Engines

Ford Europe probably has some surplus World Cup Rally Foci. They are awd with lots of power.

In the mid 90s Ford Europe built the Cosworth Escort AWD with 2 litre turbo engine. After market people were able to get

400+ horses out of this car. I do so want one of these!!
Reply to
Robert Sveinson
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Get a tube frame built for the car, and drop the escort body panels on like on a Nascar stocker. Add floor pans etc to finish and make road legal. It's the only way to put that kind of power effectively into that car. You REALLY want all wheel drive if you want to put more than about 250 HP into it, and rear wheel drive from 150 to 250.

Reply to
clare at snyder.on.ca

A lot of front wheel drive cars have more than 150 HP. My Ford Contour has

170 HP, Civic Si 197 HP, Accord 244 HP and VW GTi 200 HP, and Peugeot 504 diesel (RWD) 60 HP. You can have between 150 and 250 HP with FWD, although it will be better to have RWD. However, it probably wouldn't be worth the trouble of making it RWD.

I still don't see the point of adding all the power to an Escort just to say you've done it. But, then again, I am sane. ;-)

Jeff

Reply to
Jeff

Yes, I have a V6 Mystique, and there's a reason they put all speed traction control on the little beast. To EFFECTIVELY put 300HP to the road, rear wheel drive is MUCH more effective than front, and AWD is much beter than even RWD. There are heavier FWD cars out there that can make better use of more horsepower - but an Escort coupe can not get that kind of power to the road effectively and still provide "civilized" handling.

Reply to
clare at snyder.on.ca

How 'bout Funny with a nice, nice jet engine kinda like Art Arfons Green Monster of many years ago?

Recommend Pratt & Whitney F100-PW-220 (and ferget about front vs rear drive).

Orta rip, folks!

Snort, Puddin'

"Life is nothing but a competition to be the criminal rather than the victim." - Bertrand Russell

Reply to
Puddin' Man

There are a few brave hearted souls who have put Taurus SHO drivelines into Festivas. I know one such person, I question his sanity but he did it sucessfully and well on a low budget. The money wasn't huge and the result is phenominal. The effort is up for grabs as far as worth it. Your Escort is a little bigger, so the transplant is a bit more plausable. Nobody can tell you what to do or how much it will cost. You need a brain to figure out the details.

Reply to
Tom Adkins

You aren't listening... If you want to do it, Do It! Don't go halfway, go for the gusto! Swing for the fences!

In the long run it'll end up costing you less to only do it once, rather than a lot of incremental changes you'll have to throw away when the next idea comes along.

Do a lot of reading and learning before you start - there's a lot of experience out there on these subjects, and it's in the competitive racing world - they have to build them to be fast AND strong enough to last through the race. Rather than re-invent the wheel from scratch, use tested and proven race bits and make it easier on yourself.

The best way to build your Escort ZX2 into a true "sleeper" car is to gut the entire car, build a tube chassis with the right wheelbase and track width, and fit it with a serious motor and drivetrain - NASCAR based high-deck block V8, beefed automatic transmission and a stout rear-wheel drive axle like a narrowed Ford 9-Inch.

And you'll need to run it on Propane to get around all the smog laws and get it registered for the street - but that's okay, since Propane is 108 Octane and it loves Supercharging and Turbocharging, and a Propane tank is as stout as a fuel cell in an accident. The main tank will take up the passenger seat space, and a smaller reserve tank over the axle in the rear hatch.

Once you fit all the bits together and get them running, then you take fresh sheetmetal and build a new firewall and floorpan around them, and put the interior back together.

First thing they'll spot is the little set of wheelie bars poking out the back an go "Yeah, Right, Suuure..."

They'll suspect something is up when they see you sitting in the driver's seat about a foot further back than normal, hear a rather throaty engine note (even if well muffled) and see the big rear tires sitting in "tubs" in the hatch window - but when you hit the gas and that little car does a full on wheelstand (with the left side higher because of the torque) then they'll know.

But if you ignore everything above...

Staying with the standard Front-drive layout and the stock engine compartment layout and transverse engine/transaxle, will limit what you can do.

You'll be fighting Torque Steer and other control issues if you manage to get a whole lot of extra ponies, and you'll be constantly bracing the front suspension and modifying the engine compartment walls to make things fit.

But even if you build up the stock engine remember the Propane Conversion dodge if you live in a state like California or New York where they check emissions annually or biennially. If you try bribing the smog station owner to get tags with a highly modified engine on gasoline they WILL catch up with you eventually.

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Reply to
Bruce L. Bergman

I am sure that this person also did his homework. He searched the internet himself (and not just ask people in newsgroups, all this is good too), read magazines and figured out how things work. (Perhaps he was able to spend time in the mental hospital library ;-) ).

Jeff

Reply to
Jeff

Jay Leno went out & bought his SHO powered Festiva. It's a "ShoGun".

Rob

Reply to
trainfan1

Join

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all zx2 forum.

from the cougar might be a go. The V6 bhp is about 170 hp where the Zetec in the zx2 is 130bhp. You would still have to mod the V6 to obtain the 300 bhp you want. ...and you'll have the problem of fitting a transmission and custom axles to the zx2. Many have thought about this and it's not worth the trouble. There are more HP mods for the Zetec and it already fits in the ZX2. There are HD parts, axles, transmissions, diffs, in the marketplace. Many have worked the Zetec to over 300 bhp with the mods and money. Do a image search in google for Zetec, you'll find a web site in the UK that builds Zetecs for racing. But for inexpense mods, stick to what bolts on. Many on the forum have reached 240-250 hp at the wheels using the computer from the S/R (145 bhp) and common porting, headers, cams, etc. And the supercharger for the Focus will bolt on with few changes. So if you want the 300+, do the chassis change, drop in a big block, you'll spend less money. enat

Reply to
pixburghenat

Even a 3.0 Taurus Duratec RWD conversion for the ZX2 would be quite a screamer, and would be emissions compliant, to a degree.

Rob

Reply to
trainfan1

The 3.0 litre Duratec produces 200 horse power. Jaguar has 3.0 liter V6 (I think it is a Duratec - they don't say) that makes 227 HP. They also have a AWD drivetrain he can tranplant into the Escort. And when he is all done, he can move the Escort drivetrain to the Jaguar. He would have two unique cars.

Of course, upgrading the Zetec is more easier and cheaper.

Jeff

Reply to
Jeff

Either one....I don't think they will fit even tho they are the same dimensions. And if I remember correctly, it wasn't so much the engine, but the trans/diff would be way out of line where the axles meet the wheels. enat

Reply to
pixburghenat

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