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I think Ihave isolated the problem now. the icv isn't connected via the hose underneath! should have it sorted soon enough. not that happy with the exhaust place they didn't put all the manifold gaskets on and the tail pipes are not how I imagined. so I think it will be another week.

spoke to my insurance and they are being cool.

Excellent work Nas! Cant wait to see it!

my alloy rad showed up today.

Its a modified escort mk1/2 forest spec rally alloy job. Its been designed for cossie / millington engines, and it will fit absolutley perfect in that recess between the headlights and provides more core area than the e34/e36 rad.

anyway more shiney stuff! FAP

how much was that then? (i dread to think actually, what with the rwd escort tax added on it!)

it wasn't overly expensive otherwise i wouldnt have bought it lol -- well i say that, but then some people might shit themselves when they see the invoice, but for a high performance UK built alloy rad i think it was priced accordingly.. its very light too and its quality is very high. if you look through the outlet into the rad you can see that the water channels are pretty wide and its gonna look very nice once i hit it with more autosol.

A H fabrications supplied it, I think that out of most of the companies I have been dealing with they are the most helpful and nicest so far, and they got this rad to me in three days!

here is their website they do other fabrication work. http://www.ahfabrications.com/

you would be suprised you know murran - the parts for these old escorts aren't that much actually, the car to buy in the first place is though!

I was actually thinking myself of using my 3 core escort radiator for mine too, trouble is i need it for my cossie escort! nice to know it works though, im guessing you got AH Fab to size the outlet ports correctly. Are you using the e21 overflow tank?

murran wrote:how much was that then? (i dread to think actually, what with the rwd escort tax added on it!)

RWD Escort tax + Cosworth Tax + me buying stuff in Pounds and then having to pay for postage in Pounds and the poor conversion rate...

My wallet is extremely light.

hi nigel, no over flow tank. it has a built in header tank that takes a stant cap. I am trying to work out the pressure ill need. after searching around the stock pressure is 30psi / 2 bar! that seems pretty high to me!

I got ah to put an extra outlet on for the heater pipe n I got them to stick 38mm outlets for the rad hose to match the thrrmostat housing.

Progress report?? You must have given it a thrashing by now mate!

well! I have been slack last week :/

I have managed to fit my rad. theres so much room now! as you can see looks nice n shiny. the temp guage doesn't work, either broken sensor or its not the correct type for my stock gauge? still the electric fan kicks in automatically and the water cools down very quickly too.



here's my rad fan.


I also did some other stuff like tighten up a few bolts, change the dash clocks to 323i ones so I can keep the correct speedo for the gearing / diff and I swapped the rev meter from the same.

so whats left? fit valance n front grill, temp gauge to figure out, battery tray, lambda sensor boss and lambda needs fitting, n then its booked in for engineers report on wednesday.

You need to fit an e21 brown temp sensor to replace the e36 spec one

Jason

Jason_323i wrote:You need to fit an e21 brown temp sensor to replace the e36 spec one

Jason

beat me to it there!

cheers Jason / John - I thought that I would need a new sensor, the e34 one wont be calibrated to my gauge.

I was a little worried about the temp sensor, i think I can trust it not to overheat - the rad seems to be doing a very good job at keeping temps down as it took a fair while for it to get warm, the fan switch is a 92 on 82 off, and I put a 1.0 Bar rad cap and 35% antifreeze mix, theres nice hot air from the heater as well. its not going to boil over.

anyway - did the last few remaining jobs since my last post. The front valance and the grills are back on and I made a temporary heat shield for the ecu (made from an old rx7 FD3S gearbox heatshield lol), battery tray fitted, and did some wiring tidy up and spent ages tidying up my garage a bit.

Tomorrow I am going to drive this car to the exhaust place to get the lambda fitted - this should stop it overfuelling and running like shit at low revs - theres not really any problem at higher revs, so it is drivable as long as you set off above 2k and keep plenty of gas on while its cold. So anyway I went out it for a drive round the block tonight after finishing all the jobs as a mini shakedown test.

i came out of a junction and scared the crap outta myself!!! - its such an odd sensation being used to m10 and now suddenly losing traction without even trying , the car feels nice and smooth and the steering seems nice and sharp, although I think I might turn up the damper stiffness up as the front seems a bit too soft with this engine in.

Sorry if im going on a bit - still buzzin from my drive earlier - I havent had some proper RWD fun in ages!

E21 temp sender can be fitted and will work but will show red all the time which can be unsettling.
Ive fitted an small aftermarket guage for temp. I would get a guage on it, even for a while. Would be a shame to toast the motor because there was air in the system etc. M50s can be tricky to bleed.

m20's are happy at 80-84 while m50s are between 88-92deg
I used an 84 deg t-stat but i will be swapping this out for a 88 deg one soon as it hadly ever comes up to temp if im rolling.

hey nigel, heers for the heads up mate..

now im wondering if theres a compatible gauge with the standard sender?

i made it 12 mile to the exhaust place this morning, there was no overheating.. ive got a fool proof method of putting coolant in.. i jacked the front of the car right up and filled it with coolant and burped it by letting it run and then taking cap off real slow..