Christophe's V6 Mk2 Escort

wreckersteve · November 10, 2007, 13:39:29

these are the manifolds off thr transit 2.9 as promised they look similar i thought that you could look a bit further as the yanks have used the colonge engine for years and they have lhd a manifold from one of them might do

christophe · November 11, 2007, 21:28:27

Cheers Mate, they look like they could well do the job, i'll PM you about em

Not done much on the escort lately, managed to get home last weekend though and though I'd have a good poke around for rust, on the whole its preety good the worst bits are the two front doors which need replacing the o/s wing which I removed and theres abit of work to go into the drivers footwell.

Not bad on the whole though for a 28 year old car, lot less rust than my 1992 Orion Got a wing off ebay the other day and then gonna make up some plates to cover the rest of it. Also built up the crossmember with polybushed tcas and put the roll bar back on.

christophe · November 30, 2007, 01:15:09

Did abit more rustbusting last weekend stripped out the carpets and seats to see if there was anymore I could find and then started chopping out the rust and making up some new bits to weld in. Only done floor and inner sills at the minute, outer sills look fine from the outside but look quite rusty on the inside, theres a few tiny holes and I mean pin prick virtually so I'd rather not chop the whole lot out but not sure how much longer it'll last?

christophe · December 23, 2007, 00:39:14

Managed to get a bit of welding done today :smile:

Did a few of the patches in the floor, the welding is a bit messy but im gonna grind it down and prime it tomorrow. Also started fitting the new wing, having to make up a new drip tray for the inner wing and remaking parts of the front panel round the headlight, cant believe how much filler there was before though

christophe · January 07, 2008, 21:59:58

Update time....

Removed the whole rear suspension start of last week, stripped the leaf springs, dampers, arb and brake lines off the axle ready to be cleaned up, then spent quite alot of time going over the underneath, any signs of loose flaky paint were wire brushed off, kurusted, primed and then the whole underside has been undersealed.

Carried on repairing the front end as well, the metal around the left headlamp was to rotten to weld to so was chopped out and a replacment panel made and welded back in :smile:

More to come this week

Leebay · January 07, 2008, 22:29:32

Coming along nicely mate

TwinTurbo · January 07, 2008, 23:26:23

Forget any ideas of welding cast metal.. better of building custom headers..

TT

christophe · January 08, 2008, 22:44:28

Cheers Chaps

Think I have the manifolds sorted, will see in a few days when some different ones arrive.

christophe · January 12, 2008, 00:39:40

Big thanks to wrecker steve for sorting me out with some manifolds from a 2.9 transit

Unfortunatly they haven't solved the problem in this case, I had a nother fit up off the engine the other day, the transit manifold heads nearly straight down as apposed to rearward like the standard one, which means it clears the steering coloum, but unfortunatly it goes to far and now hits the engienmount on the crossmember I cant even get it near to the head at the minute and thats without the engine mount part on.

So it looks like it back to the original plan, i checked out the standard manifold again and I recon with a preety sharp bend immediatly in the downpipe I can get it in, gonna have a browse around the exhaust places but I think it could be doable.

Fitted up a few other bits while it was there, I'd bough n extension bracket for the master cylinder which moves it to the front off the bay out the way off the exhaust but it now comes to far and hits the radiator, so now I need a radiator about 3 inches narrower!

The alternator will just about fit, the front pulley is gonna be very tight on the rad so might need to make soomthing up for that, bonnet fits on the top alright and passenger side manifold has loads of room and the starter fits in behind the crossmember.

Oh and in the last pic I took the original manifold off and theres loads of oil and black soot on the flange and in the port on number 3 cylinder, it was the same on the head as well, is this where it hasn't been tightened up properly or does it point to a problem with the engine? I've never had it running but it looks a little worrying to me

popuptoaster · January 12, 2008, 17:50:39

I wouldnt worry about fitting a servo in, escorts are light enough to not need them, as evidenced by all the 400bhp Yb powered ones running with no servos, they dont make the brakes any better, just easier to work.

If you are a girly woos and need a servo to help your limp legs a remote one can be fitted anywhere there is room, i think some of the early works cars used Mini servos mounted remotely.

christophe · January 12, 2008, 18:53:05

Quote from: popuptoaster
I wouldnt worry about fitting a servo in, escorts are light enough to not need them, as evidenced by all the 400bhp Yb powered ones running with no servos, they dont make the brakes any better, just easier to work.

If you are a girly woos and need a servo to help your limp legs a remote one can be fitted anywhere there is room, i think some of the early works cars used Mini servos mounted remotely.

