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Here's some pics for you guys if you don't have Instagram. Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

If your radiator is clean and not blocked then I wouldn’t spend more money on another radiator until I’d finished investigating the bypass and thermostat. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

OK a week after returning from the Alpine Tour, I should give a bit of a run down of the event, which for me was so nearly problem free, nearly Friday, was Officer to Lakes Entrance, via the Gippsland Motor Museum in Maffra. Car ran faultlessly on the first day, other than the brakes being a little vague. So once at the motel I jacked the back of the car up, took the wheels off, drums off and wound the adjusters up a little, to give me a some more brake pedal. During the week leading up to the event, i was worried about a leaky wheel cylinder. well on the friday night, as we pulled into the motel, another member Pete, said he had lost brakes. within minutes of parking he had a pool of brake fluid under the LHR wheel. he had completely blown a wheel cylinder to pieces. I took the wheel cylinders with me that i bought for my car, but he was running a Mk2 diff, so mine didnt work. Thankfully 1 of the 3 Mk4 (imported) Escorts had a pair of wheel cylinders, which happen to be the same as Mk2 wheel cylinders. took about half hour, and a couple mechanics on the tour to have it fixed and driving again. Day 2 started horribly for me. I was taking antibiotics for a week, for a minor infection I had. I took them on saturday morning while eating breakfast as I was supposed to, but for some reason they had an adverse affect on me, and was violently ill, unable to keep food down. Once i stopped bringing up everything id eaten, we got on our way, driving the entirety of the Great Alpine Rd from Lakes Entrance, to Omeo for lunch, where the weather turned sour, and it was a very wet (but so much fun) run up to Mt Hotham. We got some nice (wet) photos then headed down the hill to Harrietville. Our club photographer went down the road a bit to get some rolling photos of the cars coming through. We eventually got into thick fog, so much so we couldnt see anymore than about 10m in front. we rolled into Bright at around 2:30pm saturday arvo, found the accommodation and got fuel. my car averaged 10L/100km, no matter how hard I drove it. A group of 8 cars decided on the Saturday arvo, to do a "Rebel's Tour". An extra loop, from Bright, up over Mt Beauty, then along some fantastic flat farming roads to a couple of towns over, then back to Bright. it was an extra 120km roughly. On Saturday, spending the entire day in the twisty mountain roads, I very quickly realised that my 1300 was struggling to keep up. I was driving the nuts off the poor thing to keep up. However I was making up for it in the corners. I had stiffened up the suspension, and had it set just right. I was able to drive the car very fast and stable into the corners, and thats where I was able to keep up with the group (other than the 5 Ford Focus on the trip, 3 being RSs). The "Rebel's Tour" I found a few limits of the green machine. I ran out of brakes at the bottom of the run down Mt Beauty. Was able to pull it up, but barely. I then got stuck behind a car that everyone else had managed to over take on a straight road, and they were clearly not doing the 100km/h speed limit. So when I got passed I figured id catch up to them, so let the old girl run loose, and sure enough caught them, but topped it out at 140km/h doing so. it had nothing left in it, which is about right for the gear ratios. Day 3, we went for a squirt up Mt Beauty, and return then onto Mansfield, and Yea. The run up Mt Beauty, I purposely went behind Chris in his Mk2 Ghia, Automatic. because he cant drive that thing fast with the auto, and I was feeling guilty after driving it so hard the day before, so i stayed back to give my car a break and just cruised up. on the way down, we ordered all the cars into age, from oldest to newest. oldest being a Mk2 Cortina GT fitted with a Nissan Silvia turbo engine and gearbox. then the 5 Mk1s, Mk2s, Mk4s, Mk2 Focus RS and XR5Ts, Mk4 Focus RS, Fiesta ST Going down, because I was stuck up the front of the line, I kind of had to drive fast, but it was down hill. It was one of the most amazingly fun drives I have ever done. chasing a line of Escorts through some of the best mountain roads was amazing. perfect corners, to the point a number of us (including me) had the inside front wheels lifting through some corners and being perfectly stable. The run from Mansfield to Yea, if anyone has the chance to do this drive, or any of these roads, I highly recommend it. do it in something that corners well Again this road we weren't mucking about, and I eventually had a wake up call, going a tad fast, but I obviously saved it. The road was an incredibly fast, flowing, twisty road. Could see across most of the corners, so we were being a little naughty and using the entire road when we could. I came up to a nice fast right hand corner, at around 100km/h, and at the last moment saw a large, and rough tarmac patch right where I was going for, and was scared it unsettle the car, so jabbed the brakes quickly to wash some speed off. Having already turned in, jabbing the brakes caused the back end to step out, I ran over the patch and sure enough it popped the front right wheel off the road. It certainly made my heart skip a beat, and I backed off a little then. John who was following me had said I was sideways, and he could see daylight under front right tyre. Whoops. In front of me I had our photographer in his Mk1 RS replica. with a big big HP 2L Pinto. approximately 200BHP at the flywheel. so in a straight line he took off like a rocket. but in the corners he couldnt get away. and I had a number of guys over the course of the weekend tell me how good my car went round corners, and how fast it was in the corners, which i believe to be true, being able to catch most guys in the corners. The rain set in on us when we got to Yea, where we all parted and went our own ways home. this is where I finally come unstuck, and had my only break down for the weekend. It got so heavy, mixed with strong winds blowing debris, that visibility dropped down to the point i lost sight of the car in front, even with this lights on. My wipers couldnt keep up anymore, so I pulled into a side road to wait out the rain. as i pulled up, the car started to cough and splutter, so I kept going because under load the car was fine. after about 10 minutes the rain cleared, and I started heading down hill into a small town, the speed limit dropped so I got off the throttle. the engine backfired, and died on me, at 90km/h, i managed to roll down the hill into town and into a servo on the right hand side of the road without and engine. The issue? the rain was so heavy id drowned the dizzy and i didnt have any WD40. so i dried out the cap as best i could. got it to start finally, then a group of the guys went passed and saw me with the bonnet up. I took off after them, with it missfiring. eventually the engine heat mustve dried out the dizzy and it came good. This is the sort of trip, id love to do with the X series falcons, but less twistys. more highway kms. the guys are all amazing bunch of blokes. I was the second youngest on the trip. most of the guys are middle aged blokes with too much money haha. the car survived a good 1000+km comfortably. these are a coupe of pics from Mt Beauty, on my Mavic Pro drone.

