Reason for fitment is that it's a stronger box than our BC box's, larger bearings, much more ribbed bell housing, which all helps prevent shaft movement under high torque loads resulting in broken teeth and snapped shafts
It also has a built in hydraulic release bearing so no more heavy pedal when running a proper clutch or snapping cables

Using a couple of spare blocks I had, a spare BC box, and my Ka box I offered it up....
The gearbox bolts up fine, although it does have one bolt hole missing compared to a BC box (upper left, see pics).
The cradle also bolts up to the IB5 fine, but it is tilted up at the back compared to the BC box, this would result in the engine tilting backwards at quite an angle if left as is.



Back half of the IB5 casing is almost identical to the MK3 Escort BC box's, but the front half is very different.


How it should sit...


How it does sit...


How it sits now...








Extended the slot in the cradle on the left hand side about 15mm to allow the mount to sit lower, ground back left hand bracket and re-drilled lower, re-drilled right hand bracket.
Looks close enough to me

After fitment...
Had to grind a hole bigger in the cradle as the box was sitting on it and vibrating quite a bit, elongated the engine mount top hole to allow it to rotate a fraction.

May have gone a bit bigger than needed but I did it in situ lol
Easier way may be to grind a bit off the gearbox first but I couldnt be arsed to take it out again.

 

isnt that going to make the engine sit higher though?

 

No, because all I am doing is returning the cradle to it's original position (as close to)..... the gearbox sits higher at the back so the cradle must sit lower.

 

you'll end up making the engine sit higher for sure, measure from the work top to the bottom of the cradle, i'd reckon on about an inch with thos pics, will effect oil pickup a tad i'd think.
i remember a discussion on xrtwo.com and compared the ka and puma against bc boxes and showed how the non bc boxes tilted the engines at some degree.
prob won't cause any issue really though, just engine will sit higher due to having to re-triangulate with respect to cradle and gearbox.

 

just to add it'll probably move the engine forwards a bit on passanger side too.

 

whats so good about the ib5 gearbox mate? better gearing?

 

Sean all I'm doing is returning the cradle to it's original position, the IB5 box pulls it up at the back so I will be dropping it down.
Read the first post mate! lol

 

You would be better off using the BC bell housing, take the mainshaft bearing out to 55mm. Fit the IB5 mainshaft bearing in there and put the IB5 back half of the box on that.

 

That would defy the point of doing it! lol

 

spot on mate thats exactly the thing i had done to mine! works a treat and fits perfect!
so simple to do as well compared to drilling or welding or cutting! any gearbox specialist can transfer parts over and will charge max 150-200 quid labour.

 

Morph did you not read the first post either???
If I wanted to do that I can do it myself so would cost almost nothing........ but I dont!!!

 

karlos i was refering to the title for other people!
this route we are suggesting may benefit other people who may not want the hassle of drilling or modifying the box to fit the cradle.
its a very easy job to change the hosuing and the benefits are pretty much the same.
now stop banging your head

 

it'll be mint, just get bracket sorted and get it in, let's see it snuggly fitted in its new home

 

karlos- fair bloody play to ya mate for giving it a go. Whats the gearing like in those ka boxes? And can u put the lsd in it easily enough?

 

Then there is the hassle of having your old BC housing machined out to take the IB5 bearings, which unless you are a machine shop you cannot do yourself, and doing that looses 75% of the benifits of the box... Stronger casing so less flex (why do you think CTS uses IB5 casing 99% of the time?!), and the Hydraulic clutch!
So I'll contiue banging my head lol
The gearing is almost identical to an XR3i, so nice close gears
I've got a brand new racing puma LSD to drop in, but you can fit a RST one if you wanted yes.

Basically what I will have is a CTS Stage 2 box for Ł350 instead of Ł1200, and with a hydraulic clutch

 

You are going to have big issues with the driveshafts as well. The back end needs to sit where it should originally. The angle from the box to the hub as increased massively. The plunge has been changed massively. I suspect when on full droop the shaft is going to pop out at best. By the looks of it the diff is going to be starved of oil as well.

 

do you build gearboxes?

