Riggers' Mk2 Xr2 project...

[jamie rigby]

well car failed MOT again yesturday on handbrake, so when i got home, took the wheel bearings and drums off, caked all the handbrake mechanism/bracket in wd40, made sure it was all compressing spot on before i re-fitted the bearings and drums, sound now, all back together, had the re-test earlier and now its passed

...but got an advisory on the braking system, he recommeneded to take the pads out, regrease everything and check the drums, considering all the drums/shoes/rear brakes are sweet ill sort the pads and re-grease the sliders and re-bleed the whole system then all should be well


Just fitted the Lockable Aerocatches, first one was abit of a ball ache, 2nd one only taken half the time -

couple more pics from that meet last week -

 

[jamie rigby]

Greased up the sliders on the brakes and put copper grease behind the pads where they sit in the calipers, also re-bled the system too, got aload of air out so hopefully they'll feel better

also i hadnt mentioned it, on track at oulton park with 1/2 tank a fuel in it was suffering from fuel starvation on the exit of the 2nd corner/cascades which is abit confusing as ive got the mk2i tank with the built in swirl pot and someone else running injection in a mk2 with a standard tank had no trouble with fuel starvation with 1/4tank of fuel and with running slicks...

cant rememeber who but someone said it could maybe to do with my fuel filter as its only a tiny peugeot filter so ive just bought a mk3/4/5 fiesta fuel filter -

this is nearly twice as wide as the peugeot one so hopefully on my next trackday all will be fine if not theyre must be a problem with my fuel pump...

will swap this in the next few days

 

[jamie rigby]

Few pics from the other night with my mate and his Audi A4 which is now back on its standard wheels since these pics cos some tw*t's nicked them

-

Fitted the RS1800 cams into my spare 1800 engine last week and also Nitro-Morsed, etch primered, painted, sanded the lettering, laquered the rocker cover too-

had to order a new rocker cover gasket as the old one was split, when that arrives all get the rocker cover fitted

still yet to change/swap the fuel filter

 

[jamie rigby]

swapped the fuel filter -

hopefully no more fuel starvation issues

New rocker cover gasket, rocker cover, HT leads and cam belt covers, new dipstick fitted to the spare 1800 engine -

Complete HO Inlet manifold with 2.0 TB and injectors, 2.0 MAF, inlet/induction hose set up with ERST crossover pipe and Pipercross filter -

also got a escort xr3i 130ps ecu too... as ive said all along ill either fit all this into the car when i come to sell it or might sell the lot on for more than what ive payed for as ive got everything rather cheap so far

 

[jamie rigby]

fresh pics

 

[Craig.H]

This car is awesome!

hats off to you sir!

 

[jamie rigby]

This car is awesome!

hats off to you sir!

cheers mate


It's a year this week since i purchased my mk2 xr2, times bloody flew...

it looked like this when i purchased it -

spec was-

Engine:

* 1600 8v CVH;
* Kawasaki 40mm Keihin zx7r carbs;
* Ported head;
* Kent CVH22 cam;
* Heatwrapped Janspeed manifold;
* Yamaha R1 fuel pump...

Chassis:

* Gaz Gold coilovers fully height and damper adjustable;
* Fully Polybushed throughtout;
* 13" pepperpots;
* Budget tyres y0;
* Standard brakes;

Exterior:

* Standard!

Interior:

* Standard!


the plan from the word go was to strip it and turn it into a track car but still road worthy as i dont have space for a trailer and i only have a 1.25 as a daily

all the haters hated soon as i started stripping it as it its such a good example but a few people agreed with me where you need a good base to start with a track car, and in my eyes i couldn't have found a better base.

had a couple of crashes, and numerous engine conversions and spec changes and about 6 sessions of mapping in all lol...


this is the spec of it now -

Engine:

*2.0 Zetec E s2 silvertop on 80k;
*Focus ST170 Headgasket (28thou thinner than standard silvertop item);
*Head skimmed by 6 thou;
*Genuine Ford Head bolts;
*ARP Rod bolts;
*Baffled 1800 Sump;
*Omex 600 Management;
*Jenvey 45mm throttle bodies with 45x45mm trumpets;
*Jenvey inlet manifold;
*Bosch 330cc injectors;
*ERST fuel pump;
*FSE fuel pressure regulator;
*Mk2i fuel tank;
*Ashley Heatwrapped Modified 4-2-1 manifold;
*Ashley 2" single box system with added in flexi joint and custom 2.25" tip;
*Lightened & Balanced 1800 flywheel;
*Helix organic FRST clutch;
*FRST ratio'd Mk3.5 Si gearbox;
*1800 waterpump;
*CVH alternator;
*Saxo VTS Radiator;
*10" cooling fan;
*Fiat 127 low temp (92degree) fan switch;
*Mocal 13-row Oil cooler with thermostatic sandwich plate;

Cams Timed up and Mapped by Mike @ Mikeanics at 177bhp @ 6800rpm, 146lbs ft with rev limit set at 7500rpm...


