Here in Finland we are having a lot of snow and cold for a few months now, and the project is in hold for that time. Something has though been done.

Recently I finally got those XR2 frontbrakes I've been looking after for many years now. I was going to have XR2 steering wheel too, but the saler didn't find it :-/ XR2 frontlights are now at my work, but I'm not going to install them in the near future.

I've dismantled everything from the front suspension, washed and painted them too. All (=4) bushes are going to be renewed with new standard ones. Tie rod ends, lower balljoints and the weel bearings are going to be new too.

I brought the dashboard to a pro to get it fixed because there weren't any better ones for sale. He said it was not going to be new, but will propably be okay. Have to wait for a few weeks to see how it comes out.

A friend of mine is going to sell his '88 tuned (cam+twin carb) 1.6 CVH sometime this spring/summer and I'm gonna aim to that. Also looking for Escort mk3 1.6 4 speed gearbox with a 3.58 final drive ratio. At this point I know where I could get one, but there are some difficulties on that. New wheels with size 185/60/13 would also be welcome.

I've started to make my own version of lowering the tie bar (also known as reaction bar) 20 millimeters. First I found that Bat Inc has a bolt-on system for that, and read from various places in the web that it really makes a great difference. At this point it doesn't seem to be hard to do, just check out the images below. The reason for all this can be seen from one of the photos.

Some of the interior/dashboard parts are cleaned, the other XR lamp frame is fixed (still not gonna use it in this project..) and got a set of those 185/60/13 wheels very cheap. Hmm .. Might say that the desing of them also looks very cheap :-D Also made 'nice' centers to those Mangels rims from a spraycan top :-DD Couldn't get the real thing from anywhere, and they fit 100% bolt-on :-)

And again. Again I found a car that wasn't on sale but I wanted it anyway. It's a 1.1GX, '81 or '82, and guess what. White. As my previous Mk1 was :-) I traced the owner like I did with the 1.1S (and it wasn't easy this time!) and told him that I want to buy it. It was in Virojoki, about 60km from here, and had been out of use for a year so I thought I could get a cheap car for parts from it. And I was quite right on that. It cost only 20e, and after a little fight, it was up'n running and I drove about 30 kilometers with it without any problems. At first it didn't want to start, eventhough there was gas and spark plugs seemed to work fine. We changed the breakers and the plugs, but still _nothing_. Then we towed it around, and after few hundred meters with second gear on, it started to wake up. At last we got it to idle. Not good, but still. After 15 minutes of that, it ran like never before and I was happy and could hit the road :-) Now it's in 'Kartano', same place the 1.1S is during the wintertime. At this point I'm not going to fix it, but you'll never know what happens ......... :-)

The tie bar bracket modification is also done.

The front suspension and the front brakes (and they really are vented XR2's even if the photo doesn't show well) are now assembled and the car is almost driveable now. Got a 'little' pissed with the alternator and it's belt and the water hose which goes above it. After bangin a log with a shovel for a while, I remembered that the alternator has to be completely apart in order to get the belt on. When everything seemed to be in order, I started the engine (btw, can't believe that Exide battery! The car has been out for the whole winter, and it still starts like new. Even if all the fuel lines are empty and so on) and poured water+coolant in it. I left it idling and started to gather tools and stuff and so on. After half an hour the fuel tank sad FLOP, and I thought it was running out of gas now. After getting a can of gas I broke the fuel cap key in it's lock and didn't fill the tank. In a few minutes the tank said FLOP again, and soon the engine went off. Tomorrow I'll have to get that fuel cap open, and then I'm going to drive around a bit and tighten all bolts and so on. Oh. In the last year's diary I fooled around with springs and shocks. I've sold the XR2 front shocks because the 175/70/13 didn't fit at all with them. Well. Today I got a hold of another pair, and now that I have those 185/60/13 wheels I should be able to use them with no problem. Though I might have to use mk2 front shocks because I couldn't get MK1 XR2 springs and had to take MK2 XR2 springs instead. But first I'll go with the original Mk1 shocks and see how it goes. Might be that the front goes too low with them. And another thing. The other day when I got everything 'ready', I 'drove' about 1.5 meters and broke the handbrake. But that's nothing new :-)

