2redrovers

fixed now. 

i am blown away by the seats. 
i almost had the back seats done the same way to suit, but they are original and in good condition, so couldn’t bring myself to have genuine original seats cut up. 
 
as a last resort, i will have someone modify mounts etc for me. 
 
I have one more set of engine plates to try, and i can get another sized rubber. 
however, a good friend Michael who also owns Mk1 Escorts, has a couple of sets of CORRECT 1600 engine mounts. Which are different to 1300 mounts, even though the blocks are the same. 

They look incredible! 😍

wow those seats are nice! 
is it worth finding someone to place that engine properly and make/modify mounts for it (setting pinion angle etc) and seeing if the extractors fit while doing so (modifying to suit if not)
Dad had vibration issues due to engine placement in his V8 transit conversion due to making it fit better in the space but not taking into account pinion angle, and seeing you aren't using stock mounts now you should probably consider it worth checking (engine/gearbox in relation to diff pinion angle) 
 
good to see another update  

a very long awaited update. 
 
I've taken a bit of a step back, and am back working under the bonnet, sorting out engine mounts 😕 
 
I bought brand new Pacemaker 4-1 extractors, and very quickly discovered they do not fit  well they do, but not on my car. 
After much research, talking with Pacemaker themselves, and other club members, I discovered my engine mounts were a bit out of whack. 
 
Bit of a story behind this. ill try keep it short. 
When I bought the car i had to replace the engine mounts. the original 1300 style mounts are not available, so the best option is to use aftermarket engine plates, and "pinto" rubbers. 
According to the UK supplier, for a kent crossflow, i need to run 1 x long engine plate, 1 x short engine plate, 1 x 52mm rubber, and 1 x 42mm rubber. back when i fitted this setup, I had to modify the long engine plate to take 10mm out of it. they seemed fine, but the engine always looked a little crooked in the engine bay 🤔
 
Jump forward to present day, extractors wont fit due to the engine mounts. doing some research, i appeared to have them ass about. So I am now slowly in the process of trying different engine mount combos to get the engine sitting correct. so far i have managed to get the extractors to bolt up, but engine is sitting too high, therefor they are just touching the passenger side foot well. 
I also have the driver's side of the engine sitting on a block of wood to stop it from dropped 😬
 
Why you no fit? 😡
 

 
why you STILL no fit? 🤬
 

 
🖕🖕🖕
 

 
success 🕺 ... sort of. they are on but touching the floor. 
 
**don't worry, they will be ceramic coated silver** 
 

 
This is how the engine is sitting on the driver's side at the moment to get it sitting correctly. I have another set of engine plates to try tomorrow on my day off. 
 

 
 
Now for the more exciting news....... 
 
*enter suspenseful music** 
 
I got my Recaro seats back from the upholsterer  
I am so in love with these seats. 
 

 
 

My dad has one in his model a, the aerial is mounted on the dash in an inconspicuous spot, only time It doesn't have a signal is in big tunnels or underground car parks, his one is a speed hut unit

thats a weird one,note large single compliance plate that means its a 72 or xa style car,later xa in 73 started with the 2 smaller compliance plates,also orange rocker covers on a 351 is fuel saver version of the 351,very rare,most where in xb era.not sure about the grills,i would just put the correct one on,and to me it looks like a zf model car with zg bits ?

Looks like he's found a set of ZF buckets on ebay. We just held these brackets up for comparison and they look like the right ones (shorter than the ones he has here).

They seem to run different buckets if for no other reason than the bolt holes don't match up. Good to know what letters it is though

@2redrovers  on the car is a ZG grille, the one you want to fit is a ZF grille
i always thought they were a direct swap. if not Luke would know, he's been wrecking them for years.  his details below.
 
Rusty Ford Wreckers
Supplying spare parts for Falcons, Fairlanes and LTDs built between 1972 and 1984 0427 318 701 (Luke) 22 Killara Road, Campbellfield Vic 3061 Monday - Friday 8:30am - 5:00pm Saturday 11:00am - 3:00pm  See less

If you find rusty ford wreckers or LukeGT (same person ) he'd know and likely have it. Campbellfield Vic location.
 
I've mentioned him before so if your phone search works better than mine you'll get a link to click. Otherwise I'lladd it later 
 

And stick some signage on the sides then write it all up on tax......

well there is that…
 
you never know. Maybe when both the Escort and Wagon are done, i might consider another build. The worst part is the body work, which i know you are more than capable of doing 😆 
 
would be a sweet daily 🤔 stick a duratec engine in, 5 speed, then fit the back out with storage for work. 

And then there was two! 😁
 
 
 

 



 

 
 
They still need adjustment to get them sitting the same, but I have finished bending the brackets. 
 
the driver’s side as a whole needs to be lowered slightly, and the passenger side just needs the corner raised a tad. Otherwise im glad this is done. What a nightmare its been 

Can I suggest it needs tighter lobe seperation due to the poor induction on a xflow. The head flows like poo and there is more hp in the cyl head than you think when ported by a good shop not for a dirt slinger. By using 104-106 lobe will aid torque then the webbers and ported head extend rpm range and hp made if used with 11.5 comp plus. Generally I use no less than 8 degrees seperation between exhaust to inlet duration also. 
 
I use Johnny Marshall of Marshall custom cams and Phill Duggan of Surecam. 

