Focus Cosworth RWD

[Cochyn]

Oops! Wheel bearing gone and head gasket blew

[Olivera]

Oh dear, what head gasket did you have on it? Long studded?

Hope you got some laps in and had some fun before it went.

[Test driver]

Fantastic job on a great motor, well done sir.

[Cochyn]

Wheel bearing collapsed on the way to Belgium (so no problems at the Ring, having fun with the M5 Ring Taxi :lol: ) so the wheel went on an angle and the rotor caught the caliper pad retaining lug. That's what the scoring is from.

So, new bearing, rotor and bolts and the head gasket is just one of those things I have to get around to fixing. But this engine is 7 years old, driven to all events, track days, completed 12 Nurburgring trips and driven all the way to Gatebil in Norway. So she's done well, just hope that's all the damage I need to repair.

Very reliable car for the past 7 years though, just all came at once

[DanMateX]

Amazing

[Cochyn]

Made them out of alloy and used skateboard grip tape off ebay to cover the tops. Cheers.

Got time on 2nd August to get it back home to Wales to start the rebuild on the top half, shouldn't be too long and then it's back out having fun

[Cochyn]

Ha! Ah no it was just what came up on ebay when I wrote "race grip tape" or words to that effect. Works well, even on the pedals.

[Cochyn]

New tyre, bearing and rotor fitted; all of which didn't need changing in pairs because they were all very new (apart from the bearing). So fitted them last night after work. Just need to find the time to sort the head now and then back to the Nurburgring in September  

[Cochyn]

So far so good. Clear head gasket failure, which I'm not too bothered about. These normally last 4 years and have a max boost pressure of 26psi from what I've seen, so with 31psi peak it's last 7 years. A lotta trips and track abuse in that time, happy with that.

More so, that there's no cracks on the head or block

[Cochyn]

Long and drawn out process this Been busy with work so no time to really focus on the car. But Jim at SCS has skimmed the head, so the engine will be back up and running in the next couple of weeks. I'll use the car as much over winter as possible, avoiding salt ridden roads as much as possible though :lol:

[Cochyn]

Head ready

[Escort3500]

Loving this thread. Keep the updates coming

[Cochyn]

Trying :lol:

[finlo]

Don't think you'll get another skim out of that head!

[Cochyn]

Aaaaand I need to worry why? got a spare

[finlo]

You don't if it all holds together, but any more skimming will eat into the valve seat.

[Cochyn]

Yup, but st engineering I would need to worry. But given the last setup lasted 7 years of hard abuse I’m happy!

[csd19]

GravelBen said:

Great stuff - there was a similar idea RWD Mk2 Focus + 4.0 turbo straight 6 (from a Falcon) competing in tarmac rallying here for a while, quite a weapon.

A Focus with a Barra in it, love it! Fair old size of an engine (tall) to stick in there but that must've made a great noise.

OP, really liking the stealth factor - okay, you've got non-standard wheels on it but that's normal with really big brake kits, fair play for keeping it so normal on the outside.

I remember seeing Andrew Gallagher's Focus at Knockhill a few times over the years, he had a mk1 for a while as well? I know you'd said your shell had been prepped by him.

[Cochyn]

Inlet painted and rebuilt, and the block prepped ready.

[Caddyshack]

The inlets benefit from a plenum spacer or hart inlet. I am hoping to go individual throttle bodies on mine as it is supposed to really improve the throttle response.