Project Domes shonky autos - Kangoo wheels, 911 brakes (again) and Manta Duratec 2.5 engine build

[Split_Pin]

240 in the background 🧐

[GingerNuttz]

 

3 minutes ago, Split_Pin said:

240 in the background 🧐

Saabnuts one that was dragged from a field, most reliable car that's here 🤣 starts first turn of the key.

[Saabnut]

That Manta is showing the usual @GingerNuttz star quality work!

[GingerNuttz]

Scuff and a buff in a few days. 

 

 

[hairnet]

On 27/08/2024 at 17:24, sutty2006 said:

Use odd wheels front to back, like a true rally car! 
 

 

flumph

[GingerNuttz]

Tis very white 😂

The gaffer approves 

Little but of urethane wave but it'll block out before it's buffed. 

[hairnet]

skillz (from nuttz obvs)

joke dome

 

[GingerNuttz]

Front valance was done before I was put in hospital but I never posted a pic.

Just the black lip around the spoiler to do so hopfully that'll be done this weekend.

[GingerNuttz]

Been polishing some stuff on the days I can get up.

Will update this with more of the shell later this week.

 

[dome]

Ok, time for a fairly boring update as not a lot has been happening.

Kangoo

Not a lot going on here. I bought a new wing from the scrappy to replace the drivers side, the passenger side was done last year. It's with @GingerNuttz just now and I'll get it fitted when it comes back. 

Jeep

Speaking of our favourite tame welder, he got delivered the Kangoo wing in the back of the Jeep which is still with him. Why?

Well, it got advisories for rust on the sills last year but I chose to ignore them. The MOT ran out about a month ago so I set about prodding to see what I could find. 

It's got rock sliders fitted from the factory and these were rusty, I thought (hoped) that the tester had meant these. I started on the driver's side and cleaned it up. 

 

Found a hole

Cut it out 

Made a repair patch

I'll spare you the pictures of my welding as I'm still shite at it but here it is with some paint on it 🫣

I chose to ignore the sills in this side but couldn't do the same on the other side sadly😳

Sill end with foam in it. 

Looking up from underneath.

Aye, that's fucked.

I did the right thing and ignored it for a bit.

I did buy a new bonnet for it as the original one had been painted by Stevie wonder.

Going full Roadkill with the bonnet off.

And the new one fitted.

@GingerNuttz has cut all the old rust out. I posted this pic on the FB group and it would appear that foam is from the factory. Thanks Jeep!

911

It's not been far since the weather turned.

One mod I'd wanted to do was to the drivers seat. The seats in mine were pretty basic and not very comfy. There's loads of aftermarket or genuine Porsche options but they're all spendy. 

I have a pair of bucket seats for the Manta though and for £100 purchased a mount for the 911.

So, seat out.

Much measuring and trial fitting and the bucket was on the side mounts

And installed.

What a difference it makes! I'm actually in the car now and not sitting on it. Best £100 I've spent on it👍

I spent a couple of weekends emptying my lockup of Manta and MX5 bits and transferring them to my garage/shed and yesterday tucked the Porsche up for the winter. 

Tyres up to their maximum pressure and sitting on carpet, tank filled and battery will be coming to the house to get conditioned. There's plenty of ideas on how to store a car but that's what I'm going with.

It'll be back in spring for some more miles and hopefully some paintwork too. 

One thing of note when clearing the lockup out 

One of these wiring looms is from my 1981 Manta, the other from a 2008 MX5.  

Progress*

 

 

[dome]

Well, that escalated quickly on the Heep

At least @GingerNuttzwill be able to enjoy his Carribbean holiday when I've paid for the welding 🫣

[dome]

The Heep did live by the sea in Kirkcaldy for 10 years so it shouldn't come as a surprise I guess.

Here's the Kangoo as a contrast.

The shell must be on about 170k miles but it lived in the midlands til I got it on the road up here 4 years ago. It's getting a clean up and some fettling to try and keep it good. 

That strut was a genuine Renault one and brand new when I got the van👀

 

[dome]

After getting this back from @GingerNuttz yesterday with added metal underneath I spent my Christmas Eve the traditional* way by trying to find the source of wet carpets in the Heep. 

