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Ford content.



  Focus RS mk1
Love you're updates always interesting with loads of pics! Not driven mine since october!! Managed to snap a drive shaft in half at santapod, its coming back on the road end of march start of spril so plenty time to fix yet. Really missing driving it
 
Love you're updates always interesting with loads of pics! Not driven mine since october!! Managed to snap a drive shaft in half at santapod, its coming back on the road end of march start of spril so plenty time to fix yet. Really missing driving it
Must have really launched it to snap a shaft lol. You're running big power though aren't you? Tbh not driving them all the time means the novelty of driving them doesn't wear off. Mine seems to spend most of it's time being thumped round a track anyway lol
 
  Focus RS mk1
Yeh quite high 411bhp and 485nm torque, gave it a little bit of spin on the way to the line then it broke as soon as i launched it, its not fun being pushed back down the strip!! quite interested in what you have done for the oil and coolant temps, mine was seeing 120c for the coolant on the scan gauge at ford fair and i was running it a low boost in fear of doing damage.
Pic of broken shaft, broke on the joint from the half shaft

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Lol proper job that, bet that made some noise when it went.

As for coolant temps, granted it's still cold at the moment I never saw anything higher than 100 at Oulton just gone, bigger test will be in May when I'm at Anglesey when the ambient temps have increased. Seen a massive drop in both oil and coolant temps on the standard set up though.
 
  Focus RS mk1
Yeh you say that lol, sh!t myself! everything runs through you're mind when something like that happens. Yeh keep us posted on how the temos are in may. How much did the oil cooler set up set you back if you dont mind me asking?
 
Just before Oulton I was getting a knock from the steering when I dry steered it with the engine off, early signs of steering rack failure. I risked doing Oulton as I didn't have time to sort it then but did plan to do it shortly after. To be fair the rack has done 100k+ miles so it's done pretty well.

To make life easier I just dropped th entire front subframe (some weight in it which surprised me actually)
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rack removed and tie rods detached
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Thought I may as well replace the ARB bushes while the subframe was down
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quick degrease of the subframe and I bolted the rack to it
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Then I bolted the subframe back on to the car via the alignment pins to get it central
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This turned out to be an absolute pig on my own lol. Trying to balance the subframe on the trolley jack whilst lifting it up isn't really a 1 man job so it took a few attempts but I got there in the end. Managed to get the rack perfectly central 1st time too, steering column and rack lined up perfectly on the 1st attempt :D

While I was messing about withh the subframe a random snapped bleed nipple fell off on to the floor, now I've no clue where it's come from, 1st though was the clutch bleed nipple but after investigating it wasn't that. Lucky it did drop though cos this caused me to test the brakes and clutch pedal to see if I had any leaks anywhere, as it turned out a rear caliper had failed and leaked fluid everywhere. Luckily I had an old caliper in the garage which I rebuilt with the good bits from the one that had failed.

Replaced the rear brake discs too as the old ones were starting to get tired
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Next job will be to replace the exhaust manifold as it keeps cracking, had it welded up for the 4th time last week and it's gone again today. :(
 
Good work again matey, where did you get the alignment pins from? Been after a set of these as i need to get my subframe off

Cheers mate, I just fell really lucky and a set came up on eBay. 1st and last time I've ever seen them for sale tbh.

Was meaning to ask you actually, you've a Direzza manifold fitted to yours haven't you? had any problems with it? I've just won one on eBay and the for the money I paid for it I thought it was worth a punt. I don't fancy the £600 price tag of the Peron one. lol
 
  Focus RS mk1
Cheers mate, I just fell really lucky and a set came up on eBay. 1st and last time I've ever seen them for sale tbh.

