Chas

Well, I guess I may as well introduce myself after being sort of Fordless (as a car for pleasure) for quite some time.

My name is Chas (obviously!) and I guess you could say that Fords have been in my blood since I was a youngster. From as young as I can remember my family have always had Fords, be it a Mk1 Escort van, Cortinas of sorts, Sierras in addition to a plethora of Mondeos and Escorts.

Regarding Escorts, I believe over the years the family has had 2 XR3is (MkIII and MkIV), a MkIII van, MkV Escort (well, Orion) Ghia Si, MkVI 1.4 L, along with a MkV 1.8TD LX. For years something was missing from this list, an RST. How I lusted for one so badly in that time, and how they never purchased one!

Upon learning to drive I bought a few Fords and naturally wasted a bit of cash on them along the way! It is time to go from bad to better I guess. I initially had a Ka Sun Collection where I fitted the Ford Racing Kit. It is a shame it lacked power as with that suspension and wheel setup (how I wish I still had the wheels!) it was a lovely setup:



Whilst buying this and owning it for merely weeks before selling it to a friend:


Some redemption came upon buying this Focus off a friend of mine which had quite a chunk of work thrown at it:



In between this I had a flirtation with various BL crap includling an MGB with a wide arch Sebring kit, an MG Midget 1500, and another MGB which I smoked in for a while. I then came to owning a spate of Mondeos as daily runners including a 380,000 runner which I drove until the gearbox spat its diff for the second time in the car's history ; how I should never have scrapped that car. Ah well:



This continued with me having a very unreliable V6 Auto:



During this time I was still trying my hand with BL stuff, including Spitfires, Dolomite Sprints, a Stag and so on along with the odd 944 (an S2 and a Turbo).

Recently I sold the lot and decided that it was time to redeem myself. That was done with the purchase of this:












So, you have managed to painfully read my life story of Ford ownership this far. I guess the next question is what is the deal with this car?

From what I can tell this car was rebuilt around 3,000 miles ago, with the engine only rebuilt 1,000 miles ago (this previously had a 1.9 Long Block CVH). The spec is now as follows:

Engine: 1.8 ZVH with different pistons on a Piper 285 cam and vernier pulley, ported and flowed head. Many Stainless additions including the header tank, Bailey swirl pot, and a different exhaust manifold. CR Turbos TSF02 Turbo (a 2WD Cosworth compressor housing with a .55 AR compressor wheel, 360 degree ball bearing with a -31 actuator). Pace Chargecooler along with an MFII 5th Injector with it boosting to 18-20PSi IIRC. Single silencer stainless exhaust system.

Drivetrain: RS2000 gearbox with an LSD and a Helix 4 paddle clutch.

Chassis: Fully Polybushed on Leda coilovers all round on stock rims shod with Toyo tyres.

Interior: Fully rollcage with Sparco seats and harnesses with a strut brace.

So what is the plan I hear you ask? As with any 30 year old car there are a couple of minor teething issues, although I have done almost 1,000 miles in this car already albeit with this rate now set to decrease upon this car no longer being my daily (it was for a few weeks!). The other is to simply enjoy it. I may or may not return the interior back to stock (I have a fresh Recaro interior in the garage) but we shall see; opinions are very divided on the latter issue.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed reading my borefest, and that you like the new purchase!

Caddyshack

Lovely looking car, would be wonderful with std interior and looks but perfect underpinnings as shown. I really would like one of these.

Mr S1

iTrader: (2)

Properly sorted bit of kit

simonmcf

iTrader: (1)

Savage car! Best of luck with it. If it was me I'd de chrome the bay a little. Maybe whole valve cover?

jonfoc

If it were mine I'd de chrome it, junk the 5th injector and go for an oddkidd cosworth management conversion. Let me know if you need the coilovers servicing, I work at leda from time to time.
Oh and don't touch that bleed valve, bin it as soon as you can.

Si74

iTrader: (1)

I'd leave as is, that's a cracker
I'd love one of these, maybe if I ever finish the resto on my Mk1V.

RobedST24

Lovely looking escort mate also like the shot off the focus at the dassetts if u want to meet up 1 day up there I'd be up for it as I only live down the road

studabear

I like it, I LIKE it a lot.

