2024 Marks 17 Years on the Road
 
That’s Right, 17 years since the car was first registered and on the road. And not a lot of diary updates since 2017, not that things haven't been happening over that time, I just didn't get round to talking about it on here. Sorry about that.
 
So, what have I been up to with the car?  Well obviously we had Covid and the lock downs, which coincided with a longer than expected SORN period, over two years!

June 2020

Hot Air

During the first lock down there was plenty of time to get stuff done. First off was a load of work in the garden including a new deck, then some decorating, but then I had some time to think about the car.

One of the things that was very evident driving the car in all weather was the amount of hot air getting into the car from the engine bay. Not that much of a problem on a really cold day, but when it was a hot day the cockpit got really hot. The brake servo is just behind the pedal box and below it is the open footwell so that was the principle 'air leak'. I had wondered about it when I was first building the car and now it seemed like a good time to do something about it.

Armed with card and a pencil I looked to fabricate a cover for the servo. It would need to be in two parts to allow access to the servo if necessary and it would be easier to fabricate in two pieces. After a couple of cardboard templates were fashioned I transferred the design to thin aluminium sheet and grabbed the wire snips. Once cut out it was time to do some metal folding and shaping, and a bit of swearing too but eventually it was finished and in place [photos]. It has helped a lot, but there's still hot air getting in, probably the pedal box, but that can wait for a bit.

July 2020

Minor Tweaks

After making changes to the fuse box for lights etc all was working nicely, until one of the sealed Halogen Headlights fogged up because it was no longer sealed. I had bought new headlight bowls that were still not fitted and this seemed a perfect opportunity. I sourced new LED headlights that were a direct replacement, so no need for adding resistors into the circuit for the LEDS to work properly, and test fitted them into the new bowls, looked good. I had to rework the mounting points for the new bowls but that was pretty simple and then hooked up the new lights to the loom and it was all done [photos].

October 2023

Cooling Solution

The main change over the past couple of years is to the Cooling.  I have always struggled with a hot engine, and a hot T16 does not like to crank over on a restart.  I had put in a remote filter and oil cooler back in 2017 and this had helped a little but not enough.  I spotted a leak from the old radiator and took that as time to redo the cooling properly.
 
The original radiator was so big it had to be mounted on a slope which didn’t allow for efficient cooling and it took up loads of space under the bonnet. I found a triple core radiator that would mount vertically and I redesigned the pipework routing around the engine bay.

I ordered some red silicon hose, the new radiator and fan, a top hose air bleed and new thermostat fan switch. Once the new parts arrived I stripped out the old Radiator ready for work and had to slightly reposition the oil cooler pipes to make space for the new radiator [photos].

With the new radiator delivered I could set about fabricating the mounting brackets and tweaking the loom to reposition the wiring for the new fan switch and fitted the radiator and fan in position [photos]. And then set about cutting and fitting the hose, all hose runs are now on one side of the engine bay and look pretty good, and as I was in the engine bay I finished of with a bit of engine bay dressing so it looks as good as new now [photos].

May 2024

Fuel Pump Failure
 
Yes the fuel pump seems to have failed so need to get that sorted. Looking on the RHOCAR forum (sorry its called The Kit Car Club now isn't it?!) I spotted a couple of other Superspec owners have had the same fault recently, so definitely an age thing. The fuel pump, not the owners.

Googling 1998 Escort/Fiesta Mk III fuel pump came up with a few options ranging from just the pump to the whole unit. I decided to go the whole unit route, just as I didn't know what the fault was attributed to. For those interested the pump fault manifested as a blown 10amp fuse for the Pump Relay. I checked all the wiring for any sign of short and then checked the forum and spotted the recent failures. I ordered the unit from eBay and it arrived within 2 days. The pump assembly is held in place by a notched ring which twists undone. After experimenting I soon discovered the easiest way to undo this was a large flat blade screw driver and a soft mallet. Careful tapping got it moving and off it came.

The unit lifted out and the new one dropped in place easily enough (there are notches so that it can't be put in incorrectly). with the seals in, the compression ring was put back into it's slot and tapped back into place. I reattached the fuel lines and the wiring loom and it started first time, very happy [photos]. Except.... the fuel gauge is now working backwards (Empty reads full and Full reads empty), and after the second drive the new unit failed.

After some investigation I discovered that even though the pump was running it was not pushing fuel out of the tank, so either there's a blockage, or an internal leak, or the impeller isn't attached to the motor spindle properly. More work to do, and the eBay seller 'rtgroup11' has been ghosting me, so I raised with eBay to force a return and refund. DON'T buy from RTGROUP11 on eBay!

