LostnTransit

NOTE: Many of you may assume that I got these parts free, But that is not the case. The only items I was able to get free, was the Superpro end links, Banners and stickers. Everything else we've paid for ourselves.


This is our 2020 Transit Connect XL 2.0L cargo and although we consider the van to be our Ford Focus RS/ST with room in the back to sleep, This ain't your mama's camper van conversion..

Current List of Parts or Accessories we've added over the last 4 Years:

▶ Bilstein B6 Struts
▶ Bilstein B6 Shocks
▶ Cobra Suspension 40mm rear lowering Springs
▶ Powerstop Z23 carbon Fiber/Ceramic Pads
▶ Brake Performance Dimpled / Slotted Rotors
▶ Whiteline 10-11.5 inches Adjustable End Links
▶ 19''x8.5'' ET40 Axe CS Lite Wheels
▶ 245/40/r19 Nokian G4 All Weather Tires
▶ Dorman Gunmetal Tuner Lugs with Gold Tips
▶ TRQ Red Head Coil packs (15% increase spark)
▶ Autolite Spark Plugs (Replaced the Counterfeit NGK Plugs)
▶ Custom Made Diamond Tucked Carbon Fiber Cargo area Interior w/ Spare Tire Cover
▶ 2005 Ford Thunderbird Balloon Spare Mounted Inside the Van
▶ Siless Sound Dampening Sheets
▶ Motul 5W20 EcoLite Motor Oil
▶ Optima Yellow Top Battery
▶ Running on a fuel ratio Mix of 70% reg 30% e85 (19 city / 24 highway)

Soon To Be Installed:

▶ Hardrace 28mm Sway bar Designed for the Ford Kuga (Ordered 09/22/2024)
▶ Hardrace 1.5° Rear Camber Plates (Need to Order)
▶ Whiteline 28mm Zinc Plated Gold Lateral Locks (Item In house)
▶ KYB Top Strut Mounts (Item In house)
▶ Newly Power Coated Factory Front Coil Springs (Item In house)
▶ Bilstein B6 Struts (Replacing The 2 Year Old Struts) (Item In house)

Stock Parts That Failed and Had to replace over the Last 4 Years:

▶ EGR Valve
▶ Purge Valve
▶ Factory Battery
▶ Factory Struts
▶ Windshield (3 times)

LostnTransit

The latest acquisitions:

▶ Ordered the 28mm Hardrace sway bar from Aleks racing, NY but it's being shipped from Taiwan and I just learn that Taiwan is being hit with a severe hurricane. Then there's the US port strike, Not sure when we'll get this part.

▶ Then we ordered the last 2 Axe CS Lite wheels from a shop in UK. Same issues, it's being held at customs and there's a port strike going on.

LostnTransit

This simple Improvement, adding TRQ's redhead coil packs which offer a 15% increase in spark and efficiency. After posting this on another forum, I get word that Holley/MSD now has a set of Performance Coil packs. I suspect if one searches hard enough they will find cross over parts used on the Ford Focus will fit on the Transit Connect.

LostnTransit

I originally wanted to paint he factory calipers the Ford Blue, But after buying the Axe wheels with the little red shield, The wife asked that I repaint the calipers red.


Mind you, only a few months after painting the calipers blue, we lose the wheel caps and the company isn't going to make anymore.. so I painted the hub assembly Gold to match the lugs end caps.


Along with Brake Performance dimpled slotted rotors, we've installed a set of the Powerstop Z23 pads This set up worked flawlessly while on our travels 2 weeks ago.. we drove through the mountains and we both could tell a better more secure stopping power and cooldown even with the single piston calipers. Again, originally I wanted the drilled slotted, but selected the dimpled / slotted as this was something different.

LostnTransit

Over the last 4 years we've went from 16'' - 19'' wheels skipping over the 18'' wheels.

16'' stock wheels with wheel covers..


17'' aftermarket Voxx wheels We tried to stay away form multi lug patterns.. We both hatted this setup and the company that sold us this wheel/tire package, scammed us for 1,800.00 USD. Just one of those mistakes, live and learn.


