Engine Part 1

Choosing an engine for our car was not difficult. Because we were going with all ford running gear it made sense to go for the 2 liter zetec out of the focus. Out the box stock this power plant only gives out something around 136 bhp which isn't a small number considering how light the car is. However by the time we have finished fettling with it it should give out somewhere between 170 and 180 supported by throttle bodies.

Once we had the crated engine in the garage there were a few important bits that had to be dissembled. 

Tools you may need for this job;

IMPORTANT ENGINE CRANE

Luckily we borrowed an engine crane on a long term basis from a good friend of ours. It had saved our necks numerous amounts of times and is a brilliant tool. If you do not already own one I highly suggest you buy one they are only about £150.

Series of spanners and ratchets

lots of socket heads and extender bars

Allen key socket heads

Filter strap

The first job was to get the engine up in the air and gut it of its dignity. It turns out that the only thing you will end up keeping on the engine is the water pump!

First thing to come off is the inlet manifold and fuel rail. Simple job that only required taking a few bolts off. Connected to this is a hose which leads to a small peto tube which runs across the front of the engine to a black box mounted on the exhaust side. All of this also needs coming off and where the black box sat a blanking plate needs to be put on. This also may require some new bolts as the originals are very long.  

Second job is to remove the exhaust manifold. Again this this a very simple job its just connected with a few bolts. One thing you need to also make sure you do is to tape up any holes you expose. If you drop  a nut or bolt into the engine its pretty much game over. 

The brand new oil filter also has to come off as its too large to fit into the engine bay. To get this off use a filter strap tool. Its a bit of a hassle to get off but its better to get it off before the engine goes into the bay.

Another thing that has to come off the engine is the thermostat but we removed it later on in the process when we fit the raceline water rail. 

Side Panel Fitment

Im really not sure how I forgot to add this to the blog and I think I have lost the photographs. I will post them up when I find them.

This process was completed many months ago and both side panels have now been fitted to the car. It is a lengthy process and takes lots of planning and lots of clamps.

For our car we decided to go with the stainless side panels instead of the dull aluminium ones. At the time GBS were not painting any of their panels so most of the cars coming out of the factory had either stainless or aluminium sides and hud. One example that stood out to us was a car that had been wrapped in vinyl. On further inspection we saw that it was a really nice job and looked professional. However I wanted to take it a step further and create a custom Decal that ran down the side of the car. My technical background allowed me to spend some time in Adobe Illustrator creating a custom Decals which incorporated both the Zero and Lotus 7 into one becoming Zero 7. Along with this some nice race flag squares were added.

We then approached a company called Beacon signs to get it printed out onto a yellow vinyl and wrapped onto the car. They did an excellent job and the print looked fantastic.

After it had been printed it was protected with a large covering of masking tape and offered up to the side of the car. We clamped the panel into place and marked on the back where the chassis cross members intersected the panel and marked it with a pencil. We also marked where rivet holes needed to be placed. We did three on the rear face (which are covered by the wheel arch) several on the bottom lip and some more one the edge of the large triangle section which overlaps the front section of the car.

The holes were marked and drilled with the panel on. It was then taken off and an entire tube of silicone was added on the panel. We both then carefully married the panel to the chassis making sure it placed on first time.

Once on it was held in place with hundreds of clamps, making sure that every cross member of the chassis was touching the panel. We used all sorts of daft techniques to accomplish this such as using brooms and bits of wood to push it in place.

Whilst everything was setting the rivets were then put in place.

Gearbox modifications

Our gearbox needed a few different modifications to allow it to mate with the Zetec engine. I will run through some critical steps you need to follow for it to offer up correctly.

One of the first things we did with the box was to remove the pivot pin which the clutch fork holds on to. As you can see the original black pin on the right is much shorter than the longer pin that GBS supply.

It was simply tapped out with a bit of strong wood from the opposite side. The new one fit nice and snug and is now in place.

The next job was to create a blanking plate for which I believe was the old connection for the mile counter. This was created with a very thin piece of aluminium and a screw with a flat washer underneath. It was glued and screwed into place with the black silicone sealant we used for the panels.

The second blanking plate is on the other side of the gearbox. It can be filled in perfectly with a 2 pence piece and a bit of silicone.

One piece of equipment that we didn't get with the gearbox was the clutch fork. I must warn you these are like goldust. We couldn't even find one at a scrap yard due to the fact that there were only 2 sierras in the entirety of motor hog. They wanted to sell us the entire gearbox when all we were after was the fork. In the end we managed to source one from a bloke over at donny gearboxes in car croft. He was a specialist and it took him about a month to find one of which we were incredibly grateful for.

UPDATE!!!

After the new sump had been fitted to our zetec engine the bottom of the gearbox needed cutting away. We coupled the box and engine together and marked where it needed to be cut. It was then split again where it met the wrath of the deadly grinder which easily chewed through the soft aluminium.

 

Fuel tank fitment

Hi guys, I have had this post in my drafts for more than a couple of months, suppose I just forgot to publish it.

OK the fuel tank fitment. This job wasn't too much effort but it was important to get right. 

Things you may need for this job...

