Hi,

I haven't really been active on here since I broke my Fiesta in 2008. Since then I spent a couple of years getting my head down in Uni before graduating and moving to Aberdeen for work in 2010. I bought my first place in 2011, and last year I finally had the time to have a project car again. I'll copy and paste my updates from the EsCos forum.

I’ve owned my Escort RS Cosworth since last September, but up until now I haven’t got round to writing out my project thread, so here goes. The car is now back on the road again, but I’ll start from the beginning and update this every couple of days.

As some of you will already know, I bought Si B’s 1993 Escort RS Cosworth big turbo model. I bought it because I had always wanted a big turbo version in red, and while some of the modifications weren’t to my taste, most of the expensive changes that I would have made (the AP’s, suspension and engine upgrades) had already been done.

After a few phone calls to Si the deal was done and a friend and I flew down to Bristol where we rendezvoused with Si who drove us back to Yeovil where his Escort was stored.

After a quick look around the car I took it out for a test drive, let the engine warm up and put my foot down to let it come on boost, then nothing but misfires! We limped back to Si’s house where it was clear that the car was massively over-fueling. We were all pretty surprised and didn’t have a clue what the problem was, especially Si who had used the car only the night before with no problems. After several hours of trying to source the problem, we still drew a blank. I called the deal off and went into the house to organise a hire car to drive home which Si had offered to pay for. We were literally 5 minutes from leaving when Si’s brother found a split air hose down the back of the engine which went into the inlet manifold. Once that was fixed, a quick test drive confirmed that all was well, so the deal was back on. Before setting on our way we did a quick oil & filter change as I was worried about all the unburnt fuel that was in the oil from the misfires, and I didn’t want to take the 600 mile drive home with it.

We set off from Yeovil at 17:00 on our way back to Aberdeen. We’d been up since half 5, and by half 1 the next morning we had got as far as Glasgow, so we stopped over at my parents’ place for an overnight kip before heading north the next morning.

Here’s a few pics from my folk’s driveway:









We got back to Aberdeen the next day. After a long few days I drew the conclusion that it must have been my initiation test for Cossie ownership.

 

Before giving my updates on what I have changed on the car over the past 8 months, it’s probably best to summarise what I had to start with. So here is the original spec and some pictures:

Body mods:
Morette quad headlamps, side lights body colour matched
Nomad Smoked rear light clusters, side repeaters and front indicators
RS500 Fog light grills
Debadged, destickered
Rear windows tinted in a dark smoke film

Interior mods:
Blitz Dual SBC Boost controller
Momo Race steering wheel
SECS Engine monitor
Pioneer I-Pod headunit
Directed rear speakers

Chassis mods:
Avo Coilovers
TCAs Polybushed
OMP Adjustable front strut brace
18”x9 Rota Fighters 255/35/18 Dunlop SP Sport tyres
Front AP Racing 6 pots with DS2500 pads and 330mm 2 piece discs
Rear Hi Spec Calipers inc handbrake with DS2500 pads and 300mm 2 piece discs

Engine bay mods and motor spec:
2.0 16 valve, 8:1 Compression ratio, 200 Block, standard head, cams, crank rods and block, Group A headgasket. AP Organic clutch kit

Engine built by Woodford Garage Motorsport.T34.63 turbo on 4x4 manifold.
L8 ECU with Motor Sport Developments chip – including Wasted spark coil pack driver, closed loop Lambda fueling and anti lag.

Newman alloy vernier pulleys, R&B Swedish Inlet manifold with separate vacuum distribution block with billet fuel rail, Siemens 83 lb/hr injectors, Aeromotive fuel pressure regulator, K&N air filter, Extreme 3” stainless steel exhaust including decat, Spec-R Heat shield, Spec-R Header tank, Spec-R Breather system including mirror image catch tank, stainless steel polished oil filler cap, Autospecialists washer bottle cap, Pro Alloy Power steering tank, Pro Alloy Radiator, Pro Alloy Turbo after cooler, Pro Alloy Intercooler, 3 bar MAP sensor on stainless bracket, Vibratech engine mounts

Samco boost and coolant hoses throughout, Alloy coolant swirl pot, Ford Motorsport plug leads and Focus coilpacks, chrome suspension top mounts. Stainless bonnet stay

 

Good to see this on here mate.great buy as loads of cracking parts already on it and cars looking much better in the text you sent me.

 

Lovely looking car mate must say the head lights and rear lights are not really my taste but it looks proper clean top buy!

 

Cheers Stevie I had it out on Saturday for the first time, roll on Croft in a few week's time

ajamesc - The headlights and rear lights weren't to my taste either. I've got a lot of updates to make to this over the next few days. Stay tuned....

 

Very nice Mate, must have been a right handsome bastard you got the SECS monitor from lol

 

Yeh mate looking forward to croft.am struggling to sort digs or camping.cant make the Friday but was gona head down Saturday and just camp overnight and be ready for the Sunday show but Scott's not got back to me.worse comes to worse il leave early Sunday morning and be there for it opening,you heading back up on the Sunday night?

 

Looking forward to the updates....

Si is a top guy and very nice offer for him to pay for the hire car.

 

Haha. Cheers Kev.

When is the next meet in Dundee? Would be good to catch up.

 

Love a red Escort Cossy

Can't wait for the updates


Brian

 

I'll see if I can sort a camping spot out for you. Will let you know if I have any luck. I'm planning to leave about 2ish on Sunday. It's a long drive back to Aberdeen and I have a presentation to give to 30 people in work on Monday at 8am

Would be a right laugh if you camped over on the sat. Last year was awesome.

