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A couple of months ago I came across the conversion brackets on eBay to fit focus rs mk1 brakes to a st170 and like lots of others bought them, then also bought the callipers from an Alfa Romeo and some brake hoses, I already had a pair of new disks. Took the st170 brakes off and went to fit the rs disks and hit a big problem, they do not fit as the bottom ball joint stops them fitting to the hub, pics show st170 brakes then the rs ones.
I was unable to find much help on the web so tried a couple of things but the only answer that I know of is to fit a spacer behind the disk. I have gone through various wheel spacers and found that hub centric ones do not fit, the cheap universal ones sit very nice inside the disk but I ended up fitting solid universal ones 6mm thick. Going for 6mm is a compromise as when the car sits on the road the ball joint just touches the disk but gives 4mm of hub for the wheel to sit on and I have still had to take some metal from the joint to get clearance, using 7mm would clear the ball joint better but loose another 1mm from the centre of the hub where the wheel sits, going 5mm would mean taking more of the joint.
With the disk now fitted its time for the calliper, some metal needs to be removed to allow it to fit on the bottom and a big chunk taken out for the top, the same thickness of washers as that used on the spacer will need to be used to get the calliper in the correct place.
ST170 wheels do not fit!! the back of the spokes foul on the calliper but my 17inch OZ wheels do but they are et42 all irrelevant as I have some new ones
fitted. The rear axle spacers had to be removed first.
I need the OD of the RS struts. I have the hub carriers, hubs disks and calipers but will be getting some struts to match, and I will probably get Bilsteins as I have some rear bilstein coilovers already. I may then have to covert the struts to coilovers as I don't think they make them for the RS, I just need to know that the converter kit will fit
I need the OD of the RS struts. I have the hub carriers, hubs disks and calipers but will be getting some struts to match, and I will probably get Bilsteins as I have some rear bilstein coilovers already. I may then have to covert the struts to coilovers as I don't think they make them for the RS, I just need to know that the converter kit will fit
It looks like the RS struts are 53mm and the standard focus inc. st170 is 45mm
Just some thoughts going ahead for 2018 on the cars:
I planned on turning the 1.6 into a track car keeping the engine as a 1.6 and doing a bit of tuning but that has now gone out of the window and the plan now is still to turn it into a track car but with an engine swap, this will mean stealing parts from my other cars including the turbo focus, st170 and escort. Plans are still changing daily but I have made a small start stripping out the interior, will update when some proper progress has been made.
All in the mind at the moment, first time I have touched a car in months was today.
The 1.6 was going to be a simple project, strip interior fit roll cage coilovers wildwood brakes and bike carbs but yesterday I bought a gearbox from an RS and the project has snowballed and taken over.
Sorry I do not understand why it has to be Bilstein coilovers, downgrading to st hubs with dodgy spacers seems like a really bad idea, stick with the RS hubs and brakes and buy whatever make of coil over you can afford at the time even budget ones will do to start with and then upgrade later. I am going with BC racing ones.
Bilstein 100% do a coilovers for the focus rs. I know a car in Germany that has them. As stated though there's no need for it to be bilstein, plenty of others do them, BC, KW, Leda etc etc
I will give the UK bilstein people a ring and see what they can come up with, as there's nothing listed on their site for the RS.
Must admit, I was abit worried about the dodgy spacer trick, but it seemed like thhe easiest solution. Would prefer Bilsteins, partly for their rep, and partly just to go along with the rears I already have. But if it comes to it I will go for one of the other makes, you've persuaded me
Only problem, is that I want standard height rather than lowered, but we'll see what they have to offer.....
Last edited by Mashurst; Jan 13, 2018 at 11:05 AM.
Only problem, is that I want standard height rather than lowered, but we'll see what they have to offer.....
Just a thought, if you would like to borrow some standard front struts let me know although I will not start coming down your way for a couple of months.
