Panko

Oh yeah ive seen the lotus head. I wish. would definitely be unique. A lotus 4 door escort. But certainly dont have the coin for that. if i ever rebuilt the 1600 in the future, id take it out to a 1700, injected, high compression etc.

I have a 1600 for the car So i picked up a 1600 from a club member. It was an unknown engine, that he had sitting in his garage for about 5 years. He had never used it. He let me take the engine without paying and let me comp test it etc. It had 120psi on number 1, 2 and 4. 3 was showing nothing I swapped the head for a spare 1300 head i had sitting in the shed. Picked up 120psi on number 3 and 2 but 1 & 4 now showed zero the head i put on was the old head id pulled off the 1300. The 1300 gained compression when i swapped that head off. The bottom end in the 1600 has been rebuilt. I couldn’t make out the difference in part numbers, so the pistons are either 0.30” or 0.60” oversized. Bores are clean and smooth, no lip or scoring. Next stage is to get the 1600 head rebuilt, maybe some porting work too, and run a full gasket and seal kit through the engine. Ill also be looking at the camshaft to see if its stock or warmed up. 120psi isn’t fantastic by any means, but considering from basic testing the loss in comp appears to mostly in the head, and the 1300 only had 90-100psi, this engine should be a comfortable upgrade even if it isn’t the best compression. it also came with another complete 4 speed and short shifter fitted. The gearbox feels better than mine, so i may end up keeping it and selling my 4 speed. my test bench, aka trailer 1600 head off, 1300 head on Take ya pick Now, for another update. the mounts for the 5 speed have been relocated, and driveline test fitted into the car. all fits perfectly. The car is now officially built to suit a 5 speed Can just vaguely see how far it moved. Not far at all. A couple of inches All in and clearing notice the front suspension is gone. Almost ready for paint now

ha yeah well there is that. i am tracking everything I spend thus far. Depending on Mark’s final bill, im going to be pretty close to the budget i had from insurance money. Im happy to go a couple of $k over, but we will see. keep in mind the list of things i had to do on it, were desirable upgrades, not necessarily a need, but certainly make the car better kind of thing

Small update. I got the gearbox stripped down to an empty case, and then cleaned it and put the case, extension housing back together. I also split the 1300 and 4 speed, and took the bell housing over and bolted it onto the 5 speed case. Before the end of the week, ill have the spare 1300 block and 5 speed box delivered to Mark so they can fit the driveline and move the gearbox mounts on the body. I dont have anymore progress photos of the car, but the car is getting very close to being painted. We finished cleaning and prepping the underside of the car. Bonnet is ready to go. Mark is hoping to have it painted before easter. His painter goes on leave for the month of April, with a temporary painter coming in to only do basic insurance work. If the car isn't painted by Easter, then it will be May before it gets into the spray booth. It doesn't bother me in the slightest if it gets delayed, it would give me more time to get other things sorted for the car. I picked up the new windscreen for the car today. I also took delivery of a pair of NOS "hockey stick" chrome trims, because mine were beyond repairing. I also have a pair of NOS Hella H4 headlights . When I started this, I honestly dont think i was expecting the build to go to the extent it has, and i didn't think there would be so many new parts fitted. My problem is, I dont know when to stop spending money on new parts

yeah XD V8 are also narrow shrouds.

where do you run the pipes? The only way id get an intercooler pipe around there with the battery in situ is if it was silicone and squished down a tad. otherwise if i go a narrower radiator, i could potentially run the original HKS intercooler from the original turbo kit, which actually mounts to the driver's side of the radiator and mounts vertically. its probably not that efficient, but if i want the HKS kit to look period, the narrower radiator should allow this. Chris, if i went that path, id probably be inclined to run thermos anyway, so shroud wont be an issue. Ill keep the copper radiator and store it to repair at a later date, but going aftermarket gives me options to make some more room for piping etc.

no. but the black ones are more discrete at least. I could also run with the clutch fan still

yeah but as i said above, if i can narrow it down, i might have a good chance to run pipes through for intercooler. currently there isnt much space, if at all, to pass through pipes. also if i go narrower, i might be able to run the original HKS intercooler next to the radiator like its meant to. make it look a little more original under the bonnet when the turbo kit goes in

haha second hand bargain? im also considering running a narrower XD radiator, so i can pass intercooler pipes around the driver's side end tank. i cant do that with the XF radiator, its 100mm wider than an XD radiator

funny thing is, the copper ones are twice the price of an ebay alloy lol. mine has never gotten hot. but yesterday decided to pop

What car are You putting this late model TB in? i looked at doing this, but on a crossflow in an X series, the bonnet will not shut.

