First, unpack the kernel source RPM:

rpm -Uhv kernel-source-2.4.18-18-8.0.i386.rpm

then cd /usr/src/linux-2.4.18

# something like this name:
sudo cp -a config/kernel-2.4.18-18-8.0.i686.config .config

sudo make xconfig &

under filesystems, click on 'm' for ntfs (this means enable
compilation as a module)

then save it, exit

Then I usually type:

time make dep && echo;echo;echo && time make bzImage &&
echo;echo;echo; time make modules && echo Hip Hip Hooray\!

sudo make modules_install

sudo cp -a arch/i386/boot/bzImage /boot/vmlinuz-2.4.18-18-8.0custom

sudo cp -a System.map /boot/System.map-2.4.18-18-8.0custom

sudo mkinitrd /boot/initrd-2.4.18-18-8.0custom.img

sudo emacs /boot/grub/grub.conf

Copy the stuff from previous kernel and edit it to match these files

save it and your'e done.