My sapphire

[Marc]

Totally forgot to update this.

The wheel alignment has been done, it was almost correct straight away. I was quite happy with all the wheel angles, including the front wheels. Only the camber on the front is a bit different.

Front:
left: right:
toe 0°09' toe 0°09'
camber -1°24' camber -1°54'
castor 3°30' castor 3°30'

Rear:
toe 0°12' toe 0°12'
camber -1°30' camber -1°30'

After that I was really interested in how it would drive. Unfortunately it wasn't too good. It steered quite heavy and wasn't very stabile in a straight line, which became worse in time. In the end it turned out the eccentric bolts for the rear toe adjustment turned due to the forces on them while driving.

Later I fitted some toothed washers between the eccentric bolts and the beam, but since the toe setting was no longer correct it wasn't easy to judge whether they stayed in place now. In the end I had some plates welded to the beam to make the toe non-adjustable. A bit of a shame, but now I don't need to worry about the toe setting moving while cornering hard. Welding the plates in the exact position wasn't really easy as the joints moved slightly when the eccentric bolts were replaced by a normal bolt.

Strangely the alignment of the front wheels was quite different from the last time while nothing had been adjusted. This time the alignment was done at a Ford dealer, the other time at a tire service place.

According to the measurements the setting of the front wheels were now:

left: right:
toe 0°10' toe 0°20'
camber -1°31' camber -1°33'
castor 3°07' castor 4°04'

After adjusting everything it's now:

front:
left: right:
toe 0°09' toe 0°10'
camber -1°31' camber -1°33'
castor 3°07' castor 4°04'

rear:
left: right:
toe 0°08' toe 0°08'
camber -1°43' camber -1°36'

Since the rear toe setting wasn't perfect yet I fitted some thin shims of 0.15 mm between the bearing carrier and the rear arm.
The way it drives now is completely different. It steers a lot lighter, probably because it had way too much toe in on the front. It's also much more stabile in a straight line.

The corner speed also seems quite a bit higher than it was before. It is still slightly understeered if you enter a corner too fast, but it settles into a nice neutral behaviour once in the corner. All in all quite happy with the handling now.    

The only thing that still bugs me is the fact that the spherical joints make creaking noise when the move. It's gotten less already, especially after greasing them in thoroughly, but it's still there. Strangely enough it seems like it's wore after a long drive, like they heat up a bit. And when the car has stood for a few hours the noise is gone again.  

[Marc]

A while ago I ordered a Tweecer RT in the US, it took a while but it finally arrived. So soon it's time to start playing with it. 

[TimoXr4i]

hi marc,

what did you all change on the front hubs to fit the cossie hubs? i've got cossie hubs and konies, maybe a pair of tca's, but what do i need more? i still like the work you did on the rear axle, but it's a bit to much for me, i'll just fit my 7,5 inch LSD, discbrakes and PU bushes and then i'm done...

i want to fit the cossie 2wd brakes in front, and i see at your brakepad the brake surface came loose, i had exactly the same, but at mine it was also broken in half, i replaced them with very cheap stock pads, enough for me...

[Marc]

I used hubs from a 3dr cosworth, so the standard Sierra tcas fit. If you have sapph cosworth hubs then you also need the pinch bolt type tcas as also used on the 4x4. Apart from that you need the shocks for a 2wd cosworth as they are shorter than regular siërra shocks, and of course the calipers and discs. In the end I also fitted the cossie steering rack, as the tyres hit the inner arch when the steering was on full lock.

[TimoXr4i]

if i'm right i've got the 3dr ones, but how can i see it? i dont understand what you mean with pinch bolt type tca's... i probs wont need a cossie steering rack, my huge 15 inch wheels wont hit the arches that fast, ive got 195 wide tyres only at front!

i'll need the calipers, but aswell the discs, brakelines, and i also think of using an ABS pump (the front hubs have abs sensors, the rear ones with the discs also, so maybe i'll make the ABS work someday, but that's not that important, becouse it's a weekend runner, and the turbo is'nt that big and it won't make very big power with the 2.8, so, i think its not nessesary!

