MK2 fiesta fast road car.
Discussion
Not done car thread in ages so why not.
Disclaimer I'm heavily dyslexic, so if this reads like English isn't my first language. Please bare with me.
This is my MK2 fiesta it's been about of. Journey over the last year and a bit.
I've done everything myself short of a few bits of welding. I've learned more in the last year than I have in along time and I'm thoroughly enjoying it.
I bought the car locally whilst looking for a mini.
Car was it pretty good nick (very good for a 34 year old ecobox) still sporting the original 1.0 and 4 speed box.
As you can see plans were already in motion!
Disclaimer I'm heavily dyslexic, so if this reads like English isn't my first language. Please bare with me.
This is my MK2 fiesta it's been about of. Journey over the last year and a bit.
I've done everything myself short of a few bits of welding. I've learned more in the last year than I have in along time and I'm thoroughly enjoying it.
I bought the car locally whilst looking for a mini.
Car was it pretty good nick (very good for a 34 year old ecobox) still sporting the original 1.0 and 4 speed box.
As you can see plans were already in motion!
Edited by TheConverted on Sunday 3rd January 19:08
I've done the stripped out track car on the road thing. (Z cars mini)
I've done the big turbo/power car (MK2 golf VR6 turbo)
I've done the V8 GT car (840ci )
Then I started to hit the nail home, I built my corrado as subtly modified road car. With everything standard. Except the suspension which was all re built. Custom specced coilovers, that were more plush, Beefer rollbars and decent tyres.
This car was a sublime steer and was equally at home taking my dad to the pub of an evening as it was hustling som local b roads.
This leads me to the plan for the fiesta. Which is to do something similar. But with a better power to weight ratio.
I sourced a used 1.8 black top. And a set of 98 zx9r carbs. And got it fitted over the 2019/2020 Christmas break. And had the car running that January.
It's not the most elegant setup However I was keen to see what the engines health was and if it would run on the carb base settings. I ran the 1.8 for about 4 months.
I had to do the stem seals, however the real problems started to come it turns out it had excessive blow by. (my compression tester isn't compatible with the zetec plug ports)
The engine would push oil past it rear main seal, an like an incontinen puppy was banned from dad's drive.
At this point I should probably confess, I'm not a mechanic I have no formal training for cars. I'm just stupid enough attempt these things.
I've done the big turbo/power car (MK2 golf VR6 turbo)
I've done the V8 GT car (840ci )
Then I started to hit the nail home, I built my corrado as subtly modified road car. With everything standard. Except the suspension which was all re built. Custom specced coilovers, that were more plush, Beefer rollbars and decent tyres.
This car was a sublime steer and was equally at home taking my dad to the pub of an evening as it was hustling som local b roads.
This leads me to the plan for the fiesta. Which is to do something similar. But with a better power to weight ratio.
I sourced a used 1.8 black top. And a set of 98 zx9r carbs. And got it fitted over the 2019/2020 Christmas break. And had the car running that January.
It's not the most elegant setup However I was keen to see what the engines health was and if it would run on the carb base settings. I ran the 1.8 for about 4 months.
I had to do the stem seals, however the real problems started to come it turns out it had excessive blow by. (my compression tester isn't compatible with the zetec plug ports)
The engine would push oil past it rear main seal, an like an incontinen puppy was banned from dad's drive.
At this point I should probably confess, I'm not a mechanic I have no formal training for cars. I'm just stupid enough attempt these things.
Edited by TheConverted on Sunday 3rd January 19:09
So at the beginning of the summer, I had to decide. Do I rebuild the 1.8 or fix it with more, and get a 2.0.
I managed to source a NOS 2.0 crate motor one of the last in the country available to by.
Which I got fitted in an afternoon on my buddies lift. I think he was as surprised as I was at the speed of the swap.
Drove in and drove out the same day.
I managed to source a NOS 2.0 crate motor one of the last in the country available to by.
Which I got fitted in an afternoon on my buddies lift. I think he was as surprised as I was at the speed of the swap.
Drove in and drove out the same day.
Edited by TheConverted on Sunday 3rd January 22:31
Cheers guys.
