Kiwi-E

"On todays episode on Australian Cortina ....."
Ok, work around home has been very busy since starting up Tough Garage. Been doing a heap of work on a MK2 Escort. It pays the bills (for the cortina) so no use complaining.
But I did manage to get some tedious work out of the way and that was to full weld and smooth the turbo merge collector. After Tig welding and MIG welding to fill in small area and then deburring it all, I have a finished product and it looks awesome.
I welded all the inside joins and smooth them off and all the outside also, then made some clearance for the bolts and nuts that go through the flange. Took alot of time, but I'm very happy with how it turned out.





Now, I can move onto full welding of the rest of the turbo manifold. I managed to get a mate who works at Plasmaman, to help out with a custom fuel rail as modding the one I had turned to **** and I wasn't 100% happy with it.

My crossy in the xe seems to love a wee drink aswell. Shes nearly chewed a 5L container of oil so far and its only been on the road less than a month lol. In this time its done maybe 3000-4000km. Still runs good as gold. Its currently done  419,000kays although it had a set of rings and bearings thrown at it within the last 100,000kays.

 
 
The old mans XD ute did over half a million on the first motor before he swapped it out as it was burning a lot of oil. And being a contractors ute that thing did a lot of towing. After the motor swap it got up to 798,000 kays before it got parked up due to rust issues. Need to get it going and do the million i reckon
 
Then there's the crossy in the XE ute hes running at the moment. Just did a head gasket and valve seals on it so hopefully it keeps chugging away.
 
So all up when my cars at home there's 4 crossies floating about. Just a shame they're all slow,...... might have to investigate some boooosst one day

My crossy in the xe seems to love a wee drink aswell. Shes nearly chewed a 5L container of oil so far and its only been on the road less than a month lol. In this time its done maybe 3000-4000km. Still runs good as gold. Its currently done  419,000kays although it had a set of rings and bearings thrown at it within the last 100,000kays.

 
 
The old mans XD ute did over half a million on the first motor before he swapped it out as it was burning a lot of oil. And being a contractors ute that thing did a lot of towing. After the motor swap it got up to 798,000 kays before it got parked up due to rust issues. Need to get it going and do the million i reckon
 
Then there's the crossy in the XE ute hes running at the moment. Just did a head gasket and valve seals on it so hopefully it keeps chugging away.
 
So all up when my cars at home there's 4 crossies floating about. Just a shame they're all slow,...... might have to investigate some boooosst one day

Can still get them shock bumpers that slide onto the shock if that interests you.
If your using polyurethane in your trailing arms then you should not get enough twist to soak up 10mm of clearance. If you want you could measure from the center of the axle tube to your uni-joint pivot. and work out how many degrees it would take to produce 10mm vertical movement on the diff tube. IE, if the measurement is 300mm then it would take approx 3º to move the unijoint 10mm.
If you want want to do the math just print out a big protractor, and draw a line from the center of the protractor through 0º and another at 3º. make both lines the length that you measured earlier and then measure the distance between where each line finished.
 
A good set of poly rubbers should not see you an more than 2º deflection on a car making stock to moderate power.
 
Make sure your running a stiff shock if your going low.

I'm planning to lower my car with king springs superlows front and rear and will need to buy new short body (or shortened) shocks. I have done a bit of research which has given mixed opinions. A lot of people say go for Koni or bilstein but we're talking $800+ and i'm wondering if there it a descent brand that will suit my needs for a fraction of the cost.
 
I'm after a reasonable-ish ride quality ( I understand it will be much harder riding the lower it is). Also i would like it to handle alright just so that its better than stock and gives a nice safe feel. I'm not planning on racing or going real fast around corners but it would be good if it handled well enough to have a wee play every now and then.
 
Things to consider:
A clevo will be going in sometime in the future and so will stiffer front springs
I might do the shelby drop and get a larger sway bar at some point to help improve handling
 
So i want to know is if a cheaper brand of shocks will suit my needs or if i'm better to bite the bullet and go for Koni's etc. I know the story of how the poor man pays twice, and don't want to buy another set after i cheeped out and the first set was shit.
 