I originally seen these wheels on a UK VW, 19'' x8.5 ET40 5x108 Axe CS Lite wheels in a Hyper dark (pewter)


Because of the damage to at least 2 of the pewter wheels, We bought the last 2 hyper silver Axe wheels from DGT Alloy, UK


Once those 2 wheels arrive, we're having them powder coated "Polished Aluminum" or some alternate color.


These look almost chrome, But we'll have to think about this color.

LostnTransit

There's one thing one may notice about our build.. 90% of the parts we find and install on the van are from over seas. Like England, Germany, France, Netherlands, Taiwan and Australia. Speaking of Netherlands..

This is what our suspension looked like after 1 year of driving Maryland roads.. So it was time to clean and repaint in preparation for the new springs and shocks.


To This..


To This..


To This..


To This..



Got the rear lowering springs from Cobra Suspensions Netherlands.. but over these last few years, they're starting to sag.. so I need to support them with some poly spacers or worse case, see if I can get a set of the factory springs cut down to size whcih would offer us more support over the bouncy Cobra springs.

LostnTransit

This will make the second set of Bilstein B6 struts we've had to install on the van within 4 years. Maryland USA roads have been extremally rough because out power company has taken it upon themselves to tear or our roads and put in power line of gas lines.. then the company who's suppose to come back and pave over these roads has not..



This time, we're doing it right, I've ordered the KYB strut bushing mounts, poly isolators and had the factory coil springs powder coated red. Should be easier to install as compared to the first time as the tech wont have to piece these parts together. This fellow on Reddit did nearly the same thing we did, but he was upgrading his T250 transit.


Though I've questioned the flat bracket/plate on his end links.. This tells me the mevotech end links are too long.

LostnTransit

One of the hardest things we've had to install on the van wasn't structural..


This small parking light bulb located inside the headlight housing couldn't be access through typical means.. the tech had to remove the front bumper cover and detach the headlight just to replace a burned out parking light bulb..

LostnTransit

Back when I was upgrading the frotn suspension, I heard a rumor that suggested that other Connect owners have bene installing performance sway bars on their vans. Without any proof of this I had to find out myself. researching things like the Focus sway bar, which would not fit simply because the sway bar was not rated to the Connects specs.. meaning the sway bar wasn't stiff enough. So with the help of John Hotchkis most notable known as the developer of performance parts for Chevy and Ford muscle cars. For us this would mean a drive of more than 12 hours to get to his north eastern shop, located in Charlotte NC.


Once there and after taking a tour of the shop, John and his crew set out to find out if these rumors were true.. John himself designed a 31mm sway bar for the Focus RS but the items wasn't selling. So he had the parts and we had the van. After several hours of searching and testing.. we concluded that the focus sway bar would not fit on the transit Connect. mainly due to that the focus engine cradle is designed differently than the Connect cradle.



Feeling disappointed we thanks john for helping prove this rumor was wrong.. While driving home we get a call form a buddy of mine in Goldsboro NC. He said I wasn't going to believe what came into his shop.. so we headed east towards his shop. Once there.. we noticed he had a Ford Escape on the lift where as it had a blue sway bar installed on the SUV.. this was not a normal sway abr.. Hardrace makes a sway bar for the Ford Escape.. or in UK the Ford Kuga.. The puzzle was coming together.. The Ford Kuga and Ford Connect share the same engine cradles.. so does this mean that a sway bar designed for a Kuga should fit a transit Connect?.. We'll soon find out as it's take us 3 years to get to this point and with the Kuga sway bar on order, it's just a matter of time till we find out.


Image shows that this hardrace sway bar made for a Kuga fits, but oddly enough it also fits the Ford Focus RS or ST.. But will it fit the Transit Connect..

LostnTransit

Along about this time, I was searching for better oil for the van, I've used Castrol for many years on all of our cars and trucks.. But I wanted something performance wise. I was searching a performance site and noticed that the prices of their oils was not correct.. so I emailed the site about these prices.. Turns out the priced were wrong and the site host thanked me for catching this mistake. Mind you in order to email that site, I was forces to create an account.. granted I was willing to because the site looked promising..