After a few days I was going to drive the car back home to get the project up and running a bit better, but then what happened. Everything was done and I got into the car, put the gear to R and gently lifted the clutch. BANG!! Oh shit. Because the engine+gearbox are moved a bit to the left, the right driveshaft came out of the inner cv joint. Damned. I've heard that happen to guys, but it had never happened to me. Then I 'somehow' lost interes for a few weeks, but on a sunny day in the traffic lights I was close by a neat Mk1 and knew it was the time to try again. I swappet the right and left inner cv joints, and now everything seemes to be in order. There is really no reason for that to help, but atleast for now it seems to work. Then I drove around about 30 kilomteres with no problems, and the next day I took it home. Originally I was going to get me another gearbox - for proper gear ratios - but because it doesn't seem to be an option now, I had to do something for the current gearbox. I took it down, renewed the bearings of the final drive, changed some oil seals and put it together again with new gasgets. Should'n leak anymore. I also renewed the rear brakes and put some Sierra 1.3/1.6 84-86 20.64mm cylinders (Cost about 6e each, the XR2 cylinders would've been something between 30-50e) there. Everything else is new too, only the drums are old. Also changed the bushes of the stabilizer bar, and would've changed the bar ends too if I could've find them somewhere. I do have 2 pairs of them somewhere. The panhardrod mounting in the chassis seems to be in such bad shape that something has to be done to it before any x3m driving. And again I ran into some problems. I installed a better brake vacuum servo from a mk2 diesel, but the previously installed 20 or 22mm (can't remember) master cylinder wouldn't fit anymore. And becaus I want the XR2 spec 22.2mm master cylinder, there isn't much to do but go buy one XR2 cylinder for XXXe :-( Of course I could go with some 20mm cylinder which would be propably bolt-on, or buy some other 22.2mm cylinder and fix it in somehow, but since there are no 'compromises' in the front/rearbrakes, I will not start making them here. XR2 spings and new shocks are now installed in every corner. The rear looks really smart, but the front has to get 5 millimeters up to get the remanufactured (=bigger than new) 185/60/13 roll. Oh. And the handbrake I previously broke, is now fixed with a new cable.

The brakes are finally done. Bleeding the brakes was a little tricky, but that's what friends are for. Though there is still no dashboard, I was going to drive around a bit with it this weekend but there came two problems. Last week the roads were almost clear of any winterstuff, but now we have a lot of snow again. (Quite challenging driving around with my Mk3 on summertires, btw..) The other problem being the front wheels. They just don't fit. Every little bump, normal braking and everything made the wheels scratch. There was really no other choise than installing those small rubber pieces into the springs. I modified the pieces so that the nose came up only about 10 millimeters, but it became a bit stiffer now and seems to work just fine now. Because the weather was what it was, I decided to check the coolingsystem since it was somekind of questionmark to me. It had those overheatingproblems in the first installation (in 97 or so) and the situation wasn't any better now. I have the Escort mk4 i model radiator, so the size of it couldn't be the problem. I had installed a 80 celciusdegree thermostat (standard around 88-90cdeg if I remember right) and still it overheated even if just idling for a while. The fan started like it should, but the temperature just kept on rising until it boiled. Only thing I could think of anymore, was to remove the thermostat at all. And it seemed to help. Now it all worked well. After idling for a while, the fan started, whoooed for a while and went off. At all times the cabin heater was blowing warm air, so obviously the water circulated at least in the engine. And while driving, there were no problems at all. Well, we'll see about that in the future. I also bought a can of spraypaint and fixed some places I had last summer painted with a wrong colour. The chassis ain't that pretty atm, but it has to do for this summer. Like I said, the dash is still missing, but last week I was promised to get it done TOMORROW! Well ...

Started to work on the airfiltersystem. (Updte: And got it done) I'm gonna use a common Opel filter (Fram CA 3118) between two plastic discs. The dimensions can be found in the tips'n tricks -link under the Weber -title.

The dashboard came today. It's not perfect, but will do just fine. The fixed cracks can quite easily be found, but that was supposed to be so. The 'casing' of the dials isn't still good, but that's no wonder. It was very badly burned by then sun and the vinyl was very 'dry' and badly cracked. But after all, I'm sure it's the best outcome that was available 'cheap'. The color is now plain black, because all the door panels etc are painted black too. Originally it has propably been some dark gray or something. Now I just neet to figure out how to get the steering wheel black too..

Got the airfilterbox done. Installed the dash back in the car. A few parts were left over, don't know where they should be :-) Also installed a cool 70's Hitachi radio. In the doors, behind the old 'Blapunkt 20 watt' speaker covers there are some new Blaupunkts. After I got it done and got the cd player in the glove box work, I just sat in the garage behind the wheel and played some cool 70's mp3's like BeeGees etc and smiled, great feeling :-) The same evening I hit the road and drove about 200km around. The front wheels still touch the wheel arches, have to do something. Something wrong with the carb, but not gonna do anything about it because the upcoming (?) engineswap.

Everything went fine for few days but then came some problems. Well. You might call this more like vandalism than problems. I was going to drive around in the town in the evening, but when I came to the car, things weren't excatly what I was expecting.

Some arse had stolen the cd player! Nothing else was broken except the little window, and nothing else was gone than the cd player and 3 CDRs. What makes all this so strange, is that I've had it in the car just for 3 or 4 days then, and I thought only some of my friends knew about it and it was not at all visible because it was behind the glove box door. Well. Maybe someone had seen me adjusting it. Damned those bright blue light in it. Well .. Got to go get a window from the '82 and a car alarm has already been bought..

05/2003

Lost intrest for two weeks after that 'accident'. But. The window is now fixed and I've been driving around quite lot lately. I also got something done what I've been after since summer '95 or so. I got the car registered as an 1.6 :-DDD It was quite easy, the inspector opened the hood, mummbled something like 'humm .. aamm ... ok... I think I've seen enough'. Then we went through some paperwork I got from the local Ford dealer proving that all neccesary modifications had been done. We also checked out some brake diameters etc from the Haynes DIY manual and that was about it. He was a bit suspicious about the driveshafts and front axles be'ing the same in all 0.9 - 1.6 models, but I got him conviced that they are all the same. Well. That wasn't quite true but..

If you've been reading this site closely, you propably remember that I currently have just an 1.4 installed. But I wanted to make it straight to 1.6 because that has been the intention from the beginning. I also got an 1.6 CVH last weekend. It's from a '87 Orion, and it has twin Dellorto DHLA40C sidedrafts, electric Facet fuelpump + pressure stabilizer and almost brand new Crane 274/278 camshaft. There is also another exhaustmanifold to replace the original made of cast iron. I'll propably use the original because the new one doesn't propably fit very easily because of the differences in the lower engine mountings in the Mk1. Eventually I'll have to replace it to get proper flow job done, but we'll see about that. There is also some problem with the carbs, the mixture tends to go a bit lean in hard driving, but that requires just some adjusting of the jets in the carbs. I also got a lambdasond to allow monitoring the mixture. Along with everything else came also a 5 speed gearbox but I'm gonna sell it because it's of no use for me at this point. I'm gonna install the fuel pump next week, and perhaps next weekend I'll get the engine set up.

Installed the Facet fuelpump and the pressure regulator yesterday. Seems to work fine. The rubber you can see with the fuelpump, is from a RWD Transporter exhaust system, and it's very usefull in those kind of places. The regulator leaked in the beginning, but tightening the glass cup helped on that. I think I'm going to get the 1.6 up & running the upcoming weekend. I also now have some idea how to get the exhaust manifold modified so that it'll propably fit okay. Got also a pair of cool (?) mudflaps (I don't know if that's the right word. Someone told me to use that but it sounds stupid :-)) to the rear. There was also a model with 'ford oval' but I thought that it would be a bit too highlight :-) The reversing light and the r/r should also be fixed some day. And the rear bumper seems to need a touch of paint too. Yesterday I got a brand new 'blinker switch' (for free! :-)) to get the horn operational.