Chassis:

* Gaz Gold coilovers fully height and damper adjustable;
* Fully Polybushed throughtout;
* 13" pepperpots;
* Toyo CF1 tyres;
* Brembo HC discs, Ferrodo DS2500 pads;
* Brace bar for the Brake servo;
* Brand new steering rack, ball joints and track rod ends;
* Eibach camber bolts (been fully aligned with -2.3 camber);
* Spare set of Pepperpots fitted with R888s for trackdays;

Exterior:

* Single skin Fibreglass Carbon wrapped bonnet fitted with 2 Lockable aerocatches and 3 bonnet pins;
* De-wipered bootlid;
* Drilled out front bumper for extra cooling.


Interior:

* Fully stripped apart from the dash and heater;
* Safety devices 6 point roll cage;
* Sparco Circuit Bucket Seats;
* TRS 4 point 3" all round harnesses;
* OMP corsica steering wheel;
* Oil temperature and pressure gauges;
* 8 ball gear knob.

weighs around 750kgs with little fuel in, making it 239bhp/tonne.


how its looking -

Just booked the next Trackday, RTOC national day at Mallory Park on Saturday the 4th June! Can't wait

 

[jamie rigby]

had a huge meet on the weekend, cba posting loads of pics, heres my fav tho -

Just Purchased a set of Blank Kent FZ2002 cams for a bargain!

Going to collect them tuesday, i won't be fitting them till i've done the trackday at Mallory to see how the temps are with my thermostat removed, should be fine imo with it removed, but we'll have to see. Hopefully be able to get in some good sessions.

Figures with these fitted should be around 190bhp 150lbs ft, depending how much Mike can get out of them when he times them up.

on the Kent site the power with these cams is from 2500-7000rpm, but someguy who ran these cams along with Twin 45s, forged, lightend and balanced bottom end revved his to 8500rpm and these cams made power right to the red line which im abit confused about, so we'll have to see and i'll raise the limiter if needs must

 

[jamie rigby]

Had a great weekend at FITP weekend just gone, car ticked over 110,000 miles on the way back, after covering 330miles over the weekend using 60quids worth of fuel it didn't miss a beat.

Here's a couple of pics of the car on the ZSOC stand -

Also fitted some 5mm wheel spacers too to widen the track a tad more and nopw the wheels fill the arches perfectly

and picked up the Cams this evening -

 

[trailerparktrev]

I like your car as it brings back memories of when I was 18. But what is going on with that beige Mk5??

 

[jamie rigby]

that mk5 zs is epic, the work hes put into, so much custom stuff etc

He's part of the Lower Class Kings Forum/group allt he cars all like his, theres a matt purple peugeot 309 on banded steelies and a D15 Honda engine also as epic as Robins ZS

 

[jamie rigby]

been 7 weeks since the last update lol...

so ill start with, them Cams have now been sold, made 90quid on them so that was nice.

had battery or alternator issues so firstly i replaced the battery to see if thatd cure the battery light on my dash, went to the scrappies and got a pair of battery connections off a mk4 fiesta and fitted a new battery i got off a mate which is only 2 months old -

but this failed so i went upto balckburn to get an alternator for cheap off the forum... got back fitted that it was whining, i thought nothing of it... after getting back form the trackday at mallory park 3 weeks ago it was rattling/knocking its head off... firstly tho i thought it was the waterpump, so i put 2+2 together and thought that could be my problem with high temperatures...
so changed the waterpump -


firstly marked the cams to retain the timing -

everything stripped down -

old waterpump removed -

Fcuk you lower cam belt cover that wraps around the crank pulley -

new pump, both belts fitted -

That video of the rattling/knocking noise wasnt the waterpump... its the alternator, knocking its fcuking head off now

...

oh and the waterpump hasnt made a difference to the temperatures


so got another new recon'd alternator this week for 35quid, thats a winner

before i changed the waterpump tho i did a write up after mallory.........

