Hi guys, some smallish update(s).
First regarding the pads. Now I am almost 100% certain that inside Ford box is Ate. They behave exactly the same. Nice stopping power, no noise at all, rather soft and producing dust. The discs are not wearing down at all, the pads are. For everyday usage I think they are just about the best they could be, but ask for rather regular alloy cleaning. So that conludes the brakes.
Now, moving onto derusting. On advice from here, got myself a bottle of this magic powder.
You dissolve it in water, prefferably hot (the hotter the better, so it says on the sticker adding that if you have submerged heater it speeds up process dramatically, end of quote) and just put in the things you want derusting.
Unfortuntaley, haven't taken images of the sump bolts before, but I guess all of you can imagine how they looked. If you can't, take a look under your car; we are all in the same boat there).
Anyway, put the bolts in a cup of deoxC for about 20 minutes
Sure thing, it sturts bubbling after a minute or so and the liquid gets darker by minute.
After 20 minutes the results:
I used some old toothbursh just to clean them and they look incredibly new(ish). Cleaned them with brake cleaner and then sprayed WD40 and that was it. This stuff really is amazing!
(on a sidenote: Ford really didn't spare on sealant for the sump as all the bolts were full of it and had to run them all through some tap to clean the threads)
Thah conludes derusting. Someone here mentioned idea of pool big enough to put the shell in it: a really tempting idea!
Onto the engine. As you know, I found which big end gearings fit in, but all of them location lugs on the right side, and original bearings have it on the left. First thought of adapting the bearing to fit in the big end as it is, but couldn't persuade myself it is safe to file away a part of location lug as that could lead to bearing spinning and dislodging from the big end of the conrod. So having had a look at the other overhaul of 1.7 engine in FRP section went to one of our best machining companies specialized in engines, brought the conrods and the Glyco bearings and explained what was the problem. It turned out it wasn't a problem at all, as they are used to it and did it in 5 minutes while I was waiting. The price: 5 GBP! Not kidding,5 GBP!
They advised, and I see the logic, to do it on the other side of conrod to keep the original intact; if I ever get somehow original shells, they can be put in without problems.
So, they did it like this. Simple grinding that anyone can do at home with a dremel, I suppose. No need for big machining center, or anything.
The other side is kept as it was
And the conrod side
This was all done using Glyco aftermarket set of standard size bearings. I have them, but still don't know what is the radial clearance as I, most annoyingly, don't have a 12 sided 8 socket to be able to torque down the conrod bolts properly and to check it with plastigauge!
But, a friend of mine is working at Suzuki and he had a look through their system (the bearings for Suzuki 1.3 engine are EXACT match in OD/ID and width (16 mm) and, this is important stuff, you can get them in 5 classes as is norm!
I am still waiting on his return information for the guidance on the usage of the bearings (which is to be used for which journal OD) and that negates the need for machining the crankshaft to make it suitable for the aftermarket bearings as is the norm.
When I get the information, I will post it here. You can already see from that screen capture that the engine in question is from Jimny (also Liana and Swift). That makes service of bottom end not only doable (drop dead you bean counters at Ford and your greed) but a matter of routine work.
And finally some more investigation on gearbox swap (IB5 for B6). I have to apologise for chasing few projects in paralel as that makes following rather problematic, I suppose, but as do it on weekends only, I have to do few things at the same time!
I don't like the idea of putting the ST180 gearstick in puma interiror as it simply doesn't fit (esthetically). So I got myslef a gearstick handle from focus ST170. Similar styling, aluminum.
Firstly, the shaft of gearshifter is the same in OD and the thread is the same. The ST170 gearstick handle screws nicely on the shifter shaft :grin:
The gearstick handle I got from eBay was used and worn a bit and had one rather visible scratch. Took some sand paper with intention of clearing it and started with 180 thinking that would go up until making it nice and shiney. But, during th initial sanding realized it looked aces in this scratched look and just kept on like that!
Out of garage on daylight
And on the shifter stick
If you wonder why I just don't put on the ball from puma, it is the reverse mechanism. IB5 uses reverse down on the right, below 5th gear, on B6 it is front, left to the 1st gear.
So the markings would be wrong (lesser problem, not functional, but that would bother me) and the gearshifter uses a brake for accidental engaging reverse. It is simple plastic part that is connected to the ring you pull up when selecting reverse. That enables the stick to go further to the left and that engages reverse on one of the cables. All of that is part of the gaitor (image taken from below)
The ST170 is to long, but has the lower part of the shaft taht I don't need so will machine it off.
Then the lower ring will be able to go up and enable selection of the reverse. Will see how that goes; if it doesn't work out as intended, might even make a complete new shifter to the required spec, or, alternatively, take only the required part of reverse brake and connect it to the gearstick handle...
On a different note, had a look at driveshafts and compared the puma and ST180 ones.
The outer shafts look almost identical in length, but the intermedite shaft is longer. I suspect that the diff in B6 gearbox is further to the left (looking ahead) than in IB5 which has 5th gear and reverse AFTER diff and that it should fit (as the 1.6 ecoboost is same cylinder spacing as in all sigma engines making the block equal in length. When I finally put together the (re)new(ed) engine, will bolt provsionally the B6 gearbox and check the situation regardind the intermediate shaft. I think that will check out fine, but the other, short driveshaft, will most probably be to long by the same ammount as the intermediate is longer comparing to the regular puma shaft. That might be good news for FRP owners as the shafts might be spot on for their cars