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Beef's scratch built ditchmeister


B33fy

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The gearbox...mmm... funny you should mention that.. took a little bit of working out, eventually settled for a Mazda 3 MPS gearbox which more or less bolts on. Comes with 6 speeds and a slipper as standard. can handle an easy 350+ bhp in its original habitat so pushing 300+ bhp in a car half the weight should be a walk in the park. Not too sure about the ratios though they should work out ok, as long as its one gear change to 60 and two to 100 should be good to go. I prefer longer gears than close ratio boxes and a supercharged lump will pull from low revs so gear changes will be kept to a minimum.

 

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Not sure on top speed though I would think it's geared for 165'ish mph in the real world it'll probably hit an aerodynamic brickwall at around 130mph

 

In case of morepoweritius the gearbox fits with plan B.. 2.3 turbo duratec,

 

and C...,

 

3.0 V6 duratec 600+bhp

 

As mentioned not into the big numbers though its such a great feeling to have successfully homebuilt something yourself that works well.

 

Clutch has been a bit of a struggle with a few spare centre plates knocking about after trying a few to find the right one which is a helix race spec pressure plate and fast road focus centre plate, some work still needs to be done on the release bearing because of the different thickness flywheels, I'm using the fester ST150 wheel whereas the spazda was a dual mass jobbie.

 

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Also sourced an adaptor for the slave cylinder so braided hoses can be made up with ends to suit rather than the OEM plastic pipe which wouldn't have fitted the master cylinder

 

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That's the gearbox and engine pretty much covered except ancillaries, wiring etc, which I'll add a little later on.

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Just out of curiousity I found some gear ratios and worked out the speeds at 7000rpm,interestingly 5th and 6th were listed with a different final drive ratio, not come across that before though clearly 5th and 6th are "overdrive" gears, handy for mile munching on motorways to get to the good roads.

 

1st      38mph

2nd     65mph

3rd      95mph

4th      153mph

6th      180mph

 

The car may manage a 2nd gear start to save on a gearchange when pressing on, or at the start of a typical run as depicted here,..

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQSnBo4SG98

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Reviewed the gear ratio's again as the earlier final drive info didn't make sense, not known any car to have two different ratio's unless it's a "split box" which it isn't, ( it is fooking heavy though...)

 

So gearing looks to be, 45, 76, 107, 153, 184 at 7000rpm though the power is likely to drop off a little before then. What ever it is,, proof is in the eating as they say and second and third gears will be the weapons of choice..

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Onto the chassis, build table made out of three trestles and a top, with the hope that the metal could be stored underneath but it didn't quite work out.

 

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A slight hurdle to overcome before laying out the chassis, a small matter of not being able to weld, soon overcome with an idiot proof welder and plenty of practice, some early goes below..

 

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Initial chassis layup shortly..

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A few images of the chassis being layed up...

 

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I have deviated from the book plans and put in a removal subframe as above, so the engine can be dropped out of the car rather than through the top. Kurt, the original builder is now modding his in the same way. The V-Storm engine was in and out so many times I lost count, anything to make it easier on this one.. You can see the shiny gearbox also, now all cleaned up. As you've probably gathered I like things to look shiny and hate working on grubby oily bits

 

Rear suspension subframe below... still needs a bit of tidying up, James should get pretty of practice with the Die Grinder.

 

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Last one of the "engine compartment" taking shape, along with a close up of some welding which had been tidied up, rewelded and cleaned....

 

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More catch up laters

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The Mazda boxes are pretty strong. Also being a Japanese brand there are loads of aftermarket bits available for them, so if the flywheel is too heavy, the diff doesn't bite enough etc.. there should be something out there that will do the job.

 

Looking forward to seeing where this goes.

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The Mazda boxes are pretty strong. Also being a Japanese brand there are loads of aftermarket bits available for them, so if the flywheel is too heavy, the diff doesn't bite enough etc.. there should be something out there that will do the job.

 

Looking forward to seeing where this goes.

 

Yep caught sight of a few tuning specialists though the prices of parts are steep. Bought a spigot bearing from the stealers £36, afterwards found the same thing albeit a ford item for £6.Not concerned at all about the strength of the box but not got to the bottom of the ratios, more than one web site are referring to two final drive ratio's and another has made reference to a three shaft box.. in my confusion I only listed five ratio's above, so I'll take a closer look at it at some point, just nice to know what's coming up. The fiesta IB5 gearbox is made of butter and disintegrates every time you fart the most common conversion is a MTX box.

 

As for where this goes, hopefully to the finishing line, I've seen a lot of projects start and not go anywhere and also so called project builders who are full of hot air, and cheap talk. I've no intention of doing neither, I do as I say and say as I do with the focus of getting the job done, besides I'm desperate to get back out with the guys again. :)

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I would say someone like BBR should be able to give you a definitive answer with regards to the 'box. Although they are known more for turbocharging MX-5's, they have done some work on the MPS models and their work comes highly recommended.

 

Is the plan for other parts such as the brakes and suspension to use 'off the shelf' bits from the likes of AP and Eibach? Or will there be the use of parts from 'regular' vehicles so as to make consumables easier to come by?

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Parts.. a few MX5 bits, hubs mainly, driveshafts will be custom made. Other parts mostly typical aftermarket kitcar type fodder. Brakes were sh!te on the Storm so going big on this one. 6 pots front, 4 pots rear, separate master cylinders front and rear and a bias bar all integrated into a pedal box, all Wilwood. oh and a separate handbrake caliper, got a wildwood spot caliper though thinking of going Brembo aka Fezza and Aston

 

Fronts and H/B caliper below

 

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 Doing these type of builds tends to be 50% looking for parts, 50% actually doing something, 50% procrastination and 50% redoing what you've just done... and it all takes twice as long as you think..

 

On the parts issue I've been looking for a few parts namely a connector to fit the throttle position sensor, after a bit of research I believe it should come from a mid 90's 'stang or ford explorer, and typically rare as hens teeth. Brand new from the states around £40 including import duty,.. just for a connector.. how ridiculous. As luck would have it found an engine loom on the bay for some old yank tank, zoomed in on the image and would you believe it there was the connector. I put in the winning bid which was actually the only bid... 99 pence  :D then emailed to say I'd collect(1/2 hour away), didn't want the fooker shafting me on the postage :D :D ...

 

In truth I couldn't deny someone a living or a bit of a drink so in total, a tenner was paid which would have been the postage costs. All excited as I'm off shortly to pick it up with TPS in hand, might do a detour to the tip if it doesn't fit.. though I'm sure there will be other useful connectors on it. That's my 50% used up for today :D

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