Brands i've read a bit about:
 
Cheapies:
Ultima: not that great of a review
Monroe GT: Harsh ride
KYB: we have them in most of the family cars and they perform good, however none are in a lowered application.
UltraKing: never heard of them before but found them on trade em.
 
Dearer ones:
Koni: Good reviews
Bilstein: Good reviews
 
I haven't herd much about Gabriel's either.
 
I will dummy up the springs and take measurements before i order shocks to see how much travel i can get before i get clearance issues or balljoints binding. This will probably confirm if a short body shock is beneficial (guessing it will from what i've read).
 
 
 

Probably the best I have heard off apart from Koni and Bilstein is pedders. Pedders springs and shocks from the reports I have seen are not as harsh as kings springs with standard type shocks (monroe etc) and the pedders shocks seem to be able to handle ok.
 
My wagon is running run of the mill shocks(can't remeber the brand but they are standard). When I had the standard springs in the car they are ok with plenty of understeer when pushed. I then bought a parts ute that had low kings springs ( not even superlow these are one step under standard height) that I swapped into the wagon. It was mainly to get a reading on the installed spring pressure of the springs but I haven't been arsed pulling them back out again. The install of the king springs alone reduced the understeer enough that the back started to get tail happy and I was then starting to get over steer. My tyres were starting to get pretty low( and very old) at this point so I go new tyres. I lost the oversteer cause the tryes gripped a lot more than the old tyres I had on the wagon but the understeer stayed away. BUT with installing the low king springs I have had a couple of instances of the upper control arm hitting the bump stop and bashing it sounds like I have just snapped the chassis of the car, with the standard spring I had never hit the bump stops. There is nothing wrong with my shocks, they still control the car quiet nicely but when it comes to harsh sudden bumps they can't keep up with the king low springs installed
 
So what does this blurb/rant/waffle mean. Good quality short stroke shocks are not just for handling and going around corners fast, they are for general motoring comfort and will help to stop the car from hitting the bump stops when using lower than standard springs. As a bonus you will be able to corner faster but that is because with a good quality shock like Koni or Bilstein controls the car better(Bilstein give a slightly harsher ride than Koni, I have been told this by several people independent of each other). That is what the shocks are suppose to do, so if you skimp on shock quality you are skimping on ride quality it's that simple.

Ultima = Chinese shit!

Monroe are shit, you can have my fronts if you want to see exactly how much they suck
 
From what I've read you're better off going hydraulic rather than gas on an X series, apparently they have issues compressing the gas ones properly IIRC.

Yeah thought that much...
 
This arvo I was putting my 5 yo son in the car while it was running and he decided to jump in the driver's seat and rev the snot out if it when it was still stone-cold. I heard it either hit the limiter or float the valves, one or the other. Hope there aren't any more friggin bent pushrods!

When I changed the stereo in my '82 XE Fairmont Ghia I didn't want to cut or chop anything as it is an original JG32 car with factory manual, which are hard to find these days.
 
Even though this was done along time ago, I had the foresight to understand it may be more valuable as original, the door cards were really good with no holes and the original Pioneer radio/tape-deck was also in good condition.
 
So I sourced pioneer 4" speakers that were chunky enough to handle the new deck output but fit in the front speaker slots. I also found a set of grills that already had broken slats from my old XD and cut & fitted the speakers and kept the original grills and speakers in a box for safe keeping.
 

 
No damage done. They were beefy top of the line 4" 2-way but will be the weak link so had to be replaced once. The second set should last longer since I appreciate my hearing now. 
 
The rears sourced were 6" Pioneer 3-way, again as beefy as I could get that would just bolt into the original headrests, no cut & shut.
Hence my doors and door cards have no holes at all.
 


 
Bit of a shampoo and they should look like new.
 
Next was the deck. Back when I did this the car was a daily and top-of-the-line pioneer still had a tape-deck... and they were so chunky you didn't need a power amp. Thing weighs a ton! It was back in  the QR days before the removable front thing which was so impractical since it weighed a ton. Also has 6-stack in boot so had all bases covered. Just no bluetooth back then. But it still looks period enough with the car and can play cassettes!
 
