S4 Duratec Project *The finishing Touch*

[Elanintheforest]

I love the exhaust manifold....a piece of art under the bonnet.

Mark

[ardee_selby]

I love the exhaust manifold....a piece of art under the bonnet.

Mark

Yes, indeed.

Who made it? "Mobius Manifolds"?

http://tomholliday.deviantart.com/art/T ... -171872467

Cheers - Richard

[elansprint71]

I love the exhaust manifold....a piece of art under the bonnet.

Mark

Should keep the driver's feet warm too!

[bcmc33]

I love the exhaust manifold....a piece of art under the bonnet.

Mark

Should keep the driver's feet warm too!

I hope not as it means Alan will have wasted his money.

As a matter of interest, Alan, why did you not go down the ceramic coating route?

[Spyder fan]

Hi Brian,
The manifold is a one-off design crafted to suit the route out it needed to follow and the limited space available. It needed tweaking a couple of times before it fitted in such a way that it cleared vital parts in the engine bay, when I first saw the design I thought "Wow that's going to need wrapping or ceramic coating". Ceramic coating would have been my choice if it wasn't a prototype, but Spyder were still tweaking and altering things right up to the week I took delivery at long last and sending it away for coating would have added another month especially as it was nearly Christmas.

I'm not unhappy with the way it looks and it certainly does it's job, underbonnet temperature is vastly reduced with it in place, maybe next winter I might get it sent away for coating. the wrap extends just beyond the Y piece, so my toes don't get too toasty unless the very good refurbed heater is on!

[Jas]

Allan very tidy and neat looking engine compartment, even the air filter is colour matched

[Spyder fan]

I love the exhaust manifold....a piece of art under the bonnet.

Mark

Yes, indeed.

Who made it? "Mobius Manifolds"?

http://tomholliday.deviantart.com/art/T ... -171872467

Cheers - Richard

Regards

[bcmc33]

I'm not unhappy with the way it looks and it certainly does it's job, underbonnet temperature is vastly reduced with it in place, maybe next winter I might get it sent away for coating. the wrap extends just beyond the Y piece, so my toes don't get too toasty unless the very good refurbed heater is on!

Alan,

The whole thing has the looks of the dogs dangly bits, to me.

I have my manifold ceramic coated and must admit I can't really tell that the under bonnet temperature is any different than before. However, after a trip last year I lifted the bonnet to try to trace the source of an oil leak - and said to myself; "don't touch the manifold". I did, of course touch the manifold, and found it only warm to the touch. So I concluded that ceramic coating does work to reduce surface temperature.

But your wrap does look good.

[Mark B]

Alan, Thanks for the pics mate.
Looks nicely finished off with the stripes now. I think spyder did well to fit the duratec in there, it's a nice neat install. With a powder coated camcover and a nice carbon plug cover it'd just finish the engine bay off imo....

I wouldn't go on dragons den with your bonnet prop though if I were you.....

Btw jannik asked about the wilwoods, they're wilwood midilite calipers. Sean at spyder saw the ones I fitted on my car & asked about them & I believe they are now fitting them as standard on their zetec conversions. They're much nicer and lighter than the cast iron sierra lumps that they used to fit & I guess with sierras being a rare beast now it means one less component to sourch & refurb.

Cheers,
Mark.

[robertverhey]

Been right through this thread and no reference to that great roll bar. What sort is it, what's it cost and could it be fitted to a coupe? Would ease my worried mind considerably!

Robert

[elansprint71]

What's the current thinking at Spyder- will they be offering to do similar conversions, having gained the development knowledge with your car? I think the Duratec has got to be a better long-term proposition for them, the supply of new Zetec engines must be drying up now, although I noticed yesterday someone had eight(ish) in their wrappers for sale.

Anyway, if your feet do get too warm, you could always try this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Py5LwhX8oTI&feature=endscreen&NR=1

[Mark B]

Been right through this thread and no reference to that great roll bar. What sort is it, what's it cost and could it be fitted to a coupe? Would ease my worried mind considerably!

Robert

Robert, it's a spyder rollbar, see here- http://www.spydercars.co.uk/pg2_spy_rollbar.htm

Hth
Mark.

[Spyder fan]

Been right through this thread and no reference to that great roll bar. What sort is it, what's it cost and could it be fitted to a coupe? Would ease my worried mind considerably!

Robert

Robert,
Here's the link to Spyders price list http://www.spydercars.co.uk/spyder_chassis_&_roll_over_bars.htm it's ?775 for the full roll over bars plus carriage to OZ which may not be as much as you think, contact [email protected] for a quote.

Regards

[Spyder fan]

What's the current thinking at Spyder- will they be offering to do similar conversions, having gained the development knowledge with your car? I think the Duratec has got to be a better long-term proposition for them, the supply of new Zetec engines must be drying up now, although I noticed yesterday someone had eight(ish) in their wrappers for sale.

Anyway, if your feet do get too warm, you could always try this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Py5LwhX8oTI&feature=endscreen&NR=1

Hi Pete,
It's a unique car until someone else orders one, I get a royalty for each one they make until the extra over development costs are paid they trial fitted a +2 front end and it worked with that as well so it's an option for the future. There seem to be plenty of new old stock Ford Focus blacktop zetecs available at the moment, but zetecs from the scrapyard with 100k miles plus on them still have the honing marks visible on the bores, so the Duratec thing will probably just be something to do only if you really want to for a while at least.

I know that I didn't exactly get my hands dirty, but I enjoyed the challenge of making this happen and it has a bit of glamour in being unique or at least the pioneer when others get built.

[Spyder fan]

Some boot area (trunk) photo's for Mark B that I finally got around to taking.

With the absence of the fuel tank in the normal position there is scope for being creative. A useful well is formed to the right of the boot area in front of the battery, this will swallow up large bags and also stop loose objects flying around. The spare wheel is a space saver from a Ford Focus, this is bolted to the floor and provides space inside the dish for essential tool storage. Rather than use the original jack I use a compact scissor jack with a wooden saddle that either fits the normal part on the sill or can be reversed to lift on the sill ends. Nothing wrong with the original jack, but it won't fit inside the wheel dish. The cover is made from marine plywood faced with carpet. Perhaps a small cover in front of the battery would finish it off totally, I may get around to doing this on a wet weekend.

The slightly untidy wiring to the boot lid is on the snagging list for Spyder.