Panko's Mk1 Escort (Round 2)

[Panko 2,481]

well a big step forward today.

 

wait,  i need to go back a step. 

 

yesterday i went to Michael's house to get a throttle bracket, that i was hoping would work for the 32/36 carby. 3 hour round trip to get the bracket and throttle rod, i get home, and no good. 

i woudve had to get a custom made accelerator cable, modify the bracket, and it was just pissing me off and gave up, and removed the manifold and carby again. 

 

this morning, i went to Yesterford in Bayswater, and took the manifold and carby, and spent about an hour there going through brackets and accelerator rods etc etc trying to find something to work. only to realise, the reason i couldn't get get anything to work is because id need a 1300GT setup, which is rare as rocking horse shit. 

 

so plan B.

i ended up buying a rocker cover from a Capri 1600GT, which has the correct brackets spot welded to it, to suit the 23/24 weber (the smaller weber off my dad's old renault) the 23/24 weber also happens to be the right spec for an Escort 1300GT, which had larger cam, larger intake valves, head porting etc plus extractors. My engine is a low-on-compression stock 1300, so maybe running a 32/36 that came from a 2L OHC engine was a bad idea to begin with. 

 

anyway, pretty much going with the 23/24, with the capri rocker cover was very nearly bolt on, minus a couple of minor mods. 

 

new rocker cover ($10 haha) 

 

 

I had to (with dad's permission) cut down the mixture screw on the 23/24, because coming from a Renault, its on the opposite side of the engine. in my case the carby wouldn't go on without cutting it down. Yep its tight, and I can't afford to take it out anymore, but i can wind it in. hopefully the mixtures are close

 

 

and here it is, ready to drive. take note of the bodged up fuel line and vac advance i have to have to sort out tomorrow. Oh and the choke cable is not hooked up yet. its not the right size to go into the choke lever on the carby, so i might have to carefully drill the lug on the choke lever out a bit more to allow for the cable. 

 

 

anyway, i couldn't resist, i ended up plumbing it all up, put coolant in it, checked for leaks and took it for a short drive. i have no air cleaner, on it yet, so i didnt go far...but wow. 

 

it sounds maaaad. i think its better down low in the revs. 

and it revs so much better. I have the shift light set at 5000rpm, and it struggles to get there...not anymore. 5000rpm is nothing to it now  

i also need to put a light throttle spring on, its a little too heavy, but good feel.. can't wait to drive it properly. 

 

edit: i for got to mention. it appears the head has had some work done in the past. if you look at an earlier photo of the head without the intake on, you will see the smooth, nicely machined ports. that, as far as I'm aware is not standard on a 1300 head. 

[Panko 2,481]

video of the car running with the 23/24 (no choke, hence i had to rev it up to keep it running) 

 

[Panko 2,481]

ok video with the 32/36 on the car. albeit i never got to drive it with this carby on. 

 

[SPArKy_Dave 8,881]

video of the car running with the 23/24 (no choke, hence i had to rev it up to keep it running) 

 

 

Are you sure you don't have hidden triple webbers on it somewhere?.....

[dex 2,065]

Is there room inside the rocker cover and valve gear , to " dimple " a dent with a ball pien hammer to allow the mix screw some room

[Panko 2,481]

Is there room inside the rocker cover and valve gear , to " dimple " a dent with a ball pien hammer to allow the mix screw some room

I sat the carby on wirhout the rocker cover, and mixture screw falls between 2 rockers, albeit very close to one. I might just be able to if need be.

[Panko 2,481]

Are you sure you don't have hidden triple webbers on it somewhere?.....

I wish but no. On the road it certainly isnt deep enough sound for triples. However, i did pay a visit to Weber Performance in Braeside today to get the correct spacer.

 

I swear my jaw is still hurting from how hard it hit the ground. Id love to work there.

 

Walk through the front door, and there is a wall covered in genuine Weber performance manifolds.

 

On the work bench in the middle of the show room was a set of triples off some straight 6, the trumpets near big enough to fit my clemched fist inside...friggin HUGE.

 

Lucky lucky bugger the guy who works there...on his own. Such an awesome workshop too. Had his XU1 GTR Torana race car in the workshop, mezanine, hoist, and super super tidy workshop.

[Panko 2,481]

so today i got the weber setup finished. 

 

sorted the choke cable, sorted out the bodged up fuel and vacuum lines. and took it for a proper drive. 

 

 

 

it looks so slow in the video, but when i backed off i was doing about 90km/h 

 

[deankxf 20,290]

sounds great! sounds faster than My gemini, but still not sure

 

 

i remember seeing a turbo EFI 1300 escort once.. might loose the induction roar though

[Panko 2,481]

well the Ford KA use the same engine as in my Escort, but with EFi, and turned east/west...sadly making no more power or torque than my 1300 when it was new. so it wouldn't be hard to inject and turbocharge a 1300. and the turbo manifolds are available. 