I can relate to some points you made there, perhaps to a lesser extent but valid all the same. A stock, all-iron clevo with all the other heavy shit that goes with it does make for a lardy beast, especially with a dual system, FMX or toploaders and 9" but suspension can be tuned around that to a degree. It would easily add 150 kg to the car. Engine-for-engine, the Clevo outweighs the alloy Crossy by about 80Kg. Running hot: mine is really not bad in that way, and my cooling system is nothing special. Alan Moffat said that his XY ran nice and cool even with that beer carton sucked into the front. I think the later smogged-up black motors with retarded everything had trouble in that area particularly with AC fitted. Low comp open chambers didn't help either. They can benefit by bumping up base timing by heaps. You can hear it in the exhaust. Much more clean and mellow. People also piss off the vac advance but that's not a smart move. That is your cruise efficiency gone in an instant. Fuel consumption: sure there are many accounts of how badly these things drink (302 and 351) but remember this design is a de-tuned race engine, and this especially can be said of the 4V. Go shoving in a big stupid cam and the low-rpm efficiency goes out the window, more so than usual. These engines need to be built differently from your Chevs and Windsors. The closed chambers handle good comp, so you should take advantage of that. Using stock intake and an average carby, I'd get consistent 15s to the 100, occasionally dipping into the 14s. Not too bad for an old clunker. Crossys tend to get around the 12 mark, 11 on a trip, EFI maybe 10s, high 9s. Crossys , being a long-stroke motor compared to the short-stroke clevo (especially 302), gives them great low-rpm torque, which is where you spend most of the time when you're not giving it some welly. The clevo doesn't really come into its prime until above 3000, which is also where it will start to drink. All that said, Ford dumped them for a reason... they were just too hard to get day-to-day efficiency out of.h Sent from my CPH1903 using Tapatalk

I've comitted to the blow through setup. Have ordered a aussiespeed manifold and a programable MSD 6al. Going for a simular setup to in the above pics. Might even look at throwing a cam at it at some stage. I am currently looking at the Quickfuel 650 blow through (SS-650-BAN) and the 650 Mighty Demon blow through (5282020BT) The demon being the cheaper of the two. I still need to choose a suitable fuel pump and rising rate regular too. Sent from my SM-G920I using Tapatalk

Why did you hate your Clevo.? I've had heaps of them, and always walked away with a chubby.

we were all carrying spares, tools, and some luggage. I had oil and water as well, and yeah i was riding a little low in the back haha. On the friday night we do this thing where we sit down and the organisers pose a couple of questions to everyone and we go around the room answering them, and introducing yourself, especially if youre a new face. well one of the newbies, was a police officer haha. man did the room go very quiet when he said that. He then explained he is not a "ticket writer", but rather works in the intelligence department. So in other words if he wanted, he could essentially find out any bit of info he wanted on any of us lol. He drove a heavily modified Focus XR5 Turbo, and when ask if his car was legal, his response, and I quote, "oh fuck no" One of the nicest guys ive ever met, and a fellow cyclist, but on the professional level. incredibly fit. We also had a priest on the trip, all the way down from Newcastle, in his Nissan Silvia powered Mk2 Cortina.

That did the trick lols Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

It was a fantastic trip. I had done the same trip 2 years ago also in the Escort with the VicMini club. But back then didnt have the adjustable front end, or the headers and exhaust done. So it was more enjoyable this time round. Doing this trip has really made me realise how much the engine needs more oomph. For getting around town and doing day trips here and there is great. But it needs more power. I guess it will eventually end up with a 1600 in it, or a rebuilt and warmed up 1300. A good second hand 1600, with a mild cam in it would be ideal cheap power. Could definitely do with a 5th gear as well. A 5th gear would make the car nearly perfect for highway driving. Its comfy enough, its fun, does everything it needs to do, but is loud and revs hard on the highway

Guys I have finally started the Build on my XD. After turning 18 in June last year and finishing school I have found myself an apprenticeship as a electrician. It's been a good 3 months into the build now and you can follow it all on Instagram @1tuffxd302 Cheers Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk