uwe-the-xr4

[uwe-the-xr4]

New look

So after much deliberation, I finally made the decision to remove the stripes, and love the result. Although the stipes gave UWE his character, with his new stanced look it was a catalyst to remove the stripes.

The process itself was a tricky one. In order to try at home you will need:

heat gun (I picked on up from Super Cheap Auto for $38)

ladder (to get roof stripes off)

acetone or rubbing alcohol (remove residues)

cloths

The process is a simple concept, hard in practice. Using the heat gun, keep the stripe warm by spreading the heat in a large area.

Too much heat - the stripe might melt or rip and you have to start with a corner again. Worst case - ruin you paint, so constantly test the are with your hand.

Not enough heat - it wont come off as on piece, it will rip and leave lots of residue behind.

Many hands will be light work. Remove as much residue as you can after removing the stripes, otherwise you may get lots of dust collected where thr stripe were. I have done it myself, but I also recommend cut and polish after.

[uwe-the-xr4]

Fitment

The other big thing I got done over the weekend was toget my new rims on. I managed to find XXR530 17x8.25 rims for real cheap off a Facebook group. Spoiler alert they look great!

So after putting my mount in, I started on the rims. It was clear when I put my front left on it was going to need height adjustment. When I dropped the rear down, I had about 8mm clearance from wheel arch to tyre. With people in the car was 3mm, not really workable.

Luckily I have adjustable coil overs, this was the first time I got to adjust them. It’s a little painful to adjust the rears, specially with an anti sway bar. You pretty much have to disassemble your whole rear suspension to adjust springs and the struts. Took a few go’s to get it right.

Fronts took about 5min and enough clearance. I still get a little rubbing on big bumps. So when I have some spare time I’ll get another 1-1.5cm in there.

End result, looks fantastic. The fitment on 8.25" is great. The Continental tyres are stretched at 205/40R17, and with rear spacers looks aggressive. I recommend going 8inch rims, but only if you have ride height adjustment.

[uwe-the-xr4]

Mount up!

Busy weekend, mainly working on my car. During the week I have been excited as I got my Vibra-Technics Lower Torque link. It was a quick 5min job. 4 bolts undone, replaced the mount then 2 bolts back in. I think it's probably the easiest modification I have done on my car.

After it was done, the first I noticed is on start up, there is a lot more noise and vibration. There is a deeper noise in the cabin, not too annoying. Second thing is on take off, the resposiveness is noticable. I get less torque steer too.

All in all a good mod, happy with the results.

[uwe-the-xr4]

Again it’s been a while since I have posted. Two main reasons:

1. Lost my license for 3 months

2. UWE have a broken big end bearing

Lucky for me 3 months flew past, but I was even luckier when I went to the mechanic to check out the bearing sound that had been plaguing UWE for months. Turns out Big end bearing was ruined due to oil starvation. At first talks were of about $3.5K to rebuild bottom end - if I was going to spend that money, I would go all out and had the decision of write off or $6k to rebuild UWE bullet proof. The mechanic gave me an option to spend couple hundred to take sump off and see.

After taking the sump off, the mechanic then told me that Ford say bolts are one use and you would need new engine. No one in Australia supply the parts - the joys of imported cars.

I called bullshit and invested myself. Spoke to a mob in the UK who build racing Duratec engines and an assortment of aftermarket components. They supplied big bear bearing and ARP bolts. They arrived in Australia in 2 days, mechanic replaced everything and UWE back on the road. All for $1.3K parts and labour.

I still have an issue with UWE chewing too much oil and can smell the oil. I’m thinking that valves are the problem. For now, I just have to keep him topped up. I have a couple of priorities I have to attend:

- New XXR530 rims

- Left inner CV joint

- New lower engine torque link

- Wheel speed sensor

Then I’ll sort out valves and finally put in my cam shafts!!

[uwe-the-xr4]

So coil overs went in over the weekend. I estimated six hours of work, ended up closer to nine hours. Started replacing rear suspension each rear corner done in about an hour. 

Fronts, different story. Got stuck trying to put the new strut into it's position on the steering knuckle, took some percussive persuasion to get it in. After two hours we finished up front left at midnight.

Next day, thought we had an easy one hour job to get front right done. But in taking out the old strut, managed to drop the knuckle which pulled the CV shaft out of place. We didn't realise until trying to put in the new strut and couldn't align it to the ball joint. This meant we had to remove the boot clips and investigate. Again, forced the CV shaft back in with a hammer, but that added an extra hour. Then had to rush to the nearest shop to get new clips and CV shaft grease. Last corner took a good three hours in the end. It was late once we finished putting on tyres and getting ready for a shakedown.

