioning the callipers unless you know that they are in good working order. Local motor factors supplied a kit for £12.50 per side, Fords wanted £50 but that kit contained more parts.

To fit the brackets you must first the present drum / backing plate. As you will be using a different handbrake cable you can just cut the old one off. When you are just left with the backing of the spindle you have to drill out the front two holes so they don’t have a thread so that you can attach the bracket. Take note that when you thread the bracket bolts in make sure you don’t cross thread them.

If fitting new hoses attach the hose to the pipe work on the car first and then to the caliper when the caliper is still free from its bracket. This will allow you to rotate the caliper so that the hose end can be wound in tight to both the caliper and the brake pipe on the car.

Fit the disc on and use a wheel bolt to hold the disc on. Put the caliper on, add the new pads and then attach the piston part of the caliper to the floating part. At this point you can fit the handbrake cable.

After putting the cable on, cable tie it to the rear tie bars at each side to ensure it doesn’t float free.

When fitting the wheel you will notice that there is very little lip for the wheel to rest on. I just lowered the car on the jack until the wheel lined up perfectly with the hole and saved all the effort of lifting the wheel for ages.

Now the hard bit! When it comes to adjusting the rear bias you are best to seek professional help otherwise if there is way too much bias going to the rear, the car could step its back end out when you hit the brakes, similar to pulling a handbrake turn.

So how to set the bias valve up correctly and safely? The best and easiest way to set it all up is to run new brake pipes. The master cylinder on an RST has only two outs. Take the front out which has a larger connector and run it to the T-piece which was in the standard braking system. Take two outs from the T-piece directly to the front calipers. Then take the other out from the master cylinder run it to the bias valve which I located passenger side of the handbrake for easy in-car adjustment.

This requires drilling a couple of holes for the brake pipes to enter the cabin and exit it after the bias valve. The out of the bias valve should lead to the other T-piece which was on the drivers side of the inner wing and now will be relocated under the rear floor and run the two outs of the T-piece to either rear caliper.

The rear compensator valves would be left out of the equation completely, as they are now useless and can be thrown/given away.

Follow the instructions given with the bias valve it says basically set the bias valve which has 9 turns to exactly half way to start with. Then drive gingerly to ensure you don’t go spinning out! If you are in any way worried just wind the bias valve to full front brakes to start with and work on it from there.

SECTION 22 - CLEANING AFTERMARKET AIR FILTERS CHEAPLY

This should be dead easy but according to all the manufacturers you need their kits to clean the air filter. Well part of that is true, you do need the oil to spray on afterwards, but not the cleaning solution, which is soapy water saturated to the maximum. Remember science at school?

Well in the past I bought a K&N kit for my panel filter, and it worked well, not saying it looked like new, but it did clean it well and it got all the rubbish out. Anyway a few cleans later and the cleaning solution had run out so I decided to clean it out another way.

What I did was to remove the panel from the air box and take it into the kitchen. I put the plug in the hole and then I got some washing powder and covered one side of the filter with it and run warm water through the filter and watched all the rubbish come out. Then I did the same for the other side. Then I repeated the process over until no dirt and debris was left. It all works so well as the filter is basically cotton covered in metal to keep it’s shape.

If you look in the sink you will see all the rubbish your filter has stopped from getting into the engine, not a pretty site but it proves they are there for a reason.

After letting the filter dry out naturally I then just added the oil spray and let it dry.

So why spend money on a bottle of special K&N cleaning solution when it is basically water with soap solution in it, then dyed pink? Just buy a can of re oil spray and save money.

SECTION 23 - CHANGING VALVE STEM OIL SEALS THE EASY WAY

If your stem seals are gone then the car will be smoking when you first start it up. Not a big problem, and not an expensive problem to fix either, if you know how to do them. Most garages will try and tell you that the cylinder head has to come off and charge you a fortune, but here is a trick of the trade to save you time and money.

Firstly you will need the stem seals themselves, use Fords own, they cost about £1 each and you want eight of them. Next up you need a special tool, and most decent garages will sell. The tool is commonly known as a Stem seal fitter, well where I can from it is anyway. They cost about £15 and are well worth the money.

The way to change them is to park your car up or leave it overnight until it is cold. Then remove the cross over pipe and rocker cover so you can see the head itself. Also remove all four spark plugs as well.

Decide which ones you are going to do first, and make sure you check every time you attempt to change a pair of seals otherwise you will be in trouble. The easiest way is to do numbers 1 & 3 first then numbers 2 & 4.

What you should do it turn the crank so the piston is as high up as it will travel. Look through the spark plug hole and you should see the piston crown. Then remove the rocker arm and place you tool onto it. Compress the valve spring with the tool and remove the collets. Make sure they don’t disappear down an oil way. In fact you should cover all the head with bits of cardboard or something similar to make sure that the collets don’t go down the oil ways. If they do they will end up in the sump, but you really want to keep them all.

Once the collets are removed the valve will drop down and touch the top of the piston. Remove the oil stem seal by using a flat headed screw driver and then put a new one on and press it down to its perfectly flat, a small socket is a good way of making sure it is on properly. Then pull the valve back up, add the valve spring and then the collets.

Repeat this process for all eight stem seals making sure to check the position of the piston before you let the valve fall.

SECTION 24 - ABS REMOVAL by BigP

The braking system on a S2 is very complicated and combined with the ABS makes it pretty useless when it its not working correctly. Some swear by it and others hate it saying it either doesn’t look the wheels at all or it works when you don’t want it. So inevitably when it stops working properly it is better to remove the system completely from the car.

As was mentioned above the braking system is complicated because of the way in which the lines are split. E.g. the front left disc and rear right drum share the same line and vice-versa for the other side. Diagonally split braking system. This is further complicated by the lines passing through to the ABS system. Have a look at the Haynes manual for a schematic of the system and you will see how complex this is.

The ABS system is not electronic like modern systems but completely mechanical and works through a system of valves whose operation is dictated through drive belts attached to the drive shafts. This means that its not just a case of removing the belts as some people do otherwise the ABS will try and work every time you brake which would be dangerous!. The only electrical part of the system are the reed switches that run against the belts to tell you when they are slack. This is why sometimes you will get the ABS light flickering on the dash, because either the switch is faulty or loose, or the belts are slack and need adjusting.

You can adjust the belts by loosening the bolt on the ABS Unit (modulator is the correct name) and rotating it round to tighten, similar to how you tighten the Alternator.

The Sludge

PART 2 OF THIS

SECTION 25 - WATER INJECTION – WHAT IS IT?

A brief explanation of how the system works in theory. We all know that low ACTs on an RST and any turbo charged car are critical to making it run at full power day in day out. Water injection is one method people can use to keep the ACT lower and to help prevent detonation. On an RST I believe the ignition gets retarded at 60 degrees. Most people aim to keep the ACT as low as possible permanently.

The kit is made of the following parts.

Water pump
Tank
Hosing

And the usual hoses & clips.

The water tank is filled up and then the hose from the pump is connected to the metal cross over pipe that runs over the rocker cover, and then a tap is added into it so the hose can be connected permanently.

The water is then injected when a certain RPM is reached, and you can adjust how water is added to the boost. The water removes some of the heat from the boost and turns to steam, which doesn’t harm the engine at all.

On all the RST I have seen with water injection I got the impression that the water tank was way too small, and that it ran out way too quickly. Some owners spoke of adding a huge tank in the boot and using that to hold a large volume of water in.

Personally I don’t think water injection is needed on an RST, not on a car with adequate ACT cooling anyway.