Removed the seats and carpet to get to this stage.

Despite spending a couple of hours inside with the hose pointing at various bits on the outside I'm no further forward. 

There was a bit of a leak around the rear LHS door seal but the worst of the leak is in the front LHS and it doesn't look like that's where it's coming from. Sunroof, windscreen and door seals are all now fine so I'll dry out the carpet and try again in a few days time. 

I did have a go at fixing it earlier in the year, checking sunroof drains and the drain for the Aircon which can cause issues.

I guess I might have sorted it but it's just never dried out properly? I think that's a bit optimistic though. We'll see.

 

[dome]

33 minutes ago, Tayne said:

Does it consume coolant?

Is there any chance it’s weeping into the carpets via the heater a la p38?

It uses a wee bit of coolant but there's no coolant smell in the car.

The air con drains are notorious for leaking into the cabin, the next thing to do is to run the engine with the carpets out and see if that is a thing. The air con is fucked though so I'd be surprised 

[dome]

Wow, was it really December I last posted in here? Shame on me.

Time for an update I guess

Jeep first.

We left this with holes everywhere. It went off to @GingerNuttz who started about the sill and ended up somewhere around the prop tunnel in a search for good metal 🤣

I got it back and through an MOT, I then started to investigate coolant loss which turned out to be a leaky radiator

This wasn't too bad a job thankfully and it was leak free.

I then decided enough was enough as I wasn't using it and it needed more work to make it perfect.

So, some shiny pictures were taken...

and it was sold. Sad times but I had enough on the fleet to keep me occupied...

 

 

[dome]

Over Christmas I stuck the Kangoo in the garage to give it a clean up and redo the plastics which were faded and looking a bit rubbish. No pics of this but the bumpers and trims got removed, sanded and sprayed black.

 

It's just back from Scotlands premier tat restoration emporium for @GingerNuttz to work his magic-the drivers wing was rotten, the bonnet had lacquer peel and the drivers side rear was full of filler.

 

I need to give it a proper clean and polish to do it justice but it's looking ace. I may have to treat it to a new set of wheels 🤔

 

Oh and it got a pair of Rainsports fitted to the front a month or so ago so you've all got me to thank for there being no rain since then🤣 

 

[dome]

The 911 got tucked away for the winter

And dragged out a month or so ago.

It's going well as long as you ignore the bodywork which is getting worse-the shonky repair around the arches and sills is getting bad. Plan is to drive it and not look at it. 

Like this

It'll be due an oil change too and I need to mess with the suspension settings-the coilovers seem a bit soft on the front so I've stiffened them up a few clicks, just in time for the first rain in over a month up here which means the roads will be like ice, testing that out can wait...

[Matty]

The Kangoo must be a keep forever job. Surely irreplaceable. Totally silly yet also weirdly useful.

[dome]

4 hours ago, Matty said:

The Kangoo must be a keep forever job. Surely irreplaceable. Totally silly yet also weirdly useful.

Yeah you've summed it up well. When I had the Heep one of them was surplus to requirements, no surprises that it's the Heep that's no longer here.

[sdkrc]

Do it all again @dome but this time a manta for the lady of the house

https://www.carandclassic.com/l/C1956809

[GingerNuttz]

Forgot to post these a while ago.

Back lights are black now to match the rest with just the roof to polish and refit the engine and box.

Will update it with the completed pics next weekend. 

[GingerNuttz]

Little bits at the front windows sprayed to match the plastics and spoiler tip.

Rover PBT black same as the mighty Rover 75.

more updates in a couple days 

[dome]

Right, time for some updates.

Kangoo

Not a lot to add here apart from LOOK AT THE FUCKING WHEELS

Renault 19 16v alloys were purchased for it after trying for a long time to find something not too bling. I fecking love them.

It needs a handbrake cable and I want to replace the fuel line, there's a whiff of fuel from it occasionally but no signs of leaks. I blocked off the breather from the tank but it's still there occasionally. It looks like it was built with rubber hose from front to rear so it won't hurt to replace it. Just need to find a reliable source of hose that'll last. 

