Quote: jimmyesh on Fri Dec 19, 2008 10:46 pm
Hi everyone, been a busy boy the last couple of days! 😀
Firstly the engine has been dummy-fitted and the mounting points are all tack-welded in place :Q
Took a trip to the scrappy and found a nice, straight set of bonnet hinges to replace my horrid, bent ones - they were on a Moondust Silver K-Plate MK3 of all things too 🙂
Removed the Duratec MTX driveshaft bearing from the block of a MK3 Mondy, unfortunately the bearing size was much smaller than that of the Focus MK1 2.0 Zetec so the MIG had to step in! :devil: Here's my hybrid bearing (Focus Bearing housing with Mondeo block mounting plate).
Removed my grotty old battery tray (Still got black bogeys from all the grinding!) :rolleyes:
Removed the MK3 Fiesta Engine mounting point (Needed for access to Duratec Alternator) - Ditto about the bogeys!
Do you reckon it fits?! 😕 (Two bloody hopes! :rolleyes: 😆 )
As above, I had to remove sh*tloads of ancilliary parts before the lump would finally get in the hole. I really want to use the inlet but it will need to be made smaller with some creativie TIG action - If it's a crap casting and doesn't take weld I'll have to start from scratch with a new inlet :rolleyes:
We're in! 🙂
After a whole day of f*cking about, swearing, gashing my hands and getting molten steel in my hair I finally got the whole lot lined up correctly and tack-welded the transmission and engine mounting points in :Q
That's all until next week when I'll be squaring the engine bay away - I'll be fabricating fresh metal around the mounting points (and jumping on them to "load test" them!), I had to chop a bit of metal out fo the inner-wing to clear the chunky MTX75 so I'll be adding some strength back in somewhere it won't foul the gearbox.
After that I'll be cleaning it all down, seam-sealing then priming the 'bay then hopefully getting it all sprayed Moondust Silver.
Bye for now 😉
Quote: jimmyesh on Mon Dec 22, 2008 7:09 pm
Another update everyone 😀
Today I welded the mounting points in properly and sorted the clearance for the MTX 75/inner wing/chassis rail.
For the gearbox mounting I started by mocking the required piece in card first.
Then started making a duplicate in mild steel...
All welded in :aviator:
Same detail for the engine mounting point, card first...
All done.
Here you can see the area that has been created to clear the gearbox - once the gap was opened up, I used some 4mm thick mild steel to restore the strength to the chassis rail and inner wing - should look a lot nicer once the seam sealer has been applied and it's all painted.
Here's the small area that had to be removed to provide a bit more clearance around the Duratec Oil Filter housing - to be honest I was a bit "previous" by hacking it out in the first place - once I had everything lined up properly there was a bit more space than I first thought, ah well better safe than sorry! :rolleyes: Still got to sort the top out - ran out of time today.
Next update should hopefully have the engine bay stripped, cleaned, rubbed down and primed,
Bye for now and have a great Christmas 😉