MK3 2.0 16v road rally car build thread

This months update. It's back on the road ish...

After fitting the front anti roll bar upside down, I removed it and put it on correctly and tightened everything up last night. Took it for it's first run up the farm track and it feels good. The front end is nice and tight and considering the engine's not been run for months it went well once it was warmed up. Bilsteins are on, strut braces on, 288 with EBC brakes on, goodrich braided hoses on.

List of things to do next are:
-Braided fuel lines to go inside car
-Hydraulic handbrake to make up and fit and brake lines to be routed inside car
-Navigators strip light to go in
-Roll cage padding
-Battery isolator
-Harness plates / eye bolts to put in to the tunnel for the inner lap belt

Interior as required for road rallying to go back in (carpets / headlining) and then it's not far off. Hoping to do the Holrus Rally in Newtown in August in it after doing a couple of 12 cars to get it settled down.

Will get some pictures up later on.

 

Was wondering if this thread is alive, lots have happened since the last update.

Will get some photos up tomorrow.

 

Annual update time....

Seat brackets in place

Interior going back in

LED strip lights for navigator

Another interior shot

New headlight looms using ceramic bulb connectors and Osram Nightbreaker bulbs


Superseal waterproof loom connectors for headlights / spotlights

Hydraulic handbrake (modified MK2 Escort kit from Peter Lloyd Rallying on custom made bracket.


Brake bias valve



Aluminium plated centre console with FIA battery cut off



Not a great deal left to do:

-Aluminium plate to go over glovebox with relays / fuseboxes
-CRU code gearbox with LSD to fit
-Spotlight brackets to make up and fit
-Polybush the rear axle

Few other little things and off for an MOT Christmas week

 

Some more recent interior shots

 

I'm blue da-ba-dee-da-bu-dah. Reminded me of that song, the smurfs, and the interior of a Ford Puma Racing.

Tis coming together nicely, & the interior does look a purposeful place to be!

 

Ha, it's not even my favourite colour.

Quite pleased with the way it's turning out, purposeful is the theme, not interested in how it looks as long as it performs.

Going to do something with the engine in the new year....

 

Good thread. Would a stripped out mk3 weigh very similar to a mk2? Mk3's are probably a better buy for some track action these days aren't they with the original cost of buying the car?

 

Not sure about the weight, not really making too much fuss about making it light at the moment but will work on that in future but I've removed the following and made some impressive savings:
-Rear seat metal frames
-Excess wiring (surprisingly heavy when you add them up
-Alarm (it had two fitted for some reason
-Surplus interior trim (road rally cars have to have all major interior trim left in, so carpets, headlining, door cars etc but these can be omitted if they can't be refitted because of safety equipment such as roll cages etc). I've put the carpet back in, the rear section of the headlining and that's about it, the rear 1/4 panel cards won't go back in with the cage in place.

It should be quite competitive in the type of rallies it's going to compete in, a couple of ABF MK2s are doing quite well at the moment.
Going to fit the CRU gearbox with and LSD and drop that in in the new year, will get some in-car videos up when that's done.

 

I paid 280 for the original car as an MOT failure, will add up the cost one day of getting it ready but it's still cheaper than buying a MK2 as they are going for strong money these days.

 

Your using the OE handbrake for hydro?

I would have put in a seperate lever for the hydro handbrake. Vertical lever, nice easy reach to grab

 

It's not allowed, to get through Road rally scrutineering the original handbrake has to work on the cables when the cars inspected, hence the split pin in the hydraulic lever so it can be disconnected for testing. It's set up so the cables work in this state but when it's connected you only have to pull the lever up less than half an inch and the rear brakes lock up a treat.

Upright hydraulic handbrake levers are not allowed.

 

Brief update, had a day off today to get some jobs done, achieved quite a lot.

Heavy duty front mudflaps made using second hand wing as template.


Front driving light brackets - massive thanks to my mate Pete, he makes commercial weighing machines for a living and knocked up these brackets when he had a spare moment, the welding is amazing !


Glovebox and insert removed, fuse panel made from alu sheet mocked up, will be bent and bolted to the dashboard so it can hold the fuseboard and Brantz timer.


Battery isolator cables routed through the bulkhead using electricians waterproof conduits.


Front end dismantled ready for spotlight brackets to be bolted to the front panel.

 

Fitted them up last night:

 

Interesting to see what's doing well in the road rally series this year:

http://rallyroots.com/Border100_Overall.pdf

 

Good to see the progress.
I have a question that you might be able to help with.

I have a Mk2 that was originally a Group N 8v, but is now a 2.0 tall block 16v ABF clone running on hayabusa ITBs.
I might be moving back to the UK and was just looking at the MSA Road Rally regs.

For a twin cam the regs say:

18.2.4. Engines with more than one camshaft per bank
of cylinders may be used providing that they were
originally fitted with fuel injection and that the fuel
injection system complete with plenum chamber and
throttle body is retained unmodified.

And

18.3.1. Fuel injection may be fitted where it was
standard equipment by the manufacturer for that
engine type and where the original plenum chamber
and throttle body is retained for that engine type.

So ITBs are out, but does this mean that I could use an ABF inlet manifold and throttle body, or does it have to be a KR / PL manifold?
I guess that this depends on how picky the scrutineers are, which is difficult to gauge from Canada.
I assume that the spirit of the law is to keep noise down by making people use properly made and silences induction systems

anyone able to give some advice?

Ta
Geraint,
currently in Montreal, formerly from Colwall

 

Hmmm, in my opinion it matters if you know the scrutineers or not.

Fairly sure there's a few Mk2 escorts with 2.0 16v duratec engines, running injection of some sort.

Will ask a friend of mine next time I'm out.

Cheers.

Noel

 

cheers!

 

Had a few hours this afternoon so cut the bumper to accept the spotlight brackets and put the bumper back on.

Got out the Karcher and blasted some grime off, now looks like this:



Tomorrow I'm having a day off work and a day on the car, short list to do before the MOT:

Bolt navigators footrest to the floor.
Tidy up wiring looms and clip to the chassis as required
Secure battery isolator cables
Refit trim as far as I can with the roll cage.
Full service / cambelt etc

Then off for an MOT some time next week.

 

Looking quite purposeful

So when is your first event ?