Silicone sealant 

Masking tape

Silicone spatulas 

Masking tape

We made worked out were the chassis needed to be masked so none of the sealant could seep out and make a mess, if it did it would mark the tape which could be removed. The tank didn't sit completely flat against the chassis, we suspected that this was because the aluminium may have warped when it was welded. We made sure the top of the tank was pushed up against the horizontal bar. The gap that was now visible at the bottom was then just filled in with more glue.

After the tank had been set in place we used some plastic silicone spatulas to get a level edge while the sealant was still wet. This gave us a perfectly flat line instead of wobbly blobs along the chassis. After this we removed the tape with any excess spillage.

Suspension Photos

THE DREADED WHEELS

Hi guys, not posted on my blog in a while, have been very busy with university work. We have a few major updates that we have completed and sourced for the next stage of our build.

One of our most common arguments between my dad and me was the type of wheels we where going to fit to our beautiful sports car. GBS offer a range of team dynamics Motorsport wheels in silver grey and black. These wheels are 10 to 12 spoke 15 inch wheels and are fitted to quite a lot of the zeros we have seen. I quite like the look of them however my dad didn't. He was adamant that he wanted some old school 5 spoke rounded edged wheels, nothing else would do. 

We couldn't find any new wheels that suited the style we where looking at so we started searching the second hand market. Some wheels that really stood out where the tsw stealths. They looked very similar to the wheels he was after for his Z3. 

The problem was the Z3 wheels where 5 stud and our Sierra hubs are only 4. We would have to find some wheels that had 4 studs and a spacing of 108mm between each hole in the style we where after. I racked my brain and remembered that the mk5 escort cossy had some really nice 5 spoke smooth alloys. Lucky I was correct and the stud spacing was correct for our setup. There where 3 different types of wheel size and look. 

The first where the 15 inch ronal wheels from the mk6 (mk5 facelift) escort gti 

The second where the 16 inch deep dished alloys from the cossy

The third was the 16 inch from the mk2 mondeo zetec s 

The idea would be to find a beat up set from either the reckless or ebay and get them refurbished. I ended up buying a set of 16s from ebay off an old scrapped mondeo. After getting these home I found that they were very large, especially with the chunky tires they came with. 

Because we didn't want to fit super slick tires to the car we decided to sell these wheels on and look for some more. 

The final wheels we found where from the GTI. These fit nice and the wheel to tire ratio was better. They had some deep curb marks and bubbling paint so I was quite worried after the refurb they would still be visible.

I was wrong, the chap at Danum wheel refurbishment did an absolute stunning job. The wheels came out looking brand spanking new. Not a mark in sight. 

The next job was to find some new tyres to fit on these beauties. We asked and searched around to see what suited us the best. The car would be used mainly on the road and for the odd track day. We picked up some Yokohama para 2s for 60something pounds a tyre. 

He only thing left to do now is the spray the center caps up and get them fitted

UPDATE!!!

Disaster! After all this time and effort there as one thing that we didn't consider and found out when it came to fit them…… the ET.

These wheels had an offset of ET40 which is fine for a standard sierra hubs because I looked it up. For the wheels to fit correctly on the zero they had to be ET15, slightly annoyed about this perhaps if a manual was available this could have been easily avoided.

Moving on though we kept the tires and are still looking for a decent set of wheels. 

Fitting the gearbox mount

One of the next jobs we could get on and start doing was fitting the gearbox mount. This is a rubber shoe that fits in the little bracket in the middle of the car. Unfortunately its not just a blot on job and needs some modifying in order to fit in the hole. 

Tools you may need for this job;

Hack saw

Drill with corresponding drill bits to fit the supplied bolts

measuring tools 

Polyurethane  sealant (optional)

Steady hands

The gearbox mount is a funny little rubber shoe that needs to be fitted in order to sit and locate the gearbox position. When you buy a gearbox mount unit it will not fit directly into your chassis bracket. This is because it is from a Sierra and still has the old mounting holes drilled. To modify the mount we placed the unit on top of the bracket. The mount did not sit flat with the bracket. Instead the old lugs where balancing themselves on the two opposite chassis cross members that emerge from the bottom of the tunnel. 

We marked where the lugs caused interference and cut them off with a hacksaw. This now sat snug.

We then needed to know where the four new holes where going to be placed on the mount. To align this we needed to move the gearbox into position.

We used our engine crane and some straps to align it up with the prop shaft.

Getting the Crane ready for lifting

    

Lining the gearbox up with the propshaft

Easy does it

Once the gearbox was in place we bolted it to the prop shaft with the three heavy duty bolts and spring washers. They where tightened all the way up so we knew the gearbox couldn't slide anymore forwards or backwards. Now it was time to mark the holes for the gearbox mount. We slid the mount underneath the bracket and lined it up with the gearbox foot lug (a beveled piece of steel that bolts onto the bottom of the gearbox, shown in the image below). Once here drill points were marked onto the mount and the gearbox was taken out again. 

     

With these points now marked the mount had the four holes drilled and filed out. It was now time to be fitted. The mount was placed underneath the bracket and bolted on using the bolts provided in the kit. Finally Some polyurethane sealant was used around the edges of the mount to seal the unit in place.    

Underside of the car, showing the bottom of the mount poking through