Trackday went... disapointing tbh, i removed the Thermostat... didnt make a difference to the Oil temp like i was expecting, removed the front bumper for extra cooling, again didnt make a difference.

On the plus side the car handled really well, brakes are a BIG improvement with the Brace bar now fitted since oulton park the other month.

I got more laps/track time around Oulton park than i did yesturday at mallory as like 90% of mallory is spent at Full chat so the engines under load alot more than Oulton.

The engine breathed out 2-3liters through the day which i take it was from hammering around Gerrards corner (longest corner in the UK?)entering speed around 80 and exit of around 100, the last 3rd of the corner was full throttle as the car held really well. I did 97 track miles (50% of them at 40mph cooling the engine down), the temp went upto 130degrees at one point but held good oil pressure so the Oil pump must be alright surely!?...


pics from mallory -

http://i652.photobucket.com/albums/uu246/jamierigby
/fitp%20onwards/IMG_7116.jpg

will get to the temps in a sec...

first tho, i came to an idea that i wnated my car to look more standard so on has gone the standard bonnet, the fibreglass one sold and i made 45quid on that. also the front spot lamps back on and also got these -

90spec ERST Recaro seats for a bargain of 623quid off ebay...

so in these went after mallory -

car looks empty without the masive buckets in lol

then painted the cage satin black -

fresh pics from a meet 2 weeks ago -

back to the temperature issues...

so started by flipping the oil cooler the right way up -

now the hoses are 6" shorter, and they dont raise as high in the engine bay and they dont drop down as low to the oil cooler obviously so that SHOULD help a little too imo...

didnt really make a difference...

so next thing was either to replace the oil temp sender or the gauge itself... sender i decided to try first, whilst i swapped that earlier i also got a zetec oil filter as its 20mm lobnger than the CVH one i was running, so new filter and sender -

old sender -

what a little bas*ard that piece of metal is!!!

yes as you can guess, yeh the new temp sender is a winner, took the car out for abuse before after letting it idle for 5 mins went for a little drive, let it idle for another 5mins, then abused it back to my house, the oil temp didnt go over 85 where as before it wouldve been around 110 lol

so HUGE

with everything good theres a bad and my sanwich plate is leaking where it meets the oil pump so ill have to remove the oil filter again and get a correct socket to tighten up the sandwich plate/oil filter bolt up...

also either the sump gasket or the crank seal is leaking too, maybe all 3... ive fitted a new sump gasket too when i fitted the Baffled sump, so thats abit of a mare!


just a couple of pics when i stopped before -

and there we are!...

Hope you like!

Next trackday is Cadwell in 2 weeks with f0xy, Whiteley and AdamAnderton, cant wait especially from everyone saying its the best track they've driven

More soon!

 

[Alex H]

Next trackday is Cadwell in 2 weeks with f0xy, Whiteley and AdamAnderton, cant wait especially from everyone saying its the best track they've driven

It's the worst track I've driven... Make sure you do your wheel bolts up too

 

[jamie rigby]

It's the worst track I've driven... Make sure you do your wheel bolts up too

lol only cos of your bad experience lol, and i will always do, i do them hand tight all the time, then check them with Jords torque wrench and there always sound or if anything a little too tight

 

[adam172]

love this. but whats going on with the seats? get the buckets back in!

 

[jamie rigby]

love this. but whats going on with the seats? get the buckets back in!

they are 62quids worth of Luxury :laugh: they hold you in bloody well too, the others have been sold!

 

[jamie rigby]

ready to set off for Cadwell -

just started raining here, hope it doesnt rain for tomorrow!

 

[jamie rigby]

Just got back from being away after doing Cadwell Park yesterday...
done 450miles in total, 125 of them on track...

the car was awesome, never missed a beat, oil temp still crept to 120degrees but that was after 9-10 hard laps, im happy with that as thats about 10times longer than before with that old temp sender lol.

In-car vids and pics to come.

The only bad thing tho was the day was cut about 45mins short for me as i had abit of an off in the chicanes at the end of the laps...
i got abit carried away and accelerated that little bit too much between the 2 and car locked up as i broke, threw me sideways, i managed to hold it but it then threw the other way, slid along the grass and into the tyre wall at around 10mph.. heres the damage, ive popped the wing out slightly but its still a mess -

and this is the damage from hitting the kerb marker post before i locked up as i completely took that out and its left a b*****d of a crease/mark on the bonnet -

 

[Scrooge]

Ouch bad luck matey. shouldn't be too hard to fix.

 

[chrispy.clio]

Oh i thought it was going to be worse than it is. Its not too bad really.

 

[jamie rigby]

Ouch bad luck matey. shouldn't be too hard to fix.

im going to leave the wing and bonnet, might try and sort the bumper if not ill get a new one, and try to straighten up the arch too as thats sticking out quite abit making it look like the front wheel's proper set back in the arch.

Oh i thought it was going to be worse than it is. Its not too bad really.

couldve been alot worse if i hit the tyre wall faster than 10mph, so glad i didnt!

 

[172CupAdam]

Unlucky mate.

 

[jamie rigby]

sessions 1 and 2 to follow...



session 3 in the dry got a few good laps in with no stoppages -



and the last session of the day consisting of one red flag and when i suffered from fuel surge and had to pull off for 2 mins to top up -

 

[jamie rigby]

other video from when it was very slippery, pushing AdamAnderton round -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmI3YizcI6s

Got a new bumper couple of weeks ago, along with the new plate -

old plate, a tad past its expiriy by date lol -

both fitted -

pushed as much as the wing out as possible, its going to stay like this -

another fresh pic from a Big meet at the weekend -

before -

after -

that'll do me looks alright from 20yards away... only done that one as the paint had all flaked off and looked a mess to say the least.

still waiting on pics form Cadwell as my mates been busy...



Won a magnex exhaust system on ebay sunday, should be here thursday/friday

Also on Thursday im going to collect another set of pepperpots in black with A048s on and a ERST Lsd Gearbox which are both baragins as a guys breaking his track mk2!

 

[jamie rigby]

made a 215mile round trip last week one evening to collect the following...

ERST lsd box -

as you can see a pair of driveshafts and a brake servo brace bar too, he gave me them for free in with the box... and...

another set of Pots on yoko A048's with 3-4track days left in them

This arrived on Friday before i went to AwesomeFest at Mallory Park for the weekend -

came with a new standard mount and one powerflex one -

the plan is to just fit the backbox so i dont have to cut and chop up the rare/pricey magnex... but lined up with the mounts its 4" short of the ashley centre section -

ive booked the day off work tomorrow as i didnt realise when we was gonna be back from Mallory, so im going to take a trip to Pipewerx tomorrow to just get an extension made to go over the ashley/custom centre section and for the magnex backbox to slot over to fit it fit correctly.

 

[jamie rigby]

went to Pipewerx earlier had the extension piece i needed made and also got a couple of new clamps for it too -

so... old ashley exhaust removed and compared to the magnex -

and fitted -

it needs a 3rd mount really as you can see for some reason the previous owner of the magnex has had it ground off as there isnt actually a mounting point for the 3rd mount underneath the car so will have to get that sorted as the magnex is a tad heavier than the ashley.

it sounds like a differet car, alot deeper and quieter!

also fitted the steel brake sevo brace bar, compared to my riggy copper one -

fitted -

much better!

just need to clean the car, bleed the brakes and maybe fit my R888s ready for Ford Fair

 

[jamie rigby]

Had the day off work today due to lack of work so i nipped back upto Pipewerx in the car to get a 3rd hanger sorted -

sorted!


Ive also sold that gearbox and driveshafts for what i paid for the wheels and tyres too, so really ive got them wheels, tyres and brace bar for free and just had to pay the 25quid fuel i used to go collect them, im deciding to uprate the rear ARB first, can always get another lsd box cheap further down the line.

 

[jamie rigby]

went to Ford Fair yesturday...

The track session was rediculous... the session started 5-10mins late after a car in the previous group dropped oil on the exit of the complex, then the lap after the pace car the marshall was showing the chequered flag meaning if we did slow down and go in then we wouldve only doine 1 lap under the pace car and no flying laps on our own, but we ploughed on and done around 1 1/2 flat out laps, wooooooooooooooooooo lol

0-60 was fun, managed 5.5 so was chuft with that!

 

[Scrooge]

I think I see your fezza giving a Nissan son jip round the twisties at ff.