When I bought the car it was let's say 'slammed' for those that don't know this is were you engineer your suspension to be as uncomfortable as possible and rattle like nothing else as nothing has any preload.
Couple that with, 175/50/13 tyres. And the MK2 s famous ride comfort. It wasn't a pleasant thing to drive. Especially in the UK right now.
The car already had a set of GAZ gha's fitted. However the rearbeam doesn't allow for coilovers. So I order a set of -50mm drop springs to replace the -100 on the car. And wound the front up tit there was preload handily this was about 40mm, giving a little bit of rake.
Day one
Now
Whilst I had it apart Ive polibushed the whole car, fitted an xr2 rear ARB and a set of camber bots to the front struts.
Once all back together everything was 4 wheel aligned. To factory specs with -1.5 camber upfront.
In the future Im planning to fit som adjustable tie bars as this will allow me to increase the caster angle as for my liking the self entering and weight of the steering is to light. I guess this is a combo of it being lower with wider lower offset wheels and being designed for for Gwendolyn and George to pop to Asda. I've also found a company that can make a quicker rack. Which might be on the card soon.
Sorry not got any decent pics of the suspension. It's the only place my impeccable taste has slipped as I opted for pink bushes.
When I bought the car it was let's say 'slammed' for those that don't know this is were you engineer your suspension to be as uncomfortable as possible and rattle like nothing else as nothing has any preload.
Couple that with, 175/50/13 tyres. And the MK2 s famous ride comfort. It wasn't a pleasant thing to drive. Especially in the UK right now.
The car already had a set of GAZ gha's fitted. However the rearbeam doesn't allow for coilovers. So I order a set of -50mm drop springs to replace the -100 on the car. And wound the front up tit there was preload handily this was about 40mm, giving a little bit of rake.
Day one
Now
Whilst I had it apart Ive polibushed the whole car, fitted an xr2 rear ARB and a set of camber bots to the front struts.
Once all back together everything was 4 wheel aligned. To factory specs with -1.5 camber upfront.
In the future Im planning to fit som adjustable tie bars as this will allow me to increase the caster angle as for my liking the self entering and weight of the steering is to light. I guess this is a combo of it being lower with wider lower offset wheels and being designed for for Gwendolyn and George to pop to Asda. I've also found a company that can make a quicker rack. Which might be on the card soon.
Sorry not got any decent pics of the suspension. It's the only place my impeccable taste has slipped as I opted for pink bushes.
In the middle of the summer, some requests for modified MK1 fiestas were needed for TV. On the owners club face ache page.
I responded being about cheeky about the incredibly specific mods they were looking for. After some discussion they asked to use my car for a segment on the show. (I will update when I'm allowed to)
On set
Filming was delayed as the other car had broken down enroute to dunsfold. It was actually a really cool build much like my car accept it had an original XR2 crossflow with Burton head trick internals and twin dcoes.
As was pretty excited as it was described as a performance test in the paperwork, so I bought tools and spares. As some of you will know the filming is super tame and the most difficult thing the car had to deal with was waiting on a baking runway while they did lines to camera or waited for cameras.
She didn't miss a beat all-day. Appart from a slight misfire on part throttle that's been plaguing me from the 1.8
I responded being about cheeky about the incredibly specific mods they were looking for. After some discussion they asked to use my car for a segment on the show. (I will update when I'm allowed to)
On set
Filming was delayed as the other car had broken down enroute to dunsfold. It was actually a really cool build much like my car accept it had an original XR2 crossflow with Burton head trick internals and twin dcoes.
As was pretty excited as it was described as a performance test in the paperwork, so I bought tools and spares. As some of you will know the filming is super tame and the most difficult thing the car had to deal with was waiting on a baking runway while they did lines to camera or waited for cameras.
She didn't miss a beat all-day. Appart from a slight misfire on part throttle that's been plaguing me from the 1.8
Edited by TheConverted on Monday 4th January 06:33
The dreaded misfire.
I had this with the 1.8, and then into the 2.0. to me it felt like a fueling issue. Like the sides were gulping a load of fuel out as they opened. It was only ever on part throttle. Never missed a beat on fully chat.
