Hoses

Every post seems to be starting like this, but it seems you can only find upper and lower cooling hoses in the US.  But there is a company in the UK that makes full hose sets for the MK1 Fiesta XR2, and most of the hoses will fit right up.  I also ordered 3 meters of vacuum line.  Don't bother getting them off of ebay.  They just drop ship from the manufacturer and you can order it there yourself.

Roose Motor Sports makes these to order, in your choice of colors, from silicon or a classic black fabric wrap.  It takes a few weeks to make and another week or so to get it to the US. You will have to pay import duty of about $12, plus the price of the hoses.

Now that the engine is in, I can start mounting all the goodies I've been collecting for the last 2 years.

Engine Installed with Lowering Kit

I got the engine bolted back into Betty today complete with the engine lowering kit.  It went in pretty easy, Just 6 bolts.  I used an engine hoist and a floor jack to steady it in place while I got it bolted up.   I   noticed a small oil leak from the oil pump cover plate.  It's just 3 small bolts and an o-ring so will tackle that next.

Front engine mount

Rear Engine Mount

Transmission Mount

Top Engine Mount

Top Engine Mount

Engine Lowering Kit

 I was able to piece together the pieces to lower the engine by 25mm. A couple notes about this.  There is a special spacer bolt that bolts onto the upper RH engine mount bolt and extend the treads upward another inch.

This custom bolt is built for a 10mm mount.  The US Fiesta had 12mm mounting bolt.  I was looking on ebay at the mounts in the UK, and the bolt just looked smaller, so I questioned one of the sellers and sure enough the upper mounting bolt was10mm.  So I bid on it and won it for about $8.00 + considerable shipping from the UK...although less overall than what US mounts cost from BAT.

I also didn't have both cradle spacers, so I bought a 1" square aluminum bar from metal by the foot, and drilled 2 holes with my trusty drill press.  I thought that it being aluminum, that I would be able to saw through it fairly quickly by hand with my hack-saw...wrong.  If you are going to do this,  have the supplier cut it to length.

Once I got the engine mount, the bolt was about 1/2" too long to seat fully onto the custom lowering bolt.  I just cut off about 1/2" with a hack saw.

You probably won't find an actual mount bolt, but they do make 12mm sleeve nuts in grad 5 and 8 from Granger.  This is the only really custom piece.  The rest of the parts are just hardware and could be simple to fabricate with nothing more than a drill press and a hack-saw.

This will lower the center of gravity, and level out the drive shafts, so that torque steer will be reduced.

$100 Big Brake Kit for the MK1 Fiesta

Everyone who owns a mk1 Fiesta eventually realizes that the front brakes suck. They are too small, the rotors warp easily, and they are thin and unvented. If you can actually find them, the logical thing to do is to source a set of big brakes off a Mk1 XR2 from BAT or the UK. They are engineered to take the beating of a go-fast Fiesta, and they bolt right up if you have larger wheels. But here's the rub, the hanger brackets for the front calipers are as rare as hen's teeth.  Parts suppliers in the UK don't have them, and I dont see them on eBay very often.

So what to do? Well, you could get a kit from Wilwood or Hi-spec from the UK via Burton power, £400-£500, have them shipped, £200, then buy some 15" wheels and tires, $800-$1000 plus shipping, $200...so for $2200 $2500 US, you can make the fiesta stop on a dime.

There is a slightly cheaper option in the states, Kustom Engineering has a kit also for 15" wheels, I think $699 plus shipping, plus wheel costs. So sub $2000.

...or you can do this.
1.) Buy a set of rotors for a 2000 ford focus from your local auto parts store. I paid $26 each.
2.) Buy or source a set of calipers with mounting hardware and brake pads and all the hardware for a 1987 BMW 325is. I found fully loaded calipers(calipers, brackets, pads, hardware) at Rockauto on closeout for $27 a corner. Shipping was only $11.
3.) Find a machine shop and have them mill the brackets so that they center on the rotors when mounted to the Stock Fiesta Hub. I have a guy that will do this for me, and will post cost and amount of the bracket he takes off so you know what to tell your machinist. My guess is the labor will cost me $50-$75.
4.) I haven't mounted these yet, but I think my stock lines will work, if not I'll get some braided stainless lines.

