Armed with the spares from Newark its time to crack into the cooling. I'd also collected another 1.8 Zetec that cost 10 quid and being a Mondeo engine it came with a useful hose on the water pump. For more info on how to use this hose visit the EM Engineering pages on Zetec cooling within a Westfield.
Because I have a heater there seems to be a lot of piping under the bonnet. It's not the neatest installation but it will do for the moment.
Finished building the Megajolt and was out a 06:30 making the loom and wiring it in. Left the taping of the loom until I'm sure the tach works as it may need a mod so that the output voltage isn't too high.
Radiator has been fitted and brackets made up to support it. Filled the cooling system with plain water to start with as I expected it to leak. Only found one slight leak and a quick tighten of the hose clip solved that. Drained the remains of the black sludge that was once oil and fitted a new oil filter. I'm amazed at the amount of mis-information on the chat rooms with regards simple things like which oil filter should I use. Because the steering column is close to the engine I couldn't use a regular Zetec 1.8 Escort filter. Various others were suggested but the one that fitted was a CVH one - Champion C104 - and available from Halfords. Filters to fit a 2.0 are probably too big in diameter and will foul a casting on the 1.8 block. Filled up with oil and added some fuel into the tank.
Turned on the ignition - no fuel pump. Remembered that I'd removed that fuse because they don't like running dry. Refitted fuse and tried again, fuel pump now working. Checked carbs for fuel, pumped throttle a few times and checked that carb accelerator pump was working. Cranked engine.... and it started turning over slowly then stopped. Tried another battery but no better. Removed the plugs and turned over by hand and it seemed reasonably free. Connected some jump leads from the Volvo - spun over a treat without the spark plugs installed. Installed the plugs and it turned over very slowly again. Then remembered that I never did pick up a piece of earth braid for the engine. Checked the resistance between the starter and the chassis and it showed 1.1 ohm. Made up an earth lead and connected from the starter mounting bolts to the chassis earth point and measured zero resistance. Jumped in the car, primed the carbs and it fired on first turn of the key. Cue a grin from ear to ear. Cue more rain.
Wired up the cooling fan and used a realy to do the switching. As I'm using a Polo rad the fan thermostatic switch is in the rad. Using a relay and holder that came with the car I wired it all up. Went to check the voltage and there was no 12v supply. Checked all the fuses but didn't find anything amiss. Tried tracing the supply wire back but couldn't find it in the fuse box or under the dash, the black/green wire wasn't to be found. Then remembered that there were 2 wires that I didn't know what they did near the thermostat housing and sure enough, this was the feed for the fan. Joined these together because the fan thermostat is no longer at the rear of the engine. This time I had 12v but the fan wouldn't kick in. The one problem with rebuilding an old car that arrived in pieces is that you never are sure on the state of the components. Turns out the relay was faulty and another one from the box of bits did the trick.
A trip to a local glazing company provided a new windscreen for £22. The pillars needed refitting due to incorrect positioning and used up a couple of hours of my time. The hinges on the door had been modified to compensate for the previous error so these were returned to their original state.