fiestaturbo.com

[Andy.B]

Ohhh sweet work Mark, those welds are perfect that Murex is doing the job very well. Gotta get mine out to practice wanna be 100% of those welds on those lower arms.

[Excursion]

Cheers chaps, very kind

I've now fully prepared the bottom of the car, it's all seam welded and I've spent a while taking the majority back to bare metal, or as good as. This is to ensure I've got rid of all the corrosion as even on a shell like mine it's surprising the amount of undetectable 'spiders' you can find under the etch primer (these start from stone chips).





With the shell underneath prepared I can start to work out where is best to begin strengthening. I'm starting with parts used from the Mk5.


These will extend forward to reinforce the rear wishbone mounting point and also go forward up to the bulkhead.


I was also lacking some suitable gearbox mounts, I had to travel a surprising distance to get these, just the sort of part that gets thrown away when a car is broken!


It's time to get the engine in and in position so that I can see where to modify the floor and also where best to place the prop shaft. The first obstacle was the rear gearbox mounting lug on the Zetec block, this together with another mount on the sump were completely in the way of the Audi driveshaft output.


These were duly removed, and here the crankcase is exposed; this will be covered with a plate that will be secured by 4 bolts with threads drilled and tapped in each corner of the exposed area. The plate will also serve as the rear take off for the breather system.


The gearbox alone could now be fitted to the engine, and preparation for fitting the transfer case could commence.



The transfer box proved to be an extremely close fit, initially 2 castings on the Zetec block were in the way.


These were removed.


On the transfer case itself, I needed to remove one of the lugs that secures the casing to the engine block. As the Zetec block is totally different to the Audi 1.8T block, I will be designing a bespoke bracket that will replace this mount anyway.


Finally the entire assembly bolted together. I now need to design some adapter plates to join the Zetec lugs to the Audi gearbox lugs, as most are in differing places.



With this work done I can now position the power train in the bay, and begin to make the engine mounting brackets.

[heeman10]

To me, that last photo was like someone just being murdered at the end of a lengthy film plot..and just as the camera pans up to show the killer, the power goes off!

What an update, it must've been brilliant see it all bolted up like that for starters! How are things looking in terms of crank/gearbox input shaft, and gearbox bellhousing-to-block mounting points? Surely all that's not just going to fall into place? I want to come and see that gearbox, it looks brilliant in the photo's, and what a neat little bolt-on unit the transfer box is. Love how snugly it fits down the back of the Zetec block! What's the plan regarding the oil filter? It certainly looks to be smack bang in the way from the photo, or is that just an illusion.

You need to get pictures up of it in the bay! What are your major thoughts/concerns thus far? Oh, loving the availability of the exposed crankcase for breatheage

[muz]

I think we need a national Saint Excursion day! I really wanna see how this turns out!

[ScottP]

nice work mark, your custom fabricational skills are amazing. Keep it up!!

scott

[Asad]

You like a tight fit dont you?

[Captain Tightpants]

Mate, you have been busy!

Some excellent work going on, glad you decided to get cracking again! Once that engines in and mounted, I bet you won't be able to stop! See what you mean about that oil filter man. What a bummer. Still, if thats the main worry at the moment, your doing pretty bloody damn well!!

Excellent work Sir!

Steve

[Superal]

what a project

[Badgerboy]

How do you find the time to do all this, let alone find all the parts.

Sir, I salute you!

[ScottP]

looks like remote filter time!

[garyhurn77]

loving it mate!

very inpressive indeed as steve said once youve got the engione mounted you wont be able to stop!

will be one mental machine

[xrsi]

looking at the pic from above showing the transfer box and the oil filter and cooler it looks like its going to be increadably tight as to if you can actually fit a reomte filter there!

comming along really well tho mate, cant wait to see it all done!

[Jay]

Looking REALLY good mate.

Have you considered having the underside bead blasted to Get rid of everything?

A mate of mine had this done to his mg

http://www.mgbv8.co.uk

I bet your annoyed with the oil filter... gotta be a way of sorting it out tho such as taking the feed from the sump with an electric oil pump and then feeding them directly into the oil galleries in the block? Might not provide you with good oil flow though... you'd be able to have oil flowing round the engine pre starting possibly though.

Another downside would be if the electric pump failed

[FezzR]

mate just to worn you those bottom gearbox mounts are notoriously s**t, especially with a bit of power thrown at them.
detacted bushes, stripped bolt thread etc.

pretty sure there is stronger ones with stronger bolts available, only trouble then is damaging the box with the better bolts

[Excursion]

Boris I'll satisify your need for engine mounting pics this week

Asad lol typical!

Jay246 I looked in to that mate, and also acid dipping. I've saved a whole load of money and hassle by doing it the hard way though

Ian Yeah cheers mate, aware of that one. Forge part number FMPFF85-420 will be going on there

Everyone else Cheers! The encouragement is appreciated.