The most common system by far for the RST is the ERL kit, which retails for about £300 or thereabouts.

SECTION 26 - LOWERING YOUR ACT

A bit of a touchy subject this, as different people believe in different ways of doing things, but one thing is agreed on in general, and that is that if you turn up the power on your car you need to improve your ACT cooling an awful lot.

The first thing you should do is fit an ACT gauge to your car, so you can see for YOURSELF how high your ACT really gets. Ignore what you have read and heard off people, fit a gauge and then take your car for a hard drive and see what readings the gauge reads.

You will be quite surprised as to what the reading is when you are at full speed, and how long it takes for the ACT to lower itself to acceptable levels.

The way I see it is like this. Why spend a lot of money on your car, uprate everything and modify this that and the other, only to find that because of one critical part of the car the car won’t run at it’s peak performance and you are losing power?

First of all a few misconceptions that people are led to believe by the car magazines, which aren’t true at all. They are:

The most expensive system is always the best
Car magazines know best

Both the above statements are typical of what the motoring press seem to think, as in my opinion, most motoring journalists know next to nothing about RS cars, apart from what models there are in existance.

The key to keeping the ACT low is heat removal, as that is all an intercooler does, removes the heat from the boost flowing through it. There are different ways of doing this, and different end results too.

Here are the general thoughts of people as to what they think about the various systems available, but I haven’t covered every single one around, as I will never see them all or get to use one regularly, so it wouldn’t be fair for me to pass comment.

PACE HIGH CAPACITY INTER COOLER. - I remember having one of these years ago and I thought it was great. Bigger than the Ford item as it was called a ‘High capacity’ intercooler, nice and shiny to look at and it had the Pace logo on the front of it too. How could something like this possibly fail to work? I guess I was easily fooled back then. A bit niaive and I believed everything that the car magazines printed. Now I know different and I very rarely buy car magazines unless there is a car featured that I like. Anyway back to the review.

Unfortunately it was a complete pain to fit. The mounting brackets that Pace supplied had to be drilled out to fit, as they were un machined when they were sent to me for some reason. The intercooler never really lined up properly with the radiator like the old Ford item did. Oh and you had to move the fan over to the left of the car as well. After my drilling and fitting session was completed I found that the bonnet catch always seemed to be under pressure from the intercooler itself. It’s not what I would have expected from such a highly acclaimed piece of kit. The people who engineerd it should have re designed it as it wasn’t a great fitting piece of kit at all.

To be honest I thought it would be so much better than the Ford item, and it seemed to be at first, but after a while of hard driving it eventually seemed the same. Psycologically it must have made me think that my car was running cooler and faster as I had spent all this time fitting this lovely shiny Pace intercooler.

Of course now, I know that they are not the best bit of kit available, and that the ACT quickly goes up to above 70 degrees before you even hit fifth gear. That, to me, clearly means that the Pace intercooler is not up to keeping the ACT low at all.

I have now found out that the core is key to intercoolers. You could have an intercooler as large as the car itself (in theory) but if the core is restrictive and not up to the job if removing the heat, eventually it will fail to remove the excess heat. The Pace intercooler has a restrictive core, and as such it just doesn’t remove the heat well enough after a very short while. Cost £200

Pace charge cooler – supposedly the best around according to the press, oh little do they know. After fitting my charge cooler system I thought it was going to be the next best thing. So I went for a short run and then checked it all over to make sure it was all OK and there were no leaks, which there wasn’t. After that I took the car back out on my private testing ground, and opened the car up. After a very short time I could see the ACT rising and I was thinking it will be because the car is coming on boost, it will hold in a minute, but I was wrong. After getting to the traffic lights at the end of my testing ground the gauge displayed ?? and I thought it was broke! What had really happened was that the gauge had gone of its scale of reading above 75 degrees! Not the best feeling in the world I can tell you. So I was driving round town to pick up a video and eventually the gauge came back down so it was displaying a temperature, but it was still in the 60 degree range. Anyway after driving round for a while longer the gauge wouldn’t get any lower at all.

Even if I drive to work in my car and cruise on the motorway at 80 MPH (serious) I find that the gauge is soon reading 30 degrees, and then if you open the car up then within 10 minutes the gauge will be nearing its upper limit.

So I decided to do a full test on the system, which is what follows. I have missed the figures out as they were in a table format. All you need to know is that after 10 minutes of hard driving the Pace chargecooler failed in its mission to keep my ACTs low.

PACE CHARGE COOLER SYSTEM - The aim of this test was to evaluate the Pace chargecooler system. By analysing the figures produced we should be able to see how efficient it is at cooling the air charge on a modified Ford Escort RS Turbo Series two.

Summary

It is currently impossible to hold low ACT with a Pace chargecooler whilst running 16 PSI of boost. Here is my theory as to why. When the coolant is being pumped round the system, the pre radiator removes an average of x degrees of heat, at most x degrees of heat. When the coolant leaves the chargecooler housing it gains on average x degrees of heat, at most x degrees of heat. The difference between the 2 sets of figures are x degrees and x degrees. Both these figures are higher than what the pre radiator removes! In effect when the car is driven on boost the more the coolant circulates, the more the heat increases in the coolant, and the higher the ACT gets. The pre radiator is the weak part of the system, it fails to remove all the excess heat that the charge cooler is removing from the boost and adding to the cooling system.

What follows is my personal opinion of every part of the system.

Charge cooler housing

This is designed to fit in the same place as the factory inter cooler, and because of that reason, it is rather small. It weighs a lot more than the factory inter cooler as it is basically a water jacketed inter cooler. In my opinion this could have been made bit larger to incorporate a larger inter cooler inside a larger water jacket. It would have to be off set at a weird angle to fit in the car, but it is possible. One good thing about it is that it is doesn’t seem to have any extra lag when comparing it to the factory inter cooler.

Header tank

A very small metal item that fits onto the plastic heater box towards the back of the engine bay. I would have expected it to be bigger, but I guess space is an issue and there is nowhere to put it unless you move it to the passengers side inner wing and move the fuel filter elsewhere. If you have a strut brace on your car, you will have to move the tank to the passengers side inner wing, as it won’t fit.

The header tank itself holds less than a can of coke, and after a while you will have to grease the inside of the cap and the thread on the header tank itself as it starts to stick and the grease inside turns to white chalky powder. Not a major issue, but one I think you should know of. I think a larger tank should have been supplied in the first place.

Pump

According to rumours from some people I know the pump is a known weak link in the system, and that is why the two speed system was brought out. This supposedly helps to extend the life of the pump. The pump itself seems to flow the coolant quite quickly and because of this I can’t fault it at all. The fitting instructions imply it should be fitted to the inner wing somewhere, I put mine behind the battery in the bulkhead. The arch liners on my car have never been disturbed, and they are staying that way. It will also be easier to remove the pump if I ever need to in its current location.

I have had the charge cooler on my car for 6 months now and the pump is still working fine, although the 2 speed regulator is still in place at the moment. I know of people changing the pump for quieter ones that also have a higher flow rate. Personally I don’t think the pump that is supplied is a bad part, it is slightly noisy when pumping around, but I see this as a good sign, as if you can hear the pump, you know it is working.

Pre radiator

The critical part of the system, the part that is use to remove heat from the coolant, and in my opinion it’s useless! Firstly positioning. In front of the fan heat is sucked out of the car by the fan directly onto this. Has anyone at Pace ever heard of airflow? Some people have mounted them in the front of their bumper to get better airflow, but why bother? The Pace pre radiator is too small and weedy to cope with the massive amount of heat generated by the coolant, it really is a waste of time and the weakest link in the chain. It should have been made a lot larger and it should have it’s own electric fan on it as well in my opinion.

