Road Rally Mk2 Escort No 5

[JimKeogh]

Hello all, I am in the process of building my fifth road rally Escort. The last one was 30 years ago .....but time never dulled my enthusiasm for the modelled the sport.
This is the motor.... bought in Holland about 5 years ago and driven back to Ireland .Attachment 88716

Hopefully I intend to take part in Endurance Trials and Multi venue auto tests here in Southern Ireland, Targas rallies in Northern Ireland and I would really love to do some road rallies in Wales. I would consider doing some historic stuff in the future but for now the car will have power steering and a 5 speed box....so not allowed in that category.

Here's the dirty work starting...stripping the underseal .. I bought a roll over jig which made life much easier.
Attachment 88717

This is Escort no 3 on The Highwayman Road Rally 1992 with Tim Sturla. Photo by kind permission Andy Manston.

No 5 is actually ready for paint now so in the coming days/weeks I will post photos of progress together with a few photos of Escorts No1 to No4....back in the day.

[alladdin]

nice to see it all

[FrankC]

Look forward to it

[JimKeogh]

The shell was blasted and the welding repairs and strengthening done. I didn't do the welding myself as a local expert was doing such a good job I would have only devalued the car. The shell was quite good to start with...it needed new sills, splash panels, both boot wells, some repairs to rear arches and a right hand drive dash. The car was seam welded, strengthened and skidded. ....then dry built.
Repackable Tony Law back box modded and bolted up
Attachment 88743
Engine in
Attachment 88744
historic type gusset
Attachment 88745
These are Escort MK3 RS1600i sets made by Steele, retrimmed in a material similar to beta cloth.
Attachment 88746

[JimKeogh]

This is Escort No2 ...New Cedos Rally 1989...Dave Howe navigating pic by Andy Manston

[JimKeogh]

Here's the underneath showing panhard rod tower, skid plates, tramp brackets, turrets for exhaust, 2 new boot wells and lower rear panel trimmed/shaped.

[JimKeogh]

The Scheel seats (not Steele as I said in an earlier post) had to have their bases modified and plates welded to the floor. The plates on the side of the auto tunnel are for historic removable seat bars should I wish to install competition seats.
The gearstick has been moved to accommodate type 9 5 speed/type E 4 speed gearboxes, the base for a hydraulic handbrake has been strengthened, the tabs on the tunnel are to hold the rear loom and brake line. The electric fire extinguisher bottle will be positioned behind a navigator's foot rest.

[JimKeogh]

Attachment 88781
Here is Escort No 4 sitting in my parents drive in Dollis Hill, North West London. I bought the car off Mike Brown who has just won the Colway 1300cc rally series in it...circa 1993. I converted it to road rally spec. ie: took the stickers off, put in my 1700 x/flow lump with 34 DGAS carb, back seat and carpet and it was ready to go. I only did a couple of road rallies in it...and the gave up.
Attachment 88782
Back to No5. Here it is being blasted for the second time.

Spec of No5:
Vulcan Engine
205 bloc 2060 cc
Cast pistons
Standard rods
Tracsport alloy sump
Lightened flywheel, Helix clutch
Wasp starter
Maxiflow 3 head
FR30 cam
Ashley 421 2 inch exhaust
Dave Brooks split 45's carbon air box

Tracsport 5 speed type 9 gearbox 2.48/1.61/1.225/1:1/0.82, single piece prop

Narrow semi floating atlas built by Andy from Arrow Engineering, 4.6 LSD

Rs2000 spec brakes but vented fronts/rear drums, bias pedal box, braided lines

Loom by Beagle Automotive, Racetec gauges,

Alloy fuel tank, twin pumps, braided lines

[JimKeogh]

Just to add to my last post my shell is currently being painted......I have all the bits ready here to build it up.