The car never had one to start with, but where the exhaust manifold now goes the mastercylinder would have sat about 2mm above it and one off the brake lines was touching it so it needed to be moved out the way.

The extension bracket I bought just happens to have a servo, I had a look to see if I could remove it and then just mount the master cylinder on it but I'm not sure it'll work, might have another loom if I get chance.

The rad really is just to wide anyway and its a knackered as well so I always intended getting another.

Nothing wrong with running no servo anyway just takes abit off getting used to

popuptoaster · January 12, 2008, 18:59:48

a lot of the escort guys use a brake balance bar with the resoviors mounted on top of the scuttle above the firewall, might be a good idea anyway as your gonna have more weight in the front so being able to adjust the front/rear bias might be usefull, it also moves things up out of your way i would think.

christophe · January 13, 2008, 00:18:51

Quote from: popuptoaster
a lot of the escort guys use a brake balance bar with the resoviors mounted on top of the scuttle above the firewall, might be a good idea anyway as your gonna have more weight in the front so being able to adjust the front/rear bias might be usefull, it also moves things up out of your way i would think.

A bias pedal box you mean? I'd though about it and tbh its the best option and its what I'd like but am working to a student budget here so funds are a little tight

christophe · January 25, 2008, 16:40:16

Did this lot a few weeks ago but been busy with exams lately so not had chance to post the pics.

Got a big box of bits from rally design including polybushes for the whole car and 1 inch lowering block kit for the rear so started buidling up the front suspension, the steering rack mounts where getting very close to the sump so I ground the weld off cut a small slot out the bottom of the inner sides, hammered the back and welded back up, should give me aboiut another inch in between them.

Fitted polybushes to the tca,s steering rack mounts and rollbar then assembled the whole lot together, also started work on the engine mounts, i've cut up some from a pinto to use the u-bracket that bolt to the crossmember then i've made a plate to bolt to the block and will be welding some bar inbetween.

Anyone have any thoughts on the black oily gung on the exhaust manifolds in my previous post? It doesn't look to go to me!

javars · January 27, 2008, 21:42:29

found an old book on rally prepin escorts scanned the pages on brakes and makin your own pedal box,thought it could b useful u could modify the pedal box to mount 1 inboard master cylinder for now,u havnt got to go bias emediatly that can come later http://javars2000.blogspot.com]http://javars2000.blogspot.com

christophe · January 29, 2008, 12:24:17

Quote from: javars
found an old book on rally prepin escorts scanned the pages on brakes and makin your own pedal box,thought it could b useful u could modify the pedal box to mount 1 inboard master cylinder for now,u havnt got to go bias emediatly that can come later http://javars2000.blogspot.com]http://javars2000.blogspot.com

Cheers Mate, i'll have a good read when I get the chance.

You car looks real nice btw

christophe · February 24, 2008, 20:30:04

More welding done this weekend, I bought a sill off someone on ebay before christmas and it still hasn't turned up so after managing to sort out another one a paypal dispute is on its way to them

Chopped a big chunk out the front section of the drivers side sill and also quite a bit from the bottom of the door pillar, fitted what I could off the sill then made up a new section to go at the bottom off the pillar for the wing to fix to.

Similar thing with the passenger side but only about 9 inches of sill chopped out, also managed to weld up the inner once I'd done the outer and repaired the bottom off the pillar. Struggled abit more that side as I didn't want to take the wing off so had to cut about 5 inches off the bottom off it (was rotten anyway) so that'll have to be remade as well.

christophe · March 07, 2008, 23:59:30

Rear axle is now refitted, stripped it down before christmas and since fitted polybushes to the leaf springs as well as 1 inch lowering blocks and new bolts. Only got one side bolted up as I snapped the lower shock mounting bolt removing it so need to get a new shackle plate.

Still on the hunt for some new dampers, and the brake pipes and cylinder will all be replaced before its done.

Eventually ther'll be a panhard rod and possible an anit-tramp kit under there as well when funds allow but not quite sure which yet.

More to come this weekend....

Marty · March 08, 2008, 07:59:30

Nice work I totally forgot the Escorts had that bar for the handbrake.

christophe · March 10, 2008, 03:04:48

Most of the welding is now done on the inner sill, ran out of wire towards the end off the day so there'll be a bit to finish next time but not to much.