 

Agreed, Si couldn't have been more of a gent throughout the sale - a genuinely nice guy.

 

Yeh mate a want to camp on the Saturday nite as it would save me getting up at like 5 in the morning to drive down for it opening.will drop you a txt if a hear anything back.

 

Aye it would be much better to come on the sat. I'll text you if I have any luck sorting you out a spot too.

 

That's lovely mate!

 

That looks stunning love the wheels

 

Looks like a different car now than in the pics above, I'm glad you've taken off those ghastly wheels, I look forward to the new pics.

 

Man I felt so bad Car had been working mint, Rich and his friend had travelled a million miles, and it went wrong on the test drive. Typical Ford

My brother (Sketch) found the problem, which as Rich said, was a just a split vac pipe. Found it quite literally as we were working on ways to get Rich home.

Likewise Rich, was a pleasure to sell to you and you were very understanding given the time / distances and drama involved

I was very pleased to sell it to another enthusiast who was clearly keen on sorting all the niggles I'd not got round to. I love the pics up your parent's place, it still makes me smile seeing it, the same as when I owned it.

Intrigued by what it looks like now you have put your style on to it

How very dare you Rog

I loved the wheels, many people did, but I know a lot of old skoolers etc hated the idea of a Jap type wheel on an RS. Just didn't want to do the MO / Azev / Rondell route, and loved the look of the Rotas myself.

Rich, really looking forward to seeing what you've done with the car. From what we've talked about before and the odd thread on the Escos forum I'm sure the improvements will be tasteful and well thought out

 

I didnt even know Si was selling it.

Its a stunning car.I wouls put standard head lights back in ams change the colour of the wheels to silver.

 

Si, in hindsight I'm actually glad the problem occurred during the test drive rather than on the 600 mile drive home!

I did grow to like the Rotas. Pictures never seemed to do them proper justice for some reason. I ended up changing them for another wheel which you'll find out about in my next update

 

Hurry up you gimp.

 

Looks great mate!

 

Well perhaps I was a bit ott, I liked the wheels but....well you've said it yourself, I guess I'm just one of them traditionalists!

 

Having lusted after an EsCos for many years, I had a clear image of how I wanted the car to look, so I started to make the necessary changes:

The first big purchase was a set of Rondells (Engels) from Chris Barlo. They had recently been refurbed but were orange peely so I got them for a good price – cheers Chris. I also bought a set of Michelin Pilot Sport PS2’s but didn’t get them fitted until I got the wheel’s refurbed.

Before refurb:









Sourced some new Rondell centre cap stickers and new centre cap locks:






After the refurb:









The next item was the SECS monitor. The original unit had a blue display and was mounted next to the stereo. It didn’t match the rest of the interior lighting (green) and it was difficult to see. So I swapped the display with Kev Anderson (KSA Cossie) and got Dave (Monster) to fab me up a mounting panel for where the time clock is – thanks guys. Here’s the before:








During:












After:







I found that the leather seats, as nice as they looked, weren’t very supportive during high speed cornering. I was after a set of red hex cloth recaros, and luckily my mate came across someone who was wanting to swap his ones with a leather interior. The passenger seat and rear bench are in good condition, but sadly the driver’s seat has a few cigarette burns. I’ll get those seen to during the winter. Rsbuz has already supplied me with a huge section of cloth for the repair. I'll get that done during the winter when the car is off the road.




With the interior out, I took the opportunity to clean up the floor pans and wet-vac everything. Can't believe how well it has come out! Thanks to my mate Rog for the loan of the wet vac:

































I also bought some carpeted seat runner covers out of a Scorpio which I thought would tidy things up a bit below the seats:





That’s all for now.

 

Looking good mate.really liking that interior.im not a an of leather either.where did you get the centre cap bolts?i have four new rondell centre cap badges here if you need them as spares.i had to order a smaller size as the ones I got with my wheels were too big and I take it these ones are for 18's.you might aswell have em as they are no good to me.

 

Next update:

I had mixed thoughts about the morrette headlights, so decided to change to standard headlights, complete with standard clear sidelights (thanks to Karl for those). Once I’d sourced some standard lights, I had to buy some bolts and nuts to fit them, as well as some rear bulb holders which were missing (thanks to Paul Cos for those). I also really wanted a set of amber front indicators, so after several months of searching, I got some from Graham (Polaris Escos).





The splitter and hockey sticks were originally gloss black, so I sprayed them with Simoniz Tough Black for the original matt finish. Unfortunately after 3 attempts at painting the splitter, it still hasn’t come out as well as the hockey sticks and the lower bib, but it’ll have to do for now.



Here’s some before, during and after photos of the front end.



Nice to find no nasty surprises behind the front bumper.









I also changed the imitation nomads back to standard, as well as the side repeaters from smoked back to standard (thanks to Robbie for the side repeaters)

Before:



After:

 

I'll get those off you next weekend - cheers

 

Looks better with the changes

 

Liking what you have done with it mate.will need to have a sit in it next weekend as beleave it or no I've never been in the drivers seat of and escos.

 

nice write up so far, i like how you have documented the changes well!
Is that a 500 intercooler?
Perhaps I'm not used to looking at them on escorts but that looks effin MASSIVE with the bumper off!

 

Would be only too happy to oblige mate

 

To be honest I should have really written it up as I did the work as I keep on getting things out of order and forgetting a lot of what I've done.

I have a feeling the cooler is larger than a RS500 one as I thought the same.