So I sourced another escutcheon from the wreckers and modified that & spot welded the cage in. The front panel was available new from Fords at the time. The old deck was removed and put in a box for safe-keeping.
 
 
New deck fitted...

 
Cradle without deck...

 
As far as cassette decks go this one is the most advanced, even searches a tape but that will wear the heads, so best to just FF>>.
Radio has superfringe too & BSM for country/interstate travel. It just goes off for a radio tape/deck era machine & has full remote & CD stacker for more modern stuff.
 

 
All the wiring was done with XE Ford connectors with easy access. The whole escutcheon can be removed in a couple of minutes with no swearing or cursing. It would not take long to unplug & remove this one & replace the original, that was the idea maybe for car shows or whatever.
 

 
The original Pioneer stereo in storage...
 
 

 
So there you go dAVE, no originality upset and reversal in extra quick time! 

Love the fab work mate. You always see new tricks on how someone has made something reading builds like this.  I'll be very keen to see the progress in this one.

Hey man i went through this ordeal 6 months ago over here in NZ. The bottom needle roller bearing is common and i think cost me around $30-$40. However the top needle bearing is a special item that ford got made epically for this purpose as far as i know (happy to be proven wrong).  Its exactly the same as the bottom one however it has a small flange/lip around the top of it that prevents it sliding down in the housing. Try not to stuff it because the bearing shop had a hell of a job tracking one down as it was 'obsolete' according to them. In the end they sourced one from England after making a few inquiries in Australia with no luck. That top bearing cost nearly $300 which is absolutely ridiculous,  i know, but hey what do you do.....  
 
The sector shaft seal is easy to get and the one on the input shaft is just a soft rubber thing to keep the crap out so you can probably just reuse it. As for the ball bearings on the input shaft I reused the old ones so don't know what they are like to get hold of.
 
I had the part numbers for the sector shaft bearings and seal but they are back at the old's. If you get really stuck i could try get the old man to dig them up for you.
 
Just my 2 cents worth mate.... just don"t wreck that gold plated bearing.....

Hey man i went through this ordeal 6 months ago over here in NZ. The bottom needle roller bearing is common and i think cost me around $30-$40. However the top needle bearing is a special item that ford got made epically for this purpose as far as i know (happy to be proven wrong).  Its exactly the same as the bottom one however it has a small flange/lip around the top of it that prevents it sliding down in the housing. Try not to stuff it because the bearing shop had a hell of a job tracking one down as it was 'obsolete' according to them. In the end they sourced one from England after making a few inquiries in Australia with no luck. That top bearing cost nearly $300 which is absolutely ridiculous,  i know, but hey what do you do.....  
 
The sector shaft seal is easy to get and the one on the input shaft is just a soft rubber thing to keep the crap out so you can probably just reuse it. As for the ball bearings on the input shaft I reused the old ones so don't know what they are like to get hold of.
 
I had the part numbers for the sector shaft bearings and seal but they are back at the old's. If you get really stuck i could try get the old man to dig them up for you.
 
Just my 2 cents worth mate.... just don"t wreck that gold plated bearing.....

Hey man i went through this ordeal 6 months ago over here in NZ. The bottom needle roller bearing is common and i think cost me around $30-$40. However the top needle bearing is a special item that ford got made epically for this purpose as far as i know (happy to be proven wrong).  Its exactly the same as the bottom one however it has a small flange/lip around the top of it that prevents it sliding down in the housing. Try not to stuff it because the bearing shop had a hell of a job tracking one down as it was 'obsolete' according to them. In the end they sourced one from England after making a few inquiries in Australia with no luck. That top bearing cost nearly $300 which is absolutely ridiculous,  i know, but hey what do you do.....  
 
The sector shaft seal is easy to get and the one on the input shaft is just a soft rubber thing to keep the crap out so you can probably just reuse it. As for the ball bearings on the input shaft I reused the old ones so don't know what they are like to get hold of.
 
I had the part numbers for the sector shaft bearings and seal but they are back at the old's. If you get really stuck i could try get the old man to dig them up for you.
 
Just my 2 cents worth mate.... just don"t wreck that gold plated bearing.....