I missed the suspension info:
Bilstein group 1. front 260/60 inserts 190 llb 10 inch springs, roller top mounts, alloy hubs, World Cup x/member cranked steering arms and twin cam anti roll bar, 2.4 quick rack and power steering byPower Steering Solutions
rear bilstein, single leaf decambered...not sure poundage , off 1300 auto, 90/100 llb? I didn't want 146 llb which seems to be the only offering wherever you go.

[mexicotait]

Looking forward to seeing this getting built.

[JimKeogh]

After blasting and epoxy priming the underneath was given a good coat of Mipa protector....its similar to Raptor I'm told.

[JimKeogh]

Here's the shell loaded up and heading for paint.

[FrankC]

Happy days

[JimKeogh]

The shell is now home ......I have most of the components here for building it and am realistically looking to have it running by next March.

[JimKeogh]

Sorry for lack of updates...its been one step forward two steps back. I stripped the axle (except pinion) as I didn't like the rusty look after it had been standing for year and a half ...so got it blasted...got a specialist to reset the pinion and then hand painted the casing. The tramp bar brackets were double skinned and a breather put on the diff cover plate as the original breather hole was were the tramp bracket wanted to go.
I made a mistake by taking out the firewall after the dry build ....we learn! I sealed the rear firewall with fireproof sealer....but can somebody tell how does a scutineer know that the sealer is actually fireproof?
Anyway the painter decided not to seal inside the boot before because I "didn't tell him to". Anyway I decided to continue on with my new sealing skills to the boot area with the fireproof sealer......another mistake as it has silicon in it and you can't paint over it. To cut a long story short I re-sealer the whole area of the boot and hand painted it...I was dreading the what the boot was going to look like but it turned out alright thankfully. At last I got that area sorted ..next up engine/gearbox in......now I'm stuck again. The rear of the gearbox is touching the tunnel ...see photo. I have a World Cup crossmember/brackets from Group 4 Fabrications. What is the done thing here? I'm thinking drop the engine cross member and elongate the 4 holes to straighten things up? Any advice here appreciated.

[JimKeogh]

Axle painted...drum brakes retained incase I decide to do historic events

[JimKeogh]

Axle painted...drum brakes retained incase I decide to do historic events
Attachment 89068

[Miniliteman]

W.r.t. the engine crossmember: I wouldn't elongate the holes.
You could fit a crossmember chassis tube kit or (what I did) modify the engine mounts in such a way that the engine + gearbox fit the tunnel.

[JimKeogh]

Thanks Miniliteman....I have that chassis tube kit fitted . Good call about the engine brackets...I will do that

[Graham]

....we learn! I sealed the rear firewall with fireproof sealer....but can somebody tell how does a scutineer know that the sealer is actually fireproof?
..

Speaking as a scrutineer, they will only be looking to see there are no gaps that fluid can pass through, they wont actually check to see if its fireproof

[JimKeogh]

Thanks Graham.
Just to follow up on an earlier post I got the gearbox moved over and now its about 3 mm from the tunnel...I'll leave it at that for now and see how it behaves when I drive the car.
The fire extinguisher I went to great pains to position behind the navigator's footrest is not legal here in Ireland for stage rallying. I'm going to put it behind the drivers seat and move the battery from there to the boot. The oil cooler had to be moved as well as the pipes were not long enough. So much for my dry build!

[JimKeogh]

The boot is nearly there..just a couple of earth straps to bolt in

[rallyrob]

Looking good

[JimKeogh]

A photo here of the interior. I had to cut up the mint carpet and there will be a bit more cutting when I get the roll cage back from paint. I was at Group 4 Fabrications today in Galway returning the M16 callipers vented discs and spacer kit as they didn't fit. They are genuine Ford reconditioned calipers and for now there is a a lot of head scratching going on.

[FrankC]

Too nice to rally…don’t do it!

[JimKeogh]

...its only going to be used for a bit of fun....I'm not chasing pots.........for now!

Too nice to rally…don’t do it!