A little picture showing progress, I know its not a lot but a start
During October last year I managed to install my new engine which is the ST170 block with standard cylinder head and thick head gasket combo, mated to the gearbox from the green focus with a Drivetorque stage 3 clutch. Then for the last 4 months due to work, Christmas, the weather and a lack of motivation the car has not been touched until today. Managed to fit the driveshaft's, struts and hubs from the RS, this then meant that the brakes fit with no spacers, washers or adaptors. More to come soon I hope.
Looks like when you fitted the RS hubs/disks/struts you used the standard bottom arms? No problems awaiting me there?
Cheers Matey
Should not be
The st170 bottom arms are the same as the RS ones, not sure what the difference is between the ST and standard focus but they are all the same shape and have the same ball joint. The real difference is the mounting to the sub frame a standard focus uses a 12mm bolt on the front where as the RS uses 14mm (not sure of the ST) and I am guessing that the ST has an uprated rear mount and the RS one was camber adjusted(could be wrong!!)
So fitting a ST170 sub frame and arms would be a good start and if it uses the smaller bolt at the front it would be easy enough to upgrade to the larger one and fit an upgraded poly rear mount if required, hope this helps
anyway apart from the delivery of the RS gearbox no real progress is being made on any of the cars sorry to report
The front subframe is specific to the rs mk1 due to the larger rear bush on the front arm. Standard front arms can be modified and used on the rs. The rs front arms are also internally strengthened.
The bottom ball joints are all the same.
Thanks guys, that's really helpful. I have a couple of ST arms (which i think are the same as standard), so was thinking about polybushing them and using them, depends on the state of the ones on the project car......
A little progress report. I have been battling the elements removing all the mechanical bits from the front of the once humble 1.6 but persevered then this afternoon I tried to install the subframe from my st170 when it started to snow, gave in at that point!!
Yes got so bad that when an offer to work in Spain came my way I jumped at the chance, back now but its so cold!!
Tried to paint the engine block but even with a heater in the shed it was still way below the minimum temp for the paint which is probably why it didn't turn out so good but as it's only a track car it will do. Its the lower half of an ST170 engine and fitted to it is a light weight flywheel using ARP bolts and a focus RS clutch covered up with the RS gearbox
Have also decided to get rid of the old track car, the turbo engine is being put into storage, the RS front suspension, brakes and drive shafts will be used on the new car along with any other useful bits but due to time and the weather everything is being temp fitted with a plan to clean, paint and fully fit later. I hope this will help me get more organised but who knows?
just read through you thread, you don"t hang about do you.
Yep if its seized and will not come off show it whos boss and cut it off.
Great info on weighing all the interior stuff for oathers to see
Do you neighbours ever moan about your cars?????
just read through you thread, you don"t hang about do you.
Yep if its seized and will not come off show it whos boss and cut it off.
Great info on weighing all the interior stuff for oathers to see
Do you neighbours ever moan about your cars?????
Thank you for reading it, at the moment I have 2 ST170's and what were a 1.6 and 2.0 and am trying to make 2 cars out of the 4 quickly, one for the track (1.6 as was) and an ST170 for the road. A couple of weeks ago I had all 4 cars outside with bits going everywhere, now normally my neighbours are ok but I upset a couple of them as I had a visit from the police the next day, luckily my black ST170 (see my other thread) that was on the trailer had already been parked elsewhere and all was tidy, since then my new ST170 has also been parked at a relatives in an attempt to keep them happy
I had not been able to work on the cars for several weeks due to the weather. Just got back from skiing in Switzerland and was hoping things would have changed, no luck so car is staying under its cover and I am staying in front of the fire.
As you can tell by the lack of updates very little has been going on car wise, only bit of news is that I have disposed of the 2.0 grey shell, hope to start making some progress on what was the 1.6 in a couple of weeks time.