I found this buried in the archives of the US Fiesta enthusiasts group on yahoo groups. If you do own a fiesta, you really should join that group. It's such a helpful resource.

Ok so the parts were $106, plus 11 shipping and I already have 14" wheels, and I will need to pay to have the parts machined. So maybe it will cost $200 all-in. Still, pretty cheap for these massive, readily available parts.

Also, if you try this and they fail, you do it at your own risk and assume all liability. I am not an engineer, and make no claims that this is safe.

Revised power to weight ratio

I incorrectly calculated the power to weight by using the gross vehicle weight.  The curb weight of the fiesta is quite a bit less than that.  I found this spec online for a 1981 UK spec XR2 at an online site  http://www.carinf.com/en/55b046200.html .

So while these numbers are not wrong, the don't reflect the curb weight ratio.

Power to Weight Ratio

GVW
Stock - 63 HP/2690 lbs GVW= 1 HP per 42.7 LBS of Car
Rebuilt - 105 HP/2690 lb GVW  = 1 HP per 25.6 LB of car

Curb Weight Ratios
Stock 63 HP/1766 CW = 1 HP / 28.0 lbs
Rebuilt 105 HP/1766 CW = 1 HP / 16.8 lbs

Fiesta 1.6L Kent Engine Rebuild on the Dyno

The Stock US Fiesta specs out at 63HP @5300 RPM.   With a Formula Ford Intake & Carb, we achieved 110BHP.  Sweet!  lets see what she makes with the carb/manifold that will live in the car.

When we put the Weber 32/34 DFT 9A on with an XR2 intake manifold, we achieved 101 BHP.   However, the dyno numbers showed rich fuel usage numbers.  We drilled out the air intakes on the primary and secondary jets to .170, the Air/Fuel mixture was still running rich...Hmmm.

This run on the dyno had a couple issues.  One, the fuel return line was not hooked up to a meter to subtract the fuel going back to the tank, so we are going back to the stock 155/160 air jet dimensions, and trying it again.  Also we did not have the cold air box hooked up in the dyno room, so we loose power there.  We should get a few HP back with the air box attached...I was told it could get back close to the 110HP mark, but I will assume 1/2 that gain for this power increase calculation.

Now when I took the engine in, and Curtis got it disassembled, he noticed their was a bushing issue that stopped the rotor from fully advancing the timing.  That made perfect sense since it felt like it had about 40 BHP and gave up pretty early.

When we started to examine everything, we discovered .040 of taper in the cylinder walls...so as long as it is apart, lets make it right, ohhh, and add some high compression pistons...and balance everything....and lighten the flywheel... screw it, lets just rebuild it. And so we did.

I cannot wait to get this bolted back into the car and give it a proper thrashing.

105BHP/63BHP = 66% power increase.

Power to Weight Ratio
Stock 63 HP/1766 CW = 1 HP / 28.0 lbs
Rebuilt 105 HP/1766 CW = 1 HP / 16.8 lbs

Engine on the Dyno

What started off as a valve job on a recently aquired ported and pollished formula ford head, turned into a full rebuild with high compression pistons, a GT cam, a new fuel pump, NOS Weber 32/34 DFT 9A (wrong bolt pattern), and a great engine builder in Platte City, Mo.

Farley engines has specialized in building Formula Ford Race engines for years, and was only a stones throw up the road.  What a great resource to have so close.  The Fiesta engine -- 1.6L Kent -- is basically the same engine as a Formula Ford engine and is highly tunable. Farley Engine was able to do every thing I needed done.

So here is where we are at on the dyno

Set up 1: Loaner formula ford intake manifold and carb.  I'll post the readouts when I get them. The Kent was fed a diet of 100+ octane Aviation gas during these tests...they do not have that at the Quick Trip.

110 BHP @ 6800 RPM....

Set up 2: XR2 Intake Manifold, 32/34 DFT 9A ;170 Air Jets

101 BHP @ 6800 RPM, no cold air intake