[Panko 2,481]

haha I've just watched my video again a couple times. it sounds like I'm short shifting the whole way...well i kind of am, but not at low RPM. each of those gearshifts were at 5000-5500rpm. it sounds like its barely spinning in the video LOL  

[Panko 2,481]

I took the car into work last friday, then onto Cal's after work. 

i was loving driving it into melbourne on the freeway...because of the torque its now got, every time the traffic slowed down a bit, it was enjoyable putting the boot into it to get going again, and hearing the induction noise ahaha. 

after work, headed up to Cal's, and the traffic was stuffed. sat in stop start traffic for about an hour. it should've only taken the whole trip from melbourne to Cal's 30 minutes. 

anyway, while sitting in traffic, the throttle got rather heavy, and i noticed the car felt underpowered again, so was getting a little worried. and when i got through the traffic again and hit 90-100km/h, something was off. it struggled to hold 100km/h, so i managed to limp her to Cal's house, popped the bonnet to investigate, and i wasnt getting full throttle. i was actually missing out on a lot of throttle, even when pushing the pedal to the floor. hence the lack of power. 

 

we manage to fix it. it was the throttle rod, sitting on an upwards angle from the throttle plate to the carby (because i had to space the carby up) and pushing the little plastic bush the rod runs on, backwards out of the throttle plate. it meant that instead of just rotating where it should be, it was twisting out of line, and only giving me about 75% throttle travel. 

 

i think we have it sorted now though, by carefully bending the throttle plate to match the angle of the rod. 

 

because of the traffic, i stayed up at Cal's for dinner until later in the night. after dinner we decided to take the Escort and his Cooper S for a late night squirt...its the first time i really pushed the Escort hard in the corners, and holly shit balls it sticks to the road. 

i still backed off a bit on some corners, but for the most part, i was confident with it sitting right on the tail of the mini. 

 

so I'm glad it now handles so well, but i really dont like driving it THAT hard. i was giving it the beans, and it took it, but i was pushing it pretty hard. 

[Defective 1,692]

They love it, nothing takes a hammering like an old escort. It's in their dna.

[Mr Polson 10,214]

Should bring it to Tassie, we have real roads not boring highways

 

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[deankxf 20,290]

little cars are so much fun, even if they don't handle well, they feel like they do..

[deankxf 20,290]

Should bring it to Tassie, we have real roads not boring highways

 

Sent from my Pixel using Tapatalk

i agree, the road from Mt Field to Gordon dam was the most awesome road for the gemini..

[Panko 2,481]

Ok so this little grinch continues to fight me all the way, although the next issue that arose wasnt necessarily the cars fault.
I set out to replace the engine mounts, in which i had ordered from the UK, purpose made to convert a 1300 from the stock, square rubber block type engine mounts, which are grafted to the metal engine brackets, to really strong, round rubber/steel mounts, plus new hand made engine brackets. 
Anyway, the first hurdle with these was, on the website of the supplier in the UK, it says that the longer of the 2 rubber mounts (52mm) goes on the intake side of the engine, and the thinner of the two (42mm) goes on the exhaust side. there are also different lengths in the steel engine brackets, and the short engine bracket goes with the long rubber, and short steel engine bracket with the long rubber.

Well, the only way they were ever going to work was by running them on the OPPOSITE side to what they list on their website. so I fitted the exhaust mount, because it took 5 minutes to put in. the following morning started fitting up the intake side mount, which is  a lot more complicated. tried to fit it, and we tried jacking the engine right up, pushing it right over to the exhaust side, to the point where the bell housing was touching the firewall above the exhaust side of the bell housing, and it just wouldn't go, no matter what we tried. 
the only solution, to shorten the brand new engine bracket by 10mm. so thats what i got my dad to do, but 10mm out and re-weld it. this was at about 4:30pm yesterday afternoon. we tacked up the modified mount, test fitted. all good, took it out, welded it up for good, painted it, and by 6:30pm we had it in for good, never to come out again (for now). 

such a frustrating process. so stupid that we had to modify something purpose made for the job  

oh and that wasnt the last of the modifying of brand new parts...*continue reading below* 

 

New tail shaft done 

Its close to the cradle for the old tail shaft but i doubt it will ever touch. 

Had to now modify the new boss kit. 
It has both the euro and non euro bolt pattern for aftermarket steering wheels. however the the notch for the indicator cancellation tab, was central for the euro stud pattern, not the non euro (aus) bolt pattern. I could have left it, but it would mean one indicator would auto cancel, the other wouldn't. so i cut a new slot into the boss kit to suit the aus bolt pattern. 

all in, but not quite finished. ill eventually make an alloy plate that goes where the horn button would normally go so i can double sided tape the original "Escort" centre piece to, to go in the hole thats left from the lack of horn button  
Its not the best suited to the interior, but the best of a bad lot, without spending big big money on a Nardi wheel (which i really really want but too expensive at the moment) 

just a cool photo from saturday night @ PenLink  

and another one from work today. I decided to test drive it to work this afternoon after doing the recent work on it. 

