19 Apr 2026 Another day, another perspective. The turbo compressor housing touching the frame on the RH side is a hard limit. Since the frame angles out towards the rear I can get a little more clearance by moving the engine back. The limits there are the transmission clearance in the rear and the turbo exhaust downturn casting. I am already going to cut more metal away from the trans in the rear. I know that Stinger sells a modified 3" exhaust down elbow that could be angled to give me more clearance.  Stinger 5-bolt T3 internal waste-  gate elbow They are all custom built to order. So it might be worth taking advantage of that. I think I will contact them this week and see what they can do for me. 

2 Apr 2026 I received my exhaust manifold from BigR Motorsports, Renai Chip Givens, and I am excited to install it and re-fit the engine. This will be the first time that I can actually bolt the engine to the transmission once installed. Then I can fit check the exhaust system and the turbo package. The most important next step is to fabricate a set of engine mount blocks to adapt the stock engine mounts to the chassis mounting plates. My SVO engine has 45 degree engine mounts to be compatible with the Mustang chassis, which is designed around handling a V8 engine. The GBS Zero came with 30 degree mounting plates for whatever reason, that mount mostly inline 4-cylinder engines. So I needed to come up with an adapter to bridge the gap and get the engine at the correct height when installed. I had some 3x2 lumber left over from the shipping crate and I used my miter saw to cut a block with a 15 degree face. I made it just thick enough to accomodate the stock recessed bolt, about two inch...

 26 Mar 2026 I actually started out to fabricate the brackets for the swirl pot and finish the fuel lines to the HP pump. But when I got into the middle of that project I realized that the fuel pump feed line, being 12mm heavy hose, will not make a nice 180deg bend out of the bottom of the swirl pot and join to the pump. So I decided to do the line with AN fittings and hard 180deg and 90deg bends - so much neater. So I had a day to wait for parts to arrive. I decided that it was time to fit the seats and work out the seating position and the steering wheel. I had ordered a quick release coupling for the Momo steering wheel attachment to the Ford Sierra steering column. I suspected that the steering wheel would be a little close to my chest in the configuration described in the Build Guide. But the only way to know for sure was to get the seats in and set the position so that the pedals were workable. So I assembled the seats - like it's simple to say. Fortunately, I got onto the Fa...

19 Mar 2026  I had ordered a set of Yokohama A052 tires and today I took the wheels down to the tire store to get them mounted. The people there were curious to see what kind of car I was putting them on. They asked that I bring it by sometime. I was ready to transfer the chassis off the cradle and put it onto its wheels so I got that done. It will be easier to move the chassis around on wheel dollies - the cradle only had pivoting casters on one end. So the plan now is to work on fitting the engine and making motor mount blocks for it. The chassis is far enough off the ground to facilitate the engine hoist. I checked on the progress on my exhaust manifold from BigR Motorsports (Chip Givens) and it should be shipped in a week's time. I look forward to having that all fitted to the engine and seeing how it fits into the chassis.

 The assembly of the front corners was a little more straight forward but not without its foibles. The right corner didn't give me any problems but on the left side the bottom ball joint ferrule, the part that fits between ball joint and the spindle, was too tight a fit. With a micrometer I measured 0.6321", where as the lower ferrule measured 0.6293" Since 16mm = 0.6299" I guessed that the nominal size was that. I don't want to force these parts into place because they may gall and never seat properly so I had to fine hone the ferrule until it fit. I used 600 grit emery cloth and a leather thong to slowly work down the ferrule diameter, taking off almost 0.002". Patience won out and the fit was made. The other problem I had was with the nylon bushings on the upper rear wishbone of both sides. For some reason, those shells were slightly smaller in diameter than all the other shells on the wishbones (this was, of course, after sanding out all the powder coat ...

 "Assemble rear corners" - that's the section in the Build Guide. Terminology is so important. The Guide refers to N/S and O/S, which I think is Near/Side and other (or off) side in relation to the driver. So what does that mean for LHD or RHD? Part numbers are listed in the Guide that reference NS and OS but there's no part numbers on the bags or on the parts themselves.  Why bother?  But the salient point was there are no details on installing the ATR upgrade rear brakes and rear suspension. There is a video on the GBS Workshop youtube channel that focuses on the front of the car with no detail about the rear of the car.  I guessed on how to assemble the parts and left a query on the GBS Enthusiasts Facebook page, where I got immediate supportive help. I had done it kind OK and kinda wrong. Finally, Richard Hall himself replied, saying that the upper wishbones were upside down and handed. And the brakes, which are marked "L" and "R" have to be in...

