1993 Ford Escort KL swap / SCCA SMF build

92CelicaHalfTrac wrote: Laugh all you want... but something like this is probably going to happen. Having a 5" extension made in place of the two 2.5"s threaded together. The Pace****ter STS just drops the knob down too far, and shift effort with the fresh bronze bushings is a bit too high without the extension.

Makes perfect sense to me. Look at any pro race cars, especially Rally cars where they have a sequential shifter, they found that the less distance the driver has to move their hands, the better.

Though as a further refinement, I would probably look at relocating the shifter assembly upward and possibly running the linkage through the firewall/center hump. Cover it all up with a bent aluminum cover or paint/polish/powder coat everything and let it hang out Spyker style :)

Just got caught up on this build, can't wait to see how it drives!

turboswede wrote:

92CelicaHalfTrac wrote: Laugh all you want... but something like this is probably going to happen. Having a 5" extension made in place of the two 2.5"s threaded together. The Pace****ter STS just drops the knob down too far, and shift effort with the fresh bronze bushings is a bit too high without the extension.

Makes perfect sense to me. Look at any pro race cars, especially Rally cars where they have a sequential shifter, they found that the less distance the driver has to move their hands, the better. Though as a further refinement, I would probably look at relocating the shifter assembly upward and possibly running the linkage through the firewall/center hump. Cover it all up with a bent aluminum cover or paint/polish/powder coat everything and let it hang out Spyker style :)

LOL!!!! If i could find a way to get the linkage to make it through and not interfere with other things from that angle, that would happen!

GameboyRMH wrote: Just got caught up on this build, can't wait to see how it drives!

My prediction: Violent and horribly bone-jarring.

92CelicaHalfTrac wrote:

turboswede wrote:

92CelicaHalfTrac wrote: Laugh all you want... but something like this is probably going to happen. Having a 5" extension made in place of the two 2.5"s threaded together. The Pace****ter STS just drops the knob down too far, and shift effort with the fresh bronze bushings is a bit too high without the extension.

Makes perfect sense to me. Look at any pro race cars, especially Rally cars where they have a sequential shifter, they found that the less distance the driver has to move their hands, the better. Though as a further refinement, I would probably look at relocating the shifter assembly upward and possibly running the linkage through the firewall/center hump. Cover it all up with a bent aluminum cover or paint/polish/powder coat everything and let it hang out Spyker style :)

LOL!!!! If i could find a way to get the linkage to make it through and not interfere with other things from that angle, that would happen!

Hint: Ditch the linkage and use boat motor control cables.

92CelicaHalfTrac wrote:

GameboyRMH wrote: Just got caught up on this build, can't wait to see how it drives!

My prediction: Violent and horribly bone-jarring.

So like riding Chuck Norris bareback?

turboswede wrote:

92CelicaHalfTrac wrote:

GameboyRMH wrote: Just got caught up on this build, can't wait to see how it drives!

My prediction: Violent and horribly bone-jarring.

So like riding Chuck Norris bareback?

Only chuck Norris can ride chuck Norris bare back, I thought everyone knew that.

I love this build.

chandlerGTi wrote:

turboswede wrote:

92CelicaHalfTrac wrote:

GameboyRMH wrote: Just got caught up on this build, can't wait to see how it drives!

My prediction: Violent and horribly bone-jarring.

So like riding Chuck Norris bareback?

Only chuck Norris can ride chuck Norris bare back, I thought everyone knew that. I love this build.

And this is the Chuck Norris of Escort GT builds....

Polished a set of EGT factory fogs.

Oil cap!

Radiator hoses worked out pretty well.

And so did the overflow tank.

This swap reminded me, while looking for a gas sipper...

Why not just buy one already done? Case in point: http://huntington.craigslist.org/cto/3470387400.html

Ranger50 wrote: This swap reminded me, while looking for a gas sipper... Why not just buy one already done? Case in point: http://huntington.craigslist.org/cto/3470387400.html

Because it's a 3rd gen, which i don't like, and i don't think that swap would be technically legal for SMF class, as no mazda motor was available in the 3rd gen Escorts. (Unless you can UDBD all the way back to 91 with those cars via Appendix A), and that car will be 100whp+ down from my car. And i'd still have to do the suspension.

It's cool for a $3200 daily driver, but would end up with a similar amount of work to prep it for SMF competition to this extent, ASSuming it's even legal.