RE: Oil filter It's a very tight fit at the moment. The oil filter will need relocating for sure, along with the Modine cooler. I will be requiring a slimline take-off but if the worst comes to the worst I will have the flange on the Zetec block skimmed. There is a further 10mm of clearance to be had doing that, If all else fails it'll be time for a full scavange/pressure dry sump system. It'll be fine

[heeman10]

Dry sump would be nice. I bet my Mocal thermoblock's 30mm thick, but I'm sure there are slimmer standard take-offs than that. I recognised the mgbv8 link! Read lots of that myself at the time! I wonder how that lot got on with theirs Weren't a few of them sending theirs off for galvanising?

[SimonT]

Amazing work Mark, truley amazing.

We will ahve to catch up on MSN at some point!

[Jay]

Dry sump would be nice. I bet my Mocal thermoblock's 30mm thick, but I'm sure there are slimmer standard take-offs than that. I recognised the mgbv8 link! Read lots of that myself at the time! I wonder how that lot got on with theirs Weren't a few of them sending theirs off for galvanising?

Sending what off for galvanising mate?

[andyhardy]

Fantastic work mate

[heeman10]

Dry sump would be nice. I bet my Mocal thermoblock's 30mm thick, but I'm sure there are slimmer standard take-offs than that. I recognised the mgbv8 link! Read lots of that myself at the time! I wonder how that lot got on with theirs Weren't a few of them sending theirs off for galvanising?

Sending what off for galvanising mate?

Their old MGs! Or perhaps it was acid dipping alone, I can't quite remember. Must be half a year ago I was on there!

[Jay]

ooooohhh.. yeah I know of a couple of people who have had that done.
Nick didnt galvanise his though.... just had the whole of the underneath shotblasted.

He then etchprimered it and has used this seriously expensive stonechip type stuff .... followed my primer and paint.

He really is a perfectionist... The jack slipped when he was jacking up the front of the car to drain the coolant and it scratched the front suspension crossmember, So instead of just touching it up with some black hammerite... he stripped it all down and sent the crossmember off to be shotblasted and powdercoated!

Its a completely crazy car... has bags of torque. 18 years and £20000 and hes still not completely finished it!

[xrsi]

the only problem with acid dips is that it gets into every small crack or hole that you cant get any after treatment into so will start to rust from there outwards!

in throry its a really good idea but in practise its not soo good for complex 3d shapes (ie car shells!)

not too bad then with the oil filter front, i would imagaion after looking in the tweeks cat that with the extra 10mm shaved off the housing that you should be able to get the remote filter set up on... you may need to shorten the threaded boss as well tho....

[festa-1.3]

Looking pretty good mate, when do you extimate you will finish it?

[niracka]

Done loads since last time i looked at this post man. Keep up the good work.
Lookin forward to seing how you end up getting around that oil filter m8. engine looks to go together perfectly with that audi box
ollie

[Excursion]

festa-1.3 No deadline as such mate, I'm just enjoying taking my time with it really

Ollie Cheers

While Scort's built a couple of time machines and fabricated a small aircraft I've made a crossmember, lol!

The rear diff subframe requires two new crossmembers, one on the boot floor and one underneath the rear seat. The rear most member was very time consuming as the boot floor is anything but flat:


I've welded in tube where the subframe mounting bolts will pass through, and up to the boot floor (which will be reinforced):


On the car:


And here's the subframe bolted up complete with ARB:

[FezzR]

excelent craftsmanship as ever buddy

[Captain Tightpants]

Sheeeexy!!

Wicked mate, it's nice to see some suspension parts on there. It really starts to become interesting at these stages.

LMFAO @ The Scort Comment!

By the way, mucho thanks for the shocks mate! Made life real easy today!

Did you phone me at 4:30 this morning?!?!

Steve

[mike_wall15]

Dibi dibi

[heeman10]

One of those enforcing beams looks JUST like a spirit level!! I thought you'd modified gravity for a sec there, then remembered you spit roast the car to work on it these days

Looks nice though, lovely snug fit up in there Chop chop!

[Andy.B]

Sweet sweet sweet mate. Just what i wanted to see..... Really getting interesting now

[FezzR]

just out of interest how did you go about cutting the angles?
and is there any particular reason why you have avoided using "flaps" that overhang the chasis that most manufactures use?
admittedly they're probably just to make the spot welds easier, but added strength maybe?

[Excursion]

Scort No worries I don't remember the phone call part

mike_wall15 Seen

heeman10

Andy.B Know what you mean, cheers man

FezzR I used an air cut off tool, it's like a minature disc cutter. The flanges are on OEM parts purely because everything is spot welded together. As I'm seam welding the flanges are superfluous, and in fact would make the member to car join weaker as the new piece could sag away from the car over time.

[Raymondo]

Looking very good. The wheel arch makes a handy toolbox when a cars on its side

Have you already welded that crossmember in, and if you have did you rust proof it underneath, or would it not need it in there?

[Sphinx]

Are the lines with what looked like 'CK' written next to them where the driveshafts sit?

Looks splendid darling!

[xr2ijimbo]

the car is gonna be awesome mate how long do you think its gonna take.