March 1 2026 I finished installing the low-pressure fuel pump and fuel lines before moving on to the differential. This went pretty smoothly.  It seems like every major part will have a little struggle. The latest major chunk was the differential. I am still working by myself, so to support the Zetec  differential by hand while bolting it into the frame is out of the question. I rigged up my elevating table to support the diff and had to rig some planks to extend the lift so that it would get between the cradle supports. Then I had to get the angle right so that the nose of the diff would come close to the rear end of the tunnel before the rear of the diff would interfere with the frame ahead of the fuel tank. It's pretty tight quarters to get the diff up into that space and then get it to rotate down into position. I rigged safety straps to ensure that the diff wouldn't get away from me while I was jacking and rotating it into the space in the frame. Once into position I had ...

 I've taken some time away from working on my project to get some small medical things done and get a little recovery time. I've spent some time to get the McLeod hydraulic clutch throwout bearing ordered. And then I ordered the PiMPxs system. That includes the expansion harness to take the inputs from the PyroPete crank trigger and cam sync as well as the coil-near-plug system and the injectors.  So when I'm ready to do some shop work again I can fit the clutch and throwout bearing and continue on with geting it all into the car to work out the final fit.  19 Feb 2026 I decided to do a fit check with the transmission and bell housing, so I pulled the engine and wrangled the transmission into the tunnel. I had already created clearance with the frame cross member where the transmission mount will go so I can get the transmission closer into the position where it needs to be. But, there's a protrusion on the transmission/output shaft housing that interferes with the RH s...

 After all the fiddling and making comprimises with the engine position I felt that I was getting backed into a corner by the distributor location. The two choices were to use the CAS on a distributor body - which gives the PimpXs the input it needs to do SEFI and sequential spark plug control or to use the crank trigger and cam sync distributor stub kit that duplicates the Ford EDIS operation offered by pyropete on ebay. The comprimise with that is that in order to mount the crank trigger wheel you have to trim 1/4 inch off the crank pulley. It's not so much the machine work but the reduction in physical contact area between the crank pulley and the crank snout. But other people do it on some pretty extreme output engines so I am just going to accept that as the least impact comprimise. I've got the kit on order today. While I wait for the kit, along with the exhaust manifold from BigR Motorsports, I will fit up the entire engine/ transmission into the chassis so that I can ma...

 Today I sent some time getting the engine onto a dolly so that I could maneuver it around inside of the chassis and control it's height and tilt independant of the chassis. I had to go to this effort so that I could work out the exact (or close to exact) engine position I could work out that gave me clearance it the distributor, the crank pully, the bell housing, and the cam shroud at the bonnet all at the same time. I used some wheel dollies to set the engine on its oil pan and at the bell housing. Then I used a couple of screw jacks between the dolly and each motor mount to control lateral tilt (roll). I then used shims under the oil pan and bell housing to control longitudinal tilt. I placed that dolly inside the chassis with the front jacked up enough so that the engine hoist could slide under the frame rails. Then lowering and tilting the engine with my leveling bar I gently lowered the engine back into the chassis and onto the dolly. So far, no drama. Crank about 1 inch belo...

Doodle This guy has the skills to turn my doodle into real working parts Inlet manifold fabrication - Step by step build - 4age Hilux  Intercooler end tank & piping fabrication - 4age Hilux - Hypertune  

This is the amount of space I have  I have tried to examine some options for replacing the TFI distributor, which does not fit in the space below the frame rail. Later model Fords adopted a Distributorless Ignition System (DIS) which used a crankshaft angle sensor to run the ignition and batch injection systems through the computer (ECU). This system replaced the distributor with a "stub" which still engaged the aux shaft and drove the oil pump in replacement for the distributor but it didn't provide any ignition signaling trigger, that was provided from the front of the engine. Later, Ford developed EDIS with a Cam Synchronizer which mounted on the stub from the aux shaft. Then the engine design was changed in 1994 and any system beyond that was incompatable with my turbo engine. I like the idea of replacing the distributor with something that will work or even upgrade the operation of my engine. I'm thinking mostly of using a PiMPxs ECU that functions without the TF...

I arranged the chassis back onto the furniture dollies and positioned it into the work area so that I had room to maneuver the engine hoist. I assembled the engine with the bell housing after having trimmed a little more off the starter hump opening. I tried to lower the engine into place with the front pulley in place but could not find just the right angle to get it into the bay. As a result, I am looking into a two groove pulley so that it will be a little shorter. Esslinger makes just such an underdrive v-belt pulley with the added advantage of being a little smaller in diameter at 4 inches instead of the stock 6 inches.  The good news is that the SVO intake manifold fits into the space like it was engineered for it. I had to remove the oil cooler spigot from the boss on the botton side of the manifold cooling passage but I think I can plug the upper opening and use the lower opening for the spigot. I will have to determine whether I need to use the temperature sensor that was ...