[JimKeogh]

...its only going to be used for a bit of fun....I'm not chasing pots.........for now!

Too nice to rally…don’t do it!

[Mkdu]

here in Belgium, extinguisher must be accessible by both from their seat and needs to be a 2kg one.

[JimKeogh]

Yes I have a hand held one which will go just infront of the navigator's seat

here in Belgium, extinguisher must be accessible by both from their seat and needs to be a 2kg one.

[JimKeogh]

Well the car is built and I entered it's first event on Saturday just gone.The TDC (Trial Drivers Club) Irish Classic Retrospective Trial 2024....here it is at the end of a long day driving 250km around the beautiful County of Wicklow and doing 15 special tests. The fact that the car made it round was the best takeaway from the day. The car build was only finished the night before and test driven for about 3 miles!

[JimKeogh]

OOps Double post ...deleted now

[JimKeogh]

A few things I learnt after the day...the heater was plumbed in wrongly...the hose from the manifold should have gone to the bottom inlet on the heater and out the top......hence the temp gauge was reading 100 degrees and I had to keep the fan on all day.
The rear ride height is now at least one inch lower than when I started the event..ie: the leaf springs are nearly flat now! I will take out the one inch lower blocks to get it back up again.
My seat is too low.
I couldn't get the new racetec rev counter to work. if anyone knows anything about the intricacies of this please let me know.
The engine pulled well but I doubt if ever I got it near the its optimum for fear of over revving it.
The semi helical Tracsport gear kit was quite noisy in the car....I was not expecting that.

[FrankC]

Good to hear all went well. That’s a fair few miles for its first proper shake down.

Well done Jim

[rallyrob]

The semi helical Tracsport gear kit was quite noisy in the car....I was not expecting that.

I find that surprising aswell. I thought the point of them is to not be as noisy as a straight cut, but then maybe it is actually still quiter than a SC.

Good to know it went well though, apart from the few teething problems.

[alladdin]

are / have you had the engine dyno'd ? be interesting to see how an fr30 does with decent head / breathing.

[JimKeogh]

I took a quaife sc set out for this. I definitely thought it would be a lot quieter.....but its OK

I find that surprising aswell. I thought the point of them is to not be as noisy as a straight cut, but then maybe it is actually still quiter than a SC.

Good to know it went well though, apart from the few teething problems.

[JimKeogh]

are / have you had the engine dyno'd ? be interesting to see how an fr30 does with decent head / breathing.

Yes ...engine built and dyne's by Vulcan

[onecamohv]

Hi Jim,

Great to meet you and well done on completing the event!

P.s I know you couldn't hang around for the awards, but you won the spirit of the event award!! For all your efforts getting to the event. Well done !

What leaf springs are you running?

Hope you enjoyed the event

Sent from my Pixel 7 Pro using Tapatalk

[JimKeogh]

Hi Jim,

Great to meet you and well done on completing the event!

P.s I know you couldn't hang around for the awards, but you won the spirit of the event award!! For all your efforts getting to the event. Well done !

What leaf springs are you running?

Hope you enjoyed the event

Sent from my Pixel 7 Pro using Tapatalk

Hi Mark,

Great to meet you as well.....and your brother Mathew. Thanks for the kind words. Tremendous event...it was a baptism of fire for me and I was very happy that the car held together.

The springs are standard 1300 auto ones decambered 1 inch......but the car was sitting one inch lower at the end of the event (compared to the start) and the single leaf is now flat! I really don't know what they are rated at but I'm guessing 80Ib. ???

[onecamohv]

yeah same here, im running standard 1600 sport single leafs, and they now look like a wavy S bend! but thats after 8+ years of hardship.

Unbelievably, there are no good quality leaf springs available aftermarket for escorts. any of the aftermarket springs are too hard and total rubbish.
Mark D, (in the yellow mk1 mexico) had to get springs specially made in the uk at fairly high cost in the right poundage. think i might have to go down that road myself