A few weeks afterward I get something in the mail form Motul.. it was a banner with stickers and a few liters of their recommended motor oil. When I emailed them to thank them for the gifts, they explain to me that they wanted to thank me for catching that error, and they like what we're doing to the van, but they could not officially support the project publicly.. Since then, I've bene using the Motul brand motor oil in the van and displaying the banner in the shop.

Since then, we've had a few more "unofficially" support the build..

LostnTransit

There's a bit of a controversy about this next topic. According to auto markers and tree huggers.. they started installing these behind the grille slats which is suppose to be for fuel economy.. These slats open and close based on if the engine is hot or cold allow more or less air into the radiator. Other these slats become stuck and send check engine light. In our case the slats became stuck without a code and wouldn't open back up. Driving on the highway, the van struggled to reach a top speed of 85mph..



We did some searching and found out that these slats could be removed or several others have removed the system without any error codes. In fact CJ Pony parts here in the states, posted a video showing that in order to installed a intercooler, one must remove the active shutter system and they would not get a code. So In the knowing that our slats were stuck, I removed each slat through the front grille.. then took the van for a drive on the interstate where the speed limit is 75 mph.. Let's put it this way.. no more driving a brick.. Mind you on sites like ecomodder, they claim what I did wouldn't help or had some other nonsense to tell me about. either way.. removing these slats has bene one of the best things we or anyone can do to their van. In fact soon I'll be installing a 3D printed snorkel flange on the grille to redirect air to the transmission cooler.. imagine.. because the slats remained closed, our transmission was running hot cause no air was getting to the cooler.

LostnTransit

Just got word that my 28mm Hardrace sway bar has made it to the United States..



and the 2 Axe CS lite wheels aren't far behind.


Plus contacted out powder coaters and they informed me that to color change the wheels would cost 210.00 ea. or we'll try to do a best match of the Axe Hyper Silver appearance.

LostnTransit

2 years ago, I asked uncle Eddie if he could mills us a set of the wheel rings for our newly purchased wheels. Eddie being a retired mill worked has all the stuff he needed in his make shift basement work shop. When we retired, the company he worked for ending up give him the mill he worked on for near 30 years. trouble was, it was belt driven. So Eddie being resourceful, ran a belt out the basement window to his truck and jerry rigged something so that when the truck was running, it would drive the belt of the lathe.


Eddie made us a set of those wheel rings..




Sadly, this past year, Eddie passed away.. and all his shop tools was auctioned off..

LostnTransit

We were thrown into the build early than expected. After two years of driving on Maryland roads.. the van's struts blew out.. so we had to come up with an alternate plan and invest in something better.



Most van owners in the US tend to do 1 of two things to their van and some time they ended up doing at the same time. Most do simple camper conversion which doesn't turn out to be very simple. and the other is that I've heard reports that some van owners have bene lifting their vans.. We're not looking to any of these things.. yet we're not willing to slam the van as seen in this image..



We wanted something from both worlds.. At that time, seems either a replacement stock suspension system was our only option. We turned to the Bilstein B6 shocks and struts as these will offer a bit more dampening with nearly the identical cost to the factory struts.


The deep we dove into getting this set up the more troubles we found.. case in point.. the factory end links are way too long.. 12-13'' end links was not ideal for this set up. with the links that long, it made for poor handing. searching for a set of heavy duty links, all though we test fitted on the van ended up causing damage to the inner wheel well and fire wall. Links like those from Moog, Duralast and Mevotech all cause rubbing issue s of the inner wheel well..


When looking past the strut towards the inner wheel well, Once can see the deep marring where the Moog, mevotech and Duralast end links came in contact with the inner wheel well..

At one point, while turning into the shop driveway, the end links became jammed between the coil springs and wheel well causing the wheels to lock up and we have to pry these away from the wheel well. With our findings.. we contact all those companies who offer the ungraded heavy duty end links and told them their links will not work on the van and in many case would cause damage to the vehicle suspension. I also told them they need to stop listing these links on parts site as being an better option for factory links.. and they have yet to do this.. So just incase anyone reading needs a set of end links.. avoid the Moog, Duralast and Mevotech heavy duty links.. as these links are too wide and too long.

