Well all is not well in the Tiger camp at home, all of a sudden the engine is not happy.
She is burning oil on number 2 like its going out of fashion, fouls the plug in comes out dripping in oil, still got very good compression across all
4 pots did a leak down test all good, valve stem seals all good, all I can think is the oil control rings on number 2 have left the party.
And to top it of, all this happened 18days before a car show I am booked into, So I have a few options.
Rebuild the engine (dont know if I can muster the energy for that)
Dont bother going to the show (really been looking forward to it)
Do a engine swap (lot more work but if I ZETEC it better for future engine swaps etc...)
So with 18days to the car show I went for engine swap (Gulp)
I aquired a free 1.8 zetec and started doing a engine swap. progress is going quite well engine is squared in the chassis and mounts made, in order to
gain decent bonnet clearance and level the engine I ended up moving the engine and gearbox back 1inch and the tail of the gearbox down 1.25inches
(fortunately the prop had enough slip yoke to allow this).
I was hoping I would get away with not chopping the sump until after the car show and just be careful drivng, sadly I only had 1.25 inch clearance
between the sump and tarmac, so 2 inches have been cut from the sump. I have lost 1L of oil capacity but have added a extra wing which have given back
500ml, after the show the plan is to fit a oil cooler which will gain more capacity, (still have the bottom to weld on sump but waiting for a metal
oil pick up pipe to be delivered)
Made a new alternator bracket and opted for a small denso type alternator(bought one listed for case tractor as its cheap than a "lightweight
race alternator) I know you can buy them but 1 they are £52 and 2 are for the lucas alt and I am running a small Denso unit. really pleased with how
it came out spent far to much time making it look pretty and its way to enginnered made from 4mm sheet steel. ( will out last the car)
The exhaust was going to be real time consumer project and had settled on running the stock manifold with a single pipe to silencer until after the
show.then make a 4 branch... But the big plus point is a toyota 4age 4 branch is not to far away port spacing etc...so with a little malnipulation
cutting and welding we now have a 4 branch.
I won a used inlet mainfold so that speeds things up a bit (i actually dipped my hand in my pocket bought something instead of making it).
The bulk of the work is done but still have a lot to do.
Cooling pipes/hoses to make and run (wont be pretty function over form until after show)
A small amount of wiring (on the plus side I lot of it is good starter on the same side as before injector harness still the same etc....)
finish the sump
fit starter motor
Timing belt
measure up and order AUX belt
Coil pack bracket to make
Drill and tap hole for ECU temp sender
Start and tune
THE UNKNOWNS
dont know if the engine runs and is any good was told it was a good runner etc... she has good compression but still a unknown.(the was over a litre
of water in the sump)
See if clutch set up works, stock 1.8 flywheel and cover with a mk1 mondeo plate, homemade release arm pivot to space release bearing correctly.
oh and as I writing this I have 9 DAYS left to the show and working 12hr days at work,
On the positive I will end up with a engine that has more power and is cheaper to source and upgrade
Well things are looking hopeful for the show. 10days after starting the work on the blacktop its finally in the car. not the prettiest install but
time is not my friend, so after the show I will have to tidy things up a bit.
Well she is back in one piece now and even drove out and back in to the garage under her own steam. so tomorrow weather permitting will take her out
for a shake down run.
Well shake down didnt go plan had a wicked missfire at 2000 rpm spent 2 days chasing it, and missed the car show.
finally fixed the missfire turned out to be a scholl boy error, not sure if I did it or when I did a firmware update , but flatshift was enabled (I
dont have a clutch switch) so when it hit 2k it was in massive retard causing the popping and banging, 30 seconds after switching it off and all was
good.
not really done much other than drive the car and loving it it goes so much better with the 1.8 zetec.
She has been running fantastic, did have one semi break down the plastic thermostat housing developed a crack, only £12.90 for a new part.