Pffft... legal, schmegal...

Creative work on the hoses there. I suppose that saves a ton of time trying to find ones that fit. And I'm diggin that cluster!

Spoolpigeon wrote: Creative work on the hoses there. I suppose that saves a ton of time trying to find ones that fit. And I'm diggin that cluster!

It does.... too bad i find them ugly as sin.

12/24/12

Anyways, i spent the last two days working on the car. Just the stupid little bullE36 M3 i hate, really.

Stripped out one of my endlink rodends, i think it was defective, unfortunately. Got another one on order, got the other 3 attached and on the car. Talked to Jim, and we think that i'm running enough spring rate that the sway bar hitting the subframe won't be an issue.

In this shot, you'll see the clutch line finally sorted out and tightened. (I do need to buy one more clip for that bracket.) You'll also see the final iteration of how i solved the riddle of adapting the Escort's dumbass nylon lines to -6AN. Let's just say if i ever do this again (and i won't), i'll just be skipping directly to a fuel cell, do not pass Go, do not collect $200.

Something like -4 degrees of camber at full droop. :D

Another shot of the fuel setup 100% finished. (Got the pump figured out as well, and pumped the old crap out of the tank.) Lost the tank lock retaining ring thingy, so had to order a new one.

As she sits. Forgot to take a picture of the catch can with its new bracket and bolted down to the frame rail.

Figured out how the throttle actuation is going to work. Actually not going to use the throttle cam on the side of the front back of ITBs at all. Gonna snake the cable down the middle of the banks, and pull on the Kinsler cam itself. With the right length of bracket, i won't lose any pedal travel. Using the cam on the end of the bank would have resulted in just about a 33% reduction in pedal travel, which would have made the car near impossible to drive on the street.

Put the MX6 in winter rally mode.

Bolted down catch can. It's now pretty much structural to the car. :P

Made linkage-y cable-y goodness. No, this stuff isn't the prettiest, but i'll explain what was going on later.

Made a bracket, retained the factory throttle cable with everything on it.

Now this might start to make sense. Yes, i know there's a throttle cam on the front bank, but that was a dumb way to do it, and i can't believe none of the previous 2 owners of this setup didn't figure this out.

Have a fuzzy picture of a 99.9% complete engine bay. :)

Alright, the throttle cable/linkage issue.

When i got the throttle bodies, they were set up to pull on the cam on the "forward" bank. See picture.

This may have worked somewhat easily on a RWD car, i don't know. (These are off of "The KLiata.") There's no way this was going to work effectively on a FWD car without making a new throttle cable, and on top of that, the cam is too small, so i'd only have about 2/3rds of my original pedal travel. That, combined with a crazy fast-revving n/a motor making 3x the power of the stock motor, with street manners that are going to be questionable at best in the first place, would end up with something that would be pretty much undriveable on the street.

Starting thinking about math things.

Obviously, putting a bigger cam on the forward bank would have helped things, IF i could have gotten the cable up there easily. (It was doable, but not in a great way.) Then realized i could apply the same theory, but directly to the Kinsler cam sitting on the center post, ASSuming there was enough clearance for a bracket that went out far enough.

Lucked out. Made the bracket as "long" as possible, and it clears the back bank with about 2-3mm to spare, EXACTLY at factory pedal travel, opens and closes the throttles 100%. (Well... slightly past full open, but that can be adjusted out.) Used a "strap" that was sent with the throttles to make the retaining clip portion for the factory cable's rubber bushing/adjustment point. This will also increase rigidity between the two banks and prevent flexing.

Was a long day of stupid fiddly work, but it worked out. It isn't the prettiest thing in the world, but it's 100% functional and in no danger of breaking. :)

Almost done!!!!

im excited to hear this thing run!!!

sure looks wicked. and should be insane to drive.

Dusterbd13 wrote: im excited to hear this thing run!!! sure looks wicked. and should be insane to drive.

You and me both, buddy. I'm sick of this.

Insane to drive should be good. That said, i'm hoping my theories work out and this will actually be EASY to drive because of it's n/a powerband. Just bury the gas coming out of corners, no worrying about a huge turbo torque hump.

Hoping.

Got some more stuff done in the last couple days. Flushed my brake lines and then bled them with some crappy fluid for the moment. Need to adjust the rear calipers, as i'm now wondering if this is part of the reason the pedal has never felt good on this car. It feels pretty decent now just to start, but i think they could be better.