Chas

Many thanks for the warm reception. I am glad that you like the car .

I guess my main criteria for the Escort was to buy one lacking any major rust over anything else, and then I ended up with this! It seems that the memory of a 12 year old MkIV being welded just about everywhere did not quite leave me. The fact that I bought quite a modified example (albeit reversible) was a by product, albeit now quite a cool quirk. I only went to look at this car since it was local and looked very clean in the advert.

As for ditching the MFi/KE-Jetronic we shall see . It does however run very well on this setup (in addition to being quite swift), and many 924 Turbo owners are running more power than I am with no real side effects. OTOH maybe I shall come to see why the K/KE-Jetronic system is hated by many (in NA applications it has served me well ). Why is there so much hate for the MFi? I agree that the tuning potential is limited to a degree by the metering head and injectors due to how it operates.

The dechroming of the engine bay I may well do, although the rocker cover shall be staying; it has the bonus of having a Zetec Oil filler cap, instead of the wear prone CVH caps (I seem to recall that pattern ones barely lasted 6 months before your engine bay was decorated in oil with the Ford items generally lasting 2 years).

RobedST24, if you wish to meet up drop a PM my way and we shall see . It shall be good to be back in the Ford circles once more .

Jonfoc I may well use your services for the Ledas? Do you have a mobile no. I can contact you on? That can be PM'd if you wish.

nigel b

looks nice
the only reason people bin the mfi is reliability
whats the 2 chrome tanks in the boot and the big one in the engine bay for

Chas

The two Chrome tanks are for two different things in the back of the car.

The first was a water injection setup (albeit a very primative one). The last owner told me that a while ago the second engine (a 1.9 long block) threw a rod out the side of the engine many years ago. If the water injection setup was working then it I cannot say that I am surprised ; that has since the photos been removed. The other is a tank for the Pace chargecooler. Since the photos I have also obtained a suitable tank to fit within the engine bay, meaning that the existing tank in the boot shall also be removed. Thankfully the engine is running smoothly now (it was setup at NMS not too long ago).

The one in the engine bay is a breather catch tank. Whilst I am all for not having oil fumes not going back into the inlet I am not also a fan of the open breather systems either. I suspect I may well end up selling/binning that (it would have been handy on my last car if I am honest!) and going for a Bailey swirl pot setup, even if it does mean putting the fumes back in via the metering head. Naturally a friend of mine is keen for me to keep it as it is.

luxembourgrst

how mutch bhp ?

Chas

From what I can tell (if the graph is true!) it is meant to be making around 230BHP. It will happily spin the wheels up in 2nd as well as 3rd when things get wet. It is quite swift for sure! Whether I would be happy with a stock powered RST is another question. I do plan to get it on a rolling road so as to see what the engien is actually producing, thus aiding me in a more suitable clutch; the Helix is simply brutal on the road even though I have grown used to it!

Versus_Creations

iTrader: (1)

Hi chas. I have set this car up in the past with the mf2 setup.

The best mod right now Is to fit a better breather setup. Still have it venting to atmosphere but making it work correctly. The tank you have fitted is not correct and will not do what other types will do better.

Chas

Hi VC, how long ago did you see this car and what state was it in? You can PM me if you wish .

Also, how would you go about changing the breather setup? I was considering going for the Bailey tank setup or possibly something similar to a standard car.

NobbyClark

Lovely S1 Chas. Thats one Ford I have always hankered for. Well that and the Jag in the pic with your Escort - old school and new school cool!!

Versus_Creations

iTrader: (1)

It was at least a couple of years maybe? I can have a look on the comp at the reg see what it had done.

I would fit the bailey breather best setup for most fwd setups. Make sure its the ERST type obviously.

Chas

Do/did you work at Oddkid Creations?

I guess the reason for why you said to go for the Bailey conversion is to ensure that the crankcase gasses go nowhere except from away from the engine and not back into them (after all, let's be honest; crankcase gasses are not particularly healthy to be put back into the engine, especially within the head etc. itself.

When you saw the car it was most likely to be on the 1.9 long block setup. I take it that the Bailey setup should work on the ZVH? I cannot see why it should not .