The only other issue is fueling because the car is running better than ever and I have dialed the suspension in she is handling and cornering better
than ever, I am suffering from fuel stavation when the fuel level is below 1/4 tank on fast left handers so will have to fit a external swirl pot
before its first trackday.
Well she lived through her first trackday. scrapyard engine did fantastic no over heating, got a bit warm 98c after 7 laps but nothing to scary and
its still running the tiger orig rad. did a 60mile round trip to and from the track and clocked 40mile on the track, she burnt a total of 150ml of
oil.
I was suprised and pleased at how balanced the car felt front end just dug in no understeer and the rear end was so predicatable.
So with the car running well and producing enough power to hold its own, the natural thing to do is add more power, the simple upgrade is a 2.0L
blacktop which is the natural progression and I was all set on that. however in the meantime with Speeduino's continued firmware development VVT
support had been added, so the right thing to do is skip the 2.0L blacktop and go straight to a ST170.
So after a bit of searching I managed to find possibly the cheapest ST170 engine in the uk, however there was 2 problems
1 been it was 340mile round trip to collect it.
2 been it was partially dismantled (are all the bits there?)
So I bit the bullet and went for it.
The old Ford Focus did me proud, as always did the trip without complaint and 78+mpg.
On the face of it the ST170 lump was in fairly complete condition the block was still assembled and not been taken apart, the head had been vapour
blasted, new stem seals etc... so the head was ready to be dropped on the block.
roughly placed together to see what bits I had Description
So the grand plan is to build the engine up ready for a winter upgrade/install. so the most important job for building the engine up is to ignore the
checking the internals and go straight to painting the rocker cover.
I decided it was time to dig in to the ST170 engine and check the health internally etc...
So spent many a happy hour assembling the head and shiming the valves etc..... all went quite smoothly as the head had been vapour blasted and already
had the valves lapped in etc...
Attentions then turned to the bottom end, on first glance the bores looked fantastic, still had nice honing marks etc.... no wear ridge etc...
Once I dropped the sump all was not good, there was glitter in the sump!!! Number 3 main had spun a bearing and marked up the journal quite badly.
So now faced with a few options:
1 get the crank reground/polished
2 Find a good crank
I favoured the second option as I would rather not have a undersized crank, well it turns out Ford are pretty good all Zetec's silver tops, Black
tops and with the ST170 been a Zetec with a fancy head all used the same crank, same part numbers etc.... no matter on age or capacity. So plenty of
secondhand cranks out there.
As it turns out I have a good Zetec crank it is living in my 1.8 Blacktop thats currently in the Tiger.
But I am currently using that crank so that puts the engine build on the back burner. Description
We had a bit of catastrophic failure on the way back from The Dairy Barn, driving style and generally been a knob where the reason behind it. I
snapped my prop right half in two. Made a good bang damaged fuel lines took a chunk out of the chassis rail as well.
So with the car of the road awaiting a prop and the Ushaw Moor Car show only 2 weeks away, the sensible thing to do is pull the 1.8 Blacktop out and
pillage it for parts to build the ST170, Seems to be a common theme for me leaving it to the last minute.
Prop was built by Drive Line I have used them a few times in the past superb service and they know what they are talking about, I got a prop made with
bigger UJs so the next failure should be the axle.
So with 14 days to the car show and whilst I was waiting for the new prop I pulled the 1.8 blacktop and stripped her for the crank so I could rebuild
the ST170
So the 1.8 donated the crank,waterpump and its flywheel (lighter than the ST170) fortunately it not much different swapping a zetec for zetec engine
mounts exhaust etc... had to add a bit extra wiring for the VVT and cam sensor and rework the inlet manifold as the ports are larger and slightly
different position. but after 5days the engine was rebuilt and in and running.
So she has full closed loop VVT. and sporting a aluminium polo rad and the 20 year old tiger rad decided it no longer wanted to hold fluids
anymore.
I did a couple of shake down runs then she had a 80 mile round trip for the car show.
The ST170 has transformed the car from 2k she just pulls and pulls and the intake sounds pretty rude.