Summary

Overall it is my personal opinion that the chargecooler system offered by Pace is nowhere near as good as they claim it to be. The car magazines are partly to blame as whenever they feature an Escort RS Turbo car they always recommend a chargecooler for high powered engines, as they claim that they are the perfect solution to cooling the charge air. They helped to create the urban myth that they are the answer to keeping air charge temperatures down. Of course the manufacturer is also to blame, I wonder if Pace actually tested their product on a high boost car at all? In fact to quote Pace in an advert for their own chargecooler they claim “For high boost applications of 15 PSI and above” yet the figures generated by my car clearly show that the chargecooler is totally inadequate at ACT cooling when using 16 PSI of boost.

Most people think that because they have a charge cooler fitted to their car it will fly because they cost £500 or more that they will be the best. After all you’ve just spent a lot of money, and if it costs a lot its got to be good right? To be honest with you, I think the charge cooler would struggle running on a standard car, although I don’t have any proof of this, and I can’t be bothered turning my car back to standard either.

I also think that the charge cooler is well overpriced at £500 or more considering all you are getting is a pump, tiny radiator, a water jacketed inter cooler, header tank and the usual hoses and jubilee clips. In my opinion it should be on sale for £250 - £300 at the most. If anyone is reading this who doesn’t own one, just buy the charge cooler housing from Pace and get all the other parts from other places, you’ll save a lot of money!

The fitting instructions are also quite poor as well. They are very vague and could be a lot better. If Lego can do it so well with their products for kids, why can’t Pace do it? If they want me to I will produce I decent set of fitting instructions for them!

I am not going to mince my words here! The charge cooler system under performs by a long way. It isn’t a proper solution to achieving constant low air charge temperatures on a modified Escort RS Turbo. It is a damn good idea in theory, and that can’t be knocked at all, but in practise it is only good for short periods of time. Then you have to wait for the excess heat to be removed before you can use it again. For me that just isn’t good enough, especially for the price.

When you take into account the cost of the system, and possibly the labour charges for fitting it if you are lazy, it doesn’t look too good does it? Before I tested it I expected the heat would rise a little bit the longer it got used, but it would still hold good low ACTS. After fitting it I thought that would be another problem solved and that my car would still run great when it was a hot and sunny day. I didn’t think I would be doing this test on it to prove to myself and other RS fans the real truth behind the myth.

The most common way people think of to lower the coolant temperature is by adding more coolant, for example by adding a bigger header tank to the system. This would not have any major effect as the pre radiator simply cannot cope with removing the excess heat in the normal capacity of coolant. The amount of heat that is removed by adding more coolant will be very minimal as the vast majority of the heat is removed by the pre radiator.

Another option, if you can’t find a better pre radiator would be to add another Pace pre radiator (£70 from Pace I am told), which on average would help to reduce the coolant temperature to an average of x degrees.

Personally my own thoughts are about high efficiency heat removal from the coolant. Which means
adding a larger, more efficient, pre radiator with it’s own fan, then re testing to see how it performs

GRS INTERCOOLER – as used by a lot of people on this board. Supposedly one of the best intercoolers around. They look like they are the size of a radiator and fit right in front of it as well. Everyone seems to agree that they are very well made and that they are not over priced either.

From speaking to people I have been told that flat out they only ever see 32 degrees as the ACT which can only mean that they are top bits of kit!

The only bad thing I have heard is that they need a cooling fan on them to work properly and that they block the air flow to the radiator. But these are only minor points. Cost £260

KARL NORRIS INTERCOOLER – made from either 2 or 3 cosworth intercooler cores welded together. I have seen the pictures of these inter coolers made by Karl and they look brilliant. From what I can gather he removes the cores from the intercoolers and cleans them up. Then he welds all three together and then adds new end caps and new spouts. The cosworth intercoolers are renowned for having good cores anyway so if you multiply that by a factor of 2 or 3 then the outcome is bound to be brilliant, as you would expect having Karl behind the idea.

SECTION 27 - GEARBOX CHANGING AND LINKAGE OVERHAUL

These can be and normally are a complete pain on the RST. They either last for years and years, or die within a few months, it all depends how you drive the car, what power it has, and who has supplied the box. There are a lot of places that will supply uprated gearboxes, but how many of them really last other than a Quaife box? Not too many. At the moment, my own point of view is to just change them as a service item, rather than shell out on an uprated item that is no better than the factory item.

Here are a few things to look out for that indicate your gearbox is wearing out.

Speedo works erratically. Normally it is just the plastic driver that connects to the gearbox cable, these wear out over time, and cost about £3 to replace. If you change it and your clocks indicate that they only update every second or so then you know something else is a miss. From previous experience my old gearboxes used to whine an awful lot just before they would blow up. It got harder and harder to get gears, and then sometimes you couldn’t get a gear at all. After changing boxes over, I was showed my old box by my mate who had a big grin on his face, the casing was shot to pieces, and every gear was worn out. He showed me a lot of swarf that had been in the box and some pieces of some of the gears. Considering the box was only 14 months old I wasn’t impressed, but I wasn’t surprised either. Well not as surprised as the company that sold me my exchange box will have been when they looked at it.

Anyway if you are buying an RST box you should look for the following number being on the gearbox itself.

It should have a limited slip differential fitted as well. If not its been removed, or the box is not an RST box at all, it might be from an XR3I or a Fiesta turbo, as the Fiesta box is identical apart from having no LSD fitted to it.

If you are planning on changing a gearbox yourself you will need a lot of patience, but it can be done. Here is one way to do it.

Remove the starter motor
Disconnect the amal valve from the box
Disconnect the loom for the reverse light switch
Disconnect the speedo cable from the top of the box
Remove the clutch cable from the box
Remove the CV joints from both sides of the box. Check CV boots are OK if not replace them.
Loosen all the bolts but don’t remove them yet
Disconnect the linkage from the box itself, leaving the car in fifth gear
Disconnect the box from the cradle
Remove or move the cradle out of the way, this can be a pain as other things normally have to be moved out of the way as well. Be careful, get an extra pair of hands to help and take your time. It can be done!
Support the box with a trolley jack or something, be careful as it will fall
Remove all the gearbox bolts and the box should come free from the engine
Make sure you keep hold of the doweling that sits next to the box
If the car is sat high enough you should be able to put the box on a skateboard and move it from underneath the car. That’s what we always do and it works.

When refitting the box it is always a pain! Make sure you have the oil ready, 3.1 litres, any less and fifth gear will suffer oil starvation. Also check that box gearbox oil seals have been changed. Fit the reverse light switch if you haven’t already done so or if your box doesn’t have one supplied with it. I am so tempted to write the old Haynes manual phrase here ‘refitting is the reversal of removal’ but take it very tongue in cheek! It is nearly the same except putting the CV joints in will be a pain. They will either go in without any hassle or they will never quite line up properly.

Assuming you have it all back together, you should add the gearbox oil now. Check the ABS belts are OK and that the ABS light isn’t coming on. Adjust the linkage and take the car for a slow drive, and see if you get all the gears perfectly first time. If not adjust and curse away until they are all there and the gearbox feels crisp and like new.

If the linkage needs overhauling then here is a guide on how to do it, parts numbers and prices from Ford.