Some of you will be pleased with this update, others not so pleased! Today I made a start of deplumbing the tanks from the car. Apologies for the poor photographs:

In a strange twist of fate the car came off the road! So I went to all that effort in buying a sound example to take it off the road? Well, no. I saw it more like rectifying some minor issues.

The first thing to do was to remove the rather primative water injection system. I was told that the second engine in this car was a 1.9 Long Block. I was also told that the engine threw a rod out the side of the block. Whilst the car did not run so great with the previous setup (although this was soon rectified with the injection system being setup by a well renowned specialist in Derby) other issues were present. The issue I am referring to was the fact that the water injection system seemed to inject raw water into the inlet system. If this was ever working (by some miracle it was not!) it is no surprise that the engine blew itself to pieces. Clearly, something had to be done.

At the same time the boot would require clearing of rubbish if I was to ever reinstall the interior. And so the stripdown has begun.

The first thing to be removed was the water injection tank. The system basically consisted of a tank of water, two Escort washer pumps in addition to an MGB fuel filter up front. In other words a recipe for disaster! With the careful use of rivnuts in places this was a very simple process. More bootspace was created along with a potential engine killer removed.

My work was not complete however. The chargecooler setup seemed excessive at best after looking further into matters in addition to seeing what the stock Pace setup resembled. This car had over 20 times more coolant than the Pace setup ever had (slightly overkill, don't you think?) and an uprated chargecooler radiator (this is actually meant to be a very good mod to most Pace setups.

With that in mind, the stripdown of the rear begun. Tanks begone!



In this rather poor shot spot the difference from the first shot I took a while ago of the engine :




The remains of what came out.

OOooooh, bling!:



The water pump bits. From what I can tell this pump is massively overkill for this application. Such a pump can drive an engine!:



The water 'injection' spray setup:



Oh, and a lot of silicone hose!



The tanks shall most likely be put up for sale soon assuming my plan works. As for the pump? I may keep it for a rainy day or sell it on. The plan is to get a proven chargecooler pump ; the Focus RS item seems to be a proven option for many peeps out there as a few other Bosch booster pumps.

The next job? We shall see .

Versus_Creations

iTrader: (1)

that's one creative reducer lol.

Chas

Whilst the car itself seems very sound it does seem to have a couple of ill thought ideas in places, more show than go.

My plan is to bring it back more to original but to keep alot of the true spice that the mods have given the car, and God they have given it plenty .

Chas

Absolutely! Did you ever go onto the PC to see what the car had done to it? It is always great to divulge into the car's history.

Anyway, I have been a busy guy since the last time.

For a short while the 5th injector seemed to be playing up with it misfiring over 10PSI. Not good news in the slightest! (I may invest in a Knocklink system!).

The 5th injector seems to have fixed itself! Maybe it was a wiring issue (this will be a summer job over the entire car (basically to check it all over and tidy it where possible) or the fact that the car had not been driven for quite some time.

However, it was about time that I tackled the main issue with the car, the interior. The cage did not come out without a fight and when it came to either the cage or the headlining getting it in the throat you can probably guess which one did!



After a while I got the car cleaned back to a state where it was all gravy inside:



However, to keep the car mobile I had to put some seats back in! However, the relics of a previous era would not be destined for this car again. Enter stage left:



Depending on your outlook I would say that the car is looking better already!

But what had replaced the Sparcos I hear you ask?



Alot better looking I think you will agree! Oddly enough they are not that much less supportive either! Maybe it is down to the new foams in the seats or the fact that they are small seats anyway. I would say that they have 80% of the support of the Sparco seats but are 50% more comfortable but without quite as many hassle factors ; Quite a result I think you will agree! Furthermore, it is better than they are in the car rather than potentially being trashed in the shed! However you look at it I am finally making progress .

The plan now? Hibernation time in the shadows until things get a little better outside. But my work of course has now only begun. To complete the rest I need to:

-Weld up the holes left from the rollcage.
-Find the boot parts (I am already 66% of the way there).
-Reinstate the doorcards all round.
-Refit the carpet.
-Sort out something else to do with the gauges (They will probably live in the tape deck cubby hole ; They will not be going (or the very least I'll need to keep two of the gauges ; Oil Pressure and Boost).
-Reinstate a centre airvent (I have never been a fan of losing them in any car ; how else can you warm your hands up on cold mornings? (or maybe I just need to man up!).
-Drive the car .

