Differential

With the handbrake pivot in and connected, we were able to finish off the drivetrain. This meant fitting the diff which had been sitting on the bench finished for some time now. The diff is a 4.1 Subaru LSD. We lifted it into position (easier with 2 people), and secured the two rear bolts. There was an issue with the front mount fouling on the chassis, but this was easily remedied by removing a washer from each side on the two rear bolts, which took the diff back slightly. We then had to lift the front of the diff and insert the 4 alloy spacers and bolts to secure the front of the diff to the chassis. 

All in all, not to hard a job, and only a few cuts on the hands and limited swearing. This then allowed the prop shaft to be pulled back against the diff flange to be bolted up. The prop shaft is secured to the diff by 4 high tensile bolts. This meant the engine, clutch and gearbox are now connected to the diff for the first time. So far so good! Next job was to fit the half shafts. This meant disconnecting the rear uprights, and then tapping the half shafts in to the diff until they clip in. It was then just a matter of feeding the drive splines into the hubs, remounting the uprights, and securing the half shafts to the hub with the hub nut. This requires huge torque to secure the hub nut. We were also able to finish off securing all of the upright rose joints including fitting the R clips. Once we had the wheels back on, the drivetrain is complete from engine to rear wheels. The moment of truth! Does the clutch work properly??

We popped the gear lever in to second and made sure we had everything binding, then Steve pushed the clutch in. If the clutch is actuating properly, I should now be able to spin the prop shaft and diff independently from the engine. But it didn't spin!!!!. With a sinking feeling of having to remove the engine and gearbox again to correct the clutch we stood silently. It then hit me that maybe the clutch plate had frozen between the pressure plate and flywheel, as it had been sitting in that state for some while. So again Steve depressed the clutch and I rocked the prop shaft back and forward. After a bit of grab, it spun freely!!! The clutch appears to work and is correctly adjusted. This means we have everything now connected and working from the motor back to the rear wheels. A huge step forward and a very satisfying job in only 3 hours.

Once again, this job could not have been achieved without the assistance of Steve (see foot to the left) who added the extra muscle and brain power to get this task finished relatively painlessly (he got cut hands today). I will ask him nicely tomorrow if I can post a photo of his Birkin up here so people can see what a real one looks like (finished!). 

Slowly but surely, the collection of parts on the floor in boxes, on the shelves and in the cupboards and drawers around the garage is finding its way on to the car, as we edge closer to engineering and rego.

Ignition

As the original Focus ignition won't be used (just the PATS reader), I needed to find, buy and fit an ignition barrel and steering lock. After lots of questions to other Clubbie drivers I was pointed to Repco to get a replacement Nissan barrel. The actual part is a NIC301 from Nice Products. It has a 33mm housing which fits perfectly onto the Birkin steering column and the steering lock works a treat (perfect for ADRs). I had to remove the tacho and one of the indicator lights to fit it. The best part is the wiring loom connector fits it perfectly with no mods required. I have not decided yet whether I will fit the PATS reader on the barrel, or hide it somewhere else behind the dash. This picture is taken from the side under the dash (the scuttle is still off at the moment until the wiring is completed and the car starts).

Handbrake

My missing parts arrived today!. Thanks to Brenton at Meridian Motorsport for maintaining the pressure on Birkin to deliver, and for putting up with my constant email requests for updates. 

The handbrake pivot should be one of the first parts fitted in the build, as it is the key to most of the back end going together. Once this pivot is fitted, the diff can go in as well as the half shafts, the rear brake lines and the fuel tank. A lot hinges around this one bit of metal! Before I fitted it, I drilled out the clevis holes another 0.5mm and shortened the split pins (thanks Mark!). I greased the pivot bush, and then used an M8 bolt and nyloc to secure it (not to tight as it needs to pivot). Its then a simple task to fit each of the cable eyes into its corner and secure with a clevis pin and split pin. A few more minutes of adjustment to the cable housing length, and the pull adjuster on the handle and it was clamping the wheels. Now hopefully I can finish the back end of the car.