Found a new unit from Eurospares, more costly but they have a warehouse about a mile away so any issues should be easier to get resolved. I should be able to get it in a couple of days. So, more to follow in June.

June 24

Hot Air part 2

I had mentioned about the engine bay hot air getting into the cockpit and the brake servo cover I'd installed to fix it, and the fact that it hadn't completely fixed the issue. The pedal box has a large gap where the pedals hang into the footwell and this is clearly a route for the air to flow into the cockpit too. I worked up a paper template so that I could create a carpet insert around the pedals to block some/most of the air. Won't know if its worked until I get the car back on the road [photos].

Fuel Delivery Continued

While waiting for the new fuel delivery unit over the weekend I researched the fuel sender/gauge mis-match and the reversed readings. Obviously I need to see if the issue remains once the new fuel unit is in, but if it does I want a fix for it, looks like this is a common issue, and there is a solution if I need it. It's called the Gauge Wizard MK5 and it's sold by spiyada.com.

The new Fuel Unit arrived Monday morning so I fitted it straight away, engine started first time, and yes the gauge is still backwards, so I'll order the Gauge Wizard. That arrived 3 days later. It needs programming, which is easy enough to do but you need an empty tank, 1/4 tank, 1/2 tank, 3/4 tank and a full tank, and, as I had filled her up as well as my spare 20ltr gerry can that posed a bit of a problem. The other issue is it needs a switched +ve supply. I was going to use the pump supply but that doesn't work for the Gauge Wizard as it needs a clean supply, so that means running a wire from the ignition circuit to the boot.....that'll be interesting!

The safest route for the live feed would be along the top of the tunnel, which is wrapped in leather, which is trapped between the tunnel walls and the seats. That means threading it through a 2 cm hole in the boot and along a 6 foot cavity that's about 3 inches wide by 1.5 inches high and filled with fuel lines and loom. I needed something long, quite thin, a bit flexible while being quite tough not to bend or snag. In the end I went for the left over fuel line I still had, and with a bit finessing managed to get it through the tunnel as far as the gear stick. I threaded a wire from the ignition switch to the end of the fuel line and taped in on. Then carefully withdrew the fuel line to pull the wire into the boot. yay it worked! As this was the second retro fit cable along the tunnel top I decided to leave a drawstring in place, you know, just in case I ever have to do this again. With the wire run complete I could connect one end to the ignition switch and the other to the Gauge Wizard [photos]. Next I need to do the programming.

I did the easy bit first, the gauge needle. You set the empty, 1/4, 1/2, 3/4, full needle positions so the wizard knows how to report what the sender sends. Now the sender values, and as mentioned before this is done with varying levels of fuel in the tank. I had a full tank so programmed the full setting first. Then syphoned out 10 litres into the half full jerry can for the 3/4 setting. Then put that back in the tank so it was full again ready to fill a 20 litre spare fuel canister for the 1/2 setting. Next I refilled the half empty jerry can for the 1/4 reading and finally filled 3x2 litre jugs (leaving about 3 litres in the tank) for the empty setting. Then refilled the tank slowly to watch the gauge move in the right direction, result. Then the Gauge Master was screwed into place and the fuel unit retention ring put back in and the boot put back together [photos].

Drivers Rear Disc

There has been a scraping noise from the rear wheel on the last couple of drives, speeds up with speed so wheel related. There's no wiggle on the wheel and the noise wasn't grinding so not bearings, thankfully. Turning the wheel by hand and noise is in the same place each rotation. Looking at the disc it looks like the pad has left an impression/residue from the long off road period, and it will not come off. So that means new discs.

New discs ordered from MTEC Brakes but there's a few days for them to arrive, so while the car was up on stands I decided to run through a full service, including replacing brake fluid, gearbox oil and topping up the diff oil. I also took the opportunity to wind all four coil-overs up, 2 turns on the front and 1 on the rears, once back on the ground I'll check to see if that's made much difference to the ground clearance. The new sump that I fitted during the winter already has scratch marks from just two journeys. I may have to sort out a sump guard!

New discs arrived and fitted [photos], I am tempted to replace the rear callipers with either the Wilwood or Hi-spec handbrake callipers for the sierra lugs (or maybe just an electric hand brake calliper; that needs research) as the handbrake has always been weak and the fix at MoT time is to over tighten the handbrake cable to make sure it works ok, but that means the pads make contact even when the brake is off. But I can't justify the expense at the moment.