[Marc]

3dr hubs attach to the tca with a nut on top, as is visible in my pictures. The 2wd sapph cossie and 4x4 hubs have a bolt through the hub that pinches the hub together over the pin on the tca. So in that case there is no thread on the tca ball joint. Google some pictures, that will clear it up.

[TimoXr4i]

i have the one with the bolt on top

[Marc]

Lately I have been playing with the Tweecer. I data logged the ignition advance during WOT and from the logging it is clear that the WOT ignition advance is retarded between 3000 and 5000 RPM. The lowest number I've seen was even down to 13 degrees.



But with the Tweecer you can alter the ignition advance yourself. So I now have a different map where the dip in ignition advance is removed and the advance is now up to about 25 degrees.



The engine now really feels stronger above 3000 RPM. Below 3000 RPM there should also be good gains to be had. But the programming and mapping of the EEC IV is quite difficult and it seems like a different table is used in that situation, so still lots to find out on the Tweecer.

[Marc]

A while ago I installed a cool app on my iphone. It's called Pocketdyno and it lets you dyno your car by using your phone. The way it works is that you install the phone in a solid mount so the motion sensors can measure the acceleration forces. The app then gives a lot of info like: 0-25 km/h, 0-50 km/h, 0-100 km/h, 0-150 km/h, 60ft, 1/8 mile and 1/4 mile (speed and time) and max g-force.

So last weekend I did a few runs and got the following results:
1st run: 0-100 km/h in 7,50s ; 1/8 mile: 10,03s @ 119,67 km/h
2nd run: 0-100 km/h in 7,32s ; 1/8 mile: 10,06s @ 123,00 km/h ; 1/4 mile: 15,20s @ 155.29 km/h
3rd run: 0-100 km/h in 7,45s ; 1/8 mile: 10,03s @ 120,42 km/h ; 1/4 mile: 15,32s @ 150.14 km/h
4th run: 0-100 km/h in 7,40s ; 1/8 mile: 10,05s @ 120,86 km/h ; 1/4 mile: 15,33s @ 150.45 km/h

Grip was a bit of an issue since the car is now on its winter tyres. I already had a lot of wheel spin when lauching with 2000 rpm. So the times could have been better, but the speeds look ok though. :)

[Marc]

During the last year the car (well at least the shell) passed 400.000 km. But all those km through rain, snow and salt did take their toll on the shell. Last year the car again needed welding on the front seat mounts and on the left rear sill. I was getting a bit fed up with the constant welding required each year to pass the MoT. The only sensible decision would be either to get rid in time or to re-shell the car, which had already been playing in my mind for a couple of years. But in the end I decided that I still wanted to keep it, so I went to search for a replacement shell.

Luckily enough this was found very quickly and funny enough the replacement is almost the same as the 24v was originally. The new one is a 2.0i Azur Sapphire automatic in Moondust Silver with sunroof, put on the road May 6th 1991, while the 24v was a 2.0i CL manual sapphire in Moondust Silver with sunroof, put on the road May 1st 1991. 

But the real reason why I bought this is because it was almost completely rust free. The sills, arches, chassis legs have no rust at all, there is only a bit of rust on the chassis leg underneath the master brake cylinder. Which probably leaked at some point, as it clearly has been replaced. The car has done only 130.000 km and was at the first owner until 2012 and in that time always serviced by the Ford dealer, with all stamps in the maintenance book.

Over time the car will be stripped completely to prepare rebuilding it as the 24v. Some pics of the new one.









The rust underneath the master cylinder.



And the officially checked mileage.

[Damocos]

Hey Marc, how ya doing mate? Long time  Shame that ya Saff is too far gone to keep resurrecting...... but the replacement looks real good  Looks like no paintwork is needed to so that should be a bonus  Is it just gonna be a case of swap everything over or do you have more plans?