Braided Hoses

I have taken delivery of all new braided stainless steel hydraulic hoses to replace the standard rubber ones. These will replace the clutch slave cylinder hose plus the 4 outboard brake hoses. They are made using BrakeQuip equipment and are clear PVC covered with the correct ADR markings. The photo to the right shows a comparison of the old black rubber hose and the new ones. I had always intended on replacing them at some point, just not this early. Professional inspection of the blown factory clutch hose showed that it had barely been crimped with only about half a millimetre of bite on the end of the rubber hose. I feel much more comfortable with all new hoses on the car.

So I have refitted the new clutch hose to the CSC, reattached the gearbox to the engine, and put the engine back into the engine bay (without installing it). I have attached the clutch line to the master cylinder, and bled it. I got a good clean stream of fluid after only 4 cycles. Better yet, the pedal has a nice feel, and I can see the CSC inside the bell housing actuating the pressure plate from the moment the clutch pedal is engaged. I will let it sit overnight to make sure there are no leaks from the CSC (where fluid comes out the bottom of the bell housing). Assuming no problems appear overnight I can properly reinstall the motor, hopefully for the last time.


Many thanks to Greg at Redback Motorsport of Kirrawee for sorting the new hoses. Its brilliant to have such a great motorsport shop so close to home, with people so knowledgeable and keen to help! 

Broken Clutch Hose

After the clutch hose blew out, I have decided to replace all the stock rubber hydraulic hoses on the car with stainless steel braided lines. This means removing the outboard lines to the front and rear brakes, as well as removing the remaining clutch coupling which was still attached to the CSC in the bell housing (which means removing the engine and gearbox ...... again!). This photo (pardon the hand) shows what's left of the hose coupling that was in the bell housing. The hose let go from the top. The new ones are coming from Redback Motorsport at Kirrawee.

At least with new braided hoses on all hydraulic lines I will never be worrying about this sort of problem occurring as I head into a corner deep under brakes!

Engine & Transmission Removal No.4

No I didn't miss one....Engine & Transmission Removal No.3 occurred in the end of the Clutch post. I am starting to lose track of the Removals and Installs, so I thought I would do a quick summary of each one. Maybe someone can learn from these, and avoid having the same issues I have had.


Interesting the first install took about 4 hours. The first removal took 1 hour 18 mins. After that I have been averaging 42 - 45 mins for both although the engine is bare. I expect it to be somewhere up to 3 hours to install or remove once the car is completed.

• Install first time
• Removal number 1 for modification to bell housing for new starter motor
• Install 2nd time
• Removal number 2 to fix sump leak
• Install 3rd time
• Removal 3 for clutch leak and needing to reset the CSC preload
• Install 4th time
• Removal number 4 to retrieve and replace the burst clutch hose from within the bell housing

The last removal was a world record of 1 min and 11 secs and I took a video of it!

Check it out here! (have the sound up a little)

Clutch

I have had so much fun with leaking fluids I thought I would see what other liquid I could put in the car in the state I have it, before I did more work on the engine (in case it needed to come out....again). The hydraulic clutch is an easy enough item to tick off. So I made a temporarily mount for the reservoirs (these can't be permanently mounted until the scuttle goes back on), tightened the lines on the master cylinder and connected the hose from the master cylinder to the Concentric Slave Cylinder in the bell housing). After I did all that, I topped up the reservoir  with DOT4+, put the bleed kit on, and opened the bleeder. After a little bit of pedal pumping, the reservoir level is going down, however there is nothing flowing into the bleed bottle?!?!. A quick glance under the car tells me that the large developing pool of fluid means I have a leak in the CSC. Looking in through the top of the bell housing I can see fluid pouring out the back of the CSC, which is odd given that its a sealed unit. So out comes the engine and gearbox again (3rd time). 

When I pull the CSC out of the bell housing, its evident that I have misunderstood the CSC mounting and the measurements from the thrust bearing to the pressure plate, as I have mounted my spacers between the CSC and the mounting plate, rather than behind the mounting plate. This means there was no backing to the CSC, so once it loaded up against the pressure plate, it popped the back of the CSC off hence the leak under no pressure. To prove this theory, I remounted the CSC directly onto the mounting plate (as seen on the right), remeasured the take up spacing (seems OK), and the put the gearbox back in the engine bay and reconnected the clutch hose. Adding some pressure to this configuration, there were no leaks.....about now I start making a few phone calls to confirm this new knowledge, and its confirmed that this mounting should work. So I reassembled the gearbox onto the engine, and then reinstalled the engine and gearbox (4th time). I reconnected the lines and reservoir, attached the bleed kit. As I start to add pressure and open the bleeder, I get a good stream of bubbles and fluid into my bleed bottle. About 5 more minutes of this and I had reasonable pressure and pedal feel, and no more bubbles. So I detached the bleed kit and jumped in to feel what the clutch pedal felt like. Now here is where its gets a bit grey as I don't know exactly how it should feel. It doesn't seem to have to much feel and I don't get a lot of pressure until its half way through its stroke, and then its not returning the pedal completely. It must have had pressure though as on the 5th stroke of the pedal, the hose coupling blew apart in the bell housing #$%@!!!! 