Also my dad helped out with some fillering to cover over whats left of the welds in the visible places, and we also hacked out all the wiring from an old alarm tht was in there.

christophe · March 24, 2008, 01:10:02

Inner sill welding is now done and primed, (ignore the nasty holes they've been repaired!) most of the outer is done just gotta finish remaking the lower part of the wing on the passenger side. Finished off the inner wing drip tray on the drivers side and started trial fitting the wing, abit more fettling here and there and it should be on by tomorrow.

After more problems with a snapped exhaust stud on the engine I've hand to pull it out and strip it down to remove the head, I'd attempted to drill it out and a drill bit snapped in the head so now I'll have to take it to an engineering company to get done properly. At least it gives me a chance to check over the rest of the engine, which so far looks preety good.

christophe · March 25, 2008, 00:47:14

The wing is now fitted and done, it was a cheapo panel wing so the fit isn't fantastic but the only slight bit were its noticeable is were it bulges out slightly more than the door. Overall though I'm preety happy with it, took quite a while to get it done, lots of test fitting and grinding tiny bits off till its just right.

Also started attacking hopefully the last patch of rust just ahead of the rear arch, should be fairly easy as I'musing up the end part of the sill that I never used to help.

christophe · April 20, 2008, 19:12:55

The exhaust stud has now being removed, thankfully we managed to get what was left out without damaging the threads so just fitted a new stud before reassembley. Then started on putting it all back together, changed the valve stem seals and then lapped the valves in before checking everything, setting up the tappets and then putting it all back together.

Most of the ancilleries were the reffited along with the gearbox before we hoisted the whole lot up into the car and then fitted the front crossmember and suspesnion ready to start measuing up for mounts and downpipes etc.

Also managed to borrow a brake flaring tool from my mate and with some new pipe and fittings made up some new solid pipes for the back axel, fitted a T-piece in the middle instead of the original way of going from one cylinder to the other. Also fitted new rear cylinders to both sides, should have some Koni adjustable dampers coming soon for the back and one their on thats the rear end done for the moment. :D

Finished welding up the rear arch as well form a while ago.

christophe · May 13, 2008, 00:40:25

Got a reasonable bit done on it this weekend, managed to get some Koni adjustable rear dampers off ebay so fitted them up and then put some wheels on the back and put it on blocks so the weight was on the back end. Then I could go round a torque all the suspension bolts and check everythings seated properly.

Think the wheels will get changed at some point as there actually my dads and he wants them back on his mondeo, plus there rather close to the chassis rail inside

With that done we moved on to the engine mounts, i manged to get a few bits off exhaust together that will do to fit round the steering coloumn so we then got on with making some templates and then taking up the mounts.

Last job was to strip the front struts down ready to fit some inserts and rebuild.

christophe · June 14, 2008, 23:42:25

Bit more progress done over the last few days, Engine mounts are now done, fitted and tacked them with the engine in place then removed and welded fully, only done them in primer at the minute but will be painted properly later.

Ended up having to modify the top of the steering rack mount again to miss the sump as well as adjusting the bulkhead slightly with a large hammer to clear the bellhousing. Its all in now though, very tight in a few places but we'll just have to see how it goes

Gearbox is mounted up as well, made some spacers to lower it down abit and cut down the reverse light switch and soldered some wires to it.

Also put the propshaft back on so appart from filling with oil thats the drivetrain all back together. Next step is the exhaust and down pipes which I started today, should get most off it done this week.

johnnysaph123 · June 16, 2008, 17:26:36

thats coming very well mate well done

noel · June 25, 2008, 15:57:39

what gear box are ya useing mate as i have a v6 2.9 and want to put a manual on it

christophe · June 27, 2008, 23:17:53

Quote from: noel
what gear box are ya useing mate as i have a v6 2.9 and want to put a manual on it

Fitting a v6 type 9 mate, came from a 2.8 capri or XR4i Sierra using a 2.8 flywheel and clutch. Should only be about 160bhp so not enough to trouble it.

Leebay · June 30, 2008, 19:46:53

Cracking on with it then

christophe · July 02, 2008, 23:47:11

Quote from: Leebay
Cracking on with it then

Getting there slowly, think you might be finished before me though

My daily drive orion has run out off MOT this week so I've been building up a mk6 escort to rpelace it which has been taking up most off my time, should be back on this in a couple off weeks though.

Christophe's V6 Mk2 Escort

wreckersteve

christophe

christophe

christophe

christophe

Leebay

TwinTurbo

christophe

christophe

popuptoaster

christophe

popuptoaster

christophe

christophe

javars

christophe

christophe

christophe

Marty

christophe

christophe

christophe

christophe

christophe

christophe

johnnysaph123

noel

christophe

Leebay

christophe