60 replies to this topic

[Pitcrew6464]

love it

[Tim1970]

Looking awesome. Coming together really nice.
Look forward to seeing the work on the 5 link.
Keep up the great work.

[olds_kool_lews]

Spit roasting the Escort, not as tasty as a hot pork sandwich!

sounds like something a footballer would do....

[Kerrin]

Not a lot happening over the last two weeks what with us having a second child and simple stuff like that

But just in case I get bored with nappies, we brought the engine down to my house for a touch of fettling.

The 2litre zetec came with the car, and I have absolutely no history with it, as the guy we got the car from bought it secondhand already out of the car. First impressions are that the oil was fairly clean, but the general look of it makes me think it has been sat about for a while. The cam belt has lots of hairline cracks and has seen better days, but it all turns over smooth with the socket on the front pulley, and the cmpression is good.

To change the 2.0 zetec to run in Escort RWD format, you have to change the sump and clutch and install a "water rail" to bring the thermostat outlet via a big alloy tube to the front of the engine and feed the radiator, this is the same as the installation in the Blue car, and that all went together fairly well.

Being as the car will be used for competition I am going to strip the engine down and inspect it, renewing the shells and anything else that looks suspect, once it is all built up we can dummy build it into the shell.

The car is going to need to be dry built before it is sprayed as the gearbox mounts and the various link bars for the axle and the sumpguard mounts will need to be located with the running gear mocked up.

Couple of photos of the engine stand rigged up and the pile of bits ready to fit.

[Kerrin]

Ok time for an update!

After two mammoth 8 hour welding sessions things are starting to take shape. The Atlas axle is here and is a beauty, due to the change of axle we have taken the build to a higher spec, and decided to fit a works spec 5 link rear end. We have gone for the later Mk2 Escort type as the car will not comply with the Historic regulations anyway due to the Zetec engine, the later kit offered more scope for future mods. The nice swaged reinforcing plates are being trial fitted in the phot and are not yet welded.



To allow more room for the larger axle we also had to fit a "Diff Tunnel" or bigger hump to stop the axle casing hitting the body on rough landings, as with most of the body mods this was a bit of a pain to fit, as its curved and hard to measure the cuts, but it all worked out pretty neat.



The seat mount tubes are now in too, the tubes are welded to the sill and tunnel, but not the floor. This suspends the seat off the floor so that any heavy landings or large rocks don't give any big jolts through the seat (it hurts like hell).



The roll cage has been trial fitted and the feet drilled ready for the MSA size reinforcing plates to be tacked to the car and the reinforcing plates for the front struts are ready for tacking, over the repaired inner wings. Luckily we managed to sell some of the standard parts its amazing what they are fetching nowadays, and the cash is being put towards the Jenvey injection fund, hopefully this will be ordered in the next few months.

The next jobs are the modifications to the alloy fuel tank for the works filler in the C pillar, and possibly a sump in the tank for the fuel injection, my pal runs a Big HP 16v Vauxhall engine in his Mk2 Escort and has done away with the swirl pot he had, and will mod our tank the same.

[Kerrin]

As usual I will start with some excuses, I have just moved house the 45 minute drive up to work on the car, trauma with children etc. But luckily dad has managed to get a lot of the body prep done and now the car is down off the spit and on the stands ready for the build up to begin


The interior is sprayed satin black to stop any glare and the outside is now resplendent in a few good coats of diamond white, we even managed to fit the axle link bars today. Hopefully now the car is on the stands we can really get on with the fun part of fitting the parts.

Also just managed to get a really good set of Jenvey throttle body's secondhand which will go well with the zetec and the Emerald ECU. There still seems to be loads to do, and some of the parts are tricky to fit which is slowing down the build. Just waiting for the fuel tank to be modified to fit the new filler,

[Spud_133]

This is so sexy, I would love a mk1 'scort. Keep up the good work, and I'm looking forward to seeing it finished.

[WannaR1mini]

Awesome!... my next project for definate... although I can't believe how expensive these are to buy nowadays!...

[miniweights]

Great work you're doing there, this takes me back to when I was preparing my old 72 Mk1 for its first forest rally

[sonikk4]

So aspiration wise which way are you heading, throttle bodies, Webers, Dellorto's???

[Artful Dodger]

looking good with those arches on!
and that interior fabrication for the diff looks awsome!!

seeing as you have dealt with them for a number of years,
do you know a ballpark figure i could pick a mk1 escort shell up for? i really want an escort to convert to rs1800 spec:)
cheers:P

[sonikk4]

looking good with those arches on!
and that interior fabrication for the diff looks awsome!!

seeing as you have dealt with them for a number of years,
do you know a ballpark figure i could pick a mk1 escort shell up for? i really want an escort to convert to rs1800 spec:)
cheers:P

Have you had a look on Ebay?? a few standard 2 doors MKII's appear but they are not cheap normally as demand is high. Even rough they have been going for £2k plus.

Sorry just re read your post do you mean RS1600 as the RS1800 is a MKII

[Artful Dodger]

oh oops my mistake:P yeah i prefer the mk1 for the shape of the nose

and the overall idea is to drop a 2.0 BDA in it then do it up in touring car fashion:)



sounds like this is going to be another expensive one...

[rsroadkilla]

Both cars look amazing!

Just out of interest, where abouts do you get all your spares from? I can't find a decent supplier!

[Tupers]

That's a very nice car you've got going there, I'd love the chance to build something like that one day even if I didn't get to keep it.