Thanks, fitted the doors today from the grey car and changed the wing mirrors to manually adjusted ones. The wings are cable tied on and the bonnet is just resting in place as the car has been put to one side until I get some time to work on it
12 months ago I was taking the heater out of the grey car, one year later and I am doing the same but this time its the silver car, dash out, metal frame out then the heater unit, cut the centre out of the metal frame this time, dash from the grey car resting in place as I need to remove unwanted wires.
Bought and fitted the upper sump from a RS and a an10 adaptor, whilst the sump was off it was also a good time to fit the ARP con rod bolts. Fitted the ARP head studs then put on a cylinder head from a RS using a 1.3mm gasket, went with the 1.3mm for the price and as I am not after big power I just want to get the engine running it will do ( I hope )
The camshafts, turbo, power steering pump etc were also fitted but rain stopped play and I didn't get a picture, so next time
The Peron adapter looks nicely made but you could have just drilled and tapped the standard sump.
I struggled to get a spanner on the an10 adapter on the Gt25 turbo.
Where the bloody hell did you get an rs head from? Keep up the good work
Originally Posted by big_wasa
Your the competition on the Rs bits lol
The Peron adapter looks nicely made but you could have just drilled and tapped the standard sump.
I struggled to get a spanner on the an10 adapter on the Gt25 turbo.
The head was on eBay and has some cracks around the spark plugs which probably put some people off so the price was very good and after a search it should be ok for what I need but will get repaired later. On my other engine which came from the grey car and is on a stand in the shed I did drill and tap the sump and could have done the same again or taken it off and used it on this engine (see post 57) but the chance came to get an original one so I thought why not. Think I have all the RS parts that I need for now but would be after a cheap rear bumper and of course if anything interesting comes up then I could well be after it, sorry.
If it's an RS head it will have to sodium filled exhaust valves. Just swap all the valve train into a standard 2.0 focus zetec black top head when you're ready
Bit of a discussion about this on the rs owner forum. It was concluded that there was a difference. Theres a few threads about the 1.8 inlet cam making a bit of a positive difference. Not sure how true it is though
If it's an RS head it will have to sodium filled exhaust valves. Just swap all the valve train into a standard 2.0 focus zetec black top head when you're ready
Thought it a good idea to get a standard head just in case and I could do what you said, trouble is though it has turned into another small project, see my new thread "mk1 focus saloon ----"
Back in June the focus saloon was scrapped. The engine, gearbox and front suspension were removed and the parts from the saloon fitted, standard 2.0 zetec and gearbox and st170 struts, hubs and brakes
I then attempted to fit the TA Technics rear springs and dampers which were fitted to a previous car some time ago. All the bolts in the rear subframe were seized and either rounded or snapped. In the end I had to replace the rear arms, bolts and anti roll bar drop links. Also changed the drum brakes for st170 hubs, disks, callipers and hand brake cables
I then removed the engine and gear box again, the hard brake pipes have gone and also all the wiring behind the dash and in the engine bay
Back in early 2017 I built a zetec turbo engine ( see post 52 ) this consisted of a st170 block, 2.0 zetec cylinder head and a 1.8mm head gasket which I have now installed into this car, only change is the sump with a welded oil return. A standard 2.0 focus flywheel has been bolted to it along with the AP clutch and focus RS gearbox
Also back in 2017 I bought an Airtec stage 2 intercooler which is now in place on the car, NOTE drilling the holes in the front crash bar will require special drill bits!!
That's sort of where I am, next tasks are to finish some installation jobs and to wire up the Omex ecu
It's been over a year so an update is well overdue
Back in February of this year I bought a mk1 focus rs shell and decided that the engine was better suited to that project so the engine and gearbox was removed.
Whilst the bay was empty I thought I would take the opportunity to tidy it up a bit, this involved taking everything else off, like the suspension, subframe, brake booster etc. giving it a rub over with a wire brush, applying rust converter then painting it with white Hammerite smooth. Yes it could be better but it is only a track car.
I've tried everywhere for Bilstein front for the RS, including bilstein UK, and it seems like they never made them.