It would hesitate as you pulled away in traffic. this inturn would lead to it sometimes back firing through the carb. After much tail chasing and pissing about I realized it can be the fueling as I'd tried everything from afrs in the hight 14s to the low 10s it made no difference.
I started to look at the ignition. Even though everything was new. After speaking to the ECU manufacturers, they thought bit could be EMI/RF from the coil pack interrupting the crank signal. Supposedly there software would be able to tell me. Cue hours of driving around my laptop as a passenger. But nothing the computer, it's is a nice one From work! Gave it a clean bill of health no problems.
I shielded the shielded cable for the crank anyway and swore at the poor car alot. I read the fullest article on EMI emitted from coilpacks. Still no solutions.
Picture because I'm waffling, and I know you came for pics
So I politely pressed the ECU manufacturers,and they set me out a new loom to try. Unfortunately this had no effect. They wanted to test the ECU so it was sent back, and given a clean bill of health. So with some more of my best charm we agreed to back to back with a new ECU. luckily there 1.5 hours from me. So I drove up to swap it over.
On arriving at there unit. And pulling the ECU. It was quite warm to touch and the car had got noticeably worse as I went. That was the longest continuous run I'd done.
The new ECU fixed it, to my delight. So after a spin around the block to check and I set off home.
20mins into the journey, and it back. The new ECU whilst not as hot, is warm. Unfortunately I had to be back in the office had to get on my way.
After a polite and factual post in the owners club regarding said ECUs. (I've been in the speed plod and the law section I'm basically a lawyer)
The general consensus was they are crap and it will be the ECU at fault. And the company is quite adept at suppressing that information on the internet. Once you start really looking it's there allsorts of issues. Another owners said when he moved his ECU to the passenger side it solved it. So I spent a Saturday re routing the loom, too see. Made no difference.
Id like to just make the point, I won't name them as they were excellent to deal with and they did look after me, very well.
Off my own back with no guarantee of a refund I bought. A highly recommend Canems unit and loom. Which ones fitted was like night and day. Not just the misfire but keener to start, smoother idel and the TPS calibration was much more accurate.
After abit of to and fro and the offer of there next unit up. Which did actually work as well as the canems when we tried it. I settled for a 2/3s refund and returning the unit . As I'd agreed I'd keep the canems unit if it solved my issues.
Both companies were a pleasure to deal with, and it's a shame there unit didn't work for me.
Here you go the only pointer on the car of what's in side.
I had this with the 1.8, and then into the 2.0. to me it felt like a fueling issue. Like the sides were gulping a load of fuel out as they opened. It was only ever on part throttle. Never missed a beat on fully chat.
It would hesitate as you pulled away in traffic. this inturn would lead to it sometimes back firing through the carb. After much tail chasing and pissing about I realized it can be the fueling as I'd tried everything from afrs in the hight 14s to the low 10s it made no difference.
I started to look at the ignition. Even though everything was new. After speaking to the ECU manufacturers, they thought bit could be EMI/RF from the coil pack interrupting the crank signal. Supposedly there software would be able to tell me. Cue hours of driving around my laptop as a passenger. But nothing the computer, it's is a nice one From work! Gave it a clean bill of health no problems.
I shielded the shielded cable for the crank anyway and swore at the poor car alot. I read the fullest article on EMI emitted from coilpacks. Still no solutions.
Picture because I'm waffling, and I know you came for pics
So I politely pressed the ECU manufacturers,and they set me out a new loom to try. Unfortunately this had no effect. They wanted to test the ECU so it was sent back, and given a clean bill of health. So with some more of my best charm we agreed to back to back with a new ECU. luckily there 1.5 hours from me. So I drove up to swap it over.
On arriving at there unit. And pulling the ECU. It was quite warm to touch and the car had got noticeably worse as I went. That was the longest continuous run I'd done.
The new ECU fixed it, to my delight. So after a spin around the block to check and I set off home.
20mins into the journey, and it back. The new ECU whilst not as hot, is warm. Unfortunately I had to be back in the office had to get on my way.