 

Dont see the shafts being an issue there is plenty of up/down headroom and the and the car is dropped 35mm already meaning the shafts at the hub are that much hgher to start with.
I dont know how it sits originally in the Ka, but the filler hole is not lower than the diff at it's current angle so should be fine.

 

fair play to you! and best of luck but for anyone else that wants to do this conversion it is easier to use the bc casing and have a gearbox specialist carry out any machining work and fitting for around 150-200!
and cts in most of their conversions use bc casing machined to except the big bearings unless now they have changed they box conversion?

 

Have a look at the website in the link

 

SORRY! i am so blind! What you said earlier is exactly what my gearbox specialist did so just wondered if you had made one before!
cheers

 

Whats the difference, mounting and casing wise, between the sport ka ib5 and a ib5 out of say a escort mk6?

 

know what your saying but:-


the left hand side sits lower than normal which your going to pivot around (i.e. making the right hand bracket to lift that end of the gearbox up to return engine to normal able). As that left hand side is staying the same its going to make the whole thing taller. Dont know about you but my charge carrier is very close to the bonnet as it is and cant afford to go any higher. Im not knocking what your doing as im dying to find a halfway house between hacking my car about to fit a st170 or similar and having a reasonably 'easy' fix.

 

Yeah I see what your saying mate, but I literally just hung it on there for illustration, as I said in the first post "How it will sit very roughly" it's in no way accurate to how it will be when finished.
Both brackets are going to be altered to keep the engine the same height, and if I need to drop it a little more then a couple of spacers between the cradle and chasis will sort that out easy enough

At least thats my plan.... lol

Rear starter mate.

 

I think it will be fine mate, and thanks very much for posting the pictures up, its been a massive help! can you bung up a link to your hydraulic clutch conversion post as i need to do this before i put my engine in!

Rob,

 

Here you go Rob https://passionford.com/forum/ford-e...8-04-10-a.html

I'm going out in a bit to grind and drill so should have a more accurate pic of how it will fit in a while......

 

i have been doing this conversion for years ,heres a kit i made up for stu collins last week.

(before it went for powder coating).

 

just wondering,what the final gear ratio like?even in a sport ka,the top speed ratio cant be great?

 

95% Done!

Extended the slot in the cradle on the left hand side about 15mm to allow the mount to sit lower, ground back left hand bracket and re-drilled lower, re-drilled right hand bracket.
Looks close enough to me

Just got one more hole to drill on the left bracket at the top, probably going to run with just two on the right as they are evenly spaced.
Pics updated in first post.

 

Quick pic of Stu's Hydraulic clutch conversion courtessy of crazycage

 

Obviously if your fitting a Ka box you only need the master cylinder out of the above pic.

 

looking good sits quite nice in the cradle now doesnt it. Fast looking like a very good option this

 

Cheers!
Yeah it was really easy to do, and for an almost direct fit it's the best box you can get cheaply! I paid Ł75 and it has done 11K Miles so may as well be new
Fed up of running ancient BC box's with shafts, gears, and syncro's that have done 200K and just had the bearings changed every now and then as part of a 'rebuild' lol
Plus the reinforced casing, and hydraulic clutch, just make it even more worth while IMO

 

deffo, ebay is full of them aswell at the moment, and like you say for a nice neat hydraulic conversion you cant go wrong. I assume gear linkage and shafts will drop straight on?

 

Yes mate they do!

 

Updated first post with close up pics of brackets and cradle mods.

 

when you say the difference is the rear starter do you mean Ka has front starter? I am a little confused, I have just fitted a ib5 from a escort straight into my mk3 fiesta, and converted to the rear starter. It all bolted stright in, replacing my series 2 lsd box. I dont understand why the Ka one seems to sit so different on the escort cradle?

 

Yeah, Dave, late MK6 Escort IB5 boxes have a rear starter but are cable clutch.

 

Because the bell housing bolt holes are in a slightly different place to fit the Duratec blocks.
How did you fit a rear starter to a Fiesta the oil filter is in the way, is it not a CVH lump in there?

 

Dave's Fiesta has a Zetec engine Karl.