Gear leaver £41.27 6199487
Right hand lock £0.78 6172154
Left hand lock £0.78 6122154
Springs x 2 £0.34 each 6193756

Here’s how to make it like new.

Jack the car up
Put into fifth gear
Unbolt linkage from engine
Loosen linkage clamp which joins box selector pin
Working from inside the car, remove the gearstick gator and lower rubber boot
Undo 4 securing nuts
Lower linkage out of car
Undo the bolts that hold the main plastic housing together
Open casing up, make sure you don’t loose the little metal pin that’s under the bigger lock block
Check components for wear and tear.
You will probably find that the sleeve where the gearbox shaft runs through the housing has become sloppy, this is normally the small spring form the top section that has worn and isn’t applying pressure anymore.
Before reassembling fill the housing up with grease then put it all back together

SECTION 28 - BODY KIT REMOVAL

Maybe you are fitting a part or the car needs work doing on it and you have to remove the kit. Well here’s how to do it all. When you remove the kit it might be worth cleaning all the rubbish off it, and cleaning up and rust protecting any exposed metal.

Front bumper, this is held on by four nuts and aligned by two screws. If you look in the front of the wheel arch on each side you will see the screw. Remove both of these and keep them somewhere safe. Next up open the bonnet the you will eventually see the four nuts. You can either work from the top or the bottom of the car for these, I prefer the top for the top two nuts, and the bottom for the bottom two. After removing them the bumper simply pulls forward to come off.

Rear bumper, basically the same as the front bumper except the four nuts are in the boot, so no working from below is required. You still have the two screws in either arch to remove as well. Again once all have been removed pull the bumper away from the car to remove it, but remove the rear licence plate light first.

Arch deflectors, these are held in by rivots. Drill them out and then remove the screws as well. The screws might well be seized up, so soak them in WD40 and let them soak. If they still don’t come out then you will have to drill them out. On of the screws is hidden behind the jacking cover point, so remove that first. When refitting the deflectors use the proper Ford double sided tape or mastic to join the arch to the bodywork then rivet the kit onto the arch and then add the screw.

Side skirts, these are held on by screws, and will more than likely be seized up. Again just remove the screws and it will come off, but you will need patience to get the screws out.

Rear spoiler, before you even touch this take note the caps that cover the bolt holes have to be put on back order by Fords, they no longer carry them in stock, so make sure you don’t damage them! Looking from above the spoiler you will see the circular holes that need to be removed. Use a fine edged small screw driver to remove them. Inside the hole you will see the bolts that need to be removed.

Bonnet vents, simple to remove. Open the bonnet and simply remove all three screws that hold the vent to the bonnet.

SECTION 29 - SENSORS AND THEIR LOCATION

There are only a few sensors on the RST as it’s a mechanical fuel injection car not an EFI model. It’s always best to clean them up from time to time using a bit of WD40 and an old toothbrush, not your mums one that’s in the bathroom though. Clean the plug that connects to the sensor as well, and allow time for the WD40 to evaporate after you have cleaned it before you reconnect it up.

Here is a list of them all, their plug colour (if applicable) and their location in the engine bay.

Air charge sensor, black plug, right hand side of metal cross over pipe (brown/brown & black wires)
Knock sensor, green plug, right side of inlet manifold (blue/yelllow & brown wires)
Thermo time switch, centre of the inlet manifold (black/yellow & brown/white)
Cylinder head temperature sensor, bottom right of cylinder head
Coolant temperature sensor, blue plug, back of inlet manifold

SECTION 30 - 90 SPEC LIST OF CHANGES

Front bumper, modified to allow more air to the radiator to aid cooling. It no longer has a rubber strip below it.
Boot spoiler, curves down at either side
ECU, was changed to the hearts and diamonds type. This can run 10.2 PSI of boost.
Interior, the seats and door cards were given new patterns, called Zolda. It is grey with blue and red flecks.
Roof lining and sun visors are a different colour, as are the speaker panels, kick panels, and rear quarter panels.
Intermittent wiper speed control was added to the right hand dash column controller. Supplementary manual produced by Fords to cover this modification.
Second courtesy light was added in the rear of the car roof lining.
Centre console, a second part was added to extend the length of the console, handbrake handle had a different cover.
Screen wash reservoir wash changed slightly, it now has a thicker neck and incorporates a plastic gauze to stop any debris from entering the screen wash reservoir.
Brake fluid reservoir updated.
Rocker cover changed, holes for the charge carrier bolts moves out a few inches.
Charge carrier, bolt holes to connect to the rocker cover moved over a couple of inches.
Dash clocks, the fuel and temperature gauges are reversed. Fuel on left, water temperature on the right now.
Rear light clusters were changed slightly. The lenses are now darker than the 1986 versions.
Oil dipstick pipe, end is now plastic rather than metal

SECTION 31 - BUSHES

Here is a complete list of bushes that are on the RST in case you are thinking of replacing them all with either standard or Poly bushes.

Front anti roll bar x 2 (24mm ones)

Track control arms (inner and outer) x 2

Suspension doughnuts x 4

Rear wishbone x 2 Note that Ford will only sell these with the wishbone itself!

Rear wishbone to hub x 4

Rear tie bar to wishbone x 2

Rear tie bar to chassis x 2

Bushes on steering column x 2

There are also 3 x exhaust hangers on the car as well. Not technically bushes but they do wear out like bushes do.

SECTION 32 - PAINT CODES

These codes were taken from the site www.standox.co.uk and they seem to be pretty accurate. The red cars have 2 types available, either Rosso or Radiant. Both are listed. When the series 2 was first put into production the Mercury Grey colour was also listed as being Nimbus Grey. That colour code is also listed as well.

XSC2076C for Mercury Grey

XSC691 for Diamond White

XSC632 for Black

XSC2251 for Radiant Red

XSC1933 for Rosso Red

SECTION 33 - SWIRL POT – FITTING INSTRUCTIONS

OK you might laugh at me for writing this, but I remember what I got my swirl pot, and I got no instructions with it what so ever, so rather than let other people suffer I thought I would describe where it goes, and the best way to fit it.

Firstly always do this when the car has sat overnight, as you will loose coolant, and you don’t want to get burned by the water do you?

If you open the bonnet you will see a hose on the right hand side of the radiator that goes to the thermostat housing, and it also branches off to supply a water feed to the turbo itself. This is the hose you need to cut into. I found the best thing to do was to remove the hose and cut it off the car. You will also need 2 x jubilee clips, which weren’t supplied with the swirl pot either. Once you have cut the hose and added the swirl pot make sure the clips are very tight, as my car has silicone hoses on and they needed to be done up very tight otherwise they would leak, for some reason they don’t like being mated up to aluminium.

Anyway once the swirl pot is on the car you should re direct the hose that runs from the header tank to the thermostat housing, so it now runs from the header tank to the top of the swirl pot. If you are using the standard hose that was on the car it will fit, but you will have to redirect it and it is a bit of stretch, but it does fit. You should block up the top of the thermostat housing with a very small hose with a bung in the end.

Alternatively, if you have a TAS header tank you can run 2 hoses from it, one to the water thermostat housing, the other to the swirl pot, so you don’t need to blank the water thermostat housing off.

Now you should check the coolant level in the header tank to see if it has dropped, which it will do. Top it up and start the car up to check if there are any leaks. When you have run the car properly check the coolant again and top up if need be.

SECTION 34 - BREATHER SYSTEM – FITTING INSTRUCTIONS

Again, another good system, with rubbish instructions. Maybe it’s just me but I expect better instructions when I buy things. This should make fitting a Bailey breather system a bit easier. On with the show!

