Major low's and high's in the past week of FRP ownership...

Full Major Refresh of my FRP Mechanicals...

Unfortunately I do not tend to drive the FRP as often as I should (its one of several cars I own) but after a recent incident with low oil and high rev's I heared the dreaded "big end bearing" noise clonking, I knew exactly what I had to do, I had to get my hands dirty and do what I'd been promising myself I would finally get around to, i.e. put in the spare 'new' bare zetec engine I had sitting in the corner of my garage. Thankfully I am mechanically competant and I do have full workshop facilities and tools at my disposal. This job isn't as daunting as it sounds, just very time consuming. After all the new bare engine contains a fully balanced new crank, pistons, conrods, valves and head all ready to go. All I needed to do was strip down my old FRP engine bare and swap over the racing cams.

While it was a major low in my FRP ownership hearing that dreaded clonk, clonking when I rev'd the engine, I felt happy in the knowledge that I had everything I needed to get started. So, last week I decided that while we are having all of this cold weather I would dedicate a week of my time (and family members bringing me copious amounts of tea, coffee and biscuits) to swap over to my spare (unused) new Zetec 1.7 SE engine I'd sourced from ebay for £500 (a bargin!) a while ago now.

After inspecting the original FRP cams I cleaned them up and re-used them in the new 1.7 Zetec SE engine. After some diagnostics work I learned it was Cylinder 4's bearing that went west.... oh dear. What a shame.

Anyway, its all in good shape now. Kind of amazing really that I've managed to fit essentially a full new engine, new clutch and all new fluids along with a full refresh of the brakes all for less than a set of tyres for the Ferrari

Here's what I've done so far...

Remove front bumper
Remove bonnet
Remove headlights
Drain engine of old oil and radiator of old coolant.

Full Strip down of engine
Remove battery
Remove starter motor
Remove alternator
Remove air con pump
Remove auxillary belt
Remove auxillary idler pulley
Remove full air intake assembly and piping
Remove exhaust manifold
Remove fuel injection rail & injectors
Remove radiator and piping
Remove left and right driveshafts, etc.)
Remove water pump
Remove cam covers
Rotate engine to TDC & lock cam's in place
Remove cam belt & pully's

[Engine:] Remove engine & gearbox from car
Remove cam covers (both engines) and cam belts
Remote and swap over twin racing camshafts to new replacement engine
New Cambelt & Tensioner
New Auxillary Belt
New Auxillary Belt Idler Pulley (yes mine was squeaking)
New Spark Plugs
New Denso Injectors
New Water Pump & Gasket
New Manifold Gasket
New 5W/30 Engine Oil
New Engine Coolant
New Steering Fluid *(top up, not replaced)
Reseal Cam cover with gasket sealant
Refit all components, starter, air con pump, water pump, air intake, manifold
Clean K&N Air Filter & re-oil

[Gearbox:] Remove Clutch, flywheel & clutch bearing
Replace Clutch Disc
Replace Full Clutch Assembly
Replace Clutch Slave Master
Replace Gearbox/Transmission Oil
Bleed Clutch system

[Brakes:] Remove Front Calipers
Fully strip down and clean of Alcon 4 piston racing calipers
Remove & Refit 4 pistons per caliper
Remove & Refit 8 piston seals, 2 per piston
Solve the siezed piston issue [eliminate uneven braking issues]
Clean up pad area, inspect pads & discs
Refit discs, pads and pistons
Replace Brake Fluid & bleed system

Refit front bumper
Refit bonnet
Refit headlights

Total cost in parts: ~£500, £500 for 0 mile, new zetec bottom end.
Total labour: ~50 hours

This has been quite an extensive refresh actually and thankfully the car is driving absolutely brilliantly again. Like driving a new FRP Brakes are now smooth and progressive (had an issue with sticky calipers before), clutch is light and engaging perfectly with good pickup, new engine is super smooth and torquey, its rev's cleanly and power is now restored, just without any of those dreaded clonks (engine never felt this good before since I owned the car).

Just have to wait for all of this snow to clear now and drive it a few thousand miles for the new engine to bed in...

During winter I think I may opt to do a full bare metal 'concours' respray to 'as new' standard. In the meantime I plan to replace as many suspension parts as possible with new. Got my eye on one of those spare cheap FRP gearboxes, would make a nice complement to the new engine just wish I would have seen it BEFORE I put the car back together

Another FRP back in fine fettle!

Wow awesome stuff, top job getting the car fixed. Sounds like you got a good deal with the 'new' engine, can't see that oppertunity coming around often!

p.s. which ones quicker??

Good work fella. You are a lucky bu*ger having all those toys nis that a real Ferrari or one of those MR2 copies? It just looks smaller then I imagine it would.
Nice to see another pampered FRP

Impressive work...love the piccy too...

RESTELL wrote:

Good work fella. You are a lucky bu*ger having all those toys nis that a real Ferrari or one of those MR2 copies? It just looks smaller then I imagine it would.
Nice to see another pampered FRP

No, mine was very much made in Maranello by Ferrari, not Japan by Toyota. Must just be the angle of the photo.
This isn't a Ferrari forum so I will try to keep the 360 pictures to a minimum... but here's a few teasers... At least one has a picture of FRP in the background

Keeping on thread, here's the FRP when I did a Menzerna detail last year..

I've got more engine build pics so more to follow...

BurfyBoy wrote:

Wow awesome stuff, top job getting the car fixed. Sounds like you got a good deal with the 'new' engine, can't see that oppertunity coming around often!

p.s. which ones quicker??

The 360 is fully weight stripped, corner weighted & track prepped, from rest gets to 100mph faster than the Puma hits 60mph

However both car pull over 1.1g in braking.