We drove around for about ten minutes feeling some very bad shudder when accelerating, we freaked out the CV was busted. So the next step was to diagnose when it occurred, so after ten minutes of loading, braking and turning it seemed to settle back in. No shudder at all, much to our joy. Once our fear had cleared itself, we could appreciate how much of a difference the coilovers made. Changing direction was unnatural, no body roll, like 0, zip, nothing. Breaking had never been so stable, acceleration does not cause it to tip backwards, it’s just sublime.

We were concerned about the ride under normal situations, it is firm but much more comfortable than stock struts and lowered springs. Even with the settings on what the factory ships it with, height was lowered at leaset 20mm on each corner. I added 1° of negative camber and dampers were set on 6/30 clicks on the Hard side. I’m extremely surprised how good the ride is. 

We took it to the nearest business park and tested it out. Wow. Turning is like it’s a computer assisted game. Again, no body roll, even at scary speeds. It was clear that the weakest point were the tyres (which do need replacing). I could not stop smiling. The tail happy issues under braking or liftover disappeared.

All in all, suspension work always takes longer than expected, but the result are well worth the pain. Highly recommend BC BR Coilovers for an Fiesta XR4.

[uwe-the-xr4]

Finally time has come

After not being active on this blog or really changing much on my car, something has come up that has forced my hand to my suspension to the next level. Being the driver I am, I recently lost my license again for 3 months. I blame the car. So I lent my car to my brother as he would rather drive the little pocket rocket rather than his Pajero. While on his daily driving he noticed a noise that I have been ignoring for months. It turns out the the strut top on my front left has cracked. This makes a creaking noise when rolling over anything in even. Now taking that part out to replace is a pain, something I have done too many times already. Given I have had lowered spring for a while, my shockers are probably not in the best condition either. So here comes the punch line.... Coil overs have been ordered! This will significantly improve the drivability and comfort of my car. I can't wait to install and I have plenty of time to do it.

[uwe-the-xr4]

UWE has been neglected for a while now. I still have another month before I get my license again and since the track day, he’s been sitting on my brother front yard collecting layers of bird shit.

I decided to have a working holiday, 5 days off to work on UWE. There were a few things I wanted to get fixed up and install. Even though I haven’t done anything on the car, I still having buying stuff:

Longer high tensile stud bolts

New lug nuts

12mm rear axle spacers

Short shifter kit

Exhaust manifold gasket

Studs were petty easy at the front. Requires tyres, brake calliper and brake disc to be removed. Carefully using a hammer, tap the studs towards the hub. Might need some encouragement. Push through the new ones from the back and hammer out as much as you can. You can then put it all back together.

Rear a slightly different story, remove wheel. Before removing calliper, release park break (ensure you have chocked from tyres). Unhook the park break cable. Then you can remove the calliper and the disc. You will need to extract the suspension spring in order to access the 4 bolts that hold the hub in place. Unbolt the 4 bolts, hub and dust cover should come loose, make sure to remove the ABS sensors carefully. Now you can ta but the studs and out in the new ones.

While the hub is out you can put in the spacers. The kit should contain the spacer with 4 new longer bolts to put even back. The spacer goes behind everything (including the dust cover). Remember to feed through the ABS sensor (sometime you may need to file away some of the spacer to leave room for the sensor). Put everything back in reverse order. New lug nuts all around to finished to look. Sorted.

[uwe-the-xr4]

Trackday

It finally happened! Randomly a good friend mentioned a track day. From there it was a crazy week of preparation and finally a track day.

UWE got to stretch his legs, well he got put through his paces and he took it like a man. Best fun I have ever had, could not stop smiling all day. Even got a decent time for a first timer (1:49.999).

Can’t wait for the next one.

[uwe-the-xr4]

Uwe is back! So happy and excited, even if I can’t drive him… legally. It’s been 4 weeks of waiting. Now I can continue with the tweaks.

I have the following things to go in:

Individual throttle bodies

Cosworth spec cams

12mm read axle spacers

Yay!

[uwe-the-xr4]

Still waiting

So after four weeks of being at the shop, I’m still waiting for UWE to under my possession again. I received a call today that he should be ready Thursday morning for pickup.

This bring much excitement as I have individual throttle bodies and Cosworth spec cams to go in. I’m expecting great results from these mods. Then it will be ready for a track day.

In the meantime, my driving style has caught up with me and resulted in my license being suspended for 6 months. This is sad since I won’t get to driver once I get UWE back, but recently I found out you don’t need a license for a track day. Much excite!

[uwe-the-xr4]

Second chance

So after getting UWE accessed, he will get repaired. Apparently two weeks, but won’t hold my breath.

To celebrate the news I wrapped and my Toyosports headers and installed them. Massive pain to get headers in and out of such a tight space. In the end very happy, torque increase mid to high revs, and noise is epic.