Firstly you should remove you old Ford breather system, as you won’t be using it anymore, except for one hose that goes back to the block itself and a bit of hose for one small breather pipe. This might be old and worn, so check it before fitting the new breather, and replace with new hose if need be.

What you should find on the Bailey item is that you need 4 hoses to fit it correctly. They are as follows.

Left hand of rocker cover to breather
Right hand of rocker cover to breather
Bottom, back, of breather to block (oil return)
Bottom, front, of breather to air box (oil vapour)

The actual breather unit itself is connected to the cylinder head, you remove the blanking plate at the rear right hand side and fit it there. You should also use 2 x spring washers as well, to take up any vibrations from the engine, as I found that after a while the nuts worked themselves loose. Again, not supplied in the kit from Bailey.

Here is how I fitted mine.

I cut the short hose for the right hand rocker cover and added that to the rocker cover, then I connected the breather to that hose, then lined it up and joined the breather to the back of the block and then tightened the nuts up. I then added the hose from the left hand side of the rocker cover to the breather. So far so good.

The next bit is a bit tricky, so what I did was to work underneath the car, makes it much easier. You have the hose that is at the bottom front of the breather, and this joins to a hose going to the air box via a metal pipe. It can be a bit of a pain with all the boost hoses and what not in the way, so jack the car up and work from underneath the car. A point worth bearing in mind is to use jubilee clips to join the air box hose to the metal pipe as well.

The final hose is the bottom rear one, and this really annoyed me. I removed my Ford hose as it was cracked, and it was a pain to get the hose back on and to tighten the jubilee clip up. I guess small hands are needed.

When all the hoses are on you should tighten up all the clips as tight as possible and check they all connect to the spouts as far as possible.

Then you should start the car up and adjust the idling if need be.

One thing worth bearing in mind is that the breather now vents oil vapour into the air box, which according to Bailey’s own advertising is a daft idea. You don’t want oil being mixed with air before it goes into the engine!

So what you can do is to block the hose off that runs from the air box, and re route the hose from the breather to an oil catch tank. The oil tank must then be vented to atmosphere.

This idea was suggested to me by Karl Norris from Norris Motorsport, so the full credit must go to Karl for sorting this out and for answering my questions on the matter. Very helpful and knowledgeable guy!

All you then have to do is to empty the oil catch tank every now and again and the problem is cured. It’s just a pity Bailey didn’t implement this idea from the start.

SECTION 35 - CHARGE COOLER – FITTING INSTRUCTIONS

Instead of using the rubbish Pace supply you with, or if you have bought one second hand, here is one way to fit it all. I am assuming you have all the kit and that nothing is missing here.

The first thing to mount, and by far the easiest too is the header tank. This fits onto the black heater box cover, at the right hand side. Make sure you grease the inside of the cap up as over time they tend to seize.

Time for the front bumper to come off!

Next up is the pre radiator, and this can go in a number of places, but I mounted mine behind the front bumper below the fan as per Paces recommendations. Some people mount them in the front bumper itself or cut the bumper to get extra air flow to the pre radiator. It’s all down to personal choice.

Next up is the charge cooler unit itself. This sits where the factory inter cooler lives, so you have to remove the factory inter cooler first, which is a pain as the bolts that join the radiator to the inter cooler always rot away. Once in place use new bolts to join the two parts together and grease the top of them up to stop rust.

Finally the water pump itself needs to be mounted. According to Pace it you should remove you air liner on the driver side and push your air flow meter back and other vague suggestions. I mounted my pump behind my battery on the bulkhead, as my arch liner is staying where it belongs, plus it will be easier to remove the pump if it’s behind the battery.

You should then add all the hoses to connect the four items up. They connect as follows.

Right side of pre radiator to lower left on charge cooler unit
Right side of charge cooler to top of header tank
Bottom of header tank to in on water pump
Out of water pump to left of pre radiator

You should then wire up the two stage pump controller to the ignition barrel. The way I connected mine up was so that I could run the pump without the engine being on, but I still needed the ignition on, so there would be no chance of the pump staying on whilst the car was stood still without my knowing about it.

Once it’s all wired in I filled the system up with anti freeze, right to top. Then switched the pump on. I then kept on adding anti freeze until I had used about 2 litres of the stuff. I then added water until all the air was removed. This will take sometime as you will be surprised as to how much fluid this system holds. You should then start the car up and watch the fluid in the header tank until the water level is OK.

One trick I have learned from this system is that if you get an air lock, and the header tank sounds like it is bubbling away, is to connect a hose pipe with a gun on the end of it and to blast water through the system. This will remove all the air locks!

SECTION 36 - GRS INTERCOOLER – FITTING INSTRUCTIONS By DaveRST

The first items to remove are the 2 headlights from the car (this makes it easier to reach the nuts for bumper removal) and be careful not to scratch the bumper. Once off, remove the four 13mm nuts with a deep socket (2 nuts each side of the front cross member). On each side of the bumper, remove the holding screws. Now carefully lift the sides of the bumper out and pull from front of the car.

Remove the original cooling fan and use it as a Frisbee in to the nearest skip. Drain the cooling system and now undo the two big 13mm bolts that hold the radiator in (left side) and the intercooler in (right side) I had a charge cooler in, and had already removed it, so this made things easier. Separate the intercooler /rad by removing the two 10mm bolts and slide both items out.

(For all pace radiator owners, I cut off the extra metal flaps at the bottom of the radiator with a dremmel as they would get in the way on re-assembly)

The GRS intercooler should come with 2 brackets. These attach to the radiator so it can be mounted securely where the original intercooler used to support it. (top bracket with spout facing up to fit on recess in front panel, bottom bracket with O hole to mount to panel on lower side)

Now offer up the Kenlowe 10” slim line fan to the left side of the radiator, insert the plastic ties through the fan mounts and through the radiator (I grimaced at this, but all should be fine) and connect the securing tabs on other side. Make sure the cables are as low down as possible for ease of wiring.

Time to refit the radiator. Get the radiator in position and secure the right side first. The reason for this is that the left side needs to be pushed back a tad so the GRS cooler doesn’t hit the fan centre bolt. Offer up the GRS cooler. There is a small piece of metal at the top of the cross member that needs to be bent. I found that if bent further down and back, it could act as a safeguard for the GRS cooler to avoid hitting the fan centre bolt.

Keep pushing the left side of the radiator towards the engine bay until the GRS cooler is in position without fouling either side. Adjust the metal tab as above safeguard. Tighten the RIGHT side of the radiator mount fully.

You will find that the left side will have to be left unfastened; this is no problem as the radiator is now held securely by the two top spouts and the right side bolt.

Check that the bonnet closes, I still have difficulty closing without a big effort, so when I have more time, ill investigate in to that.

SECTION 37 - ACT GAUGE – FITTING INSTRUCTIONS

OK, for once I am wrong here, the instructions you get with the ACT gauge from Mike Rainbird are good and make perfect sense, but I thought I would add them anyway in case someone has bought one second hand from someone.

If you need an ACT gauge then contact Mike Rainbird at Mike@rjpipe.demon.co.uk he charges £35 for one including delivery, well worth every penny if you ask me! Anyway enough plugging here’s how I fitted mine.

The wire that senses the temperature goes inside the boost hose that goes between the metal cross over pipe and the throttle housing. Make sure you tighten the jubilee clips up real tight when you re fit them.

The other wire goes to a live anywhere on the car, I used a switched live on the ignition barrel as I mounted the gauge near to it and I run other items from there too.

