Well the trackdays went well

Snetterton was awesome, nice dry and sunny, drove it hard all day and no issues

Brands was wet and slippy as hell, got better in the afternoon so was able to push a bit but not fully as did not have the confidence in the conditions

BUT........i broke another gearbox!

I have broken 2 now as i just shift too hard it seems, both have snapped the 3rd/4th selector fork and all the little shifter inserts on the 3rd/4th syncro break up which definitely happens first causing the gear change crunching and then going on to cause the snapped fork

I have now opted for a Brand new 5 speed close ratio sequential box from a company called PGS TRANSMISSIONS in Finland, my casings will be going off to Olli this week and then they can get on putting the box together for me and then shipping it back probably end of Feb to begining of March time

The input shaft is a larger diameter Hollinger size rated to huge bhp, the selector forks are billet and guarenteed for life, the gears and dogs etc are guarenteed to 800bhp so hopefully i should have no issues with this, i just need to order the gear knob load cell from KA Sensors so we can control the clutchless flat shifts via the ecu and clutchless down shifts with throttle blip

On removing my gearbox i found a crack in the bellhousing, luckily i have caught it early and it is only approx 1" long, this has happened to every single skyline box conversion it seems, so like Mark Knight and Coley i will joint the webbing supports and probaly add some other supporting straps if i can and then see how it gets on like that,

The Sequential box route was mainly due to the fact you can not buy all the parts for the skyline gearboxes easily unless its just syncro's you need, but i would probably only end up breaking it again so wanted something that can cope with some serious abuse without any worrying at all

Thanks
Marc

 

 

 

A few images of my 2 broken gearboxes,

First 1 with fork damage from 2 years ago and the second with the completely snapped fork is what happened to my second box at brands in November

 

These are the little shifter inserts that you need on the 3rd/4th gear syncro part, when these break up i beleive this is what starts the crunching and then if you carry on with it things get progressively worse until it just doesnt want to go in gear and you force it and break the selector forks like i did?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cheaper than your Oppliger box. That's why the Skyline box was a great conversion. Gearkits don't have Cosworth tax

 

 

When my bell housing cracked the chap that welded it up told me the problem is with the Ford casting as the alloy is shit . And no the uver hand the skyline part is good alloy . So the only way to try and get round it is to do wot you have done . But don't forget the inside of the bell housing as that's the next problem the difference in the sizes of the cases you need to get as much weld and gussets in there as possible .

 

It wouldn't be hard to get just the Cossie part milled out of good quality alloy and ensure it was designed in such a way that it can be welded as best as possible, you would only need a correctly measured donor for the ford part.

 

I don't think you could buy a donor box, have it cut and welded, all the ancilliary bits such as pump, ECU controller (to do it properly like ETS pro) then have the box stripped and rebuilt with a sequential gearkit then gearbox mount and do it for any less than the oppliger. Add in the cost of tunnel adaption and then new props (althogh you may need different rear prop on an oppliger)

I preferred the option of 2wd and 4wd but I didn't like the extra weight and noise of the pump though.

 

The problem is that regardless of the quality of the material it is a large circumferential weld being put under "Shear stress" with the weight of the box hanging off it and the engine and gearbox mount movements so not ideal, the bracing others and now i have done will help and as toby pointed out it was probably better to tie in further onto the skyline case at the top for more support so i done that quickly this morning.

I spoke to 2 company's at Autosport regards 3d scanning the hybrid casing then having casting molds machined, after the molds are paid for the casings would be approx Ł150 each then there is the machining of each casing which would probably be another Ł500 but the cost of the scanning 3d to cad file and the moulds came in at approx 8k so just not worth it

I hope that with these bracing supports now welded in i wont have the issue again but only time will tell on that 1 i suppose

Turnover - The bolts sit flat and straight, well as good as per the original casting which is only ok at best with these old things. the engine and gearbox mountings are rubber bushed still on my car

 

 

The casing has warped again slightly with all the welding, i bolted it down to my dummy block and sump and you can slip a 0.30mm feeler gauge under the casing between the 2 top bolts, im happy with that as that is measured without the steel dust guard in place so that will be fine

 

.......Great work...amazing..

 

 

 

For me the difference is not such weight but longevity. Will it handle what I need and are spares available.
The active centre was a must. And considerably less than 6k.

 

But that is non sequesntial for that cost and Marc has broken 2 of the normal ones.

Does weight not affect your type of racing? I would have thought 20kg from the centre of the car and maybe 5-10 kg of pump and reservoir elsewhere savings would be a competitive advantage but then where do you stop...dieting before a race?

Are you on ETS pro to control the centre diff? I cannot remember?

 

I haven't broken any. Marc is just rough. He has broke that box not that the box can't handle the power.
Of course weight matters if you are chasing 100ths of a second, but weight means nothing if you don't finish.
I don't use ETS I use a different system.
My car is close to minimum weight but my weight split is damn near 50/50 front/rear and side/side.
If I wanted the biggest weight change I would be better going on a diet and losing 30kgs. 😌😌😌😌

 

Awesome work on the box mate.

 

4 years on !!!!!!

still have the car but not done anything with it apart from mot it

it has the full skyline sequential now

I’d sell it if someone come up with about Ł75k as I just don’t have time for it anymore really, wife, 2 small children and my own business just doesn’t give me the spare time but part of me wants to get some use out of it

who knows, maybe one day lol

 

I was there many years ago, started the Escort, 2007, 2 kids later, completed a 5 year degree, changed careers twice, busier than ever, travel the world with my job now. But, my kids are now 15 and 12, they love being in the shop, the car is part of their lives too.
I only need to use it every now and again and remember why it sits there.
Still worth good money if I ever break it apart.

Park it, stick a sheet over it and call on it in 10 years time.

 

Saw an advert for your car on Facebook a few months back. I committed to a new car project two years ago: if it hadn't have been for that I'd have been discussing bank loans and then straight onto you!

 

Still here

been doing a few bits with it lately with the view of maybe driving it once in a while

just fitted a new Ecu master ADU 7 dash display with gps to can and wheel speed to can

also swapped out the clutch and flywheel for a more user friendly one

the car has not got an mot currently but maybe next week or week after I will get it done

 

Hi, despite this being an old post, I'm interested to know if your car is still available.
I'm planning a similar conversion and would like to ask a few questions regarding the suspension modification.