 

[jamie rigby]

aye probs was me altho i wouldnt say gip when i was behind the 370z that was the pace car, then the GTRs fkin flew past me down the back straight under the tunnel towards the complex lol

 

[jamie rigby]

refitted the Zetec coolant temp sender as i couldnt sort an earth out for the CVH one so it was overreading by miles, rebled the coolant etc

fixed an oil leak, when i removed the lower cam belt cover i think one of the bolt holding that on was a bolt holding the oil pump on and oils been leaking from there, sorted now



Took a Trip to Birkenhead wednesday night for these -

Cobra Suzukas in very good condition with side mounts, they've came from a guy who's got a Limited Edition Raider Renault 5 hence the stitching but i got them at a very good price and only used a fiver to go collect them too not too bothered that they dont actually say Suzuka on them.


they're GT width so they're 90mm wider at the front and 70mm wider at the rear than my old sparco circuits so ...

got some metal bar earlier -

measuerd, drilled and bolted to suit -

seat in -

only done the one as theyre really high sided seats and i wounldnt be able to use 1st and 2nd gears if i put the passenger one in yet, JUST about goes in reverse now...

Bought a 3" gearstick extension off ebay earlier, should be here tuesday/wednesday then ill whip the other seat in.

 

[jamie rigby]

Cobras have gone now sold them on ebay, they were too wide and the gear change felt wrank with that 3" extension so ebay'd em'!


the rear wheel bearings have been Burring like mad of late, getting worse every time i drive the car so ordered a pair from Euro Car Parts saturday, picked them up earlier, going to change them tomorrow/friday night.

Also ordered some 7" 450lbs rear springs from Gaz as apposed to the 8" 250lbs i have on atm, they're going to take 10-14days to arrive.

 

[jamie rigby]

Changed the rear wheels bearings earlier, old ones removed -

new races in taapped into place using the old ones and a 36mm socket -

all done, 22quid well spent opnly took 45mins per side to do!

not drove the car yet but hopefully its silent now, the car was quiet to drive as it was upto 60mph just road noise then burrrrrrrrrrrr bearings fked (probably wouldnt've help with using CV grease last time i fitted them last year whren i swapped the rear beam)

 

[jamie rigby]

Had to put the Magnex exhaust up for sale

whilst giving the car abuse last night, once the exhaust got hot it spits the baffles out on fire on the overun/downchanges, i dont mean a few, i mean like alot to where i can see it all flying around in my rear view mirror... if it does that on a couple of minute short blasts it wont last 5 mins on a trackday and will just ruin it and get louder and louder so its gotta go

also heres a pic of how low the rear's gonna be, literally 0 arch gap, just hope i dont have to cut the arches -

as its going to look quite abit lower on the rear think im going to lower the front 2 more turns on the coilovers and match the camber as i have more on my offisde atm looks like -2.5degrees, nearside around -1.5, so going to pull the nearside out to match the offside as it does feel like it handles slightly better turning left atm, mustve knocked the nearside camber bolt slightly when giving it abuse on track as theyre only very small, i think theyre M8 where as the normal hub>shock bolts are M12. we'll see anyways ill wait till the springs come first.

 

[jamie rigby]

got bored as ive got the day off so went to add extra camber onto the nearside earlier but the hubs against the shock as it is so just going to leave that as it as, its around -0.5degrees short of the offside so not TOO bad...

lowered the front 5mm and also noticed (pretty hard not too unless your stevie wonder) this -

then this, lol -

the tie wrap popped off the CV gaitor so as you can see there's gearse everywhere, so replaced the tie wrap with a 8mm wide one insted of the 5mm wide one that was on it, should be fine now.

then re-fitted my ashley exhaust, ive missed the noise -

 

[jamie rigby]

swapped the hub bolts round on the nearside so the camber bolt's on the bottom so then i just knocked the shock back and tightend them back up, now have near as makes no difference -2.5 degrees camber on both sides now! the tracking was knocked out yet again when adding the camber so i had to alter the tracking so its toeing out slightly again, will see how it drives on the weekend hopefully isnt pulling left or right and hopefully handles just as good going right aswell as left now the cambers matching again

pic of said added/max camber, handles so much better now -

new knob bit different -

also these arrived yesturday, 2 weeks early FTW -

new vs old -

the new height -

handles bloody awesome now!

randoms -

 

[Alex H]

Like Like Like. Apart from the zetec. CVH ftw.

 

[nathanH]

That must be pretty stiff now!

 

[jamie rigby]

Like Like Like. Apart from the zetec. CVH ftw.

haha, 90s well proven reliable engine ftw

That must be pretty stiff now!

yeh its quite stiff and bouncy on the road, not as bad as i was expecting tho tbh

 

[Chris J]

Looks good now that its nice and low!

Where did you get the metal bar from mate? I need to make up some subframes for my seats and not sure where to start.