To mount the gauge I decided to put it on the blanking plate for the manual choke, as the RS doesn’t have that fitted. I removed the plate and then marked out the size of the ACT gauge on the front of the plate. To get the corners perfect I used a small drill bit and then once all four corners were done I cut through from one point to another. Eventually I was left with the shape of the gauge cut out from the plate, very Blue Peter if you ask me! After that I sanded down the edges and then fitted the gauge, with wires already running through the back. I also sealed it in using some blue tack, as the fit was good, but I decided to add that just in case.

Another place I have seen the ACT gauge mounted is at the bottom right side of the dash board clocks.

So now when I switch the ignition on the gauge comes on and displays the ACT gauge, and at night time it is illuminated too.

SECTION 38 - BUYING GUIDE

After doubling the production run to 10,000 units for the limited edition Escort RS turbo it was almost inevitable that the Ford motor company would continue to produce the car. In august of 1986 the new model Escort RS Turbo went on sale to the general public. Based around the MK4 Escort shell the car continued where it's predecessor left off.

It was available in the following four colours:

Radiant red
Mercury grey (originally listed as nimbus grey)
Black
Diamond white

The 1986 model, or 'Series two' as it is more commonly known is based around Fords CVH engine, along with a Garrett t3 turbocharger and Ford intercooler. Unlike most 4x4s it doesn’t have a huge intercooler sticker on the back.

Engine Type: SOHC, in line, 4 cylinder, transversely mounted
Engine size: 1597 cc
Bore: 80.00mm
Stroke: 79.5mm
Compression ratio: 8.2:1
Brake horse power: 132 @ 5750 RPM
Torque: 133 LB per ft @ 2750 RPM
Brake horsepower per litre: 82.6
Power to weight ratio: 124 BHP per tonne
Gearbox: 5 speed with limited slip differential (non adjustable) as standard
Brakes: 10.2 inch front discs, 9.0 inch rear drums
Wheels: Alloy 15 inch with Dunlop 195x50x15 D40 tyres
Average Fuel consumption: 25 MPG
0 - 60 MPH: 8.1 seconds
Top speed: 128 MPH
Price of standard car: £10,028 including VAT
Fuel required when new: leaded 4 star or super unleaded 97 Ron
Fuel required today: Super unleaded or Optimax, minimum RON rating 97.
Insurance group: 14 as standard, higher if modified.
Kerb weight of the car: 1,021 KG

When you ordered the car from Ford you had a wide range of factory options available to you. You could have opted for a custom pack, consisting of electric windows, slide and tilt sunroof and central locking. This would set add £572 to the total price. Other options were as follows:

Heated front screen £100
Fuel computer £117
Electrically heated and adjustable door mirrors £69
Recaro seats for £271.

I personally do not know of any RS Turbo that wasn't ordered with Recaro seats as standard, but that doesn't mean that somebody somewhere didn't not order them.

SCS, Fords own anti lock braking system that came as standard on all series two models. Most people deem it as being useless, and they might well have removed it. But it was standard on all Series two cars.

When looking at buying a car in the press people will often use the following terms to describe certain items fitted to the car from the factory.

C/L - central locking
E/W - electric windows
FFSR - factory fitted sunroof
H/F/S - heated front screen
E/M - electric mirrors
Trip computer for the fuel computer.
FFSH would mean a Full Ford Service History.

At first people thought there wasn't much difference between the two models but there is actually quite a lot. The following is a list of items that I believe Ford altered.

Bonnet: bonnet vents were added to help cool the engine bay area. The front edge of the bonnet also slopes down, essence of the Granada of that time.

Body kit: this was toned down, the wheel arch deflectors didn't stick out as much. Ford weren't going to race or rally this car, so they didn't need the wheel arch deflectors to cover huge wheels. The front and rear bumpers were of standard MK4 escort type, they were over bumpers, and covered the front and rear valance of the car. They were colour coded to match the car. The boot spoiler was the same as on the XR3I of that time. Plastic, raised by three supports. The series 2 no longer had opening rear windows for security reasons.

Engine: the engine capacity remained the same (1597cc) and the Bosch KE fuel injection system was the
same. The turbo charger was now water cooled so it would last longer. The pistons were different, as were
the exhaust valves and the oil pump was of the low friction type.

The gearbox ratio was also changed; the LSD was a lazer welded one that was none adjustable. The ratios
in the gearbox box were also changed. The series two was slower off the mark than it's predecessor but
was more economical, and had a higher top end speed. Maximum power was reached at a lower RPM than
the series one. The car was also fitted with an anti knock sensor to detect if the car was using low grade
fuel, allowing the car to run on low grade fuel without causing any internal damage. Albeit not
at the full power the car was capable of!

The early series 2 cars were not fitted with an anti knock sensor, according to Ford, only cars registered on
or after 1987 will have an anti knock sensor. If you look on the right hand side of the inlet manifold you
will see a green plug connected to it. This is the anti knock sensor.

The engine management was changed slightly on the series 2. The units were still made my Motorola, but the components and chip inside were modified to incorporate the changes in the engine and the gearbox ration changes. As such the ignition and fueling map were altered accordingly. Ford also intended the car to be more economical, which officially it was.

Interior: a big area of change. The new interior is in a red/grey format. The clocks showed every 10 MPH
and there was no low fuel warning light on the dashboard, as the fuel computer is available as a factory
option. The column stalks were smaller. The dash and other parts of the interior was modeled on the Ford
Granada of that time. If you remove the fuel computer module from the dash and open it up it is even
marked up as Granada.
Wheels: the series two was supplied with 5 x 15 inch wheels. These can only be described as looking like a set of fan blades. They do actually suit the car though. 17 inch wheels will fit with a little bit of arch work. 16 inch wheels will fit without any problems at all. The standard tyres were even changed between the two models. The series ones came with 195/50/15 Michelin MX V tyres. The series twos were fitted with 195/50/15 Dunlop SP Sport D40 tyres.

Brakes: The series 2 had bigger brakes all around. It all came with Fords SCS (Stop-Control-System) as standard. This was Fords attempt, courtesy of Lucas-Girling, at a cheap ABS system. At the front the series 2 had 10.2 inch ventilated discs the same as fitted to the XR4I and 9.0 inch drums on the rear.

Ford decided to uprate the brakes as one of the major criticisms in the motoring press of that time was about the brakes on the series 1. They simply couldn't bring the car to stop quickly enough and they were considered to be quite bad. Luckily the series two brakes are OK.

The very early series 2 cars didn't have front wheel arch liners fitted to them. However, most
owners should have retro fitted them by now. From Early E all the cars were fitted with them from
the factory

1990 Update: The car was updated in late 1989. Most cars that were registered on a G plate in 1990 should have the following changes. Most people refer to these cars as being '90 spec'. What follows is a list of items that were changed; however I do not believe it to be a complete list.

Front bumper modified, to allow more air to the radiator to aid cooling
Boot spoiler, curves down at either side
ECU, was changed to the hearts and diamonds type.
Interior, the seats and door cards were given new patterns, called Zolda. It is grey with blue and red flecks.
Roof lining and sun visors are a different colour, as are the speaker panels, kick panels, and rear quarter panels.
Intermittent wiper speed control was added to the right hand dash column controller.
Second courtesy light was added in the rear of the car roof lining.
Centre console. A second part was added to extend the length of the console.
Screen wash reservoir wash changed slightly, incorporating a plastic gauze to stop any debris entering the screen wash reservoir.
Brake fluid reservoir updated.
Rocker cover changed slightly, holes for the charge carrier bolts moves out a few inches.
Charge carrier, bolt holes to connect to the rocker cover moved over a couple of inches.
Dash clocks, the fuel and temperature gauges are reversed.
Rear light clusters were changed slightly. The lenses are darker than the 1986 versions.

