@t230 i am not so much bothered about the costs, as the car will still be running till the zebec is built. i'd rather chuck a good lump of money at it and have the reassurance that its gonna take abuse and still hold strong.

I've been looking deep into zebec builds and swapping into ERST's and it seems an easy-ish job provided you have fairly deep pockets. i've also considered the ZVH conversion using the efi head that comes on the motor i have now. However I'm not sure if the xr3i efi head will be compatible/same spec as the rst head.

posted some pics below of the car and the engine, not sure if its right as I've only had a quick look over the car. have you any pics of the fully forged engine?

@big_wasa ideally i like the route of fully forged as it gives me that peace of mind that the internals will withstand a decent seeing to. As i stated above,ive also recently considered the ZVH route, as it keeps some of the heart of the escort which i like the idea of. (absolutely mad on them) I've got a rough idea of what I'm looking to spend. Roughly 5k on the engine and drivetrain, and another 5k on the internals of the car and the looks etc (nice pair of shoes, some sticky tyres, carbon fibre).

The price of the engine build isn't including the actual zetec blacktop motor, as I've a mate who has had one sat in his garage for the past 2 years.
Build will all be done by myself and my dad, I've been doing my research and teaching myself everything i need to know about the 1.6 cvh. My dad was a mechanic for around 15 years in the early 90s-2000's and spent all of that time building ERST's and fiestas so he deffo knows his way around the engine bay.

Here she is...