Hi guys, converting my injected crossflow to run EL injection. Where should I install the Intake Air Temp sensor? In the plenum like the EL's have them, or in the intake tube before the throttle body like the XFs have (in the vane meter) Thanks Panko

yeah thats what I tried to do, but Fed up and did it on the top side...course didn't measure before hand, the bonnet wouldn't close with it there. when the engine comes out for the new engine to go in, ill re do it like you have.

more progress on the car. Back panel is in, but not welded. just getting things all setup before being welded in. more little imperfections being sorted out. factory creases from panel and body joins being smoothed. tonight after hours, we made a start on the underside of the car. got most of it done and prepped. (this was after only a short amount of time) Awaiting a conclusion as to how far Mark wants me to take the underside. Or rather, how far I think I should go with the underside of the car. given we got so much of it cleaned and back to bare metal tonight, id imagine another solid day and it will be ready to go underneath.

As i sort of tried to say above. like for like, and this is coming from watching an engine builder (also fellow RSOCV club member) who specialises in building fast escorts, a 1600 on a low budget can produce more power, and rev better than a pinto with the same low budget spent on it. This is a guy who builds them with his own custom cam grinds, and engine dynos each engine and tunes them before giving them back to the customer. a stock 1600 (for arguments sake Ghia spec with 32/36 factory) vs a 2L Ghia Pinto (same carby) makes not much less power than the pinto. stick a mild cam, some basic porting, balance, side draft carbs into a 1600, and its making some solid power. its been proven by said engine builder, Pintos take more time, money and work to make the same sort of gains than it does a 1600. the 1600 is also a lot lighter than a Pinto. and it is a stronger engine. An old school trick was to stick 1300 pistons in a 1600. I have a set of 1300 pistons here. It raises the comp ratio significantly. I wasn’t going to explain why shifting the Pinto back on the mounts Doesn’t work, but Rod already explained it for me. It also would be mighty close to the heater bubble, if it were to clear at all, when shifted back on the mounts. They are a long engine. as for engineers, yeah wouldn’t need it. But there would be expense in upgrading brakes. Im pretty sure a Pinto wont fit with the original Mk1 booster like it is. Or if it does, the headers would be mighty close to the booster arm that bolts to the firewall.

yeah but ive said this before. Im not cutting the shell to make it fit. and to be honest, the OHC Pinto are an ok engine. but they are surprisingly hard to balance when you start modifying them. believe it or not, a 1600 is easier to balance, will rev harder than a pinto, and can make more power than a pinto with the same money put into either engine. and i dont need to cut the body shell. This is why im not keen on doing a zetec into this car either. it means no cutting. remember that I am modifying my 5 speed gearbox to suit the shell, rather than the other way around. simple, im not cutting this car to make things fit.

Correct. The KA runs a Kent engine. Sadly produced less power and torque in the KA than in stock form in a Mk1 Escort in the UK they used the Kents also in the original Mk1 Fiestas. I wish we had them here. yeah well some of us dont work full time. And had 8 months of no income last year i know $2k is cheap. im looking at the prospect of $5k for transmission, transfer box and clutch rebuild in the Disco

fecking cars...or should i say, fecking english cars quick connector for return fuel line broke and popped off...thankfully low pressure, but diesel everywhere

hmm maybe I see a future build coming on My original (gold) Mk1 which i never finished, was always meant to be a daily driver, and i stupidly didnt jump on an MX5 driveline into escort conversion when I had the chance, to turn the gold nugget into a reliable modern daily.

we will see. give it a few years, if you still have it sitting around

if there is ever a time i get another escort, that starts as a rolling shell, then id look at doing an engine swap like that.

I love the idea of a Zetec, but i think i do want to keep the 1600 pushrod engine in this car. i am intending to fuel inject it one day, using an injected carby, but for now a carby fed 1600, tuned right is the way i will go.

I havent really looked into it in depth. But I would need a sump from the UK, which are expensive, coolant pipe to suit RWD applications, either individual throttle bodies, twin carbies or a forward facing plenum with single throttle body, ECU. Mark has just done it to his Mk1 panelvan. Like i said, engine is cheap. but then there is probably upwards of $2k in parts to make it happen

yep. the bolt pattern is the same from Kent (my 1300) through to zetec. the block is basically the same block, but alloy, and OHC

Tempting. I could pick up a Zetec for about $200 from a wreckers. Its all the supporting shit thats expensive. then again, a built 1600 is well into the thousands