You would normally expect to pay more for a 1990 spec car, due to the fact that it is a newer car and the parts such as the interior, front bumper and boot spoiler are highly sort after. It is worth noting that not all the items were added on the production line. Some cars were released with only the 90 spec interior in late 1989, and then after that the car cars had everything changed over to the newer look spec.

Although the car has been out of production for 9 years you can still find good examples of Escort RS turbos. In my opinion, the best place to find a mint RS car for sale is in Rallye News. Not only will the car be genuine, but it will be known to other RS owners members, and almost definately registered with the club. That way you will be able to find out the history of the car if you need to.

The Series 2 cars were only made on the following plates, D, E, F, G, and H. None were ever officially supposed to be sold on a C or a J. But as always there will be examples out there that were registered late and they are genuine RS turbos. Just check them over and make sure they are what they are supposed to be.

Here are some performance figures for the factory car.

0 – 30 MPH = 3.0 seconds
0 – 40 MPH = 4.7 seconds
0 – 50 MPH = 6.1 seconds
0 – 60 MPH = 8.1 seconds
0 – 70 MPH = 11.4 seconds
0 – 80 MPH = 14.1 seconds
0 – 90 MPH = 18.5 seconds
0 – 100 MPH = 23.0 seconds

Standing ¼ mile 15.8 seconds

Below are the official Ford UK sales figures for the Series 2 model, sadly they don’t list the different types of colour sold or what options people specified. But it gives you a good idea as to which cars will be the most abundant and which ones won’t.

1986 (D only) 1317 cars sold by Ford UK

1987 (D and E) 4748 cars sold by Ford UK

1988 (E and F) 5786 cars sold by Ford UK

1989 (F and G) 6965 cars sold by Ford UK

1990 (G and H) 2795 cars sold by Ford UK

1991 (H only) 497 cars sold by Ford UK

The first thing to look for when buying a series 2 is to check the cars identity. Why waste the time and effort checking everything else when the car might be a ringer? There should be a chassis number stamped into the floor by the drivers seat, underneath a small plastic flap. That number should match the one on the VIN plate on the slam panel AND on the V5 document. If it doesn't match then walk away. There is also a small metal plate spot welded onto the car underneath the front valance. (If you want to be doubly sure about your cars identity phone the AA and get them to do a history check. It is much better than HPI as they hold much more information)

Here is an explanation of the chassis number. All the Series two cars should have been built in Germany, so if yours has been built in Brazil or somewhere else outside of Europe then questions it’s identity if it’s a genuine right hand drive UK car.

The chassis number on the RST is made up of letters and numbers. The numbers being the engine number that was originally fitted to the car when built.

Using this as an example chassis number I will break it down and explain what it all means.

WFOBXXGCABHP12345 when expanded becomes WFO,B,XX,G,C,A,B,H,P,12345

WFO is the Ford company that assembled the car. WFO is Cologne in Germany. Other codes that appear are SFA (Brentwood, Essex), VS6 (Valencia, Spain), UNI (Ford of Ireland, Dublin), XLC (Ford of Holland), TW2, (Portugal), and finally 98F (Brazil)

B stands for 3 door hatch back saloon. Other variants are L for a Cabriolet, V for a van, A for a 5 door hatch back, C for a 2 door coupe, D for a 2 door estate, N for a 5 door estate and T for a 2 door saloon.

XX is not needed.

G means the car was sourced from Germany. Other variants are B for Britain, W for Spain, C for Ireland, N for Portugal and L for Brazil.

C means the car was assembled in Saarlouis. Other variants are A for Cologne, B for Genk, B is also used for Halewood as well. K is for Karmann, N for Australian and P for Portugal.

A means the model of the car is Escort. B is for Sierra and Mondeo, G for a Granada, E for a Capri and F for a Fiesta.

B again is just repitition of the B above, in that it is what model of car it is.

H is the year the car was manufactured (1987)

Here is a list of some relevant years you should look for, and bear in mind that the letter I isn’t used at all.

1985 = F
1986 = G
1987 = H
1988 = J
1989 = K
1990 = L
1991 = M
1992 = N

P is the month (September 1986)the car was manufactured. These are represented by letters running in a sequence. Again with no letter I.

Here is a list of all the all the other months/years

December 1991 = P
November 1991 = O
October 1991 = N
September 1991 = M
August 1991 = L
July 1991 = K
June 1991 = J
May 1991 = H
April 1991 = G
March 1991 = F
February 1991= E
January 1991= D

December 1990 = C
November 1990 = B
October 1990 = A
September 1990 = Z
August 1990 = Y
July 1990 = X
June 1990 = W
May 1990 = V
April 1990 = U
March 1990 = T
February 1990 = S
January 1990 = R

December 1989 = Q
November 1989 = P
October 1989 = O
September 1989 = N
August 1989 = M
July 1989 = L
June 1989 = K
May 1989 = J
April 1989 = H
March 1989 = G
February 1989 = F
January 1989 = E

December 1988 = D
November 1988 = C
October 1988 = B
September 1988 = A
August 1988 = Z
July 1988 = Y
June 1988 = X
May 1988 = W
April 1988 = V
March 1988 = U
February 1988 = T
January 1988 = S

December 1987 = R
November 1987 = Q
October 1987 = P
September 1987 = O
August 1987 = N
July 1987 = M
June 1987 = L
May 1987 = K
April 1987 = J
March 1987 = H
February 1987 = G
January 1987 = F

December 1987 = E
November 1987 = D
October 1987 = C
September 1987 = B
August 1987 = A
July 1987 = Z
June 1987 = Y
May 1987 = X
April 1987 = W
March 1987 = V
February 1987 = U
January 1987 = T

December 1986 = S
November 1986 = R
October 1986 = Q
September 1986 = P
August 1986 = O
July 1986 = N
June 1986 = M
May 1986 = L
April 1986 = K
March 1986 = J
February 1986 = H
January 1986 = G

December 1985 = F
November 1985 = E
October 1985 = D
September 1985 = C
August 1985 = B
July 1985 = A
June 1985 = Z
May 1985 = Y
April 1985 = X
March 1985 = W
February 1985= V
January 1985 = U

The 5 numbers that follow are the engine number running from a range of 0001 to 99,999.

Next up is the slam panel plate or chassis plate as it’s sometimes called. This contains even more information about the car. Again if it’s missing as why. You can still get them re made from Fords, but if they don’t have them on the car shouldn’t pass it’s MOT.

The plate will have a few boxes on it with information in them. Here is a breakdown of what is contained in them and what they should say.

The DRIVE box, this should have a number 2 in it, which means the car was originally manufactured in RHD. It could also have the letter B in it as well which means the same. If it has a number 1 or the letter A in it the car was originally built in LHD form, even though it might now have been converted over to RHD, so look out for this as the car might be an import from Europe.

The ENG box has two parts to it. The first part gives the cubic capacity of the original engine and the second part is the type of engine (eg 1600 CVH, Fords never did a 1.9 turbo or 2.1 ZVH from the factory as you know) The engine code for a CVH is L. The RS turbo car should also have a second plate on the slam panel that says F for turbo on it or even the words Turbo. It should be the same colour as the car.