Its the bending thats the hard part. 
 
if the car was at my folks place, it wouldn’t be an issue because i have the hydraulic bending rig. 
Whereas I am doing it in a vice with a MAP gas blow torch and a pair of multi grips. Definitely no finesse about it 😂 

Can always make some later if they don't look pretty enough for the rest of the build. You know where to find me if you need help with stuff like this.

yeah its pretty frustrating. Pretty much everyone who has bought these repro brackets have had to modify them. I can’t remember who i bought them from, but there must be a hundred escort parts suppliers around the world who all sell the same ones, and they never fit. 
 
if i was doing it again, id start with steel strap. Bit like i did with the alloy, and make the brackets from scratch. 
 
hopefully the other side will happen a lot faster 

It's nuts how many parts are made incorrectly for the resto sector. It's a waste of time for everyone involved when stuff doesn't work the way they are supposed to. Getting there though

Its been a very long time between drinks, but here we are with some updates. 
 
since the last update, I rearranged my shed. I now have 2 car bays, and a work bay all beside each other. only downside now is, i can't get the escort out (easily) until its moving under its own steam, but oh well. 
 

 

 
To this...
 

 

 
Ive fitted up the new front indicators, but I wasn't happy with how "fat" the lens seal was and how it could be seen through the lens, making the indicators look really terrible. Looking at the old indicators, the seals didn't need to be that fat. so i cut them down. 
 
Before

 
one half done 
 

 
After 
 

 

 
The last thing ive done was finally get one of the front corner bumpers fitted. 
 
The aftermarket corner brackets are miles off being correct fit. it makes no sense how they can be manufactured so wrong. 
 

 
After heating and bending the brackets loads of times, i gave up and made a bracket from alloy strap. 
 

 
The alloy bracket isn't pretty, but it gave me the correct shape. so from there i went back to heating and bending the steel brackets knowing what shape i needed now. 
 

 
This was the final result. 
 

 
They essentially have an extra, unnecessary 45 degree bend in them. you can see in the below pic the line across the bracket where the bend (closest to bumper) used to be 
 

 

 

 
Now I just have to repeat the process on the passenger side and get that one fitted. 
The remove it all, clean up and paint the brackets, get fit them and get them all sitting the same, and lock them off. once they are one, I can fit the headlights. The headlights are out, because I use holes for them to reach through to bolt the corner bumpers on. 

Hey fellas,
im looking at rebuilding my spare crossflow motor for a cortina
Looking at the following 
Ice ignition 
triple webbers
Crow solid cam 14626
Yella terra roller rockers yt 5011
spool piston and rods
El crank
alloy head has had some porting done. 

 
running a stage 2 C4 gearbox
stock 25 spline diff. 

 
 
 
 

Hi All
 
Just an update, sorry have been very busy and had a few things on so I havent done any work on the car :(
 
Diff:
I have an EF XR6 (3.45 ratio) diff there ready to go. I was able to get the brake lines from the EFT as well. So when ready I will try to fit this to the car somehow. Handbrake cable, I will worry about this later, but thinking of getting one custom made.
 
Tailshaft:
Have tracked an EF XR6 tailshaft - Auto. Well see if this fits ok :)
 
Gearbox:
I have gone with the CRS bellhousing. I have a 5cyl T5 from an EL, and CRS have confirmed this will bolt up fine.
With the E-series, in comparison to a 4.0L motor, the Windsor is mounted more forward in the engine bay - hence why the v8 box in the eseries has a longer input shaft.
In the X series, the windsor mounts in the same spot as the 4.1 crossflow, which is why the bellhousing CRS has works. If I had a v8 box with the longer input shaft (from e-series), I am going to run into problems fitting it, with any bell housing in the XF. I would need to look at getting the input shaft shortened to match the 6cyl. Similarly, using the bellhousing from the e-series would also run into problems.
 
Clutch\Flywheel
I am planning to use Malwood for this. Also looking at doing the hydraulic clutch upgrade they offer, which I mentioned in my earlier post. This is a pretty cool setup. I will need to remove the pedal box to fit it. Needs a bit of trimming to get it to work, but very small change.
 
Wiring Harness:
CRS modified the AU harness for me, and its ready to fit to the car, so I just need to time to hook it all up :)
 
Fuel Tank:
I have an EFI tank ready to fit. Just need to update the pump and run a new fuel line. I will use the existing line for the return, and remove the existing return line.
 
Extractors:
Have sourced AU Extractors from an Xr8 ute that were barely used. I think this is a good start. Theyll probably need to be modified, but I really cant find something on the market that is guaranteed to fit. I think if I went with GT40 heads id be ok, but because I have GT40P heads, the extractors ill be harder to come by.
 
So my right now, my next plan is to:
1) Mount new tank
2) Install new pump
3) install flywheel, clutch and bellhousing on motor
4) Drop in motor
5) Install harness and ECU
6) J3 Chip
7) Extractors...
8) Test start it and see how it goes. If I get it working ok, then Ill do gearbox and diff next.
 
Will keep you all posted. Plannning to start working on it again soon!
 
Thanks for everones advice / guidance so far :)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

i dont think the xg dash loom would work ,my xf ute was built by a local automotive tafe ,so they used a complete ltd to use as a donor car for all its ltd only parts including complete wiring loom and dash ...so it has trip computer ,cruise control  ,star wars dash , also has complete ltd front ,it even had a brand new efi motor (not rebuilt ) donated by ford with no engine number ever stamped on it . it was a pain to get registered as I had to get a letter from the tafe

I'd go for the acid etch prime method first.. Worst case scenario it might chip and if it does, just wash it down with thinners to get the paint off then sand or fine blast it before painting again. I reckon the etch will be good enough though. Not something your going to be handling all the time.

Well im in ISO for a week with the spicy cough 😷 
So that means i can try get a bit of stuff done on the Escort. 
 
First thing I did was test fitted the new extractors. 
There was a hand written note on them “1300? Hit floor” 
Well unfortunately that is exactly the case. Because the 1600 block is around 1/2” taller, the extractors do in fact hit the firewall in front of passenger footwell. 
 

 

 
I then worked on the boot latch, cleaned it, reinstalled it and adjusted it. Nice to have a functional locking boot again.