So I guess what I will do now is just pop the engine and gearbox out again, and fit a braided hose before bleeding the clutch again. I will also need to ensure I have enough adjustment in the CSC spring to get a reasonable take up point.

Engine & Transmission Removal No.2 (Part 3)

After letting the motor sit for 24 hours with the oil in it, no new leaks have appeared. In contrast to two days ago, oil leaked almost immediately after I filled the engine, I would say I have fixed the problem (that I caused myself!). So today was spent refitting the engine and gearbox back into the chassis. The photo to the right (with the obligatory foot from my mate Steve!) shows the engine back in place. We were on a roll so we fitted the manifold (had to jack the rear of the gearbox up to get the back manifold bolt in) and the 4 - 1 collector, the short throw gear lever and the billet aluminum gear knob. While waiting for the sump sealant to cure yesterday I finished all the body wiring off. This included routing and securing the rear wiring loom, as well as the front body loom in the engine bay. I also tidied up and secured all the under dash loom wiring in preparation for refitting the scuttle. It was nice to finish the weekend off that started so badly with some progress.

Battery Mount

In between engine removals, I have been fabricating a battery mounting bracket system out of aluminum. I decided to mount the battery low in front of the passenger footwell and fusebox, in the engine bay.  I have copied (and modified) the mounting system used by another builder I am following. I have used 2mm thick aluminum angle, which is riveted on to the chassis rails. The angle gives it the stiffness I need to hold the battery while remaining fairly light. The brackets hold the battery stationary on all sides. All the surfaces are covered with thin neoprene rubber, and the back of the battery case is also covered with thin neoprene rubber. With the battery installed it cannot move, but to ensure it stays put it is anchored with a fabricated aluminum strap which is bolted under the front bracket and above the battery on the firewall. Its nice to actually make something for the car myself!

The finished product looks pretty good. The battery is zero maintenance so I should only ever need to remove the restraint to change the battery.

Engine & Transmission Removal No.2 (Part 2)

After letting the sealant cure for 24 hours, I refilled the engine with oil. It still leaked! Although this time I could see that it was seeping out in an area where I knew I had not put any sealant close to the outside of the sump, as the bolt holes tracked further in. 


Before I stripped it back down, I compared the photos I had taken the previous day of the freshly disassembled parts and compared these to the manual, and to the factory sump I still had. This showed me that the Raceline sump and the factory sump were very different in there structure, specifically in the area where it was leaking. By following the Ford manual for applying the sealant I had unwittingly put the sealant in a spot where it would never be sealed. I dug around for the Raceline sump instructions, and sure enough there is a small photo showing where to apply the sealant (you need to look hard!). This was different to what I had done. 


So I drained the oil and popped the sump off expecting to see some sealant still sitting in a bead because it hasn't been sealed (photo on the left), and a clean part of the flange on the sump where it didn't get sealed at all. (photo on the right)

Lets call this a tada moment because it was exactly as I expected!! 


So an hour was spent cleaning off the old (yesterday's) sealant and I was ready to reapply correctly as per the Raceline instructions. I also made the nozzle hole larger on the sealant tube and improved the flow of sealant to make it easier as I was still using the previous tube of sealant. 


Something still had to go wrong, so as I refitted the sump with the new sealant, the thimble seal for the oil pickup dropped out twice, firstly jamming the sump from fitting, and secondly by dropping into the bowels of the up turned engine! Once I refitted the thimble seal, I got the sump on cleanly, and torqued the bolts up. I also replaced the troublesome bolt with one 5mm shorter (which i had previously tested) to make sure I was getting torque on the mating face and not on the the end of the bolt bottoming out in the thread. The end result was that I had a nice even ripple of sealant right around the join.


