Another update....
Finished work early yesterday and decided to have a few hours getting the car back together and in on piece ready for Cadwell Park on the 10th May.
There wasn't a huge amount to do but the car had been sat looking broken for a little while to the point when even my neighbor asked my why it hadn't moved for a while!
So First job was to fit my new Comex 12" slimline fan to the alloy radiator I'd bought.... slight issue, there we're no clips with the fan to mount it to the rad. So as an interim measure I've used a couple of cable ties and will be replacing them when my clips arrive.
The fan is a nice high quality item, I was looking at the cheaper ebay jobbies but decided to invest in a decent one.
Untitled by
Jay Hardy, on Flickr
Fitted to the radiator, only just fits!
Untitled by
Jay Hardy, on Flickr
Fitted up to the car, its a perfect replacement and goes straight into the original mounting position, the radiator is a Direnza item that is listed for a mk6 Fiesta but the dimensions are exactly the same. Its also a nice quality item for a decent price.
Untitled by
Jay Hardy, on Flickr
Untitled by
Jay Hardy, on Flickr
The last little job to do before I leave for Cadwell is wire up the fan and fill the cooling system which should all be done today. The other little job I wanted to do was replace and re position the air filter, mine is pretty old and battered now so I bought a new ITG filter, only issue..... Its HUGE and wont fit when I planned for it to go but it'll come in handy for the turbo engine build.
So I stuck with the old filter and used the new silicone elbow I'd bought to get the filter low down behind the bumper so I can direct some cold air into it.
Untitled by
Jay Hardy, on Flickr
Untitled by
Jay Hardy, on Flickr
Untitled by
Jay Hardy, on Flickr
Plenty of space between the wheel and filter so no issues of it catching. I've also now got a cold air feed going to the area behind the bumper.... it might make no difference but its a more effective way of getting the filter into some air flow.
I also got angle grinder happy again and chopped a load of brackets off that I no longer need, its amazing how much metal you can actually remove!
Next up is as previously mentioned, wire the fan up, fill and bleed the cooling system then give the car a good scrub and get it looking back to its best. I'l give the car a thorough road test before heading to Cadwell.
I'm also building the parts lists for the 2.0 zetec turbo engine I'm going to be building, its growing out of control but its all doable on the budget I'm planning. Once I've moved into my new house and I can get the engine on a stand I'l start stripping it down and getting it built back up.
On a personal side note.... I've just got back from my first ever Nurburgring experience, I'm helping to produce an article for Autosport Magazine so I was sent to basically do this.
IMG_4233 by
Jay Hardy, on Flickr
It was, hands down the best thing I've ever done from behind the wheel of any car.