Chas

I have been making more progress with the car. The photos are lacking for this update though.

I basically found a few minor issues with car and set about rectifying them.



I never thought I would pay a small fortune for a parcel shelf...

I also found a pic of the car from years ago! It doesn't look all that different from these days truth be told :



The breather system on my car left little to be desired truth be told. As a result I obtained a Bailey breather tank . It is not helping the bling situation under the engine bay but it will certainly help the breathing!:



I have never been a fan of the cambelt being so exposed on ZVHs and so I purchased a cambelt cover. Yes it will require cleaning up but it should come up well. Making the lower half fit will be fun however.



Furthermore a friend of mine spotted that some of the silicone hoses under the engine bay were not what they could be. After much thought I order a replacement hose set to replace the unreinforced silicone hoses.



The keen eyed shall see that I also obtained an RS1600i steering wheel. Whilst this car will look like a stock(ish) RST externally I have always been a fan of the RS 4 spokes and when this one came up at a price I could not refuse it had to be bought .

Finally, I dealt with the drivetrain of the car. Before the car was stored it handled rather interestingly and it did not really grip all that well. I guess 10 year old Toyo T1-Ss would not help and neither would positive camber on the rear wheels. Oh, did I mention that one of the rear dampers was leaking.

The first thing to do was to remove the old dampers and to send them off to be rebuilt:




After the refurb they did not look all that different to be honest! The car however did drive quite a bit better, with the rear end being less wayward than previously.



Part of that was probably down to the camber being corrected to a more pragmatic standand courtesy of these:



Finally, the car received some new tyres. These tyres seem to be stirring up a bit of a debate but on my brief and initial impressions it is a case of so far so good especially considering that I have only driven it in the wet with them on (a crime for an RST I know!).




So far however these tyres seem to be the bees' knees without too many side effects of them being a DOT R compound. Dot not get me wrong here they are noiser than a normal tyre, but not like a Toyo R888. If these NS-2Rs end up being great in the dry then it will be a result. At the moment they are surprisingly stable in the dry .

visa_broke

I have only just seen this thread, first pictures of the car are brilliant, loving the shots on the industrial estate area, then I saw the interior..... so glad you removed a lot of it and started going towards the stock interior, it looks a lot better

lovely car you have, very jealous

muz

Just so you're aware, Chas, your spring collars are upside down. The spring seat should sit inside the lip.

gjh

Nice looking car that! I quite like the stripped and caged look, standard interior is also nice though.

Chas

Many thanks for that Muz. It will be fun shifting them but the dampers shall be getting removed in the future anyway for some periodical maintenance :

Anyway, a bit of a largish update here:


Does it sometimes seem that you have done quite a bit of work for little return? This seems like one of those moments but enjoyable all the same. Clearly the Essex charm wins me over easily in more ways than one.

Many would have noted that I spoke about the rear end of the car being super wayward, where even riding bareback with a lady of the night may have felt safer. I wonder which would have been more fun. Clearly before I ended up in a hedge something had to be done.

The car went to having its Mr. Fusion look for a while:





The reason? These blighters at the back. 10k miles worth of Ledas. They look fine here. OK, one may be slightly more damp and that was not down to me getting excited:



Ah, that will be why! On closer inspection it seemed that the damper had blown internally quite badly. Whether it was down to the lack of covers or simply old age I will not know:




Naturally I committed the archetypal sin on RR of fitting the products before photographing new items in all all of their glory. However I would like to justify myself by saying that they do not look all that different post refurb and that all of the magic was done within the damper out of sight. Here's a shot of them on the car:




This was not all however. For a while I have noticed that the rear wheels having positive camber. Not only does this look pretty silly and worthy of getting me the boot from this parish I doubt it helped the handling much either! The tyres seemed to suggest this was the case with the uneven wear on the rear.