So maybe this time I have got it? Again I will let the sealant cure for 24 hours before refilling the engine with oil and testing for leaks. So while frustrating, its far better understanding why it happened. Lesson learnt....read ALL the manuals for the job you are doing!


Hopefully part 3 of this will be how it tested dry and I could refit the engine, and not a for sale notice!

Engine & Transmission Removal No.2 (Part 1)

So I have now taken out the engine and transmission for the second time. This blog is called Part 1, as I will write Part 2 when I work out whether I can put it back in a couple of days from now. Why is it out? It has a very small oil leak from the front left of the sump seal with the block. The good news is that I broke my previous record for removing a bare engine of 1 hour 18 mins. I can now remove the engine in 42 minutes flat. This has also led me to a redesigned engine and gearbox mounting trolley as can be seen in this photo.

On initial inspection the oil is coming out from the corner bolt on the timing chain cover all the way back to the 3rd sump bolt behind the dipstick plug. All up this is over about 6 inches of distance, although its hard to tell whether its just leaking in one spot and tracking to the lowest spot before dripping. So up onto the engine stand. This also meant removing the gearbox, and the clutch plates to get it mounted which is a bugger. First job is to drain the oil and remove the sump.


Removing the sump showed me the first problem. The bolt (which is No.1 in the bolt pattern) directly to the right of the drain plug was not tight. This is a 25mm bolt supplied by Raceline for the sump, which is longer because the sump flange is thicker here. No amount of tightening gets this any tighter???. Once I had the sump off, this showed that perhaps this was the main problem because the RTV sealant either side of this bolt had not properly sealed as it would when fully torqued. This can be seen at the top of this photo, just to the left of the oil filter.

The other problem I notice is that I have sealant everywhere, including nearly completely blocking one of the main oil galleries into the sump. One thing that has changed since I first fitted the sump is that I have managed to source the actual engine build manual from Ford for the Duratec. As a male, reading any manual is usually considered optional and only then after trying to do it without the manual first. What the manual has showed me is that I did not layout the RTV sealant on the right path, and I probably used to much as I had it beaded at about 7mm and the manual calls for a 2.5mm bead. So yesterday was spent removing all the old sealant from both mating faces and polishing these back to new so I could reseal them. I sourced some Loctite 5900/598 RTV sealant this morning and set about refitting the sump. I prepped the nozzle to create a thin 2.5mm bead, however getting a consistent bead from a toothpaste size tube is nearly impossible by hand . Five minutes later, after lots of swearing and having sealant all over me, I had managed to layout a passable thin bead on the correct path. I refitted the sump and put the bolts back in. Tightening them to the correct torque and using the correct tightening sequence I quickly had it back together. EXCEPT for the problem bolt, which is still not tightening, even though it tightened OK without the sump flange in place. I figured there is something wrong with the top of the thread, and quickly grabbed an M8 bolt that was 10mm longer. This bolt went in OK and I was able to torque it correctly and see the sump pull in tight at this point.  Hopefully the bead of sealant I have laid is OK and the problem bolt was the only issue. 


So what I have I learnt from this. LOTS!

• Where possible, try to add any fluids before you fit any major components to make sure you have a seal. The engine oil could have been added weeks ago when the finished engine was still on the stand, and I would have noticed the leak then. I even thought about doing it but never got around to it. I was lucky that I didn't start adding other engine components as I waited 48 hours after adding the oil to see if it leaked (it took the 48 hours to show up and even then it wasn't much).
• Get the right manual for the bit you are doing and read it thoroughly. Had this not leaked and I had run it with the oil gallery blocked I hate to think what could have happened to the engine.
• Always have spare bolts for the job you are doing, and also having other lengths of the same size bolt can come in very handy. My fastener collection for this car is growing daily.
• When applying sealant, make sure its done with an applicator that allows constant pressure such as a syringe/plunger or caulking gun. 

I will let the sealant cure for 24 hours before adding the oil again. I will then let it sit on the stand for another 48 hours to see if loses any more oil. Hopefully then Part 2 of this particular topic will be about reinstalling the engine and not a for sale notice for a half built Birkin!