LostnTransit

We're still left with an issue of finding the correct end links.. this took some time and till we could isolate these links we installed a set of Carquest links whcih again were too long.. Installing the Bilstein struts lowered the frotn of the van by 3/4 of an inch.. so we're not sure this had something to do with readjusting the links. Along about this time, a fellow on Amazon seen what we were doing.. he said he wanted to help out by sending us a set of the superpro links.. But when the links arrived.. they were made for a Volvo. So these links have never been tested on the Connect.


With these links being adjustable and too long, we though best to cut the links back by 1/4 of an inched on both ends then reattaching the ball joints. This gave us a measurement of 10.5 inches or 266.7mm and was perfect length for our setup.


In this image the links still look to long, but with the van lifted off the ground and the front wheels off.. we got a better idea of what length links we needed. However, after only 13 months of driving.. the lese link blew out..


Yet again something always goes wrong.. Over the years I've been speaking to a number of companies without buying or asking for products. One of those companies happens to be the sister company of superpro.. Josh from whiteline has been extremely help in helping us locate the links.. so I took the plunge and got a set of the whiteline links. We had those whiteline links installed last week and I've yet to be able to get a photo because it's bene raining 2 weeks straight.


One thing I've noticed after installing these end links is that van is driving or frotn suspension is much stiffer. Even stiffer than the Superpro links we installed 13 months before.

LostnTransit

Been talking to the fabshop this morning on when can we set up an appointment to have the Maxton design front splitter installed. According to them, we need to use the included hardware plus some panel bond which takes 24 hours to cure. But the shop said they are going to include some clamps just so we can drive the van back home and we don't have to leave it at their shop overnight. I'm sure many of you from UK are aware of many of the sites I've been talking about.. this is the only way we could have gotten these performance parts because there's nothing like this is available within the States.


We're going with the Maxton design Transit Connect facelift ver 2 design. I little back story to this.. I contacted the UK branch of Maxton designs and asked if I could order this splitter.. they decline to allow me to order it.. So I contacted the North American Maxton designs and asked them if I could order this splitter.. They agreed and just started offering the Facelift transit Connect parts for the van because I asked them to. Main reason some or many of these companies are not willing to offer products like this for the van is because the van is a one off and not very desirable in most people's eyes and yeah sure the van has been discontinued.. but because of people like me.. or us, we hoping to keep the sport van community alive.

LostnTransit

More of a thought this morning.. I'm finding that the transit Connect community to be hatefully towards what we're doing with the van. The same holds true with the slammed community. But at least once a month someone walks over and asks to see the van.. they either love it or hate it, but one things for sure there's no other van in Maryland like it.


Not bad for 4 years of rough roads.. We try very hard to keep it clean.. even while on vacations nation wide. I mean, if one was to look at it. it doesn't look like much and with it being lowered it looks just like any other transit connect except we get looks because of the wheels, people can't decide what size they are until I tell them 19's

LostnTransit

This Just In and 1 week early..



I'll never get over how heavy these things are, but once on the van.. light as a feather.. Mind you this was just 1 wheel.. one more should be on route to me soon. Now to see if the powder coater can match the hyper sliver color or we have to coat all four wheels a new color. As the English say "mint"

Here's what the Pewter wheels looked like when they arrived again from UK 3 years ago..



So I thought best to include some technical data just in case others are wondering the specs and does it fit etc..

• 19x8.5 ET40 5x108 Axe Wheels (they actually measure 20x9)
• 245/40/r19 Nokian G4 all weather tires
• Yes they do fit, but if you lower your van, be prepared to have a few bent fender edges..

According to sites like Fitment Industries or Custom Wheel Offset:

• Rim Size: 16'' - 20''
• ET: 38 -50
• Bolt Pattern 5x108 (5x4.25)
• Dodge, Ford, Jaguar, Land Rover, Lincoln, Porsche and Volvo

We used these sites to locate alterative wheels and sizes:

• RoadKillCustoms (this is a great reference finding out that yes you could put Porsche wheels on a Transit Connect)
• Wheel-Size
• TacomaWorld

LostnTransit

Stepping back a moment, it was my orginal intention to have a set of steel wheels on the van and the only place I knew I could have gotten them was from MobSteel out of Detroit Mich.


