I’m very disappointed. The rolling road shootout was a great day, with mainly Sierra Cossies there, but a handful of old Fords. That’s not the reason for my disappointment. I only managed 106bhp on the rollers. A long way off from the 140+ it should be doing. Because this was just a power run, and not a tuning session, they weren’t able to increase it, but I did log it with my laptop, and it showed I was very lean.
I had a chat with a guy with a turbo’d Mondeo Zetec, and he’s said the only way around it, is to fit a wideband lambda, and do the logging/analysing/remapping. So that’s what I’ve done. I ordered an LC-1 controller and wideband lambda on Sunday evening. It arrived on Tuesday, and I fitted it yesterday.
So now I’m in the process if driving around and logging it. I’ve done one remapping session, and the results have been pretty good so far, but still got a long way to go.
I’m looking forward to Sunday. One of the guys on OldSkoolFord has organised a rolling road day at our local rolling road. He’s posted the invite on quite a few forums, so there’s going to be mainly Evos and Sierra Cossies there, but classic wise there’s me, and a Mk1 Escort! The rolling road company (Well Lane Turbo Centre) won’t tune my van with the megasquirt as I asked a long time ago, so I’ve been driving around logging my rides, then generating new maps. The van drives well, but I somehow doubt I’ll be over the 137bhp it was pushing out when it had the crossflow it, but you never know.
Wish me luck!
Kev Jenkins runs sub 12 second quarters in his XE powered Mk1 Escort. Two videos for you today. The first is the car from the spectators view. The second from a different run, is the view from the cabin.
I don’t know about you, but my van has got a leak when it rains. I’ve not had a good look to find out where it’s coming from yet (it may be the windscreen rubber or one of the drilled holes in the bulkhead) but everytime it’s been raining, there’s a little puddle on the passenger floor.
Luckily I don’t have carpet or other luxuries to ruin, so I whipped one of the floor grommets out so the water could drain out. All well and good until Saturday.
After a days karting, I was driving my friend Simon home. The heavens had opened and visibility on the motorway was pretty bad. Luckily, the Rain-X I applied a couple of days before was doing its job. We came off the motorway, and the main road back to Simons was covered in water. It was dark, and we didn’t see it until the last minute, but one section was flooded. I hit it at about 35. Remember the little grommet I removed to let water out. It let a lot of water in. A hell of a lot. Simon was drenched, along with my laptop which was on his knee, as I was doing some megasquirt datalogging at the time.
So remember folks, holes in the floor let water in as well as out.
This is classic. Roger Clarke and Tony Masons Escort was restored and featured on Top Gear. Roger took to the wheel again, and drove it like he stole it.
I realised today at the end of a 40 mile motorway journey that my windscreen washer had stopped working. It worked fine for the MOT and I’ve never used it since! I’ve probably knocked a wire out behind the dash, so I’ll get it fixed tomorrow. It was during the journey that I realised how dirty my windows actually were. The rear ones were terrible, and it makes it worse driving a van because when it rains, the vacuum the brick shaped body creates behind it, makes the rain and dirt come back and stick to the back of the van.
Where’s this all going, I hear you ask? Well, when I went into Asda, I bought some a Rain X double pack. One bottle was a window cleaner, which has made them sparkle. The other bottle is the Rain X itself. If you don’t know what Rain X is, it’s something you wipe on your windows that helps water run off them, a bit like when you polish your body work. Well it’s been a nice day today, so I can’t tell you if it’s working or not, but when I get the windscreen washer working tomorrow, I’ll let you know how it does.
The Escort that was stolen over the weekend has been recovered. Here’s the story:
Its been the craziest after noon
I went out to pay in a cheque, got to my bank and was chatting to the lady behind the counter. She commented that there been alot of things being stolen lately. I then told her what car it was and she went white and looked shocked. She decribed it perfectly and told me she had seen it this morning. The funny thing is it was 2 roads over from where I live.
So I sprinted to the police station to tell them, they sent a area car to have a look but reported nothing back
I was sad at this point but I still went round to have a look for myself.
As I approached the house I seen a glism of the rear louve and there it was
It was on the driveway of a empty house
So I was straight on the phone the police, who came out quickly.
They had a look around and asked some ppl, but then they implied that I had sold it and reported it stolen because they could’nt understand why it was found so close to my house and without damage.
Anyway a recovery truck came out to lift it and the guy tried to start it with my car, the barrel would’nt turn tho and has been damaged.
They called the person who had the house for sale and she came round and said shed never seen the car before.
So now i’ve got to wait a few days to get it back from fingure printing and dna testing.
I’m so lucky and thankful right now. Gonna get the lady in the bank i big bunch of flowers
Keep your eye out for a silver Mk1 Escort registration FUY375J stolen from the Nottingham area.
2-door in silver with flakey paint
cut down quarter bumpers
1300 crossflow
3.9 english axle
2.8 billies with vented brakes
2.4 tec rack with grp4 joint
double width with anti-dive
poly bushes all round
15×7 minilite alloys
195/45/15 toyo proxies
89 erst recaros with subframe welded in
red interior (dash cards etc)
TRS red 3 point harness’s
autoplas rear visor (louvre)
clear front indicators
This is happening every other week. The best advice to stop it happening to your old Ford is to immobilise it in some way. One guy from the 105Speed forum had his Anglia stolen last week, but they didn’t get far because he’d removed the king lead from the coil. He found it abandoned down the road. If you haven’t yet got an immobilser fitted, that is the cheapest way to stop it from starting, and it only takes a few seconds. That will stop opportunist theft. If the thief has a flatback truck then there’s not a lot anyone can do.
