Mk2 4door road/road rally project

[onecamohv]

hi folks,

Ive been browsing a while here so i said id put up details of my project!

i picked up this nice example in feb of this year, its a 1600 ghia.
Im currently building the car primarily as a road car, but the main idea is to use it for as many things as i can and enjoy it - track days, endurance trials, navigation trials and mutivenue autotests, road rallies etc

As it stood in feb (i appreciate its no picture to look at) but its a rust free 1600 ghia, with only 60 odd k on the clock, runs like a dream.
It has a black ghia interior which is in incredible condtion, like brand new, rs2000 rims, round lamp setup, mexico front spolier etc for it.

plan;
il leave the xflow standard for the moment bar i have a BCF3 cam, bike carbs, and i need a proper exhaust for it.!


all the horrible work is done, tramp bars welded in, undersealed etc, so now the enjoyable part of fitting up is underway


the theme is simple black and white, so ive black bumpers, satin black badges, black handles, black door frames and pillars, and some nice satin black RS 4 spokes. and the black interior.

Im running RS2000 coilovers, M16 calipers, single leaf rear springs and bilsteins.
























this is how it stands at the moment
windows in on new RS rubbers
Tramp bars welded in, diff in, doors built up all locking and fitting perfectly, freshly stone chipped and undersealed, chrome bumpers prepped for powder coating.

Coilover kit, lowering blocks springs etc should be here by tomorrow

Next up is to get sorted is sump guard, cage and quick rack.

Some pics, cheers!

[oldskoolrule]

lovely that mate

[Pikey15]

Very nice, you're cracking on well with it

[onecamohv]

Cheers lads, getting there now! She's running and driving perfectly so it's just all the modifications now

[onecamohv]

hi folks,

havent been able to do as many running updates as id like due to being so busy, but heres some pic's!
I got a custom roll cage make from scratch for a 4 door so i could still use the back seats. it really is a brill job!

I got a pair of 6 point 3" luke harnesses, seats, trip meter etc, but ive still a bit to do before the the first events by january!!

thanks for any comments

[onecamohv]

[mr more door]

Loving the Cage, do you mind if i ask where and how much it cost?.... Keep up the good work mate

[Top Ghia]

I really like the look of that. Nice to see a four door getting the treatment normally reserved for the two door cars.

[onecamohv]

thanks guys.

I got the cage custom made by a local chap, its very well done i have to say, but it wasnt cheap. i paid about 800 euros for the full thing.

So finally got the car finished, still some teething problems to sort but for the most part it's gone really well!

Some brake caliper issues need to be looked at, fuel gauge still isnt working which I need to look into and things like that, anyway some pics!

il get some of the interior later.

cheers!

jobs still to do:

Fuel sender still not working
wire CIBIE's
Waterproof engine electrics
make tow eyes
fit brantz trip meter
fit quick rack
Remove engine for some work: flywheel/camshaft/high comp pistons, arp's etc

[FlyingYeti]

Looks like a cracking car! 4 doors are the way forward!

[onecamohv]

bit of an update, so last week was the moredoors first shake down, a multivenue autotest at our national racetrack, mondello. it was a fantastic event, with 5 tests spead out around the track on a mixture of the track itself and loose gravel around the outside - each to be done 5 times. the tests were fast and flowing with only two tiny reversing bits. the day went really well with no mechanicals, car drove there and drove home without a hitch
















so fast forward to yesterday, and its first endurance rally - 300 km of road mileage and 60km of tough stages on foestery tracks, logging tracks, stately homes, horse racecourse grounds, and 4 laps of a national kart track whick was great fun.

after the first 12.5km stage around the outer grounds of a golf course, it was so rough and rutted i exited the stage with a brken handbrake cable, a speedo cable ripped out of my gearbox and a fuel leak.

so with wet mud dripping from under the car i had to get the speedo reattached or the rally would be over already with no trip meter. with some bending,bashing,zip tieing and jb weld, i was half an hour down but i had a trip. covered in mud head to toe we were on the road again. the rest of the day went (relatively) without too many problems, got loast a fee times and messed up a few tests, but made it to the end which was my goal

il have some action pics when they appear online, few static pics for now at some stages of the event

[micraman]

I need something as nice as that to play with!!

[onecamohv]

cheers thanks!

[Bigfish]

nice motor mate. nice to see it being used!

[onecamohv]

cheers !

[lukem30]

Love this car, this will be the "look" I'm aiming for with mine, nice to see it getting used

[lukem30]

What shade of white did you use?