 It's taken over a week of rainy days and other diversions before making the next move. But it's a fateful one. I knew that I had to cut the transmission mount on the tail housing to no more that 5 1/2" width so that it would fit past the frame tubes in the transmission tunnel. I also knew that I had to cut the front half of the chassis mounting plate so that the tail housing could fit into that space. So today my plan was to do the cutting and then get the transmission and bellhousing into the chassis for a fit check. I did the cutting with my pneumatic cut-off wheel. To get into the transmission tunnel with the cutting tool and get it into the right angle I needed to route the air fitting at a 90 degree angle. Fortunately I had a brass fitting that would do that and I had just enough angle to make the cuts, following the piece of tape that I had laid down before. It takes a little fortitude to cut-up parts that are irreplacable. But once it's done each cut serves a p...

I'm pretty sure the aft location for the turbo won't work This represents a 90mm crankshaft axis  I thought I would add a few more photos of my experience fitting my SVO engine into the GBS Zero chassis.  I sure wish I could get Google Blogger to play nice with image position, margins, and  text wrapping. Makes me nuts! I'm also pretty sure the lower intak manifold will interfere

Next morning I got everything back out because it looked like I would have at least half a day without rain. I put the TR6 back on the lift because I knew I had enough clearance to get the chassis back on the cradle. I propped the engine on my ammo box so that I could release the tension on the lifting hooks; I removed the intake manifold and put the lifting hook back on. Now I was able to lower the engine fully into its approximate position with the crank centerline at 90mm above the frame rail. The parting line to the bell housing was about 1-2 inches forward of the firewall. At the point where I took this photo I could have raised the back of the engine a bit. My goal is to give the bottom of the bell housing as much ground clearance as possible and then see how the manifold clearance worked out. The turbo package has a nice arrangement, thanks to the modification of the RH diagonal brace that Richard Hall incorporated into my chassis.  But the turbo package still needs to come ...

 After the last two days I am tired and ready to take a break. I did my first test fit of my 2.3l SVO engine into the chassis. I figured out a rig where I put the chassis below my lift and using ratchet straps front and rear I suspend the chassis from the lift. I have to get the roll bar almost touching to have enough room but with the ratchet straps tight I can run the lift up another notch and bring the chassis off the cradle. Then I can lower the chassis down onto a couple of furnature dollies.  Then I can roll the chassis out to the front of the garage where I can get the engine hoist in position. I have to lift up the nose of the chassis and put it on my old ammo case so that the engine hoist has enough room to slide under. This also helps with giving the chassis a little favorable angle to slip the engine in.  So I had the engine fully mocked-up with the intake manifold, and exhaust manifold and turbocharger package. I also had the bell housing and crank pulley in p...

Position of steering wheel in cockpit  I finished fitting up the pedal box and the steering column and added a 3/4" setscrew collar to the steering shaft to easily retain the steering bushing. I tried to make sure there was clearance between the brake pedal and the steering collar and there is, just barely. Without the quick-release added the steering wheel is just in line with the shifter. I won't know more until I get the whole seat/pedal/steering wheel relationship refined later. It looks like I can shift the steering column mount to the backside of the support bracket for about an extra 1 1/2" room for the quick release. Anyway, I love that steering wheel! Now the wheel and control stalks come back off and get stored out of harm's way until they are needed.  I also trimmed the pedal shaft and bolt to their final size. I used my lathe to make nice square cuts on both the pedal shaft and the bolt. It feels good to use my Dad's old lathe; makes me glad that I res...

Column with full spacers  I spent some time yesterday fiddling with the steering column. I test fitted the control stalks and the surround when I realized that the column shaft had to be compressed against the large spring in order to fit the steering wheel hub. I made a collar to fit the shaft so that I could use a nut to run down the shaft and compress the spring. But before I actually did this I jumped on my bike, because it was a nice day, and rode down to the hardware store that is five miles away. I purchased some shorter M5x1.0 screws for the stalk attachments and also for the fuel sensor. I also purchased a non-locking nut for the steering shaft so that I would not waste the supplied nyloc nut during this trial assembly. Once back home I slipped the collar I had made onto the steering shaft and ran-down the non-locking nut, which compressed the spring. Then I was able to anchor the column on the two attach bolts except not using the nylon spacers. So then, when I backed off...

Rear brake line On Christmas day I finished installing the brakelines. I wished I could have made the neatest bundle of lines around the master cylinder but I am not displeased with my result. I used a tubing bender to make the 90-degree bends and did the rest by hand. The front lines are a little long and I will have to cut the tubes and re-flare the ends when I am closer to aligning the front suspension parts. There doesn't seem to be a bracket for the attach point between the copper tubing and the flex lines but from the build guide it looks like they are just attached at the side panel. That seems a little flimsy to me! Front brake lines added  The routings of the lines are different for LHD so I simply used the smoothest bends and a path that flowed around the chassis bits. I am not tightening any of the fittings at this point, in case I have to move anything around later.  I then got started with the wire harness routing. The mounting plate behind the scuttle was provide...