There is a third box which is called TRANS and it should have one of 4 letters in it, on the RST it should be W for a 5 speed manual gear box. The other letters are T for a 4 speed manual gear box, Q for an MTX type gear box and X for a CTX automatic gear box.

The fourth box is the AXLE box, which has all the details for the final drive on the gear box. The codes used are

4 for 3.82:1 ratio
6 for 3.12:1 ratio
8 for 3.56 2 ratio
2 for 3.59 (and also for a ratio of 4.27:1)
F for 3.84:1 ratio
J for 4.06:1 ratio

On the RS Turbo it should have a code 4.

The plate also contains information as to what trim is fitted to the car, but as it’s an RST just check it has Recaros and that the rear seats match and so do the door cars.

Next you will have to prove the mileage is genuine. Check all the service documentation and previous MOTs. If there aren't any ask yourself do you want to own the car? As the cars are quite a few years old they should have some kind of a history. Don't presume the MOT to be genuine either if it's only got the one with the car. The car will be at least 10 years old, and should have some form of history. If the car has no or little history it normally means it has gone missing for a reason! The more history the car has the better.

Check the steering wheel and see if it's shiny. Check the seats, the drivers recaro seats wear out very easily on the side nearest the door. Also check the drivers seat hasn't been replaced with another passengers seat (any easy trick to do) The rubber pedals will also indicate how much use the car has. Do the seat belts retract themselves when you disconnect them? If they don't it might be another sign of a high mileage car.

Security. Probably THE most important point of any RS badged car. Is the car alarmed and immobilized? Does the owner have certificates for the security systems? If not you may have trouble getting insurance. Are the windows and sunroof etched with the correct licence numbers? Has the chassis number, which may be correct, been welded into the floor? You don't want the hassle of buying a ringer or a stolen motor. Taking the worst case scenario you could end up losing all your money! Once you have bought the car change the door locks or better still de lock it. The more security features your car has the lower the chances of it being stolen. Theft was one of the major reasons Ford stopped producing the RS turbo. If you do decide to buy the car make sure you get hold of any spare keys and alarm fobs when you buy the car, otherwise it might disappear very easily.

Check the car for rust. D registration cars, and the very early E registration cars are well renowned for being rust prone. Check the car over properly, ideally spending a bit of time underneath the car as well, this may well stop you buying a rot box. Although well built the car does have a few known rust spots.

The following is a list of major panels, and where they are prone to rusting.

Roof, behind the sunroof
Bonnet, along the front edge below the Ford badge
Tailgate, inside behind the bottom corners
Doors, start to go at the very bottom
Sills, as always
battery tray and bulkhead near it
around the fuse box
underneath the spare wheel well
inside the sunroof, sign that the owner has opened the sun roof in the rain
rear chassis arm also rusts into the boot area

The list above seems quite long. But with a bit of patience and some waxoil, most can be prevented. If you intend on keeping your car, spend some money and time on rust proofing your car, it will help to protect your pride and joy. A good way of seeing how solid your potential car is, is to cover the car with water and see if it leaks anywhere inside. Any leaks and you can haggle the price down.

You should also check for over spray, the chances are the car might have been in an accident. Check were the front wings join the slam panel for the factory sealant. That is always a good indication of whether a panel has been replaced. Also check if the front wing, door and rear quarter line up. Using the lines that are moulded into the panel's check that they are all true and level.

Another easy way to check is to look in the boot and see if it is the original panel. Remove the boot seal and see if the bottom of lip has been welded, a sure sign that a panel has been replaced and that the car has been hit from the rear.

Check the bonnet is the proper turbo item with vents, don’t fall for the old it had no vents from the factory all series 2 cars had them as standard, there was no option to not have them. Check that the front edge of the bonnet isn’t rusted and open the bonnet to see if there is rust inside it. Then check the bonnet lines up evenly with the wings. If the bonnet doesn't line up it is probably due to a prang.

Check the wings line up with the bonnet and the doors, and that they have side repeaters in them, again all series 2 cars had these as standard.

Check the doors line up with the wings and they rear quarter panels in a straight line and that they aren’t rotten at the bottom too.

Check all the body kit is in good condition as well. It should all fit perfectly over the car, and should be bonded onto it so it doesn’t move. If it can be moved it has been removed and fitted wrongly. The arch deflectors are held on with rivets. The side skirts by screws. Over time the screw get rotten and are very hard to remove. If the screw are like new then you must assume that the car has been well looked after or that they have been replaced. Check all four jacking point covers are on the car, and that they are joined to the kit by a plastic strap.

When you start the car up it should idle perfectly at around 950 rpm. Check for blue smoke on start up, which is a sign of the engine burning oil. And it is normally the valve stem oil seals letting oil past. You should also check in the header tank for mayonnaise, which means the head gasket is leaking. Not a major problem, but do you want to buy a car knowing that it needs work doing to it? Look at the turbo and look how rusty the turbo is, this is a good sign of how old the unit is. When the car is running check the exhaust fumes that are coming out of it. If there is any smoke it isn't a good sign. Remember, white for water, blue for oil, black for over fuelling.

Ask or check when the cam belt was last changed. Ford recommend they are changed every 36,000 miles or less, I would say to change it as soon as you buy the car. The money it costs to buy and replace a cam belt compared to an engine rebuild is quite a lot.

Check the radiator, if it is green in parts it will soon need replacing. Check the front discs aren't warped or scored. The rear cylinders are prone to leaking after a few years of hard work. Also the rear load valve tends to seize, making the car think it is fully loaded and as such increases the braking power at the rear. Check all the electrical items work. If they don’t these could be a good bargaining point for lowering the cars

gearboxman

WOW!

turbo.jon

Now printing off
cheers mate

jon

DannyC

Really good idea mate, should be a sticky in the turbo section. alot of work has gone into that

Rick

Good Shit!

©hatter Box

fair play very helpfull

James Raby

iTrader: (1)

Some good info in there Ian

Must've taken ages...

ballin

iTrader: (1)

give credit to the writer mate, gazP

Muska

excellent

Twins

iTrader: (18)

Lot of work there

The Sludge

There are also some articles by other RSOC board users, full credit to them for helping and letting me use their work. They are BigP, StevenRW, Graham and DaveRST.

gazcos

iTrader: (1)

Come on Mods.This surely needs a sticky

Mr.h.

Top man

Good reading

User 32922

Thank so much for taking the time to write all that

I got half way through but will deffo be saving it

<<<not sure about that comment though

FletchCossie

iTrader: (4)

Must of taken Alot of time and effort to do that mate, well done

Wanna do one's for Cosworth's now

The Sludge

still not a sticky

gazcos

iTrader: (1)

I,ve PMd Tiff to ask him to sticky this but had no response

Stu @ M Developments

iTrader: (12)

Absolutely fantastic, ive PM'd sludge about this

The Sludge

Rs Baz

bloody fantastic mate alot of work done in doing all that

L33 BYT

Excellent work

Brasso

Awesome post. Thanks.

PPSSSHH

not an rs expert what are you then!!!!!!!

frog

Not an S2 owner, but this looks superb... well done

The Sludge

currently doing one dude-been working on it for about 9 weeks now , wont be finished until about another 8 weeks or so, maybe sooner if it keeps raining the way it does

Smartdj.

iTrader: (2)

now my eyes hurt lol

kevnoize

37 Pages that chaps, and its goin in its own personal folder!
that is some good stuff.

MattRS171

I came accross this article, after a google search in need of help for my RST. I printed it off and it was very helpfull.