[stitchmotorsport]

lovely car the white/brown mix is a good1

[onecamohv]

thanks!the colour is just standard diamond white

[mexicotait]

Looks great
Very similar to my own
And i try and get the same sort of use out of it

[onecamohv]

youve got to get the use out of them, ive had classic cars before that have been minded and pampered, but really - whats the point... you'll be a long time dead, and the car will still be there, use it and maintain it is the name of the game imo

[mexicotait]

Well said chap

[davblue]

looking good.
there.
cay beat as bit of sideways action

DS RESTOS

[onecamohv]

bit of an update!

So after the endurance rally, i decided to whip the engine out and give it a bit of a freshen up and bit more of a kick.
I renewed all seals etc, and fitted a BCF3, ACL bearings, ARP's and a steel flywheel and crank pulley amoung some other bits and pieces.

so it went from this



to this



to this





and some extra photos i found of during and after the endurance rally











and so to the next event, ALMC's MVAT sunday 07 april.

Wasa great day with 21 tests on a variety of surfaces, gravel, concrete, sheds, farm yards and lanes. the engine itself performed superb and sounds absolutely brilliant but my day was cut short due to a catch 22 situation i was in - i was having serious hot start problems due to the carb on it, and becuase i couldnt turn it off unless i was on a hill, it kept overheating with the useless standard fan as the engine was not getting enough air flow on the tests at full revs all the time. So i decided to save the engine and call it a day at test 17 as i still had the drive home.

Immediate modifications before the next event is bin the twin choke, fit my bike carbs and fit a nice electric fan on a switch

all in all a great day of much sideways action

[jon jkd]

Good to see an escort being used

[onecamohv]

thanks, it really is alot of fun

[onecamohv]

bit of an update enginewise, i got my bike cars running great, and also manufactured an airbox from a CBR900RR item, i had to cut the bottom corner off due to the master cylinder, so i just made a new bottom for it from aluminium. instead of using a CBR air filter, im using 2 ITG sock filters on the intake pipes for the airbox and leaving the bike filter out completey. i will try some combilations on the rolling road next week to make sure im not loosing any power with it. other than that its running sweet and so much more responsive, tractable and according the ass dyno, a nice bit more powerful.

[bodger rogers]

that carb air box looks a tight fit. fair play really like the 4 doors and yours is mint!
use and abuse it!

[onecamohv]

its a tight fit alright, needed to head and reform a bit of it to stop it rubbing the inner wing .

a quick exhaust cam for fun, drives incredibly well, plug colour good, i think im very very close but just need to get it onto the rollers early next week to check the AFR under all conditions.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTlqq...ature=youtu.be

[bodger rogers]

that does sound pretty nice mate!
i love the poping and banging on the overun
not to mention the odd explosion ha ha

[onecamohv]

ha thanks, theres nothing better than crackling and popping on overrun

[79RS2k]

Very nice mate

[onecamohv]

[onecamohv]

just a quick update on the photos above after an excellent event yesterday.
We had the TDC (trial drivers club) multivenue autotest with proceeds going to charity.
It was a fantastic event, with fast, loose flowing tests, 18 in total through fields, farms, lanes yards etc, really was a fantastic event and very well ran with a good bit of road mileage between tests. The car ran faultless all day long, delighted with how it performed, the redeveloped xflow really comes to life now.

Looking forward to the next one, photos are courtesy of FosterMotrsport

[onecamohv]

Some updates folks

Following on from the completion of the bike carb install, I set about tweaking the tuning before the next event came round.

I’ve a good bit of experience with these and know how they react and what works, so I got it nearly spot on after a few hours. To get it much closer to the mark I decided to buy this gizmo. I’ve set it up so it can be transferred from car to car, with not a lot of effort. For the money it’s an unbelievable piece of kit, with full data logging capabilities. Obviously you can see the gauge in real time if you don’t have the PC hooked up to it. Apparently it’s the fastest most accurate wide-band AFR meter available for the money, and it seems to do exactly what it says on the tin. Very impressed.

http://www.innovatemotorsports.com/products/MTXL.php

After a few more little tweaks it was time to hit the rollers. We did a few runs after a bit of fiddling to get the optimum setup. It was running absolutely perfect in the power-band up the redline, but it was running very rich when the throttle was cracked open full an very low rpm, gradually leaning off until stabilizing at the perfect ratio up to the rev limit.
I knew the fix straight away so there was no need for any more runs, back home to tweak the needles and then I was good to go.




So after the mvat, it was back to the workshop for more developments. As always, competition highlights areas of weakness in a cars performance in minutes that you would never probably even notice on the road.
The ‘to do’ list before the next even was long enough.