However, in getting ready to adjust the rear calipers, i was hooking up the parking brake cables, and they're totally hosed. Sigh. Another $50 down the drain for new ones.

Clutch pedal feels good. Nice positive engagement from the 100% self-contained system now, no rubber lines. The South Bend TZ clutch is going to be more streetable than i thought it would, so that's good.

So, as we can see.... i finally have all three pedals!!!

Had a few more setbacks yesterday, unfortunately. Was under the car taking measurements to make a new flywheel dust shield (Lost mine), and noticed that the 4 point tie brace was hitting the Y-pipe. Not much i can do about it. I could shim the back part of the brace down far enough that it would clear, but only by about 1/8", and i don't like the amount of shims necessary for that. Turns out this brace was actually the prototype and the design had since been changed because it didn't clear the exhaust on 1.9 cars, either. Cleared my 1.8 just fine, but not the 2.5. Le sigh.

I'm going to run it anyways for now and swap out for a new one in Spring.

Then i figured that while i was down there, i'd take care of the binding issue that was going on with the passenger suspension. What a nightmare. Not that this was HARD work, just a brain teaser and really repetitive.

The front tubular arms that i have, have rodends in the portion that go into the subframe for adjustment. This adjustment is to correct the geometry/binding issues that happen with this suspension when it's lowered too far. Basically bringing the rodend farther OUT, brings the back "post" of the arm farther "inboard," and vice versa. The only goal here is to adjust the rodend to the point that the "post" on the back of the arm passes through the rear bushing at a perfect 90 degree angle to prevent any sort of binding and reduce/eliminate all stiction.

Easy peasy. In theory.

However, this is a BEAT chassis, and looking underneath it, i don't know how it has a clear title. It's got some frame damage, and the floor right in front of the passenger seat has buckled upwards a good 2". I'm going keep my eyes open for another chassis to fall in my lap, but not really actively look.

I ended up having 5 threads difference between left and right on the rodends, AND had to to shim the passenger arm to directly couple the arm and the bushing about 1/16". Ugh.

The good news: Both sides now move up and down like butter. I've never seen/felt anything like this. The resistance seems to be exactly the same as when i was just pushing on the struts themselves with no springs or anything else attached, outside of the car.

The Bad News: Broke the captive nut on the driver's side of the subframe that holds the through-bolt that attaches the rodend portion of the arm. Just like the passenger side. Sigh.

Pictures!!!

Where the magic happens:

This is uhhh.... full droop. Seriously.

These wheels make my brakes look huge!!!

What's the end power goal for this badboy?

DaveEstey wrote: What's the end power goal for this badboy?

250-270whp range as it sits, which is pretty much just a stock motor with cams, valve springs, some horrible headers, and the ITBs.

I have 12:1 internals that are sitting in reserve at the moment that i'm planning on putting in an 01-02 626 block, using those same heads with some port work and a fully worked valvetrain. When/if that goes in, i'll have some custom headers made at the same time.

That motor could approach the 350whp range and a 10,000rpm redline.

The number i "want" just pulled out of my ass for not real reason other than purely guessing is 325whp.

I think that's the ballpark you'll have to be in to be competitive nationally. I know the gentleman who owns the Blue CRX that won nationals this year in SMF and he's around 350 whp.

DaveEstey wrote: I think that's the ballpark you'll have to be in to be competitive nationally. I know the gentleman who owns the Blue CRX that won nationals this year in SMF and he's around 350 whp.

I know it's probably not entirely related, but in drag racing, n/a small displacement cars tend to do more with less power than the forced induction cars. On this current motor, the car should get deep into the 12s at the quarter if i take it to the strip. (And i will, for fun.)

At least, i'm hoping it's somewhat relevant here.

I have a 300whp+ turbo FWD car, i couldn't imagine trying to horse that thing around and keep it consistent. Sure, it might be fast, but it's HARD.

I tried to build this thing to be the "easy button."

Oh I know. I ran a 1.7-liter 470whp Integra last year. Fast but lots of work. This car is why I autocross a Miata now. Easier.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zEw7PxlSRw&feature=share

The CRX is supercharged. Actually come to think of it, I think WrongWheelDrive is one of the owners of said vehicle along with his father.

I really just want to hear this thing run.