Okay fellas,

quick question, what is the optimum power output of a modified ERST? I mean before you start having reliability issues.. (more than normal lol) A friend told me once you hit over 200 brake, that's when lots of items are at the limit. so what would you do to take your ERST to your opinion of optimal power output, whilst maintaining good reliability??

 

It depends what spec/who does your engine i think, Norris motorsport have built mine and mapped it to 240bhp which is plenty of power but very reliable at the same time so i have the best of both..The engine is capable of alot more power but reliability wouldnt come with it..

Joe

 

I agree with 200bhp for reliability of clutch, gearbox, drive shafts, and also strain on the shell etc.... There are of course modified parts which can easily handle this.... But for a standard ish car I would say 200bhp is a sensible limit......

 

From what I've read, Christian and Tony both ran around the 350 bhp mark and both has pretty reliable cars...
I agree with Joe. Depends who does the work and how, hod much thought and prep and corresponding mods are and how much money you want to put into it.

Strengthen and uprate it before it goes wrong, and you'll be as safe as house. But, it will cost.
I'm gonna be doing just this, so it wants to be

 

I think it really depends on a lot of things spec and maintenance and driving style included. If your a Kevin and drop the clutch at every given oportunity a standard 130bhp rs turbo is unreliable....

With a decent set of conrods, efi and an ib5 gearbox and you don't drive like a spanner (all the time) then a well spec'd 230-250 imo is perfectly suited to the road. People always quote 200bhp as this is the maximum output of 80% of the rs turbos on the road, its more or less the natural limit of MFI.


But things don't really get fun until your past 200bhp

Rob,

 

Very true Rob, very true! Lol. We call them them Derek's or Barry's round here, but, Kevin works too lol.

Drive like a d*ck and you will break it.

But you'd like to think (still have faith in some RS owners, lol) that if you ploughed a small fortune into it, that you like after it and respect your RS/investment/reputation a little and drive it sensibly some of the time... But, often not the case.

Good point though Rob!

 

Pretty much bang on IMO

EFI certainly helps but only if it's in good working order.... second hand looms can be very hit and miss!

 

So, lets just say I only had access to 94 octane, what would be a safe power figure to aim for then??
are those octane boosters an option??

 

Where are you from?

 

I moved from the UK to Canada, I sold my RST before I left and i'm in finally in a position where I can start to look for a new one to ship over (from Greece/ Italy LHD)

 

94?

You poor maples. Pump fuel is 95 here, super is 97-98.

Not sure how well a 30 year old cvh would cope running piss water?

 

So after a little research, it turns out that fuel out here is measured in AKI not RON. so our 94 is actually 99 by the UK standards:

" In the US, octane ratings in unleaded fuels can vary between 86 and 87 AKI (91-92 RON) for regular, through 89-90 AKI (94-95 RON) for mid-grade (European premium), up to 90-94 AKI (95-99 RON) for premium (European super)."

 

Rock and roll then fella. Get one bought

 

Not a very easy question to answer mate, if it's totally untouched then around 185bhp is you limit (Turbo) but the engine internals if healthy will take around 240bhp (Rods) but that's all hoping the old MFI fuelling will fuel reliably.

 

my mfi was used daily for 3 years or more at 286bhp at 1.5 bar on a zvh no issues with erl mf2 5th injector kit

 

and is still used daily throughout all weathers @334 bhp still no issues
i hate sunshine boys

 

this is one of them questions that you'll get a lot of varying answers for due to the way there driven and serviced like rob above said. from my own experience i had a completely standard car running 19psi and was like that for 3 years with no issues and ran great, then i decided i wanted more power and built a steel engine running a t34 at 2 bar on efi and in the 3 years it's been running like that i had the head gasket go after 18 months but was due to head bolts not gasket and till recently was fine but now the head is scrap due to the alloy make up of the head perishing due to its age/poor cast in first place so i would despite the 2 small hiccups would say that it's been fine as it's been to the pod several times and been run hard over the 3 years as anyone who knows the car will tell you and would put another ported head on it but am going to give a 2lt a go now and see what i can push one of them to, to sum up it's down to making sure that if you want more power then you must build the engine to match not simply try to run 300 bhp through your stock engine or by trying to run 3 bar through your turbo as thats when reliability will be an issue

 

okay, Im not sure how common it is here for a tuner to know about RS turbos ya know. North American Escorts are thought of as pieces of shit, so there isnt much in the way of anything for them lol.