[dome]

911

This has been in the doghouse a bit due to the deteriorating bodywork. The £11k glass out respray it had before I got it was done by fucking cowboys and both rear arches and sill ends/sills have deteriorated rapidly since I bought it. I did buy some blue duct tape though so that's fine* 

Because of this I'd not been using it that much but I decided to ignore it as you can't see the shitty bodywork from the drivers seat. So, in August I set off up to Aberdeenshire to watch the Grampian Rally, a round of the Scottish Rally Championship.

All was going fine until I used the brakes north of Coupar Angus and the pedal went to the floor😶 I limped it to a layby and found a puddle of brake fluid under the drivers front wheel. Splendid*

It had enough brakes to limp it home and I then stuck it in the garage and decided to see what the fuck was wrong with this cunting thing this time. 

Assume the position...

It didn't take long to find the issue-the linking pipe between the two halves of the Brembo caliper had failed. The pipe has a rubber cover and water must have got in and corroded it. 

Here's the offending article, along with a similarly crusty "stainless" brake hose.

The brake lines on this have seen attention before and regular readers may remember the line that goes over the gearbox failed on me not long after I got the car. Time to try and sort it once and for all(maybe)

There was no way I was going to drive it without replacing the other link pipes, which meant making sure all the bleed nipples (2 per caliper) were free. And replace all the stainless flexis. And make up new hard lines for each corner(apart from the one I had done already) as each caliper would ideally have to come off to replace the link pipes.

So, 8 bleed nipples and between 4 and 8 unions to undo per corner to replace all the crusty stuff. You can imagine how much I was looking forward to this. There's not many pics here but you may be surprised to know that with a combination of plusgas and heat I managed to get almost everything undone successfully.

Caliper off and in the vice.

New lines made up and fitted

Another crusty link pipe. You get the idea.

I had one union pull the threads out but got a local engineering place to sort this for me. 

I also had one bleed nipple pull the threads out but you can get kits for this-handily my mate Stu at Renomotive sees this with the Brembo calipers on fast Renaults so he was able to do a repair for me-nipple therapy FTW

I finally managed to go through the whole system and get it back together and bled up. SO I could actually drive it again!

Meanwhile I had bitten the bullet and ordered up some new panels for it which arrived a couple of months ago

 

 Once the Manta is back it'll go off to @GingerNuttz to let him undo the bodgery by the previous bodyshop

Oh and the indicators decided to stop self cancelling. A common thing on these and a new set of stalks are required. I took this as a sign and ordered up a set with a cruise control stalk so I can add cruise to it in the future. In true 911 style all of the specialists have these available at prices far more than if you actually go to the dealer. A second hand one is about £300, my dealer is getting me a new one for £320 🤣 Cruise control is going to ave me money, this thing has a natural cruising speed that will rapidly lose me my licence😶

[dome]

Manta

As you can see from the pics above the bodywork on this thing is nearly complete. I can't wait to get it back and then the fun can begin.

For those of you who are new/have forgotten I guess I should go back to the start

I've always loved Mantas and rallying in general. I decided I wanted to build a 400 kitted Manta but also wanted to modernize it a bit, for various reasons. 

I picked up a Mk3 MX5, these come with a tool eater 160bhp Ford Duratec engine.

I also picked up Mazda6 2.5 Sport. This has a 2.5 version of the Duratec but is only rated at 170bhp as standard.

The 2.5 swap is a common thing in MX5 circles, especially in the US where the 2.5 engine was fitted to a lot more cars, over here I think only the Mazda6 (and maybe the 5) got them.

There's a crazy situation around these engines whereby if you go to a UK Ford specialist to get parts there's definitely a Fast Ford Tax on things whereas in the US Mazda MZR(the Mazda name for this engine) parts are a lot cheaper

So, a couple of years ago I ordered up some shiny bits from the US

The 2.5 engine was tuned for torque and had low compression and fairly mind cams. A tuner in the US had done some homework and found that an oversized piston for a GM 2.4 4 cylinder is a perfect fit and raises the compression ration from 9.7:1 to 11.5:1 

I also purchased a new set of Stage 2.5 (yes it is a thing) BC Racing cams to liven things up a bit and uprated valve springs too. I don't want to go too mental, around 200bhp would be ideal and more importantly I wanted an NA 4 cylinder to keep it true to the original 400 (It had a 2.4 4 cylinder with heads by Cosworth).