It was time to get thinking. After some searching later and some smoke and mirrors from people who should know better I figured that these camber adjusters should do the job:



With these dialled in it was time to replace the ageing Toyos for something a little more fruity and potentially controversial as well:




Did all the above count for anything? Yes . I took the liberty of driving the car by separating out the changes where possible. After initially changing the dampers the car did drive better but it still felt loose at the rear. After playing with the camber to get a degree of negative at the rear this did improve matters. I still did not trust the car but I was getting there now. As for the new Nankang NS-2Rs? Quite a difference. This car drives alot better than I thought an RST ever could, it just seems to grip and grip! I shall not lie and say that I attempt to be a snob with buying tyres after previous experiences with tyres from super cheap to super pricey, but wow these NS-2R tyres seem to be the business! OTOH the Toyos were probably 10 years old, albeit with minimal craking, so maybe something would have been better than nothing. OTOH it does now feel as if it could trouble modern hot hatches, I do drive one after all ).

There was still however more to come. The bodged ancillary hoses required attention and in all honesty it is something I should have picked up sooner on an inspection.

That darker hose does not look too bad now eh?:



Where did the reinforcement go?



Some will say that I went OTT but from previous experience I hate taking chances on cooling systems after being bitten badly. Being a ZVH the hose routing did not quite go to plan. Apologies if the next part makes no sense whatsoever! Firstly I was left with a load of spare hoses. Great:



The straight hose was a simple fit. The other two cause much perplexity. Eventually it clicked that not all Zetecs came with oil heat exhangers. With this in mind and some thoughts given to how to route the hoses if the cooler was not there I pressed on like an tireless teenager.

Oooooh, Smurph life blue!:




The moment of confusion ; Where do the damn hoses go?:



A missing link required:


Where the hose was linked from in the end:



At the same time the lack of a thermostat was soon rectified with a genuine Ford item of the Puma variety. Simultaneously a few litres of Ford's finest coolant went into the engine. Naturally I am keeping an eye out for leaks.

Now where was I? Ah yes, for the efforts of sorting out the cooling system I was now rewarded with a cooling system which cools down faster in addition to a heater which is super warm within minutes. OK it is now summer time but at least I will be prepared for those early cold starts during showtime .

I also finished installing the Bailey breather tank. After fiddling about long enough I got there in the end. Like the above the engine bay is no longer getting coated by a film of oil and the car does not wreak of gasses inside. A result all round. The heavy breathing from the vent pipe previously has now appeared to have become a thing of the past :



The eagle eyed of your will have noticed that one of my bleed off coolant hoses is still unchanged. I do plan to change this since the hose beneath the braiding is so thin that I would probably have more confidence in Pirelli condoms in all honesty! A second bleed off hose is on the way ; these RSTs only ever came with one bleed off but of course this car is running a coolant swirl pot to aid in removing airlocks from the engine . As you may be able to tell I also cleaned the engine bay a little in addition to sorting out some of the previously shoddy wiring by soldering in new wire where necessary. Reliability is key remember .




Not much has occured with the interior but it is certainly heading in the right direction. Once the holes left from the rollcage have been dealt with and a minor leak investaged the carpet shall be reinstated once more. At least for me the interior looks better than it did before. But what else has changed bar the seats from previously? .



All that was left was to secure the car an MOT. Bar some silly things the car passed in fine style. Naturally a number plate bulb blew a mile down the road from the MOT station. I guess the car not covering many miles over the years (well, 200 in 6 years to be exact until I put on 2,000 miles ; whoops!)) probably would not help matters.

But now the car is looking something like this. Very much the same but with subtle and more purposeful hints I would like to think rather than all show. Isn't that what old Fords are about or is it posing? I cannot remember...:

Chas

there was a minor electrical issue the car had. There I was going down the road minding my own business when the car decided to have the dashboard go a little loopy! I switched the engine off, saw smoke under the bonnet and was greeted by the starter motor wiring melted and touching the exhaust manifold! Yikes was one of the words that went through my mind!



To be fair that could have gone alot worse it has to be said.

I have been slowly working through some of the wiring fixes but clearly not as quickly as I should have done! Whether I disturbed the starter wire when changing the hoses which is a possibly, or if it was loose before I shall not know. However, the routing of the starter cable is damned close to the exhaust manifold and turbo! Whether having a Zetec bottom end compromises this I do not know. I may look into getting an altered route for the starter motor positive feed so as to ensure this does not happen again!

Upon investigating RSTs it seems that the wiring route may have changed for RSTs. If I am honest mine was not all that great. My wiring went as follows:

Battery -> Starter Motor.

