go faster sierra

[Steve Kerswell]

Been playing in the shed for a while, following on from Ade's Sierra I'm going the Pinto route. Finally got all the parts and ready to start. Just tried it loosely all together and it appears to fit, phew, its a big old lump, I can hardly lift it back onto blocks. Anyway measurements all taken and need to make up a gearbox crossmember and move a few bits around. Dave Adams has pre warned me about the starter motor. So I'll leave that until all is settled in the car. Ah, the car, I am tempted to remove the whole front body work and make it into a flip front. Still out on that decision. Need new doors or a lot of fabricating, Its gonna be a long winter. Oh, and it may get a different set up in the back axle, minimum 5 link or the old jag back axle wot sit.

[Steve Kerswell]

Thanks for that James, I'm going to have to jack it up and count the revolutions. BUT, its a definite improvement, It pulls away from stop a lot better, thought it was me and using the Saab (250 bhp) daily then using the Sierra(50 bhp tops). Soon be Pinto powered, the guys are in my debt and I intend to collect :-))

[James Doulton]

Yes, 12". They look really puny in the pictures. The original 1300 Escorts were geared so that they did 15.9mph per 1000 rpm in top. If you have the common 3.89:1 diff then your old tyres would have given you a gearing of 18.5 mph/1000 rpm. As the Sierra is similar weight to the Escort, then it would seem rather over geared. The new tyres bring the gearing down to 16.7mph/1000 rpm. Still a little high, probably.

If you have a 4.125:1 axle then your new tyres would make it 15.7mph/1000rpm which is probably a good compromise because the aerodynamics are probably not as good as the Escort. That'd give a 0-60 time of about 13 secs with a GT spec engine, which is not bad.

The 1300 GT was even lower geared than that, at 15.03mph/1000rpm by using a 4.23:1 axle. With one of those axles you'd have 15.3mph/1000rpm. It wouldn't make a lot of difference to your 0-60 time compared to the 4.125 axle.

[Steve Kerswell]

Just been pointed out that standard escort wheels were 155/12.

[Steve Kerswell]

The old Sierra been struggling with a tired 1300, runs fine once the thing gets underway with the wind behind it. I changed my wheels today, put the alloys back on with the Kumo tyres. Went from 195/65 x 15 to 195/50x15 the change in rolling wotsits has transformed the car !! Was it overgeared for that poor little motor??  Never bothered to find out what diff it has. Certainly goes better, not a lot, but better. Can beat the mountain bikers now at traffic light grand prixs :-))

[Steve Kerswell]

Engine and box now in two parts, again!, think I can see the way out of it. But its to cold and wet out there now, down to 10 in the garage, here comes winter :-))

[Steve Kerswell]

no, the bearing and arm are completely different in mounting. I have sussed it all out now with the help of hillbilly2. He knew about this and has now passed on the wisdom to me. Cosworth engines use a different flywheel and clutch set up, so the release bearing has to move forward at least 15mm. Westfield use a bonded washer on the front of their MT75 boxes, I'm moving the clutch arm pivot forward as advised on other sites.

[Adrian Southgate]

Is the cosworth thrust bearing thinner than the sierra one?

[Steve Kerswell]

Just been and given it a good looking at, and can see there is an issue. The clutch arm hits the front of the bell housing before fully releasing the clutch. So, I have two options, drill and tap a bolt into the pivot point, its a mushroom headed stud at present and fixed point. Could make it sit further out, or, I could cut and weld the fork itself, bending it back away from the bellhousing. Of course there is the Westfield way, bond a 20mm spacer to the thrust bearing. Wait until tomorrow now, I can smell cooking :-))

[Steve Kerswell]

Just getting going on this and been advised of a big snag, seems even though I've used the  Cosworth clutch release bearing, it needs a spacer fitted to make up 15mm. So now I'm stuck until I can come up with a solution. Bother! actually said more then that, at least it wasn't fitted when I was told by a grinning hillbilly.

[Adrian Southgate]

Get it MOT'd now, avoid any more issues with SORN and the DVLA and then when it's done at least you will be able to road test it.