hey guys, im new on here but have had a few requests to stick up some pics of my kit car, so i thought i would start a project thread, as im planning some pretty big mods over this winter.

basically i have built a GBSC Zero, which is basically a super 7 type kit car, however i have stuck a brand new 2.0 black top in, which i have had a bit of a play with but nothing too serious!

the engine is standard internally, however i have got rid of the horrendous ford 2 piece sump and fitted a scholar engines lowered sump,

changed the flywheel and clutch - rather than use the standard 2.0 blacktop flywheel i have changed it for a 1.6 zetec flywheel which is 2 kg lighter, it has also been drilled to take the pinto clutch, which can handle a lot more power.

i have then removed the standard ford thermostat housing at the rear of the engine, and fitted the raceline water rail, this moves the thermostat to the front of the engine, this gave me the clearance i needed at the back of the engine.

finally i then fitted a pair of twin jenvey throttle bodies, currently fitted with the standard black top injectors, and its all run by an emerald ecu. with innovate LC-1 wideband feedback to the ECU. in its current set up the engine is giving around 165-170 BHP and the car has a 0-60 of somewhere around 4.5 seconds. here are some pics!







and here is a youtube video of the engine running with just the 4 branch exhaust manifold


basically now i have had the summer to enjoy the car, and once the weather gets bad enough that the car will be staying in the garage, my plan is to do a custom turbo conversion on the zetec. i have done a bit of research and have decided to do a bit of a budget install, at the end of the day the kit car is a bit of fun, its not an everyday driver for me. what i plan on doing is the follwing

-rather than change the pistons and con rods, i will be fitting a decompression plate, to get the correct compression ratio. im only looking for a max of 240 bhp, i think this should be achieveable using a T3 turbo, at less than 8psi boost. this means i shouldnt stress the engine too much.

- at most i will be changing the con rod bolts to ARP ones. as i believe these are the weak point of the zetec.

- i really want to keep the Jenvey throttle bodies, but getting a plenum that will take turbo pressure that fits is proving to be a bit of an issue. Jenvey do sell a turbo plenum but its around 600 quid, which isnt going to happen,
after a bit of ebay searching i have found and aquired a plenum chamber from a nissan GTIR, which will fit, once i have a back plate and spacer machined up, the only problem with this approach is that the plenum and boost pipework will need to exit the body panels of the car, but to be honest, if im fitting a turbo to this thing, i want people to be able to see. you can see what i mean from the pic below, the plenum inlet is actually wider than the engine bay which means i will have to cut a section out of the bonnet:





the bit i need to research more now is controlling the turbo boost using the emerald ECU and an electronic boost controller, bascially with the car being so light, around 600 kg, and having 240 BHP the power to weight ratio is going to be near on what an arial atom is. but without any traction control. what i want to set up is have gear dependant boost control, ie i dont want any boost in 1st gear, but i want progressive boost in 2nd 3rd and 4th. the emerald can do this, but it is a lot of mucking about with electronics, IE i need to install an abs sensor on the rear wheels and input diff and gearbox ratios so that the emerald can work out what gear you are in. then it can control the gear and RPM dependant boost from there! haha it all sounds so simple!

im struggling to find a turbo within my budget at the moment. there are a few on ebay that i will be bidding on this week though, as soon as i get the turbo i can start customising the standard zetec exhaust manifold to take the turbo, IE cutting off the own pipe flange and welding on a t3 Flange, but i may have to make an extension pipe up to lower the turbo in the engine bay, im not sure at the moment! i wont know until i have a turbo in my hands!

any thoughts or opinions please let me know! (im awaiting being slagged for using a decompression plate to be honest! but as i said its a budget install)