Mk2 2.3 Duratec

[John Hall]

Classic Ford Show at Santa Pod

Escort is taxed.
Cleaned, polished, fuelled up and ready for the 6am start from Glyns house.
Who ever is going, see you there.

John

[Miniliteman]

Good to see you the car is ready John, have a good trip.

Leon.

[John Hall]

Those of you that do not know the car broke down with a suspect rear gearbox oil seal failure about 25 miles from Santa Pod on the day of the Classic Ford Show.

See Robs "missing in action" thread for more info….

http://bbs.rallyesportescorts.co.uk/...ad.php?t=27595

When I tried to remove the propshaft from the rear of the gearbox, it became more apparent that it was more than an oil seal failure. It took about an hour with a club hammer to get the prop to come off of the spline. This is what it looks like.



This is the result of the white metal bearing over heating, seizing and then spinning in the tail housing. I bought the gearbox that needed reconditioning from a guy that had it in a 500 bhp Serria RS500 Cosworth running on slicks, that he used for 0 to 60 launching competitions etc. The gearbox was reconditioned before I built up the car, but they never replace the white metal bearing because it never fails.

After the gearbox was repaired with another tailhousing with a checked bearing and new rear seal. The installation angle (white metal bearing is oil gravity feed), propshaft length, running clearances and run out were checked and found to be OK.

The only conclusion for the failure is the stress that the gearbox was under when it was being used for 0 to 60 launching competitions and the tail section / bearing was out of alignment.

The car is now running and I drove it to the Ford Dunton Employee Vehicle Enthuisasts Day yesterday, which is about 10 miles with no problems. I now need to drive it for a longer run as it failed after about an hours motorway driving.

John

[mike77cos]

Fingers crossed all will be ok mate

[pushrod]

What a real let down. Hope the universal on the prop hasn't got overheated!

Lovely motor.

All this mapping and emulation is just clean over my head.
WTF is emulation?
What sort of horse power are you predicting/hoping for?

[Mogsmex]

just to unearth this thread from the back pages

John's car is now all up and running and going very well indeed

it was the subject of an article for Retro Ford on saturday with the pics taken at Ford's Dunton test track where me and John work, I took a couple of pics of the day that I thought I would post on here for you lot as a little teaser before the mag comes out, I have seen some of the originals that Simon the photographer took and they look the doggy's doo daa's



sheltering under the essex group gazebo getting it's hair and make up done before the shoot




the banking



John being photographers mate


looking foward to seeing the mag

[John Hall]

Firstly. A big thanks for Glyn helping me on the photo shoot, which involved a lot of car pushing and not much driving.

Here is the link to the photographer Simon's web site with some of the pictures he took on the Dunton test track.

http://picasaweb.google.com/Evosico/...0081319?pli=1#

A colleague at work said I should get the car featured in a magazine, but after getting the car running and then the gearbox / propshaft failure and then missing every car show this year due to a never ending list of gremlins. I entered the car in the employee vehicle enthusiast's day, drove the car home threw a dust sheet over it and did not go near it for two months.

It was Simon contacting me about doing a magazine article after he saw my car posted on the Passion Ford web site about the employee vehicle enthusiast's day that got me fired up about the car again.

First on the agenda was some wide open throttle / high load mapping as the engine done enough running for this to be possible. With the fuelling and spark maps now tuned, the engine is starting show it full potential. So good that the clutch started to slip at wide open throttle in forth and fifth gear. The mapping session was stopped at this point as the maps were good enough for the photo shoot. The clutch will have to be up rated before the mapping could be completed, most probably a rolling road session.

Now I have a long list of jobs that need doing to the car and six months to get them all done before the 2009 show season starts.

John

[Mark M]

great read, great car. well done........

[Hoogi]

Fantastic read............what a car

[havard01]

A sexy looking car

[npikey]

Just read this thread and what a job ! looks the muts nuts m8

[Mr Hoarder]

Do I spy my now much depleted can of Autoglym radiant wax polish in that photo

[Mogsmex]

Do I spy my now much depleted can of Autoglym radiant wax polish in that photo

nah that cant be yours as yours was full and that ones empty

[dick_dastardly]

fantastic car

[Lord Lucan]

fantastic love the engine looks like it belongs in there