All of this came from the US (a couple of years ago admittedly) and I had change from $1000. For context the piston set alone in the UK is £1k 😶

Anyway, in a spectacular display of taking ages to do anything nearly 3 years after ordering the shiny bits I finally got my bottom end assembled today.

In my defence I've never used file to fit piston rings before (more info here) and it took me a while to get my big boy pants on and actually file them down to fit. 

This week however more has happened, here goes.

Pakora sauce is the key to building engines.

The block and cranked had been checked over by a machine shop and pronounced as good. So, gloop it up

No pics of fitting the pistons but here they are installed. Note my markings on each piston of where to locate the ring gaps for each ring, as per the Total Seal instructions.

You'll note they aren't connected to the crankshaft yet, this is because the big end bearings I'd bought 3 years ago were the wrong ones. It's not all bad, they'll fit my Focus though 🤣

Correct big end bearings ready to install

And the bottom end assembled

The shiny engraved metal bit just above middle left of the crank is a blanking plug from where I've removed the balance shaft that these engines came with as standard to let it rev better, save weight and release a few horsepower. 

If you were fitting a Duratec to your Mk2 Escort then many Ford specialists will happily relieve you of around a grand for a bespoke sump. Or you can do what I did which is buy a Ford Ranger sump from Rockauto for about £100 which does the exact same job🤣 No pics of it as it's currently attached to the tool eater engine which is at @GingerNuttz garage where it was used to ensure this batshit idea would actually fit into the Manta. Spoiler alert - it does after he did some amazing work to make it happen🙏

With conrods connected and pistons in the correct positions.

 

Now onto the head. I hadn't touched the head yet so had a look to see how it was. 

Hmm

Upside down and filled the combustion chambers with fuel

Hmmm

It was getting stripped anyway so here goes. 

Shiny tool, bought from @DavidB which fitted perfectly

And valve stem seals removed

Head now bare

And after a mild cleanup

I'll need to carry on cleaning it up and then regrind the valves-something I've never done before. But then I've not done valve stem seals either, or removed valves for that matter!

I could get some porting/polishing done to the head but I believe these flow pretty well as standard. I may look at doing that in the future but in the meantime I'll be happy with cleaning it all up and getting it back together with new seals and the valves ground in. 

The Manta now has a Volvo 940 rear axle fitted with a 4 link kit. The standard Manta axle is a weak link, comes with drums and an LSD is ridiculously expensive. The 940 axle comes with discs and an LSD is much easier to come by for sensible money. Also it means I can run 5 stud wheels the same as a real 400. This did leave the problem of getting the front converted to match but there is a company in England who'll make a blank hub for Mantas which you can get drilled to any PCD you want. I dul bought this and gave it to my tame engineering place who drilled it out to 5x108

I do need to work out what brakes to use. I was tempted by Brembo but the 911 put me off them for life 🤣 5x108 is common on a lot of things, ideally I'll get access to aparts catalogue and be able to find a disc/caliper combination that'll work. 

Whew, well done if you've made it this far. Stay tuned for more updates as I carry on assembling this engine!

 

Oh and finally have a pic of my new valve springs-new on the left vs the originals. Meaty!

 

[hairnet]

are you gonna weld two standard manta alloys together

what phat rims are going on it when its done (hnng)

[dome]

7 minutes ago, hairnet said:

are you gonna weld two standard manta alloys together

what phat rims are going on it when its done (hnng)

Well, i had a nice conversation with a chap from Revoution wheels at Race Retro earlier this year. They will make any of their wheels to a custom PCD and offset to account for the wider Manta rear axle. The Volvo rear axle is a common mod in Sweden apparently(funnily enough) and Revolution have sold a few sets over there.

I'm yet to decide but, knowing how popular* it'll be on here, I'm leaning towards their 8 spoke wheels.

 

And yes, they'd have to be in Gold😍

. 

 

[320touring]

Great to see the Manta lump coming together, Cannae wait for a passenger ride in it once all together 😍

[hairnet]

x2

would pay

 

[hairnet]