Was meaning to ask you actually, you've a Direzza manifold fitted to yours haven't you? had any problems with it? I've just won one on eBay and the for the money I paid for it I thought it was worth a punt. I don't fancy the £600 price tag of the Peron one. lol
Its been perfect believe it or not, its been on now for 2yrs, been driven hard with plenty boost through it and its not cracked yet touch wood! I won mine for about £150 ....... i think i know it was pretty cheap, i think as long as the manifold is bolted to the head 1st, then turbo to manifold and turbo support bracket last under no stress or strain it should be ok but with everything there is always a chance it could crack. Some ppl also say they have had problems with the flanges not being perfectly flat but again mine was fine
 
Its been perfect believe it or not, its been on now for 2yrs, been driven hard with plenty boost through it and its not cracked yet touch wood! I won mine for about £150 ....... i think i know it was pretty cheap, i think as long as the manifold is bolted to the head 1st, then turbo to manifold and turbo support bracket last under no stress or strain it should be ok but with everything there is always a chance it could crack. Some ppl also say they have had problems with the flanges not being perfectly flat but again mine was fine


Won mine for £120 lol

Yeah I've heard they're a bit hit and miss with the flanges, worst case scenario I have them machined flat and tbh I never knew about the bolt up sequence, I always bolted the turbo to mani 1st and then mani to head. Will try it the way you've suggested next.
 
  Focus RS mk1
Won mine for £120 lol

Yeah I've heard they're a bit hit and miss with the flanges, worst case scenario I have them machined flat and tbh I never knew about the bolt up sequence, I always bolted the turbo to mani 1st and then mani to head. Will try it the way you've suggested next.
It can be very fiddly, i suppose you're way would work too just alot of weight to move into place, just some ppl try and bolt it up under stress say if they remove the manifold and refit without loosening the support bracket
 
It can be very fiddly, i suppose you're way would work too just alot of weight to move into place, just some ppl try and bolt it up under stress say if they remove the manifold and refit without loosening the support bracket

With the longer studs I use now you've no choice but to undo the support bracket on mine, otherwise you'd never have enough room to feed the manifold out. But yeah not undoing that support bracket can cause issues, can even crack the support bracket it's self too. Also have you got any coating or heat wrap on yours? I'm tempted to just heat wrap it cos Im worried about any potential heat damage running it bare
 
  Focus RS mk1
With the longer studs I use now you've no choice but to undo the support bracket on mine, otherwise you'd never have enough room to feed the manifold out. But yeah not undoing that support bracket can cause issues, can even crack the support bracket it's self too. Also have you got any coating or heat wrap on yours? I'm tempted to just heat wrap it cos Im worried about any potential heat damage running it bare
I sprayed mine 1st with heat resistant paint then wrapped it, the spray kinda makes the wrapping a little easier as when its shiney the wrap i found kept slipping round when i was pulling it tight, looking into the cpe front panel soon too to help feed some cool air over it
 
I sprayed mine 1st with heat resistant paint then wrapped it, the spray kinda makes the wrapping a little easier as when its shiney the wrap i found kept slipping round when i was pulling it tight, looking into the cpe front panel soon too to help feed some cool air over it
Ahh I'll bear that in mind when it comes to sorting mine out. cheers mate
 
Well the Direnza Manifold turned up so I cracked on with fitting it. Quality isn't fantastic and the flanges are definitely not perfectly flat but thought I'd test fit it anyway just to see how it fits.

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Went on relatively easily, turbo to manifold studs/nuts are more awkward on this one but it's actually easier to fit overall than my old one. At 1st I found the chrome finish a bit much but after a blast it dulled down a bit and it has more of a gold tinge to it. During the test run the car is noticeably more responsive, still boosts the same but the it reacts quicker to throttle inputs, even the exhaust note on idle has changed. Will have to see how it gets on but for £120 I can't complain so far as I'll be honest, I expected it to crack as soon as I exerted any heat through it.
 
  Focus RS + S3
Iooking good! Loved the change the tubular gave on mine,
Got loads of little niggly bits i need to sort on mine, buts its too cold and im too lazy lol
 
I was at Donington again on good Friday (25th March), such an awesome track, seems to really suit the Focus with being a very quick circuit, car seems to enjoy it too, was popping and banging all day and apparently was spitting flames for fun down the pit straight when I let off and started braking for Redgate lol.

Few pics from the day.

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The cheap direnza manifold held up to the abuse too, it did lose a lot of it's colouring but no signs of any cracks yet.
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I managed to cause some heavy wear to 2 of my RSRs so I've decided to sell my ST wheels and all 4 RSRs and opt for something else, bought another set of TD Pro-Race 1.2s but in 17s this time and I've just ordered a full set of Pilot Sport Cup2s to wrap them in.