The engine has been done for over a month now, I just haven't had the inspiration to code this :-) Installing it was nothing new, after all I've done it several times before. The carbs fit in perfectly, and I didn't even have to turn the wiper motor in another direction as I was afraid before. Along with the engine came also a big 'air intake box' for the carbs (it was ment to connect to a hose that has the airfilter on the other end) but there was absolytely no possibilities to get it fit so I had to use the 'plastic foam' filters. The air intake noise is enormous even if just cruising slowly :-) The same acceleratorcabel (mk2 1.1 Variable venturi) was just long enough to be usefull with these carburetors, and the original 1.1 'cablehanger' could be used with this setup too. The cable was also much easier to get done than I expected. Some slight 'finetuning' has to be done, but I think I'll do that when it fails the first time :-) The exhaust manifold was not even close to fit, so I left it undone for now and used the old 1.4 manifold. Not a good choise, I know, but there was the lack of interest and time. I don't quite know ATM what I'm gonna do with the exhaust. If I get a good place to work in the winter, I'll try to fit it in somehow. If not, I'm going to satisfy with a xr3i ex-manifold. Not the best choise, but much better than the 1.4 thing now. The gearbox is still the same 4 speed with 3.84 and it's kinda lame for this engine. The acceleration sure is goooood, but the top speed is limited to ~170km/h @ 6000rpm because it just doensn't rev more. Not even in a downhill. The gearbox also feels like it's at the end of it's life, a lot of klonk-klank -noise when changing gears during full throttle acceleration etc. Well. Hope it'll last this summer :-) Also installing the 5spd gearbox will be under investigation depending on the wintertime possibilities. Tomorrow I'm going to get me a '89 1.4 CVH mk2 95000km (For free :-DD)) and take the gearbox+linkages (and of course some other stuff, like driveshafts) from it so I'll have everything I need if I some day start the 5spd project. That reminds me. I still haven't finished fixing the 5spd box I got with the 1.6 engine.. The modifications made earlier to the front suspensions seems to be even more useful than I understood before. Even with this engine the wheels don't slip almost at all in a normal full throttle acceleration. Haven't tried (yet) but I think with a radical use of the clutch some excessive slipping could still be achieved :-)

I think this is about it for now. For the rest of the summer I don't have any plans, so if nothing fails, I'll just drive around the town. Later this week I'll have a friend of mine install a lambda sond to allow monitoring the mixture, but I ain't going to get my hands dirty on that :-) Maybe I'll do something to the suspension (the wheels still don't fit due the offset of the rimms) and get the wheel angles done, but that's about everything.

And some pics of the '89 I'm going to get spares next wknd..

...and got that done too. Got the stronger driveshafts from it, took also everything else from the front axle (if I can't get the new shafts to fit with '76 parts) and found also a thicker stabilizer bar from the rear. Mk1 uses 12 (which I have) and 14mm thick, and this one seems to be 16mm. Going to sell the 1.4 CVH tomorrow and most of the interior next week. I also too the Ford original sunroof, but I think I'm just going to sell it to someone. Oh. And of course, got the 5spd gearbod & gear linkage from it too. And a new looking radiator and some other misc parts.

After driving ~2000 kilometers this summer, I got the first fault with the car. The evenings have gone darker towards the end of summer, and I noticed the lights were very bright. I thought that the driving lights just were so good, because they look almost as new and so on. Then I noticed the the instrument cluster lights dimmer didn't work as it should've, but I thought it was only broken. Then I had a little trip of 80 kilometers there and back, and noticed a strange smell. I thought it was the gearbox oil that was leaking a bit, and thought it just leaked more as it gets hotter. Drove a few days more, and I noticed the smell after even smaller drives. After driving to Hamina, ~25 kilometers @ 3500rpm (that phucken final drive :-/) I stopped and had to wait for a friend for a while, I decided to check to gearbox for increased leaking. I opened the hood, looked down below and saw nothing. Then I noticed something really wild. The battery was smoking. OMG! I instantly knew what had happened. The voltage regulator had blown and the charging had to be something between 16-18 volts. I've had the same problem many times before (well, not the smoke) with other cars, so there was no doubt about that. I almost paniced thinking the battely would blow, but then I realized that it had been doing that for a while now, so propably nothing to worry about. I let it cool down, started the engine and measured the voltage. Yep. 16.7-18 volts depending on the rpm. After that I drove slowly to home, and planned to change the regulator next day. The next day it didn't start at all any more. With jumper cables I got it running and drove to the garage. The battery was totally dry, and I thought that was it for that battery. Nevertheless I added two liters (!) of water in it, and after that it started again like there hadn't been any problems ever. Of course I still changed the regulator :-) The reason for this problem - now and before with my previous mk1 cvh - is the heat that comes from the exhaust. A normal 1.0/1.1 OHV has only one downpipe from the exh.manifold, but with all CVH engines having a dual downpipe, there should be a steel plate to isolate the heat. Why don't I have it? Dunno :-)

The gearbox also leaks a bit more than before, but since the gearbox feels like it at the end of it's life and I 'need' to drive a maximum of only 1000 kilometers this summer anymore, I won't do anything about it.