This is Mobsteel's entry into SEMA way back when and when I contacted them soon after I asked if they ever got a chance to make a set of these wheels.. They said they never did, but still use the van today as a deliver van, but without the steel wheels.. maybe I need to email them again..

LostnTransit

Speaking of bent fender edges.. I've been following several youtube shops that have been using these home made tools that allows the fab tech to bend the fender edges out.. My issue is I need to bend the fender in. So I'm thinking of getting the shop to fab up a aluminum tool with a cut angle in it that would allow me to grab the fender edge and fold it inward. The reason for this is No shops are willing to roll the fenders on our van, claim there's too much plastic around the fenders edges. I even sent a message to urchfab asking if he could make one of these tools for me, but he never responded back.. here's a video found on youtube about what it is I'm needing..

LostnTransit

I have a concern this evening and wanted to share my thoughts. Over the last 3 years of having the Cobra Suspension 40mm rear lowering springs.. I feel that the rear of the van is a bit more bouncy than normal. it has bene said over time the springs tend to start to sag. if this is the case, then I'll need to come up with a better solution to my sagging springs. Now in the past I had thought about cutting the front springs. That thought came to pass.. but now I'm considering cutting the factory rear spring.


These are the 40mm rear lowering springs. Plus if one is concerned, these are called road rate springs and it's perfectly normal for the center section to be touching. But I don't feel that we've gain anything by doing this or using these springs.. cutting the factory springs would make a big difference as the factory springs would be stiffer. Even the poly isolators could be rotated according to the cut's position.

For instance, the factory springs are more rigid and taller. No matter what size tire I installed on the van, there was always a 4'' gap between the fender edge and the tire.. But once I installed the 40mm rear springs.. that 4'' gap shrunk down to less than 1''. So I'm thinking of cutting the factory rear springs in order to gain a bit more stiffness and end up with a bit more height to the springs. So I've contacted Eaton Springs and asked their guru to see what and how would be the best way to approach this..

LostnTransit

While on Reddit for the short time, There's a fellow who proved what I've always suspected. he took a set of Ford Focus Brembo calipers and installed them on his Transit Connect.



Again over the years, I've noticed several TC's owners with pics of their van which happen to have the Brembo calipers on them. But when I would contact those van owners about creating a documentation to how this was done, none of them would comply. Otto, from Reddit took the lead on this and we're glad he did. He claims that there's some slight adjustments needed but over all the installation was successful. Does this mean at some point we'll install the Brembo calipers on our van? one may never know.

LostnTransit

Just got word that it's going to be a very busy week next week.. seems the Hardrace sway bar has made it KY, US and the second wheels has made it to Baltimore, MD Then there's several other orders all coming in at the same time.. Then not to mention, I've gotten with the shop to have the front splitter installed. Then we have to run the new Axe wheels over to our powder coat to see if they can color match the hyper silver color or are we looking to change the color of all the wheels. All of this could happen all next week. The splitter isn't going to be easy because it required panel bond which takes 24 hours to cure. But the shop informs me that they will include clips to hold the splitter on more securely till we can drive back home. which is a 15 min drive.


The last bit of the puzzle, is replacing the entire frotn end with new struts, new powder coated coil springs, and the already installed whiteline end links. As I'm saving the most labor involved installed for last.. the Sway bar is going to take a while and a few parts need to be lowered or dropped form the underside of the van.. As a prelude to what's about to happen, Prob in Nov.. CJ Pony has offered up this video of them instilling a sway bar on a Ford Focus.. which is the same installation procedure.

LostnTransit

Most would prob think we're just installing suspension parts and new wheels on the van,. But look closer, we've bene installing diamond tucked carbon fiber to the interior of the van with sound dampening sheets also.

Here I was test fitting the first panel located on the right side panel door. the push pins weren't long enough so I had to another set from an off road supplier. We've covered all of the panels in the cargo area with black diamond tucked carbon fiber.. then slowly we've bene adding the sound dampening sheets to the exposed rough edges of the cargo area.