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I wasn't too keen on the red lip so I just painted over it with a bit of black paint.

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Next trackday is Anglesey on the 2nd May.
 
Literally days before Anglesey I found my front brake pads were knackered lol. My own fault for just assuming they were ok.
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So it was a rush job to find replacements, fortunately I did but I had to use CL RC5+s instead, turns out they're nearly on par with the RS14s but £100 cheaper so I'll be sticking them from now on.

I haven't got any pics from Anglesey or any video footage cos I had a pretty poor day, had a few things work loose and break and I had a major case of understeer which to this day I haven't found out why.

Once I got home, I decided to investigate the handling issue, took the front shocks off and dismantled them.
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Both were perfectly fine and have faired pretty well after 2 years use, apart from a bit of corrosion on the springs they still look solid and damp perfectly. Rear shocks are fine as is anything that could cause understeer so I'm still clueless to what it was. It's either the Cup2s I was using or my car really doesn't like Anglesey lol.

While investigating I found a leak on my ally rad.
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So while that was off being welded I decided to clean up the fan housing and slam panel and give them a lick of paint to tidy them up.
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I've also replaced the front brake discs and rear brake pads, both severely worn after many trackdays lol.
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Got a pair of upper vibratechnic engine mounts at a reduced price in a group buy so I've fitted those too.
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What a difference these make, engine isn't swinging around like a pendulum in the engine bay anymore and gearchanges are far more crisp and easier. Well worth it.

Next up was relocating my battery in to the boot.

while I had the trim removed so I could fit my power cable, I came across alot of random wiring, I can only assume it's for the ST170 sub the previous owner fitted but there was an awful lot of it so all that got chopped out.

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I then set about laying the cable down to try and keep it out of the way and as neat as possible.

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Then I set about fixing my make shift battery box to the boot floor, it's bolted from underneath in to the battery tray which the battery sits on inside the box, it's very solid and won't be going anywhere.

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Nice and tidy.

With the battery out of the engine bay I have the bay a bit of a tidy up, 1st time it's looked properly clean now there's not a big dirty battery sitting there lol

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Next trackday is at Cadwell next month.
 
Exactly. I remember about 5 years ago I could have bought a tidy 70k example :weary::weary:

Be looking around 10-11k for one in good nick with that mileage now. In all honesty I've probably devalued mine as I've pushed it past the 100k mark and done some irreversible things to it but I've stopped worrying about values and if I ever did come to a point where I've had enough of it, I'd probably just break it.
 
Well Cadwell came and what can I say, what an amazing track, so much fun and rewarding once you hook it up around there. Anyone who is in trackdays and hasn't been you definitely need to go.

I started off on my Michelin SuperSports as it was wet until 11am and after that I gave my Cup2s another go and I'm glad I did give them a 2nd chance cos they're really good tyres as it appears. Obviously my car doesn't agree with Anglesey cos absolutely everything I tried wouldn't sort out the handling issues but everywhere else the car handles well lol.

Anyway some photos from the day

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and a video of a few laps chasing Jamie in his DC2, I know it looks tame but I can assure it wasn't, the GoPro is masking it lol

 
I've decided to go for a more track biased approach with the car now as I barely use it on the road anymore, I said I'd never do it when it was mentioned to me but I've pulled out the rest of the interior.

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Then I started pulling out the sound proofing

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Then I just rattle canned over the exposed bits with some IMP blue paint from Halfords.
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I wasn't happy with all the wiring being exposed, looked really untidy too, So I set about tidying it up a little
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I did have far more pictures of the job but I smashed the screen on my phone and subsequently lost the majority of the photos unfortunately. Car definitely feels more lively with pulling out the rest of the interior, I was quite surprised really.

Anyway I had a trackday booked for Oulton Park on Wednesday just gone (7th September) haven't got any photos of the day but here's a video of some of the clearer laps I managed on the day. It isn't in the video below but I managed a 2minutes flat around there this time, so the car is definitely getting quicker.

 


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