2redrovers

hope the turbo build goes well. Been looking into this for ages now.
I've seen Mike a few times, yes he still has the hard to find stuff.
Still does T04-60bs if you want.
Theres a few videos in the stickies in the turbo section on here.
A few builds he's done have Garret 3576. One member tried the 3582 as well but was doing strip runs.
A 3576 matches reasonably well by the numbers so something with a similar map should be good.
You can always adjust housings or waste gate designs to get a bit more if needed.
 
Something I did up a while ago. Redline is revs to psi effectively. 
Borgwarner matchbot for the win on the maths.

 

I bit the bullet, ordered a PULSAR Next GEN PSR3582 XR6 turbo with the wastegate set to 11 PSI, under a grand with shipping, will need to adapt a manifold as it a T3 turbo but should be easy enough to do.
 
Now to collect the rest of the bits I need.
 
Hopefully it'll all hold together to make 350ish HP without killing the T5🤣
 

So I spoke with Mike Vine turbos today, a very interesting conversation, seems they still have a few parts left over including a few exhaust manifolds, mainly to suit the iron head crossflow but they believe they have a few AIT manifolds in storage to suit the later Alloy head engines.
 
Not sure if I'd want to go the iron head route...they are so damn heavy compared to the alloy head and even the old log head.
 
Up side of going with an iron head, I can get the Manifold for a T4 turbo for around $350,
I can get access to a rebuilt iron head with big valves for less than a grand, and lastly I still have 2 and 4 barrel cain manifolds left over from my old cortina project, along with a lot of other bits to suit...
 
Shame the head is so damn heavy....

I was thinking of a toned down version of this.
 
The Pulsar G42-1200 seems to be extreme overkill in my case...I dunno if the 750 quickfuel would be necassary either as I'm chasing roughly half the power, but I love the idea of this car.

an exa turbo on a 1.8litre revving to say 6000rpm ish probably at 7psi is probably comparable to a crossflow on 4psi revving to 4000 ish ..
is probably how they came to do those types of kits, 

they'd been a big low/mid range boost and not be too taxing on the stock drivetrain or require brake upgrades most likely. 

if they wanted to make power, they'd have needed different everything
 

@Thom any thoughts on VCT heads, AU tickford heads and the XG head above?
 
is the head even a restriction with a stock ish cam?

Thom's thread is the business when it comes to those motors. Might even find the answer to your first question in there somewhere too.

Thom's thread is the business when it comes to those motors. Might even find the answer to your first question in there somewhere too.

650hp hard on been beaten to death now & the big head seen reason after multiple repeated Google searches coming to the realization that the budget even though very generous was going to explode 💣 into the stratosphere🤯 BUT 😅 there's been a compromise 🌠 3v CHI 60cc 185 Heads/single plane 6.3" manifold 💥...
 
And in other breaking news whilst that was all developing the XFV8 Fairmont had been in the shop getting the infamous rusty plenum sorted,windscreen in & out,painted all for a mere $1250 NZD.
 
Bonus the photos uploaded, goal is being able to close my bonnet, the way I see it I've got to the top of carburetor rod to play around with for height & probably a smaller diameter air cleaner 

http://www.ozfalcon.com.au/index.php?/topic/1233-thoms-40l-thread/&
 
Been reading this thread, very interesting read indeed.
 
Seems all I need is an EF XR6 head to build thoms combo, got all the rest of the parts, pretty sure the XG cam is the 91DA cam spoken about in the thread.
 
Would come pretty close to getting the XB into that magical 13 seconds bracket I'm chasing.
 
 

I'd rather fit new boots to old original ball joints and tie rods if they aren't sloppy, even if they had done 30,000kms .  
Idler arms never lasted on My cars, used to need one every year regardless of type/brand. 
use rubber (Mackay brand) on everything except sway bar and shocks (use nolathane for them for a performance improvement) 
 

The market for parts seems to be dictated by the demand, hence why VW parts have an OEM quality available due to it's worldwide and popular status, and not quite the same for some of our Australian manufactured cars in particular... and i would assume the same for these hollow tie-rods, and some manufacturers of these are about making money, not quality, and stuff the safety of the purchaser!
I purchased over $500 worth of front end and miscellaneous items (for XG van) from RC and am satisfied with what I got (no tie-rods needed).
 
Disappointing to not receive feedback on the flares, seeing as you used an actual torana for fitment... I thought they were👌

Glad it seems to be getting somewhere finally

this has more to do with the rounded tyre edge to My understanding (vaguely remember it being explained in the motorcycle license ) 
 
pretty interested in this escort problem though, after an annoying vibration for so long, i'd take the tyre wear anyway (assuming it's not doing heaps of km, wear might not be a concern)

Yep so that alignment spec was given to me by Warren Heath. Based in Colac, he specialises in engine building and vehicle setup. 
 