LostnTransit

There's' not much to hate about the van other than how the full size spare tire was to be lowered and removed when one needs it..



One of the first things we did was to have the shop remove the stare, and cut out all the cables and lowering system from under the van. this left a big area at the rear of the van open for improvement. We're thinking of putting in a dual exhaust. Anyway, we still needed a spare time and some where to mount it inside the van without taking up a lot of room.

Removing the plastic molding from one side of the van left us with a spot we could use to mount a bracket to hold the spare tire.

The red block shows that this area was to be used for seat beats but because of the van being a cargo version, these were removed.. This left a perfect spot to mount an off road spare tire mount.

Drilled in a few holes just to line up the mount. While I was doing this the shop cut out a hole in the plastic panel so that the spare tire mount would poke through.

Then adding a 2005 Ford Thunderbird spare tire was the ideal choice.. thin small but with a 17'' rim and the 215 tire.. the van still drives and ride level unlike those oddball size donuts..

Then the icing on the cake, after I finished the panels I se tout to make a spare tire cover made from left over diamond tucked carbon fiber..

LostnTransit

Since owning and driving the van, I've bene paying attention to the Focus forums and Fiesta forums and I've noticed these things just behind the frotn grille.


More research lead me to find out these are called snorkels or air rams intakes used to direct air into the intake air box. I contacted one of the major manufactures of these snorkels and asked if they could alter the deign so that it would fit on the Connect. They decline to support my idea. Not giving up, I searched the web and found a creative commons 3D printing site that just so happens to offer a schematic of a snorkel that was sort of the same but we could build from that.


With the print file in hand, we set the file over to our shop asking if they could alter this design to work on the van. The snorkel flange or opening needed to be shifted to the left. About 1 year later they sent me this..



Although I wasn't please with the red they selected, I was more concerned with the main tubes leading to the intake. After a bit of test fitting, we concluded that the flange would not benefit our intake.. But move the flange over to the passenger side of the van, it allows more air flow to the transmission cooler. But we've yet to secure this flange to the frotn grille as we're redesigning the frotn grille anyway. I ended up repainting the flange and the shop reprinted the main tubes black.

So at some point once I get the front grille redesigned, I'll add the snorkel flange along with some directional tubes.

LostnTransit

With the sway bar just days away from being delivered, I though best to go into a bit more detail about why a Focus sway bar wont fit on a Connect, but a connect sway bar will fit on a focus. The issue is the forums engine cradle has these two uprights that have spooned out areas that the sway bar fits into. These spooned out areas allow the sway bar to articulate up and down smoothly. The Connect engine cradle has the same uprights, but they are spooned out like the Focus cradle.



This is a Connect & Kuga engine cradle.. the arrow points to an edge that doesn't allow the focus sway bar to articulate correctly on the Connect. Plus add in the Focus sway bar is designed differently, the main section of the bar angles inward for the focus. While the Connect bar angles outward. You would not believe how many times when I asked a shop if a Focus sway bar would fit the connect, they would say no it doesn't and without telling me why. I had to find out for me self.

This is a pic of the Focus sway abr. the arrows point to where this bar angles inward. Thus coming in contact with the connect engine cradle. However, The focus guys getting a quick sway bar upgrade can use the Connect sway bar because there's plenty of clearance. Fingers cross as we're taking a chance to see if this actually works on the van. But I'm 98% sure it will based on images I've seen of this sway bar on a Ford Kuga

LostnTransit

It is known that the Connect along with a few other Fords, have a shuddering issue with the transmission. In order to combat this, we've been attempting to routinely change the fluids every 40K miles and this has been helping. We opted for a Motul brand trans fluid, but for the last few months.. I just don't feel the van has bene benefiting form this change. So we're reverting back to our old stand by. But the BG Products low viscosity fluid has bene very difficult to locate. Tell now. We located a fellow on amazon who sells this fluid direct from the manufacture. At first I was under the impression that BG may have stopped making this product, But turns out shops around Baltimore are no longer carrying it. There's just too much competition between other major brands. We'll continue to use the BG products for as long as we can. Just might take a few to find it.