jimmyesh on Fri May 07, 2010 9:43 pm

Spent a couple of hours on the car this evening, as I received some new bits in the post this week 😀

A Walbro ITP 048 Uprated Escort Cosworth fuel pump from Motorsport Developments.

A sytec fuel pressure gauge with a -6 AN T-Piece fitting.

Some reflective heat-proof tape and G2 Heat barrier material for the vulnerable pipes/wires in the bulkhead area.

2 x blank Focus "blue chip" keys (will be programmed to match my ECU by a Allinking when he and his brother are available)

Here's the new pump;

Fitted;

I also had to modify the fuel sender by swapping one wire from one end of the resistor-track to the other - doing this makes the fuel gauge on the Focus RS Clocks read correctly and not back-to-front - On my previous project "the Manj", I didn't bother doing this and just got used to "full" really meaning "empty"! 😳 Apparently you can also just swap to a MK5 Fiesta sender as Allinking did with his to run his Mondeo mk3 clocks.

Thought I'd add this pic -you don't often see the fuel-filler panel on a MK3 Fez looking this good! :bonkers:

Here's the Sytec fuel pressure guage, it's only fitted for when I get the car running and set-up - I have a 1/8 NPT blanking plug to take its place once all the tuning is complete.

Here's my faithful service-barge "Kermit"- been lugging all my tools and spares around in him and enjoying all 50bhp! :bonkers:

Once I've got the keys programmed, I can start sprinting for the finish-line on this project - I'm gagging to drive this car now :devil:

jimmyesh on Sun May 09, 2010 6:25 pm

Allinking kindly dropped by today and programmed both my Focus "blue-chip" keys to match my Focus RS ECU, using the OBDII port.

When the ignition is on and the "Engine Start" button is pressed, the beast actually tries to start! :aviator: This proved that my OBDII port, PATS ring and starter relay are all wired up correctly.

I left the ignition coils disconnected today as I'm not quite ready to fire this thing up. Saying that, it only needs a couple more litres of oil, some coolant chucking in, the PAS resevoir connecting to the pump and I should be ready for the big moment :oooh:

Allinking, thanks again for your help today mate, much appreciated - I'll let you drive it once it's alive 🙂

jimmyesh on Mon May 10, 2010 5:42 pm

IT RUNS!!!!! 😮 😀 :Q
After the progress made at the weekend, I thought it would be a crying shame not to chuck some oil in it and just see if it starts... :oooh:

I must admit my heart was beating faster than normal when the ignition was turned on and my finger pressed the "engine start" switch, especially as the guys from work were all watching, no pressure then 😳

It started up as if it had just been parked up for 5 minutes, literally one tiny push on the button and it was burning & turning. Doesn't sound like anything earth-shattering until you take a step back and consider the following;

1. The Engine is a Ford/Mazda Duratec.
2. The ECU is a Ford Focus RS (basically ZETEC 2.0 Turbo).
3. The Coil-on-plug idea was just a "hit and hope" but works amazingly well driven from the Ford ECU.
4. I haven't even set the fuel pressure yet.
5. It uses a Fiesta RS Turbo ISCV and still idles like a new car on this ECU.
6. It has Siemens "Deka" 630CC injectors.
7. This is the first engine I've ever built from scratch.

I still have to fill the coolant up and tighten the turbo exhaust-flange up properly, and it's smoking a bit when the throttle is blipped (I'm hoping that this is due to all the oil that I poured into the cylinders to keep it lubed while it's been sat 😕 ). I've only started it up twice today and only ran it for about 20-30 seconds each time, so it will probably burn cleaner once it's settled in...

The Focus RS Clocks look to be doing their stuff too - the rev-counter is working fine as are the battery, oil pressure lamps etc. Just the speedo and boost gauge left to check once it's mobile! 🙂

Happy days, I will video it tomorrow and post the vid in the evening about 6-ish... 😉

jimmyesh on Tue May 11, 2010 7:00 pm

Had a few dramas since getting it running, nothing unexpected though :rolleyes: Got an oil-leak on the bottom of the cam-chain cover (no big deal as I've got to take that off when I re-torque the head studs), got a small coolant-leak on the turbo coolant pipe.