After a polite and factual post in the owners club regarding said ECUs. (I've been in the speed plod and the law section I'm basically a lawyer)
The general consensus was they are crap and it will be the ECU at fault. And the company is quite adept at suppressing that information on the internet. Once you start really looking it's there allsorts of issues. Another owners said when he moved his ECU to the passenger side it solved it. So I spent a Saturday re routing the loom, too see. Made no difference.
Id like to just make the point, I won't name them as they were excellent to deal with and they did look after me, very well.
Off my own back with no guarantee of a refund I bought. A highly recommend Canems unit and loom. Which ones fitted was like night and day. Not just the misfire but keener to start, smoother idel and the TPS calibration was much more accurate.
After abit of to and fro and the offer of there next unit up. Which did actually work as well as the canems when we tried it. I settled for a 2/3s refund and returning the unit . As I'd agreed I'd keep the canems unit if it solved my issues.
Both companies were a pleasure to deal with, and it's a shame there unit didn't work for me.
Here you go the only pointer on the car of what's in side.
The next tail of woe, building a car would be a lot easier if I new what I was doing!
By this point nice got the car running pretty good. It will happily pull away from hot hatches, Audi TT tfsi's. Ever got a 991 turbo to need to drop a cog to pull away. He thought that was halarious.
Some of you will be familiar with bike carbs. They don't have a manifold exactly they have a inlet rubber with a rib in that bolts directly to the head and a hose clamp clamps the rid into the recess in the carb casting.
My manifold is designed to just use a 100mm piece of silicon hose. And clamp this works great. However the silicon hose onto the carb is abit naff. As there's only a 10mm stub to Push into the hose and get the clamp on. So periodically these wouldn't pop off. But still maintain enough vacuum to run ok until you went WOT. Then it would go horrifically lean and Id s
t my pants.
In the end I found some of the scooters use a 40mm carb and they have an inlet rubber that has a female ribbed hole at each end .
These have fixed the problem, there also made of a stiffer material so there's no movement in the carbs either. Which probably helps too.
By this point nice got the car running pretty good. It will happily pull away from hot hatches, Audi TT tfsi's. Ever got a 991 turbo to need to drop a cog to pull away. He thought that was halarious.
Some of you will be familiar with bike carbs. They don't have a manifold exactly they have a inlet rubber with a rib in that bolts directly to the head and a hose clamp clamps the rid into the recess in the carb casting.
My manifold is designed to just use a 100mm piece of silicon hose. And clamp this works great. However the silicon hose onto the carb is abit naff. As there's only a 10mm stub to Push into the hose and get the clamp on. So periodically these wouldn't pop off. But still maintain enough vacuum to run ok until you went WOT. Then it would go horrifically lean and Id s
t my pants. In the end I found some of the scooters use a 40mm carb and they have an inlet rubber that has a female ribbed hole at each end .
These have fixed the problem, there also made of a stiffer material so there's no movement in the carbs either. Which probably helps too.
Edited by TheConverted on Sunday 3rd January 22:59
Edited by TheConverted on Sunday 3rd January 23:01
So the near future I'm planning, to fit a surge tank as I can't go below 1/3 of a tank. Would you believe there is absolutely no baffle or sump in a mk2 tank. It's just a hose.
Rebuild the gearbox and fit a quaife LSD, this will be hugely beneficial to the car as it does have reasonable body roll and some compliance it love to light up the inside tyre.
This will be one of the few jobs I plan to farm out.
New exhaust / mod the existing one. It's an off the shelf xr2 one. It's not a great fit. And I've already welded 2 of the slipjoints up and modified the mounts. However there's no flexy so the font slip joint, which is required. Blows as it moves around.
Possibly cams, still undecided on that.
And I'm planning to get to the a rolling road this month. However there's a house move to though into the mix.
Longer term, ITBs with injection.
Once I get to a point where I'm happy. And it runs and drives as I want it to. I'd like to strip it down and rebuild it. Properly with everything taken back an refreshing, New wiring throughout.
She is starting to show here age in places.
