Escort Sigma 1600 Race Car

[Roadsport]

Re: Escort

And forgot bad news on the performance big end bearings. After all that waiting It turned out there not available for the 1.6 sigma engine.

[Roadsport]

Re: Escort

Fidled with the upper bracket today and tested out how the belt would go. I'm pleased with the install. Looking nice and clean. Was a bit worried about the alternator for it was clear from the beginning that I was'nt gonna use the original one.

Now that everything is in place I see there's a some trouble ahead if I install as big alternator pulley as I intended. No room for the bigger water pump pulley. I'll have to make a compromise.

[Roadsport]

Re: Escort

Modified a pulley today to achieve the 1:1 ratio to the alternator. Meaning I have the same size pulleys on the crank and alternator.
Seems like the water pump pulley might have to left original since there seems to be no room for a much larger pulley. I could largen it a bit if I'd find a higher palce for the Idler pulley and pushed the Alternator further. We'll see. It would be nice to slow the water pump down tough..

Some pic tomorrow I ran out of batteries on my camera ...

[Roadsport]

Re: Escort

Notided that my mock up idler pulley sits on the timing belt tensioner's place. The idler pulley sits up in the cylinder head? If it comes closer to water pump pulley it propapbly has to be left original.

Well alternator sorted now and aligned perfectly.

Oh. and pought some batteries today for the camera

Pulley fits like its ment be there all along...







Quite a change to the original pulley.Should reduce the power loss on the alternators part. And prolong the service life of the alternator.






Cheers
Markus

P.S

Hoping to get the cylinder head back soon to start on the propper engine build and fitting in to place.

[alex savill]

Re: Escort

coorr blimey where the bloody hell has my breath gone

that is one stunning mk1
keep the updates coming

[Roadsport]

Re: Escort

Thanks mate!

Now that I've got the side project engine pretty much put together I made a new alternator bracket to clear more room for the bigger water pump pulley. Just needs a weld seam and some finishing grinding and some sort of a coating. Do not need any more room unless one day I can find a dampened underdrive crank pulley.

[team_zi]

Re: Escort

I predict you'l have problems with sheared mounting bolts and or brackets on that alternator. Mine would break 12.9grade bolts on the zetec-e. You need to make the brackets much stronger to prevent the alternator from shaking itself apart. And the pulley looks too large. It needs to spin very fast to produce a charge.

[Roadsport]

Re: Escort

Really? Thanks for the head up, I'll have to pay extra attention on that one.
At the moment it's still shakes a bit. But after welding the support bracket on there I really think it'll be quite solid. And the wheel nut at the pulley does a marvelous job on centering the pulley to the alternator shaft.The enormous pulley should also reduce vibrations on the alernator. So I'm hopeful It'll hold. I'll have to do the weldings first tough.

Why did you have to use 12.9 bolts on your alternator? I've never used stronger than basic soft 8.8 grade on the Pinto I've raced. Yet the alternator was on its original bracket.Again, thanks I havent even tought of an alternator braking bolts. I think I'll be installing some nordlock locking washers under all the bolts to prevent them to come loose under vibrations.

I was thinking of leaving the alternator out completely and rely on the battery alone. The plan is to recarge the battery a bit when on track so it'll still start from the park Fermé. I think It'll charge the battery at 5000 rpm's. That should be enough since the encine will see over 5k rpms all the time on the track.

[team_zi]

Re: Escort

I snapped 8.8s so tried 12.9s but they still sheared.

When I revved the engine, as the revs dropped, the alternator would appear blurred, Because of the vibration. Alternators with two mountings need far stronger fixings than 3 lug alternators.

If I were you, and I've spent many hours (and money) finding the right solution on my duratec, I would have a rethink about the position, brackets, and pulley size. You must have reliability, and I don't think you have with your setup as it stands. Very few people appear to have practical experience of modifying cars these days. With the fiesta, I'm in the same boat as you. We're not able to buy off the shelf parts for what appear to be standard problems, simply because we're not able to fit them due to space limitations, or what I call pioneering. Stick with it, you'l come up with a fix soon. You just need a Eureka moment.

[Roadsport]

Re: Escort

Graham Did you mean this one?


Its now Updated as I did the new bracket. I flipped the alternator around and replaced the long bolt with the adjuster bracket and made a new upper bracket.

Lower, adjuster bracket

[dobuy]

Re: Escort

As Graham says that is one big pulley on the alternator, Brise and all the other alternator use much smaller pulleys than that, I would argue that this is for a good reason

[Roadsport]

Re: Escort

As Graham says that is one big pulley on the alternator, Brise and all the other alternator use much smaller pulleys than that, I would argue that this is for a good reason

Yes thats usually the case. The alternator pulley is the smallest one since it needs to spin fast to generate charge.
The alternators revs depend on the ratio between the crankc pulley and alternator pulley. The smaller the cranck pulley the slower the alternator spins. Same Effect ofcourse works counterwise. Usually on a racing engine both (all) pulleys are modified.
Underdrive and dampened crank pulley is not available for the Zetec SE so therefor I need to use the rediculously large pulley. Its the same diameter as the crank pulley so the alternator spins the same speed as the engine In this case 5000-9000rpm while racing. I believe it is enough. I hope its enough. But if not its easy to install smaller pulley.

And Brise had even larger pulleys only not 6 grooved ones.
They had 133mm diameter as mine is 125mm. And think if that alternato pulley is mated with underdrive crank pulley.

Anyway I'm not at all 100% sure will it work I only think it will and sure am gonna try. Not a big deal to improve if I've gone wrong with this one.

And I do agree it looks goofy large.

[Roadsport]

Re: Escort

I predict you'l have problems with sheared mounting bolts and or brackets on that alternator. Mine would break 12.9grade bolts on the zetec-e. You need to make the brackets much stronger to prevent the alternator from shaking itself apart. And the pulley looks too large. It needs to spin very fast to produce a charge.

I'm afraid you're right Graham. I was corrected by others too that this bracket is way too weak for the alternator. I'd never hve guessed the alternator takes so big torque forces. Thanks again for the heads up.

Back to the drawing board.

[Roadsport]

Re: Escort

Bracket number two in the making. The material chosen is 15mm strong Zinced iron.Weights like shit compared to the earlyer one. But I hope this one can take the beating.
Have to find a proper drill to make holes in this one.



Those small holes was on the material when I got it from the scrapheap.



Tiny notch had to be made to fit even with the shapes of the FWD engine mount.



Welded the two pieces together and cleaned up the seams a bit.

[Retromotorsport]

Re: Escort

High reving engines .. plastic tension arm ... plastic arm flexes under fast rev increases and lets the belt slip momentarily, also damps the vibration...