In the meantime, I have ordered individual throttle bodies, the first extreme modification that I will make, I expect great noises and power increase.

Cams at some point to finish it off and then the track.

[uwe-the-xr4]

So this happened, stay tuned

[uwe-the-xr4]

So few things have happened in my life recently which stopped my from posting. But after some alone time I decided to still continue with UWE. So over Christmas I may have gone a bit nuts.

Modifications include: - white line rear anti sway bar - Lenso 17x7.5 ET45 rims (slightly stretching my 205/40ZR17) - lowered King springs - 12” JVC 300w subwoofer and amp (in my spare wheel well)

The car drives like a dream. Took it up to Donna Buang for a drive, my god! Sway bar is the best thing you can do for handling. With lowered springs the car feels like a go kart around corners, even over steering if too aggressive.

Rims were a bit of a pain, as I ordered wrong PCD (4x100 instead of 4x108). I got them redrilled and fitment is epic. I still want to run 12mm axle spacers in the rear to be perfect but very happy with look.

Tunes are great now with subby, been missing out for too long. Very happy.

Soon headers and cams.

[uwe-the-xr4]

Decided to wrap my exhaust, it's a lots harder than expected. Firstly, doing it while headers are still on makes everything much more difficult than needed. Secondly wear gloves, fibre glass is not nice on squishy human skin. Thirdly wetting it makes it a lot easier to wrap, took about 20 minutes to sort out, wetting would have make this easier and faster. Fourth thing, it will take quite a while to “burn in”, it smokes for the first few hours of running the car and will smell for a couple of days. 

Why wrap? Well keeping heat in the headers and not escaping into the engine bay will help two fold. One - ambient engine bay temperatures will remain cooler. This will reduce heat soak into stuff you want to keep cool, like intake piping. Second - hot gases are less dense, meaning they can be pushed down the exhaust system easier, increasing flow out, meaning more flow in and more power.

Word of warning, keep wrap away from any oil! It can catch on fire!

Don't know how much performance I will get, but I love the way it looks!

[uwe-the-xr4]

I really wanted a better look from the front of my car, so I needed a front lip. Ordering one in is way too expensive for a piece of plastic, so as always I made my own. Lucky "Clarke Rubber" have plenty of options to choose from. I found a 2 meter roll of rubber that had the right shape for a front lip, and it was only $19! Sorted.

Car up on the ramps, and quickly remove the old lip. It was held in by few screws and some clips at the ends. Easy enough to get off without troubles. Next was to get the rubber to conform to the shape of the front bumper. After trying to flatten it out without much success, persuasion in the from of a heat gun won the game. Just few minutes and it was very malleable.

The bumper had nice brackets to tuck the rubber into while I got a few screws in. The clips were very useful for the ends and they fit perfectly. Stanley knife to clean up the ends and done.

Took about 15min and look great.

[uwe-the-xr4]

Fitted my Magmaflow Sports Cat today, makes my exhaust sound awesome now.

[uwe-the-xr4]

So I discovered Plastidip. I have been thinking about getting my rims sandblastered and powder coated. At $400 seems reasonable, but after my "pot hole" incident, my rims are not in the best condition. So plasti dip was my next cheaper alternative.

Before doing rims, I painted my chrome emblems first. Quite simple procedure. Wash first, dry very well. Clean agin with Grease and Wax remover, then wipe down with IPA. Mask around the area, but leave about 2cm around as a spray area (I'll explain why). Before spraying, it's a good idea to warm your spray can (in a bucket or warm water) and give it a very good shake.

When spraying, keep the distance and movement over the area constant to avoid bubbling or running. First coat is very light, about 50% opacity. Second layer, is after 10min, cover everywhere again making sure 100% opacity. Third and fourth layer after 10min again, covering your whole area (even over spray). Let it dry for 30-60min depending how humid it is. Then you can remove the masks. Now pick a corner of the over sprayed area and peal it out up, did this slowly to allow it to break off at the emblems edge and not pick up the layer you want to keep. The area's inside the letters is a little trickier, but with some tweezers you should be able to clean it up.

I waiting for the weekend to do my rims and grills. Both rims and grills will have to be removed. Cleaned with degreaser and dried. Clean again with Wax and Grease remover making sure you remove any impurities. Then wipe down with IPA. No need to mask anything on grills or rims (since you peal off excess as well). Follow the same layering: 50% - 10min - 100% - 10min - 100% - 10min - 100% - 30min. With the rims, use a knife around inner lug hole, this is because when you put the lug nuts back one, it may pull and twist the plastidip, cutting it will mean it won't start ruining the finish on the edges of the lug nut holes.

All in all took about 4 hours to do, emblems, rims and grills. Well worth the work, it all looks great.