ECU

I have been pondering where to place the ECU. I have seen photos of all sorts of different mounts including low on the firewall, above the bulkhead in front of the scuttle and under the scuttle in the passenger footwell. The 2009 Focus ECU that I have is different to earlier Focus ECUs in that it uses three plug connectors rather than two, and these are on the top rather than on the back. They do however require a cable entry from the right. Also on the plus side, this ECU is considerably smaller, thinner and lighter. Given the Birkin chassis for the Duratec engine has a much deeper fusebox (cutting into the passenger footwell), I took some measurements and came to the conclusion I could mount the ECU in the bottom of the fusebox, below the fuse and relay frame. This position is good as I don't trust the dust seals on the connectors so I was skeptical about mounting the ECU in the engine bay. Ford obviously agree with me because the ECU came out of a heavily sealed plastic box in the Focus.

I started by putting the ECU in the footwell and positioning it for marking up the mounting holes.

From here I drilled through the footwell into the fusebox. To isolate any metal on metal vibration on the ECU, I lined the back of it with thin neoprene where it sat flat against the fusebox side. I also machined up some thin aluminum spreaders to use in the footwell rather than washers as the aluminum at the end of the footwell is quite thin so I wanted to spread the load out. I was able to connect up the rear harness connectors and lay these in the bottom of the fusebox before fitting the fuse and relay frame above it. This will make the relays and fuses easily accessible from the top of the fuse box. 

Starter Motor

The thing that caused me to have to remove the engine and transmission is now fitted. Funny how something that only needs two bolts and fits into a pre cut slot in the bell housing can take nearly two days to fit. But now its bolted in and fits perfectly. As this starter motor didn't have the foam seal around the bell housing slot, I have replaced this with a thick bead of silastic. I also fitted the engine oil filter which can be seen below the starter motor. 

Transmission Oil Leak

I think I worked out where the leak was coming from. I jacked the front up to put it back on chassis stands and oil came out of the rear seal, around the transmission output shaft. This splined output shaft has to be mated to the splined universal adapter on the prop shaft. I hadn't fitted the prop shaft yet. So I have now fitted the prop shaft which creates a snug fitting on the oil seal in the gear box. I will drop the rear end to see what happens when the car is inclined again, to see if any more oil comes out.

Engine & Transmission Removal No.1

A wise man told me that before I finished the build I would take the engine out and reinstall it several times.....so 2 weeks after it was installed, here is the first removal. This was bought about for a few reasons. Firstly, I had to replace the starter motor with a Mazda unit to match the lightened flywheel. This new starter motor had some alloy shoulders that prevented it being mounted on its posts and engaging correctly with the bell housing. Secondly, I needed to measure where the hole in the transmission tunnel would be for the electrical loom going into the fuse box. Lastly I wanted to add the gearbox oil and check the seals. This removal only took a little over an hour and a quarter, but I imagine it will be a lot longer with full electrical, a fuel system and a cooling system all connected.

Here is the bell housing where the starter motor mounts. It needed to be notched and filed down on the two corners where it mates with the engine block. In removing the gearbox I also found that one of the CSC bolts had sheared off (over torqued to many times while fitting), so I replaced all three of these to be safe. Half an hour of filing and refitting the starter motor and I had the notches I needed. From here it was simply a case of refitting the gearbox to the motor (easier done with two people) and re-torquing all of the bolts on the bell housing. 

While I had the gearbox on the bench, I filled it with oil (Castrol Syntrax 75W90 fully-synthetic). This is far easier than doing in the car and I dread having to get the filler plug out from within the passenger footwell in the future.

I had also marked up a 50mm hole in the side of the transmission tunnel before the engine came out, so I used a hole saw to cut this out from within the fuse box. This will have a sealed grommet fitted one the ECU is mounted and the cables are routed. I also got to fix up a few bits of bodywork in the engine bay that needed to be modified, trimmed and riveted after the first engine fitting.

So after all those mods and tweaks, the engine and transmission went back in (in an hour and a quarter). I now know what sequence to put the mounts on to get the best fit, and which cross braces and brackets to remove. Only problems remaining are that the main bolt for the flexible gearbox mount is not lining up, I have small oil leak from the seal at the back of the gearbox output shaft when the car is inclined. I will deal with those and fit the starter motor tomorrow.