He said to me something that most aligners do wrong, is run toe in or zero toe. Toe in gives more stability for everyday driving, but running negative camber, you should always run slight toe out to counteract the camber when cornering. 
Given I had the wobble getting worse while cornering, and now it seems almost dead smooth, starts to make sense. 
Warren’s way of explaining it was this;
 
” OK.  
For a start, you CANNOT run any toe in at all.   Wheel alignment people toe in to compensate for negative camber, it's the wrong thing to do.   If you think about a push bike, when you lean to one side  you have to push the handle bars the opposite way to get the bike to steer straight whilst leaning.
Exactly the same principle applies with a car.  You need to toe out with negative camber to get it to steer nicely.  Some wheel alignment guys will argue otherwise but it is 100% correct.
To rectify it for a start without complicating you with checking possible geometry and bump steer issues (that's a bit more complicated and probably discussion for another time) would get another alignment done.
If you can try and give it a little more caster (3.5-4 deg), but if you can't leave it at 3.
Set your toe to 1.5-2mm TOTAL TOE OUT.
Then drive that around and see how it feels.
Will it scrub the insides of the tyres? yes a little.  Just give them regular rotations.  Mine has almost 4 degrees negative camber and is still pretty good with tyre wear.”

So i have worked off his advice, and in the short drive i did tonight, it has improved greatly. 
 
Warren was pretty confident it would. Stating if it doesn’t help, he would take the car on himself for a couple of weeks to check geometry etc. 
 
so ill keep you posted when I get to drive it properly in a few days

Well well well, some good news. 
 
Today I finally got around to setting up to do the front end alignment on the Escort. 
I remeasured the caster 3 or 4 times per side before making any adjustments. its hard to get it dead accurate on the driveway because of any slope or fall. so the camber tool has to be calibrated to the driveway using a spirit level. 
I ended up not changing anything with the caster or camber because i was getting readings slightly different to my last post, but they were reading the same each side now. 

** when i was looking into info on doing the alignment, I read on a forum that at the end of the day it doesn't matter which (of a few) methods you use, as long as the end result gives the same answer side to side** 
 
So according to today's dimensions, I have ended up with around 3.75 degrees positive caster both sides. around 1.5 degree negative camber. 
 
once I locked in those figures, I set up the string light for toe. which is very fiddly getting that exactly right but once its set up its very easy to measure toe angle. I dialled in roughly 2mm of toe out as recommended to me. 
 
Once all set, I took it for a drive for about 20 minutes. no freeway driving, so nowhere I can (legally) do 100km/h. but I did give it a run right up to 100km/h a couple of times (where i felt i could get away with it) and so far, the issue seems to be mostly sorted. 
even cornering at that speed, no wobble, or very little, and cruising at 80km/h, its gone. i wont get a chance to drive it on a freeway for a few days, and take it for a proper drive, but its looking pretty good at this stage. 
The alignment is now dialled in to the nearest degree, and i think thats what it needed. just a really precise alignment done purely by hand, not machine. 

Yeah I prefer not to use most of the resto parts available, just no quality control involved. The kombi parts I got were good but I made him buy the specific brand which is oem quality.

Those flares just about killed me to make, cost me a fortune in time on them and in the end I heard nothing back whatsoever so I have no idea how close they were for actual fit on the car. 🤷🏻 One can only assume they were either acceptable or considered trash by the installer.... Who knows...

Yeah Roger that...
A friend does high quality body restoration like yourself and has purchased rust repair sections from RS and ended up making his own due to not lining up well enough...
 
P.S. I really liked the metal torana bolt on flares you made a while back!

I have only used repair panels supplied for jobs and some trim bits. I have no experience with hardware parts. There's a raft of places that RS and resto country gets their stuff from too, so it's hard to say that one retailers parts are good or bad. Once it was suggested that resto country took a bit of care picking out the better stock to sell but i have no knowledge if that's still a thing. Panels I got tended to be slightly better but it could have been the luck of the draw.

They get some of their stock from rare spares suppliers but not sure on the mechanical parts.

bump.. for new members of late 
 

The tyres are old. all of them need replacing. but the 15s on the front at the moment have not been on the car for a couples years. been in storage, so no flat spots. 
 
Regardless of whether the wheels/tyres are the issue, once i have this mostly sorted, I will be replacing whichever set of tyres for the wheels i decide to keep on the car. 
 
I don't believe its tyres. 
 
Since my last post, I have dialled in the caster and camber, although it is not 100% yet. 
Currently the settings are;
 
Castor: 
LHF: 4.8 degrees + (have not adjusted) 
RHF: 4.2 degrees + (up from 2.5 degrees+) 
 
Camber:
LHF: 1.5 degrees - 
RHF: 1.5 degrees - 
 
**these are not super accurate as I am using a basic bubble degree tool to measure** 
 
Since dialling in the castor and camber, the steering has gotten lighter. I have only driven around the immediate block, as the toe angle is still yet to be set. 

FUNNY! 
because that style of toe plates are very cheap and very available on the market. there are even some like that, that are designed to bolt to the hub in place of the wheel. it means the car must be on axle stands on the suspension so the geometry is correct before doing toe. but those plates do exist. 

I looked into the Bangin' Headlights that people rave about, excellent light and look original, but, at around $250 they can shove that......I ran Narva relays on new sealed beams, made a heap of difference. 

I may have missed it, but how old are the tyres? or more importantly how long as it been parked in one spot on them?
My van had out of balance type vibration when i got it, tyres were flat spotted from being parked years,(never came good from driving) and I'm betting the same will be the case again for My gemini and van again because they've basically not moved for 5yrs (sadly tyres are almost new wear wise)
I've got ones that haven't been on the car that i'm hoping will be fine on another set of wheels for the gemini. 

is it worth trying 2 new tyres? that's My short version of the above.