Another wire went:

Starter motor - > Alternator.

With the former the wire ran above the starter motor and in between the engine block I guess it was no surprise that the starter motor wiring melted. A new path would have to be found or to wrap the wire up with pricey cable heatproof wrap

This however looked to become academic soon enough with it seeming that I was lucky that the cable did not go sooner! The cable clearly had taken a battering as it touched the exhaust manifold unsurprisingly!

From this shot the cable looks ok. That can go back on the car surely?



On closer inspection not all is well! That is some threadbare cable:



The melted part of the cable originally sat under some red insulation tape! It seems that cable was never all that clever!



Another cable was sourced. This time however it was routed differently to the original cable, with it now following the path of a S2 RST, going in front of the exhaust manifold, being tied onto the front crossmember, before going over the gearbox bellhousing and then finally attaching onto the battery.

From closer inspection I reckon the issue was caused by a number of things:

-Me disturbing the loom during the coolant pipe swap, albeit slightly,
-The cable previously being bodged into position despite obviously being incorrect and old
-The extra heat and loss of space not helping matters
-The installation of a Transit Connect Starter motor, which are a higher torque and are said to be more reliable than CVH items ; It was certainly tricky to attack the terminals with the exhaust downpipe attached!

Finally, I had another issue. Whilst the car was attempting to self combust the other problem was the fact that despite me changing all of the hoses for some correctly reinforced silicone hoses and reinstating the thermostat the car gained a leak from one of the accessory joins! At the time I was debating bypassing the join due to its condition but 'winging it' got the better of me. Surely an iffy join cannot leak with enough pressure from the jubilee clip placed on it?



Ok, maybe not. It is strange how the leak started after the hose swaps despite the hoses fitting very well, but upon closer inspection at certain angles the join had corroded so much so that sides of the joining piece had bowed in! Add the fact that the horizontal joint is shorter than necessary I guess it was inevitable that this was going to leak, especially now that the flow would technically be restricted with a thermostat now in place!

Since my car is now running a Zetec bottom end without the oil cooler this piece is no longer required. Thus I bypassed the join which in all honesty is what I should have done in the first place! It would have saved me wasting cash on coolant for sure!





As a result of the above cock up or an attempt of the car to make life awkward I was not able to drive the car on Drive-It Day! The coolant leak became worse than simply a few drips IMO, although steam was produced by the water leaking out and hitting the exhaust system. Furthermore the car now seems to be holding its cool a little better but of course time will tell as to whether this lasts.

I would love to say that the MPG has improved since the thermostat swap but in all honesty I cannot say that I have been driving it gently!

In other news the coolant leak being fixed seems to have cured a few issues, especially since I changed the last off the very flimsy and thin bleed off hoses for a silicon item courtesty of Roose Motorsport. Firstly the coolant level stays at the max, something it previously struggled to do it would tend to sit slightly below the minimum. Secondly it is cooling down a little quicker once the fans cut in as well thankully. It is great to know that the cooling system is now dependable.

With this in mind I decided to take the car on its first outing where a few less 'what if' questions would be looming over the car upon going to a show. I was also rewarded by a mass of people admiring it despite having A Ferrari 360 a few cars away and many MGBs on the other side!







[img]pic.twitter.com/Pw0ZuWbn4A[/img]

Upon going to this event I was greeted by a swarm of people running over the car upon opening the bonnet. Are people really like magpies! It was a strange feeling to see a car get so much admiration with the car's history seeming to put its hands down people trousers to help arouse the memories of these cars from when they were quite something. How a car can become a generation eh?

Through all of the people looking at shiny things (no, not my piece) a gentlemen came over to me to ask how much power the car was putting out and that he had a dyno I could use . Seeing as he was on my doorstep I could not turn this offer down. I also wished to do this so as to see what clutch options I could play with. The fuelling was also of concern especially since many consider this car to be running a 'bodged' KE-Injection system.

This was the result:



225BHP with 270Nm of torque with a better torque curve than I thought. I did always think this engine felt alot smoother than the Porsche.

Not too bad a result at all. I do wonder if the engine can do more. I was considering playing with the cam timing etc. but I would probably be best to leave it alone! The fuelling curve despite being a tad safe and rich is actually far smoother than my 944's was. But then so is the torque curve!