Mine is still going strong....... Done some head replacements this year and had a few hiccups but all sorted now. Got to increase my injector sizes as they are running at 100% duration...!!!! And an electronic boost controller as we cant get anymore than 8psi........ Aside from that its in good health and although down on boost its still putting out 320hp so still smiles all round 

[Marc]

Hey Damo, how are you doing mate? I'm doing fine, I just moved to a different house 100 km away from where I used to live. So quite busy and at the moment not much time to spend on the reshell. The sapph has failed the MoT on rust, so I'm no longer able to drive it. It will no longer be a daily either, I bought a BMW 320d for the daily commute. The good thing is that the new sapph can stay off the road in winter and have a longer life.    I am planning on doing a respray on the replacement. It had an accident repair that has the front wing in a slightly different shade and there are some scratches on several places. Besides the bumpers, bonnet, skirts, grill and boot lid with spoiler need to respayed anyway. For the start I plan on swapping everything over. But with everything I really do mean everything, so the interior, ABS loom, main loom, aircon, etc. will all be swapped over.

Nice to hear that yours is still going strong. Is it still on the MT75 diesel gearbox? And is it holding up OK? I was worried that 3rd gear would not that the torque from the V6 turbo. How high is the torque on yours anyway? How much power and torque are you aiming for when going for the electronic boost controller?

Occasionally I do have some thoughts about putting a BOA or BOB (twin?) turbo in, especially now it's no longer a daily drive. But I think in the end it could be quite costly, if you add all the things, turbo, intercooler, engine management, exhaust manifolds, injectors, etc.. Are you still running on the stock pistons as well, or changed for low compression forged ones? And have you ditched the MAF sensor for a MAP sensor when running on Emerald?

[Marc]

Since I found the replacement already end of 2014, during the last year I started stripping it. I first took the engine and box out, as those were picked up the next day by the new owner.









And put the front suspension back on so the car could still be rolled around.









At a later time I removed the head lamps, grill, bumper, washer bottle and air filter box.





And eventually I also removed the main loom, the engine loom, master brake cylinder and most other parts underneath the bonnet. But as the front bumper was in the way I temporarily put it back on.

[Marc]

Since the car was completely empty I also took out the carpet. Sadly both front seat mounts again have some rust, that really is the weakest spot on a Sierra.





And I also started to modify the bulkhead for the aircon vaporizer.

Removed the sound proofing.



Measuring what needs to be removed.



And cutting up the bulk head to make room for the vaporizer.



Now the vaporizer fits in.



After that I also made the top hole, which is needed for the fan to draw outside air in.



And the holes from the engine compartment.

[Marc]

To check if there was no hidden rust underneath the other sound proofing I took everything out. Luckily everything apart from the seat mounts was perfect. 



















The metal box for the aircon vaporizer is also welded on and sealed.











I also took a closer look at the rust spots at front seat mounts. The rust seems to be exactly where the edges of the seat mounts rest on (green line). I first thought the mount would rub on the floor, but the carpet is still in between.

[capri v8 driver]

Looks like a good shell. I would cut the rusted metal away and weld new metal in there.

[Marc]

Again something done on the car.

Drilled out the spot welds from the small plate underneath the seat and removed the plate.



From underneath.



And the top of the plate.



It's clear to see that the rust starts in between the two plates, which is caused by water getting in between the plates, probably water that the thrown up by the front wheels, as the plates are just in line with the front wheels.

And the other side.





And repaired.





Also a little spot of rust near the rear light has been removed.





And the rust caused by the leaking master cylinder removed from the chassis leg.



And the same at the battery tray, caused by a leaking battery.

[Marc]

Finally I had some time again to do something on the shell. I removed all rubbers, locks, door handles and other trim.



And I also cleaned the engine bay as it was quite dirty.

[Marc]

Finally something is done again on the sapph. The rotten seat mount on the driver's side is cut out.



And a new plate welded in.



I temporarily fitted the cosworth side skirts to drill all the mounting holes.





The other side.