Home made sequential shift lights , the clock was busted anyway.
Sleeper?
Rebuild the gearbox and fit a quaife LSD, this will be hugely beneficial to the car as it does have reasonable body roll and some compliance it love to light up the inside tyre.
This will be one of the few jobs I plan to farm out.
New exhaust / mod the existing one. It's an off the shelf xr2 one. It's not a great fit. And I've already welded 2 of the slipjoints up and modified the mounts. However there's no flexy so the font slip joint, which is required. Blows as it moves around.
Possibly cams, still undecided on that.
And I'm planning to get to the a rolling road this month. However there's a house move to though into the mix.
Longer term, ITBs with injection.
Once I get to a point where I'm happy. And it runs and drives as I want it to. I'd like to strip it down and rebuild it. Properly with everything taken back an refreshing, New wiring throughout.
She is starting to show here age in places.
Home made sequential shift lights , the clock was busted anyway.
Sleeper?
Edited by TheConverted on Sunday 3rd January 23:03
So glad you have posted this. 
It looks really good now - just seemed a bit too low before, although I did prefer the Revolution wheels. Are the new ones Ally-Cats?
Hopefully you can get it running how you want it soon!
A real sleeper that I have enjoyed reading about, although it's quite far rmoved from the 1985 1.1 Ghia my late Mum bought in 1986 (in a good way).
It looks really good now - just seemed a bit too low before, although I did prefer the Revolution wheels. Are the new ones Ally-Cats?
Hopefully you can get it running how you want it soon!
A real sleeper that I have enjoyed reading about, although it's quite far rmoved from the 1985 1.1 Ghia my late Mum bought in 1986 (in a good way).
Edited by Mr Tidy on Sunday 3rd January 23:50
Edited by Mr Tidy on Sunday 3rd January 23:52
Mr Tidy said:
So glad you have posted this.
It looks really good now - just seemed a bit too low before, although I did prefer the Revolution wheels. Are the new ones Ally-Cats?
Hopefully you can get it running how you want it soon!
A real sleeper that I have enjoyed reading about, although it's quite far rmoved from the 1985 1.1 Ghia my late Mum bought in 1986 (in a good way).
I liked the revs as well, I'm thinking oh having the allycats done in all silver as the machined faces are about to bling. There actually jbw wheels replicas.It looks really good now - just seemed a bit too low before, although I did prefer the Revolution wheels. Are the new ones Ally-Cats?
Hopefully you can get it running how you want it soon!
A real sleeper that I have enjoyed reading about, although it's quite far rmoved from the 1985 1.1 Ghia my late Mum bought in 1986 (in a good way).
Edited by Mr Tidy on Sunday 3rd January 23:50
Edited by Mr Tidy on Sunday 3rd January 23:52
The reason for the change what the simple fact the revolutions didn't fit. They should have they were the correct CB of 63.4mm. however the chamfer on the centrebore was huge and didn't engage with the spigots on the car. This ment a big bump or just sloppy wheel fitting ment the wheel was slightly off-centre on the hub..
My solution was to make spigot rings on the lathe. This proved to be very difficult as I had no way of measuring the angle of the chamfer.
Here you can see how deep the chamfer was.
This was kind of a fix, as it did locate the wheel better and more centrally. however it wasn't perfect I wasn't able to get them close enough. And as the 2 angles were slightly off it ment you have to torque the wheel perfectly every time.
If you look at the price of a set of new 13" wheels it's a no brainer, about a £300 for a set.
Some of the eagle eyed will have noticed the NS2R track tyres and the Yoko A539 road ones. I started off with the tracktyres and they are a great tyre had them on the corrado
However whist incredibly grippy, the side walls are really firm. Not a problem on the 1100kg corrado. However the ride was really crashy in the fiesta at 750kg. On track though they would be epic. And may return next summer.
13" tyre choice is very limited. A set of Michelin pilot sports would be my perfect Choice however these starts at 17" now. So I've settled for Yokohama a539s. There abit naff in the wet but other wise there very good and off a nice progressive breakaway in the dry.
Edited by TheConverted on Monday 4th January 07:11
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