1. Electric fan conversion
2. Tran-x LSD with 4.1 CWP
3. Adjustable competition front dampers
4. Uprated front anti-roll bar + bracket modification for more castor
5. Complete rewire of all auxiliary components, + installing gauges, switches, lights etc.
6. Type-9 5 speed conversion
7. Panhard rod
8. Load of other crap and bits and pieces that will take longer probably than all of the above. :/

All of this is nearly done now; bar the gearbox conversion and the panhard rod I just haven’t got time to do before the next 2 events.
First up was the rewire. I had been adding extras to the car over time, but very untidily I have to admit. Although it was all wired perfectly, I was shoving relays and wires up under the dash, in the engine bay, zip-tying bundles of wires here and there, it was a mess. And the more I added, the worse the mess got. So it was time to rip all that out and start from scratch.

I started by removing all auxiliary wiring the car wasn’t made with, plus other crap I wasn’t using like radio wiring etc.
I made up a centre panel, where I would mount the auxiliary fuse box, relay box, switches, warning lights, gauges etc. So that took up A LOT of time, as I wanted it as neat and traceable as possible. So now every wire is numbered, in sequence and traceable very easily.

Now I have the fuse box powered by the ignition through main relay to ensure no voltage drop, and then wired directly to the new fuse box I have the BRANTZ, the map light, AFR meter, electric fan, rev limiter, gauges, Cibie’s, fuel pump, and the electric dizzy. On the panel I have an oil light with an extra high oil pressure switch (comes on a 20psi instead of the factory 5psi) and a coolant light wired to a fan switch, so the light comes on at 87 degrees, and doesn’t go off until the temp drops below 82 which is neat.




Up front I replaced my goosed dampers with AVO adjustable items which has transformed the handling. I also fitted a group 1 24mm anti-roll bar, and at the same time moved the mounting point of the car forward about an inch, increasing the castor, as the standard castor on an escort is basically non-existent, and consequently so is the self-centring effect which makes for a bad feeling when correcting slides etc.
This weekend I was building my diff, well, half build as im waiting on the LSD unit itself to arrive.
Ive put in the 4.1 pinion , and just waiting on the unit. Luckily I decided to do this, because when I took it out, even though there was no ill noises at all, the who centre casing was cracked apart in two places,! amazing there was no noises.



That’s basically it for now until I get the diff, set it up and get it back in before next weekend’s event, Declan’s MVAT which I can’t wait for, then the ALMC endurance 2 weeks after that which should be super also.
I also added some nice early 76 badging



my tran-x plate LSD arrived during the week, so i went about fitting it together with a 4.1 cwp.




got all that in and set up, then the final touch was a group 1 alloy front spoiler
just about ready for the next event on Sunday






so the most recent event was TDC’s declans mvat, my favourite mvat of the year. Always a packe entry because the test are so good – open, fast, loose, and just bags of fun. It was a fantastic day despite the car running a bit hotter than I would like, its time for a new rad.

[mexicotait]

That last pic is a good one

[onecamohv]

cheers!

heres a small vid of one of the tighter tests
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRJM1sgFZMQ

[mexicotait]

Looks well slippy in there
Great noise though
What exhaust have you got on it
I like tge tail pipe

[onecamohv]

cow shite is always very slippy

dont actually know what it is, no markings on it, i got it off a rally car, 2.25". sounds great, id say there is little to no deadening left inside the back box, looks pretty old but well made.

[onecamohv]

small update:

Saturday 19th was the fitsy endurance rally to be held by the Birr motor club in Co. Offaly.

There were 20 scheduled tests and approx 300 road miles to cover during the event, which was
to finish not long before midnight.

Due to the recent bad weather, the tests were all muddy, slippy, fast and fun, just the way we
like it!




For me it wasnt the best start to the day, after the first test i got to the finish and got the
smell of burning plastic. popped the bonnet to find my brand new electric fan smashed to bits by
some foreign body, probably a stick or a rock. Luckily i had got a new rad just before the event,
so the cooling system was in tip top condition. apart from the really boggy slow tests where the
temp crept up due to lack of airflow, it stayed at operating temp all day.

after 11 tests i think, we had a small tea break in a village petrol station where i could do a
few checks. its always a nervous time looking under your car during a rally, and this time didnt
dissapoint. The back shock absorber had come completely away from the axle and was just bobbing there.
the exhaust was squashed and the sump guardwas wraped around the gearbox. lovely.

Anyway got that fixed up after a hair full of cow shit, and we were on our way to do the night stages.






We completed all the stages (albeit with a horrific amount of penalties) to finish the event which was
our aim. ended up third in the retro class.


The event was very well ran and all done on tulips, with pretty straight forward tests with some tricks
thrown in to keep people on their toes.


as ever the trusty old for didnt miss a beat while others in much newer cars had issues.
i should have some action photos when they go up online.