Sorted the lights, they didn't have a wiring diagram and I wired them up wrong. Sorted that out and all is good again.

Wilwoods are on and the brakes feel a little better, not sure if I have all the air out as I didn't have the correct size spanner for the bleed nipples 1/4" AF, American calipers you see. I'll be having another bleed before I go away this weekend.

I'm now in the possession of some new drums as well, 10" jobs off an XR4i. They look simply massive! No time to get them fitted before Stoneleigh kit car show tho, they will have to wait.

Finally decided to make a new gearknob after loking at my aweful broken Ford one for nearly a year! Saw some nice ones in Burtons catalogue and decided to have a bash meself.

Anyway an hour on the lathe and I'm well pleased!

New brakes arrived yesterday from Rally Design while I was out picking up my new Dominator headlights in carbon fibre effect. The lights are much smaller, 4", and are more of a 'torpedo' style than the rounded bowls of the 5 3/4" jobs.
Fitted them today and they do look smart, however I seem to have created a fault in the wiring, the main beam indicator on the dash is lit up all the time now. Little bit of investigation has found it not to be the lights or new wiring so I'm a bit stumped.
Great day out at Specialist Cars last Sunday, hundreds of cars and people, more Porches than you could shake a stick at. Excellent turn out from the 7's as well and we had a nice steady blast over the moors afterwards. Apart from the heavy frost on the morning it was thoroughly enjoyable.I have put all my pictures from the day in a folder inside my picture galley, just click the link on the right to see them. click the 'my pictures' in the gallery then select 'Yorkshire Breakfast 2009'

Ford RS meet tomorrow, and then I'll be cracking on installing the Wilwood 4 pots and bigger discs...

Got the carbs pretty close and the motor revs past the 8K ceiling on my tacho, need to keep that in check!

Had a run over to Specialist Cars in Malton today for an open day in aid of the Yorkshire Air Ambulance. Met up with fellow 7ers on the way down. Hundreds of people and some very exotic motors lying around.

I took plenty of pics, just click here to go straight to it: Yorkshire Breakfast 2009

Set of Wilwoods next I reckon...

Got the Lambda and AFR gauge working now. Haven't really done anything yet apart from see how it idles. With the new exhaust I noticed it hunts and drops down when idling, the Innovate lambda's telling me its very weak at tick over. I'll be having a look at tuning the carbs this weekend, even if its just near enough to get back down to Blogg Brothers for a proper set up.
Still need to complete the new inlet manifold tho!

Any, here's some pics of the exhaust I got from AAS in Newcastle. Sounds great, ticking over quite quite but once the revs build and the VVT kicks in it howls... nice!!I've constructed a copper heat shield for the sensor out of 28mm copper pipe as advised inthe Innovate manual.

Some pics of the sump chop on my ST170. Rear section of the sump boxed in to create extra capacity. I left the original part of the rear section, you can see the profile where the weld is and drilled holes through it to create a baffle.

Needs to come off soon as its leaking, making a mess on the garage floor!

New exhaust on last Wednesday, had a run down to MNR Saturday. I've connected the VVT to the aux output on the Mj and set it to switch a relay at 4K. This allows high cruising speeds without the cam kicking in and buggering the mpg up.

SO, couple of nice empty straight roads and 4K in third gear... whoosh! off she goes and pulls like train!
Carbs are not set up properly yet as there is a fluffy moment between 2.5~4K where I think it is running a bit weak. I need to get the LC1 connected so I can see the AFR and have a go at tuning myself....

In the meantime I've been kicking on with the log burner, bit late for this winter but will get rid of tons of rubbish in the garden and its there for next year. I got an empty 19kg bottle a while ago and left the valve open for a week, turning it upside down after 3 days. With tons of old engine oil I drilled a hole in the top of the bottle next to the valve and filled it with water. I then cut the valve off and left it full of water in the garden for 3 months!

I got a length of 4 1/2" 3.5mm pipe the other day so I've been cracking on....

Doors marked out a partially cut. Thought original marking out was too high.

Doors fully cut out.

Hole cut in the top for steel chimney pipe. Next step, hinges and welding up.
Its tight in the garage when all the toys are in!

Been for a drive out today, nothing more than a mile eating session, sitting in traffic, testing the new coolant pipe setup. Couple of burst in first and second some speedy motorway driving. All went well with no incidents and I took some pictures.

Its going in for a new performance exhaust next week, bigger primery's and beefy silencer to extract as much power as possible out of the motor.

Some pictures of my ST engine install....

Thermostat/header connections.

Exhaust on, straight off the 1.8.
Soon to be replaced for a bigger one!

Engine on the stand showing the sump chop.
I cut it level with the bottom of the bellhousing.

New nearside engine mount with custom alternator mount
using the original aircon pump bracket.

Yesterday I had my first run out with the new engine. Nothing spectacular as the roads were damp in places and it was very cold. Went down to see a fellow MNR builder who is getting ready for SVA.

I've bought an Innovate LC 1 lambda kit so I can have a go at tuning the carbs for their new application. So, I need the lambda boss welding into the exhaust..... paid a visit to AAS Exhausts in Newcastle to see about getting that welded in and a couple of other tidy ups on the exhaust, welding two joints, nice hanger etc... Anyway to cut a long story short, and explaining I wanted 200bhp from the motor I've booked the car in for whole new exhaust system with much bigger pipes throughout. I hadn't planned this atm but knew it needed doing so I'm in for it just need a hefty cash injection....

Got back home in the dark with no drama's apart from a concern with the coolant. I'm not convinced I'm getting the correct reading from the temp gauge, and its chucking coolant out when its cold. I suspect this is due to the header tank connection being very close to the bypass output of the thermostat housing. I'm going to move the header tank connection down to the bottom hose close to the radiator to try and smooth out any surges that may be the cause of the coolant being expelled.

Immediate plans are to cure once and for all the brake fluid leak that's been a constant problem with new master cylinders with integral reservoirs, move the header tank connection and get the exhaust done. Then I can think about cams to get up to 200bhp. And I still need to make a new inlet manifold.

Roll on the warm weather!

Got my hands on some 5mm steel plate. I've decided to make a new inlet manifold. Seeing as I made the original one I can save a bit of cash making this one too. I've got the Ford Plastic one to use as a template and it should be easier this time as the ports on the head are larger. I wont have to reduce the tubes to make them fit!

I've swapped the thermostat housing for the one of the 1.8. This is because the newer ST one has temp senders that are push in and held with sliding clips, where as the 1.8 one has threaded sensor holes. This has enabled me to fit the Acewell sensor to the bottom of the unit. I started the engine again for another warm up/leak test and while the fan came on as it does at 86 degrees the dash was only registering 55... This may be due to the sensor sitting on the bottom of the thermostat. The problem is I've blocked the rear outlet that would have gone to the heater so there's not much flow over it. However this may or may not be problem during normal driving when the water is going round a lot faster. Time will tell. I have a mechanical Racetech water temp gauge I may attempt to plumb into the top sensor.

Congratulations to Vinny, Bill & Basset for getting their cars started today. You can check their blogs out with the links on the right..