Right Guys,

Owned my RST for just over 2 years now so thought it would be a good idea to start a thread on it.

Shes a 1988 Red Escort RS Turbo, running 200ish bhp. After a week of driving it about, the engine started to rattle quite alot around the 3k mark. Got it checked out and found out to be Big Ends . Rebuilt the engine and got it back on the road and running.

I then took it up to Torque of the Devil last week for a setup, which found more problems... they found exhaust gases in the coolant, Distributor and headgasket were fooooked!

So now time for a new engine...ZETEC TURBO!

To be honest ive wanted to do this conversion for a while now and couldnt justify ripping out a perfectly good enigne, so now somethings gone wrong its the perfect time to do it!

Current spec:

1600 CVH
Oversized pistons
Stage 3 Big Vale Head
Kent Cam with Pully
Chip
GRS Front Mount I/C
Alloy Rad
Grp A Coil
K&N
Scorpion Exhaust
Unknown Stage T3
Cossie Actuator
Omex Rev Limiter
Pollybushed Rear
Koni Adjustables
Willwood 4 Pots with Discs/Bells
Compomotive 16" FR's
90 Spec front bumper and spoiler
Standard RST Recaro Interior


Few pics of how she looks:








After getting her back from Torque of the Devil i took the head off to revel one fooked headgasket!






So now im taking the engine out and starting a fresh with a Zetec Turbo.

Spec for Zetec Turbo:

Silvertop 2.0 zetec
Steel Bottom End
Standard head with double valve springs
EFI Inlet
Tubular Manifold
T34 with .48 housing

Looking for 280-300bhp.


Also while the engines out im going to do a front end resto, paint the bay/suspension, Pollybushed and to tackle some of the rust areas.

Yesterday started to tackle the rust area on the front panel where the bumper mounts. As you can see was pritty rottern so started to cut it out;



Drilled out the spot welds and grinded back to good metal:







Ive got a few holes in the end of the crossmember where it meets the chasis legs, can see in the pics above. Not sure weather to cut it out and plate it or put in a whole new crossmember.

Going to start cutting the other side out in the next few days.




Instead of buying a whole new panel for the front im going to make up some plates at work so i can weld them in. Seems a bit of a waste just cutting out the little bits i need.

Will post up more pics soon!

 

Nice car mate.I bet you were gutted when you found the rot.

 

Looks very smart

Good luck with the re build mate


Brian

 

Nice looking s2 mate good luck

 

Looks tidy u done a neat job of cutting the rot out fella!

 

Few more pics of this afternoons work:















Im making the plates up tomorrow at work ready to be welded in. Front crossmember need to be cut out and new one put in, as you can see from the pics the ends have rotted out.

 

looking good matt, shame about the rot, id be tempted on fitting a new cross member just for piece of mind, after all you will be running more power and giving it a refresh. look forward to the updates, and snap with the wheels

 

Thanks mate! Yeh think i will defo be fitting a new one then get it all sprayed.

Only update ive got is ive picked a Focus RS gearbox up at the weekend, just dropped it off to be cleaned ready for paint!

 

Mmmm ZETEC!

 

Mmmm indeed Luke!

 

Nice example already...best of luck with your build

 

Bit of an Update!

Things brought so far;

FRS Gearbox
Front Powerflex bush kit
Compbrake pedal box
Aeroquiping and billet fuel filter

On order;
Block being sent away for full steel bottom end to be built - will post up spec when it finalised.

Got a bit of welding to do on rear arches etc.

And a few pics of the progress:







Front arches are mint!









Some new bits:

Powdercoated front suspension







FRS Box all painted

 

Looking goodso far mate. just out of intrest what made you deside to go z/t and no just stick with the cvh ?

 

More power to be honest mate! I want a 300bhp RST and i was never going to get that out of the CVH on my budget and its would be under alot of strain all the time. Plus ive always fanceyed doing one so thought fook it!

 

Oh i seee. Z/t do make good power these days good luck bud

 

looking good m8, keep up good work

 

good updates pal, THATS the way to go

 

Thanks mate. People kept telling me zt are the future, so i went for it myself!

 

Im sure you can buy the front panel bits you need ready to weld in. It saves you cutting the whole slam panel off plus save you making any.Only cheep aswell.

going to be a nice looking series 2, im on a zvh and really thinking about the zt route.

 

every engine has some kind of down fall, but you wont go far wrong with the zt, will be a nice package you have when done, keep at it i will be watching

 

UPDATE - only new parts is the Carbon Fibre roof! Got it for a very good deal so im very please and only had to go down the road to collect it!!

Car is now ready for the body shop where im having all the welding done and some paint!!

 

Roof looks awesome matt. Who you got doing the welding?!

 

Nice looking S2. Carbon roof looks good!

Fair play for going the Zetec Turbo route, will be a very fast car.

I see you are a local lad, when are you coming down to our RS Den to say hi? Dan (Danster) said you might pop down at some point, all 3 of us have nice Fords....None of them run!

 

Looking good that Matt

 

Ta mate but it was all your doing! Thanks for sorting it all for me! A mate at work one of his mates owns his own bodyshop that restore old cars so mine and his s1 going in within the next few weeks!

 

No problem at all. Glad it worked out well.

 

Yeh im up for poping down mate i told dan just let me know and ill come over. Haha yeh we do! Always the way tho.

 

Canr beat a red one with a carbon roof lol,did you get the pillars aswell

 

Yes Dave got the pillars aswell and the glue etc. Red with carbon is pure porn!

 

that is going to look good with that carbon roof im glad to be seeing another S2 going full zetec that is going to be so much fun when it's donegood luck with the rest of the build mate

 

loving that roof.
i mean that roof looks poo,sell it to me

 

Thanks mate! Yeh she will be abit of a handful!

 

Haha sorry mate!

 

very nice mate, maybe i should get a carbon roof as well lol

 

Yeh seems to be the in thing at the mo!

 

you chopping the roof out then?? or just bonding it on the existing roof, will look great

 

Just bonding mate. Dont want the hassle of cuttin the roof out.

 

ok mate

 

Blimey what have i started ,will have to get a pic at a show with all 3 red ones with roofs on

 

Good idea that! Wont be for a while yet tho! Lol