Zetec in S4

[gav]

Hurrah
I've just got my MOT for the new Zetec installation. The combination is a 2 litre zetec mated to an MT75 5 speed box, a bespoke propshaft into a 71/2" Sierra diff, bespoke drive shafts into a Spyder RSC upright kit. 4 pot Caterham brakes on the front and sierra callipers on the back (fantastic handbrake but too much rear braking so I use an adjustable limiter on the rear brake circuit).
I weighed the Zetec and it is about 10 kilos heavier than the Twink.
Its been a tricky install and I had a problem with the clutch that ended up with the engine and box being removed and refitted after the first install which was horrible but now resolved.
I am running an Emerald ECU on the fuel injection which I took off my twin cam but which needed tweaking. I've booked a rolling road session in early July but to get me going, Dave connected into my pc which I had connected to the ECU. I ran up the engine and Dave tweaked the settings from Norfolk - really impressive. He said the previous map was a little lean so he adjusted whilst I changed the revs.
My old twincam wasn't bad at all - it was built by Vegantune before they folded and consistently produced 150 BHP and 127 ft lb on the rollers - but I am greedy and I wanted more. Whilst the TC was fun, the Zetec has been heavily worked essentially to a rally spec so that there is smooth power all the way up the rev range.We are aiming for 220 BHP and 175 ft lb so it will be interesting to see what it produces on the rollers.
I wanted to go to Castle Combe today but the earliest MOT I could get was this morning and if I left now, I'd miss most of the day so I had a little blast on the way home. I am limited to 3,500 revs at the moment until the remapping work is done but the power feels really smooth and there is tons of grunt - fantastic - and the best thing is that these changes are reversible (not that I'd want to revert at this stage) and the external car looks original.
Gavin

[661]

I for one am really liking your work

[Frogelan]

This looks a fantastic job and I am very tempted once I have finished my GTS car to build up a similar spec engine / gearbox arrangement to allow economical road use (for the same car).

Perhaps when you have had time to reflect, you can add a few extra bits of info!

Only suggestion I would make would be to add one of these covers:

http://www.retro-ford.co.uk/shop/conten ... -available

Andrew

[gav]

Thanks Graeme and Andrew

I love the mental challenge of working out how all of the systems sit together in such a confined space. I suspect that I am a frustrated engineer at heart and I've certainly learned a lot during the install.

I did look at the BD type cam cover but it is really heavy as a solid casting. I did toy with buying one and machining it thinner but decided it was a step too far.

I have cheated and have arranged for an alloy zetec cam cover to have the words machined off and crinkle finished. The cover in the photo is a temp plastic one until the replacement is ready

Cheers
Gavin

[john.p.clegg]

"The cover in the photo is a temp plastic one until the replacement is ready "

Cam wheel cover??

How many fingers have you got?

John

[gav]

No - cam cover

Not planning to lift the bonnet for the rest of the year now

[john.p.clegg]

You'll have no need to lift the bonnet any more..

John

[RichardHawkins]

Gavin,

I am still struggling with an MT75 installation. Have you managed to get the gear lever in the original position?

Richard Hawkins

[Frogelan]

Gavin / Richard

Do you both have original type or Spider type chassis ?

Thanks !

Andrew

[RichardHawkins]

Andrew,

I have a Lotus chassis.

Richard Hawkins

[gav]

Mine's a Spyder spaceframe chassis that has the cut out in the vacuum tank for the zetec front pulley

I'll try to post a photo from underneath which may explain it better.

The gear lever is in the original position by use of the Spyder gear lever kit

Thanks
Gavin

[prezoom]

There was a motor mount failure at the WCLM last week on a Zetec equipped Plus2 with a Spyder chassis. The motor mounts were installed in the "upside down" position, but the cutout in the vacuum tank on the chassis was not deep enough and the front pulley contacted the chassis. If, like me, you are doing a conversion on a stamped steel chassis, take into account the amount of drop that can occur with a failed motor mount, and make the cutout deep enough to clear the front fan belt and pulley. I did this, and after seeing the afore mentioned event, am glad I factored in the clearance needed if there was a motor mount failure.

[RichardHawkins]

Gav,

Does the Spyder linkage put the gear lever in the original position as found on an Elan? The only Elan with an MT75 that I have seen has the gear lever nearer the differential than the position originally used in an Elan which is close to the dashboard.

Richard Hawkins

[gav]

I haven't finished underneath so haven't yet tidied up the chassis and touched in scratches but here are some in progress photos of the underneath. The red dots are the waterless coolant that I was tracking because I thought I had a leak but it was an overspill. I have a fair amount of work to tidy up the underside yet but I really want to run the car over the summer so will probably tidy it up over the winter.

My biggest worry at the moment is the proximity of the exhaust manifold to the nearside engine mount. I have wrapped it in a very high temperature heat shield material but I'm still not convinced and I may well get a new manifold made that clears the mount better. I fitted a heatshield against the passenger footwell which works well but annoyingly, there isn't enough space for a heatshield on the exhaust manifold around the mount hence the re-think.

One last job is to drop the anti roll bar link a little more to better clear the sump. Everything else clears nicely.

Richard, if you take a centre line from the lowest dash mounting bolts and measure back from the face of the dash, I make the centre line of the gear lever to be 175mm. I don't have a dimension for the rocket box but presumably you can work back from that.

Hope it helps.
Thanks
Gavin

[Frogelan]

Thank you for the photos.

I can see that this is not just an easy solution without quite a fair amount of thought!

I would be curious to know how easy this is with the standard gearbox and standard chassis...or better still 6 speed Mazda MX5 Series 2.5 and standard chassis

Andrew