Is there anyone out there that has suffered a lot with torque steer on the FWD mk3/4 escorts??

A friend of mine has a mk3 escort rally car with a ST170 engine and MTX box, but the car is near impossible to drive in a straight line.

Any suggestions/known tweeks that need to be done to get this combo to work??

cheers
derwyn

 

Stronger engine mounts?? And stabiliser bar at the rear of the engine? It must be kicking out some power!! I've known it in turbo mk3/4s

 

excessive toe in or out can make a fwd a pig when you put the power down. worth checking that. 0.2 to 0.4 is enough toe out id say.i wouldnt say a 170 engine is powerful enough to cause the problems you say so check alignment

 

It's got a full set of vibratec mounts, but no stabiliser bar so possibly worth exploring. The engine is not standard and is built with high compression pistons rods head and twin 45DCOE's, so goes quite well!

I was wondering if all these high powered turbo engine lads out there have any suggestions of what to look out for??

The front is fully rose jointed, and we usually run either parallel to 0.5mm to out on rough and up 1.5 to 2mm toe out on the smooth tar.

 

I've known a few high powered LET and Zetec turbo minis that have struggled with this and from what I can work out they've got massive biceps to correct it lol.

Seriously tho they couldn't do anything because of the nature of the engine and how it tries to rip its self free.

 

The main causes of torque steer IME are:

Play in suspension or steering components (track rod ends, wishbone bushes, balljoints, even wheel bearings)

Incorrect offset wheels that dont suit the steering arm angles of the car (vauxhall nova/corsa really suffer this one)

Unequal length shafts, especially with an open diff

Engine mounts allowing movement