 

 

[Panko 2,481]

so tomorrow I set of at about 630am to head to Moe, for the start of the 2017 Vic Mini Alpine Tour. Over the next couple of days, the Escort will be driven anything up to 1000km, with a good mix of open highway, but mostly alpine roads. 
Today i was doing some final preparations for the trip. 

just checking the throttle as to why it was sticking on me again...

My dad apparently had nothing to do yesterday while i was at work, so he mounted the original "Escort" centre piece into the new steering wheel. 

Boot emptied out, then packed with only the stuff i (should) need 

Interior pic. Steering wheel looks much much better now it has the correct centre piece in  

[Outback Jack 6,352]

Go Panko Go!

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[deankxf 20,290]

got that stuff in the boot secure.. don't want it sliding into the quarter on a switchback in the hills
1000kms in 2 days should find all the things you might want to fix

[Panko 2,481]

Haha dean i checked that every thing is secure. The 13" spare doesnt fit in the spare wheel hole, so the jerry can goes in, which is a perfect fit. The wheel cant move, because the boot floor is resessed. The only thing that might move is the water bottle. But even then, i wont be hammering it, so should be secure. 

Yeah after 2 solid days in it, i may hate it haha. Time will tell. 

[2redrovers 21,400]

Well when you hate it, you can give it to me

[Panko 2,481]

Well we made it to our overnight stop. Mt Hotham. It was a loooong run up, a lot of 3rd and 4th cog and full throttle. It certainly had its work cut out for it. 

 

Its been awesome fun in the corners, i stupidly went too hot into one corner after passing a caravan, and overshot the corner, clearly pushed it passed its limit with stock shocks up front. Its only the front thats letting it down. I backed off a bit then. 

We've done about 500km today (at a guess) first tank of fuel was 9L/100km avg. 

towards the top she was slowing down a bit, and i know thats from residual heat in the engine bay rising, and sucking hot air. Coolant temp is fine though. 

So far so good. I just wish id got the extractors sorted before this weekend. 

[deankxf 20,290]

pics aren't working...
is there snow there?
sounds like an awesome drive day, biggest i did in the gemini so far was 700km .. is the car comfy for long trips?

and which routes did you take?

 

Edited April 1, 2017 by deankdx
which way did you go?

[Panko 2,481]

Wow what a crazy 2 days. 

Day 1 we started in Moe, lunch was Bairnsdale, (last fuel stop for the day) then onto Great Alpine Road all the way up to Mt Hotham. Was working the escort a lot along that run. 

Day 2, we finished at Brown Brother's winery for lunch. Once we departed, we made our way up over the range to Mansfield, another awesome driving road, especially when we only saw a handful of cars in the hour or so to make that run. It was just Cal in his Mini and I now, as everyone had gone their own way to make the trip home. We then went down through Yea, Bonnie Doon, Yarck, etc etc. 

 930km roughly in 2 days. 

The car ran nearly issue free. 

Yesterday, not a single hickup whatsoever. Today, well it started with the zero degrees ambient temperature at the top of Mt Hotham. I tried to start the car, choke on, no good. Throttle on, no good. Choke off, no good. Tried a few times and letting it crank for good period of time, and pumping the throttle with no resolve. Next solution, roll start it..,that didnt work either. I ended up jump starting it off a Mini panelvan, that just a few minutes before I helped roll start haha. It just needed extra cranking power. I assume that the starter was drawing a bit of power from the electronic ignition, giving a smaller spark than required to fkre in such cold weather. 

The dramas didnt stop there. It didnt like the cold weather. It wouldnt idle with the choke on, so i turned the choke off, popped the bonnet and wound up the idle speed  i left it idling for 45 minutes before we set off, and drove it down the road and back a short distance a couple of times, and it just wouldnt warm up. In fact, the entire drive down Mt Hotham the temp gauge didnt come off cold  

Got to the bottom and pulled in to get fuel, and thought my steering was awfully sloppy...my steering wheel had come loose on the splind  that was a little worrying haha. I had just driven half hr, high speed mountain road, with my steering wheel progressively coming loose lol whoops. 

After putting fuel in and parking (on a funny hill) i came back to the car after about 30 minutes to see my fuel tank had pressurised and was leaking fuel back out the filler around the cap. It had been doing so for some time, as there was a trail of petrol through through the car park.  as soon as started the car it stopped. 

After i sorted that, the day was good. Car ran like a dream, and was a joy to drive. 

I got some awesome footage and stills on my GoPro, which ill edit and upload some. 

To answer your question Dean, on the highway, apart from the noise of the engine and exhaust, and a bit of intake, at 4000rpm, its a surprisingly good highway car. Comfortable, smooth...just loud and droney.