As you can hear in the vid, the starter motor "stutters" a bit instead of just one continual turn - I think it might be either a slightly low battery or a suspect earth 😕

The biggest worry is that it still seems to be smoking a bit - I've got a good idea that it's the turbo, as I saw some black drops getting spat out of the gap where the flange wasn't fully bolted home to the exhaust.. I'm hoping it's the turbo as if it's the engine, it's going to set me back a LONG way! :aaah:

More work going on tomorrow evening - glass is half-full as they say, it runs and it runs well - That alone makes me extremely happy, despite any new problems that arise! 🙂

jimmyesh on Fri May 14, 2010 7:59 pm

Been busy again today 🙂 Got the car up on the ramps this afternoon and did a few jobs...

Firstly I connected the VSS (vehicle speed sensor) plug to the gearbox, then I lowered the ramps, started her up in 3rd gear (remember - driveshafts still not fitted at this stage 😳 ) and looked at the dash. Lo and behold the speedo works perfectly too! :Q

 
A couple of brews later I had both the new, shortened driveshafts fitted 🙂

Nearside;

Offside;

Here is my neat little Volvo PAS tank that I sourced from the scrappy;

Here's the fitting I made for it to connect to the inlet of the PAS pump (remember the pump-mounted Fez MK6 ST reservoir was too big for my bonnet to shut! :oooh: )

One last pic of my silver rocket before I put it under the covers for a week or two... Looks as if you could just get in and drive her away! 😛

On the ranges all this week shooting some big-ass machine guns :devil: , then parachuting the following week so I'm going to be itching to get more done on this after being kept away for so long :aviator:

jimmyesh on Wed Jun 23, 2010 10:10 pm

I'm starting to get annoyed with the smoke problem now! 😡 Not got to spend much time on the car due to work commitments but had a play with it this week.

I'm still tring to work out whether the burning oil is due to the turbo or engine 😕

I've got the following symptoms;

1. Engine starts from cold and runs with no smoke whatsoever for about 30 secs to 1 minute, then blue/grey smoke is emitted constantly and is more pronounced if you rev the engine.

2. I have considered the possibility that I may have broken a piston ring during my engine-build (unlikely but it could have happened 😳 ) but the likelyhood of all four pistons having damaged rings is pretty unlikely. Today I removed one spark-coil connector at a time to try to eliminate any suspect cylinders but the smoke remained...

3. Due to my engine having a Garrett GT28 Ball-Bearing turbo, I've found some info that states that GT-Series ball-bearing turbos need oil-restrictors (just the banjo-bolt part) fitting to limit the amount of oil that gets into the turbo otherwise they can pass oil into the exhaust...
Here's the restricted banjo-bolt compared to the original..

4. The next stage for me is to do a compression-test. :rolleyes:

5. I know it's a bad idea in a lot of ways but the thought of blanking the turbo oil-supply just for a couple of minutes whilst running the engine at low speed/idle (just to see if the smoke stops) and having the wastegate stuck open in order that the turbo doesn't have to be under any load. This would be a definite way of showing whether it's the turbo or engine 😕
Other developments are;

I just fitted this to the back of the removable panel that drops down from the top inside the glovebox. It is a Dakota SGi-5 Digital signal interface. As the Focus RS uses 18" rims and my car uses 15" rims, (taking the tyres sizes into account as well) the FRS does 804 wheel revs/mile and my car does 920 revs/mile. This means that my speedo will be reading 114 MPH when I'm really doing 100 MPH. This little black box lets you punch in a calibration factor (0.871 in my case) and just interrupts the signal from the gearbox to the ECU. Hopefully I'll be verifying this with GPS in the not-too distant future! 🙂

The good thing is that it's always accessible but is not taking up any space in the glovebox. It's all wired up now too and works fine.

I now have a set of Koni rear adjustable dampers and some Spax adjustable front dampers with some Spax -35mm springs (staying away from coilovers for now, as I want the car to be a comfy daily-driver not a bone-shaker! 😛 )

Need to fit those and also drop the fuel tank again to fit my MK5 Fez fuel sender, remove the standard crappy fuel diaphragm and suppressor.

Also got a few oil & coolant-leaks to contend with. The oil leaks are from the sump, the cam-chain cover and the oil-filter housing. I will be removing all these and re-sealing them with the correct Loctite 5900 that I should have used first time! 😳 These will be a Bic™ to remove as the engine-mount will need to come off, all the pulleys and numerous hoses just to get to the cam-chain cover! :rolleyes:

Also could do with re-torquing my ARP Head-studs as apparently that's standard practice with these 😕

Ah well, I'm sure it will be done soon... 😉 😛