Hi All,

had a crazy through last night about fitting the st150 duratec into the st170.

the duratec is lighter and also more easily tuned to a higher level, with more parts available.

have had a quick look and it looks as though the NS engine mount is the same as well as the dog bone mount. only thing that would be different is the gearbox mount.

so has anyone looked into this before.

my thoughts would be use st150 engine, gearbox, shafts etc along with either a custom or modified gearbox mount being the main bits needed.
obviously management would need sorting but going standalone anyone as i am building it as a track car.
gear cables would also need swapping, not sure if the st150 ones would work or if custom is needed.

anyone have any thoughts.

 

Would the shafts fit the st170 hubs/knuckles? I'm doing a RWD st170 project so I know from experience that there are a couple of different spline sizes.....

 

Whilst the Duratec is light and tuneable the Zetec bassed St170 is still very tuneable and more robust in my opinion.

The st170 wants another 50 bhp and a diet in my opinion.

 

What a waste of time imo.

The ST170 engine is a good engine.

 

fairly sure that the US cars had a duratec as an option in later models. may be worth looking across the pond for ideas. They also did a 2.0 CVH version - there's one in my local scrappy!

edited to confirm - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_F...rst_generation)

both duratecs and cvh's available over there

 

As if they fitted a CVH to the Focus, mental

As above though, the US forums might be a good way to find out how to do it, or to source parts.

How much lighter is the Duratec than the Zetec? If you're going aftermarket management anyway, and can use mostly off-the-shelf parts, it might not be a bad shout, as the weight saving could improve the car.

 

thanks for the input so far guys.

the zetec is tunable and can get to about 270-280bhp, but not much more. whereas the duratec i have seen 300+ and that extra 20+ bhp can make a big difference.

although the car has gone on a diet already with more planned, one of the reasons for considering changing is down to the lighter engine helping to achieve my weight goals.

does anyone know the weight of the 2.0l zetec and duratec engines?
would help inform my decision.

interesting that the duratec was fitted to the focus in the US might make information easier to come by if i do go this route.

 

I've found the people on www.focaljet.com quite helpful in the past, might be worth a look.

 

Yeah, the US spec ZX3 was a 2.3 Duratec, I remember seeing the Cosworth engineers at Bruntingthorpe mapping one which had loads of Cosworth goodies.

Found this old thread with a few pics

https://passionford.com/forum/genera...-cosworth.html

 

Jon from aj racing aid a 2. 3 duratec build by Burton power in his st170. Its 300 bhp I think but probably 10k plus build.

 

The ST150 engines are easily tunable if you're happy to bolt a supercharger on. But reliability is waaaaay out the window.


Most of them end up destroyed.


Forging them etc is great, but then the gearbox is as soft as shite. So an MTX conversion, anywhere from 600-1200 quid.


It's not the best way to go at all.


I'd go Zetec for sure personally. I've been toying with the idea of replacing the duratec with one if this one decides to give up. Not seen many decent conversions completed though.

 

Plenty of fruity normally aspirated Duratecs out there. Caterham seem to have done plenty with it and seeing more and more MK1/2 Escort rally cars with them now.

Guess it depends what you want ultimately. If you want a billion horsepower and a turbo, a Zetec might be the easier option as it's well proven but, if you want something normally aspirated and 200-250bhp, I would think the Duratec is the better option as it will always come with the bonus of the weight advantage.

A combination of bits from a Fiesta ST, Mondeo MK3 2.0 and the US Focus with the Duratec lump, I would imagine that physically fitting the engine would be pretty cheap/easy.