so im wondering if its worth buying one, driving back to the UK and leaving it with a tuner for a while to work with. if the MFI could be an issue, perhaps going EFI, Cossie, or even Megasquirt etc might be the better option, and tune to 220hp ish. Id rather spend the money there, get it done right, and just maintain it here as ill prob have to ship most parts from there anyway.

theres so much to weigh in here. makin my brain hurt lol

 

If I was you I'd consider putting it on something easily mappable and reliable like Omex. Then if there is an issue you can easily connect to it and check the readings from the sensors and if you ever change the spec, you can always have it remapped locally. If you put it on Cossie then you're reliant on someone knowing and having the equipment locally.

 

who cant map cossie stuff ????

 

Who can't map cossie stuff... Or who can map cossie stuff properly and make full use of all it's functions! I thought the same as you, cossie management is old, dated, any muppet can map it, then I was educated by Karl @ NMS!

Cossie used on its basic functions is, as you say easy, but then not do great... If used properly by an operator who really knows their way around it, it's brilliant! There are very few who REALLY know how to use it to its full extent!! Karl @ NMS, Mark Shead, Harvey Gibbs are the go to guys for this stuff (as I was told!). Anyone else is just tip toeing around the basic functionality.

 

Let's not forget this lad is in the Canada too so there isn't many Cossie specialists on hand!

 

Exactly Daz. Some use Omex, Emerald, even Gotech if you have to! Anything aftermarket and he'll have more of a chance of finding someone who can map it. Your not limiting yourself to having to find a good Ford specific tuner/mapper that way

 

Reason why I suggested Omex is it's made by GEMS from what I remember and other manufacturers ECUs are also based on the same ECU platform and use a near identical calibration interface (software). I think AEM which are reasonably big in the US are one of the ECUs based on the same platform.

Plus it's dead simple to get your head round so any mapper will be able to adapt within 20 mins on browsing the software. Software is also free to download and all you need is an RS232 lead.

 

I may be wrong about the AEM ECU but I do recall an ECU with a 3 letter name being based around the GEMS/OMEX platform of ECUs. It's been a while!

 

After a bit of digging it appears that the AEM and GEMS software are near identical where as the Omex software is still in the style of the old GEMS software so I could have been right about the AEM ECU after all.

 

Something i have also recently learnt from Karl, there is far more to the old Webber stuff than meets the eye. Its just knowing how to get it to do what you require!! Very few people can actually use it propperly!

The way i see it with propper builds for power the reliability tends to come, when i fit my low mileage mk2 rs box im pretty sure it wont need a change ever again. Brand fire new engine block, again with this there is far more reliability, as is with everything as we work through these things we make them far more reliable. My RST used to break quite a lot at 190 bhp but i was 19 and drove it hard as an every day car!

At the end of then day you have to ask yourself is any car thats 20 years old going to be reliable once you start upping the power level ? We simply have to work around the issues we find, some have few issues some have many.......

 

Mk2 RS box? from a focus?

 

My advice? Buy a car that has already had a fortune spent on it in all the right areas.. will save you a lot of time, hassle and money in the long run

 

Yes Luke a mk2 box

NMS are doing them for cvh engines, well they were designing it last time I spoke to them, not sure how far they are with it though.

Joe

 

Yes mate, the box itself is rated at 400 ft/lb of torque on a car that weighs around 1600 kg and will probably be designed to do an average of 100k.

Couple that to a car that produces 300-400 bhp and simular torque figures and you have youeself one very reliable setup as the Escort weighs a little 950kg ish.

Its not an easy conversion and will more than likey cost the earth but my opinions are that ill do it once and do it right. Not messing about with this one.

Watch this space

 

keep me posted on this box dude

 

Its a huge conversion in terms of custom bits and bobs but im told that the ratios are very close to that of a standard rs turbo with the 3.827 final drive (think thats the number lol) obviously the 6th gear is a little taller but with the right engine 180 should be possible. Also having the 6th gear will be nice for cruising to shows and such.

My box at 500 with shafts is a bargain Over the moon about that one.

Need a focus gear cable and selector now too, new clutch, flywheel, driveshafts etc but im pretty sure it will be a fit and forget item.

There will be 3 of us running with this setup all with new engines too!!

Like a kid in a toy shop at the moment its great