Mk2 Escort Project

by **Liam0123** » January 25th, 2012, 5:50 pm

hey guys, i've been lurking around the site for a little while now and thought it was about time to make a thread!
I recently bought a mk2 escort from a mate (monstermk2), which we have been restoring for a little over 12 months. I'll keep things to the point, when it was first purchased it had a 1600 GT motor, it went alright for a little thing, but there were bigger and better things we had planned for it

After some troubles and boredom with the 1600 we decided to rip that out and give the engine bay a freshen up, and then put in a nice and friendly 2 litre, with a balanced Sierra 2.3 stroker kit and nice big cam (among other things)

This really livened things up, a rebuilt diff with 3:7's went in, also a freshened up 4 speed box. Anyway have a look and see what you think

this is how things looked when it was purchased

original 1600

the disassembly

all out and almost prepped for a paint

nice and shiny!

ready to come home

2 litre in

first or second drive with the new bits

new stripes

More photos and info to come soon, hope to see a few of you at all ford day!

by **SnipeZ** » January 25th, 2012, 6:00 pm

Looks mint mate.

by **EBOOST** » January 25th, 2012, 9:01 pm

good stuff mate.
cheers josh

by **monstermk2** » January 26th, 2012, 5:54 pm

finally got something on here about it haha

by **sikwags_218** » January 26th, 2012, 6:30 pm

That looks mint. I like it a lot. Must be a fun little car to drive, having a good power to weight ratio

So have you got any future plans for it? Keep up the good work :good:

Cheers Scott :drinks2:

by **BROCKYB8** » January 26th, 2012, 6:58 pm

looks good mate . I like it

by **sexyr6** » January 26th, 2012, 7:49 pm

nice work mate, very tidy esky you have there..

by **mezza18** » January 27th, 2012, 5:30 am

gday mate, looks tidy, how much powers the 2litre making?

by **Liam0123** » January 27th, 2012, 4:27 pm

thanks heaps everyone, sikwags - nothing major planned just yet, there'll be a sports exhaust go on soon, but its all pretty much stock on the outside apart from extractors to keep the roadworthy boys and the 5-0 happy haha, mezza - not 100% sure, there was a big race cam in it a little while ago, and it pushed over 200 bhp, but we've put a smaller cam in to bring the power back to a usuable range, so estimated at around 170 bhp give or take, great fun

by **Liam0123** » January 27th, 2012, 4:36 pm

this is how it looks at the moment, some ideas are to get a smaller chrome air cleaner, paint the rocker cover ford blue and make a heat shield for the extractors, which will hopefully double up to hide them because im going for my p's next week! Not a big fan of these victorian p plate rules haha

by **monstermk2** » February 7th, 2012, 2:59 pm

more pics , i know u have heaps of them

by **pHaT`eL** » February 20th, 2012, 4:07 pm

Congrats on the win mate!!

by **monstermk2** » February 20th, 2012, 8:49 pm

by **EFFalcon** » February 21st, 2012, 8:33 am

certainly a different car for a P plater, but all your work paid off!
congrats on the trophy.

by **Bipolar** » February 21st, 2012, 9:40 am

Congrats mate. Top effort :thumbsup:

I had a MkIII 2.0 Rally Pack 4-door, same colour, so got a soft spot for 'em. So much fun.

by **juiceman** » February 21st, 2012, 3:17 pm

Which carbys are you going to run? Once off your P's you should put that big cam back in it and match it with a set of 45s and an electric fuel pump, with the right porting and what not you'll make 150hp at the tyres no worries.

Also don't be too rough with the gear changes with the single rail g/box, the shifter is held in on a nylon thread which is prone to cracking and you'll wind up with the shifter in your hand above your head. Always a good laugh!

I miss my Eskie!

by **Bipolar** » February 21st, 2012, 7:36 pm

juiceman wrote:the shifter is held in on a nylon thread which is prone to cracking and you'll wind up with the shifter in your hand above your head.

Bahaha I forgot that happened! I was lucky it was in second.

by **CAGS** » February 21st, 2012, 8:15 pm

Bipolar wrote:
juiceman wrote:the shifter is held in on a nylon thread which is prone to cracking and you'll wind up with the shifter in your hand above your head.

Bahaha I forgot that happened! I was lucky it was in second.

Nothing wrong with the old farmers trick and twitching it in with a bit of fencing wire, worked in my old esky for quite a while.

by **Liam0123** » February 21st, 2012, 9:02 pm

Thanks heaps everyone! it was a great setup for the boosted crew, all cars looked awesome
Juiceman - its running the standard 32/36 Weber, but with very rich secondary jets. I think with 45's and the big cam + electronic pump it will push well over 200 bhp, it's running around 160 bhp (estimated, but this thing flies) with the current setup! This motor has been dyno'd in a different escort, but the only difference was that big cam, and it read just over 200 bhp. Haha funny you say that about the gearstick too... That nylon thread gave way last night

Needs more celica/sierra 5 speed I think, but i found an rs2000 shortshifter on ebay though so that should turn up in the next few weeks :-)

by **DJV8T5** » February 22nd, 2012, 8:45 am

Mint car mate, I love the eskies. Congrats on the win on Sunday too. I had a good look at this and was fairly impressed that someone was having a go with one still. Too many of them get done up and put away never to be seen.

Will be good to see how you go with this from here

by **juiceman** » February 22nd, 2012, 8:50 am

CAGS wrote:
Bipolar wrote:
juiceman wrote:the shifter is held in on a nylon thread which is prone to cracking and you'll wind up with the shifter in your hand above your head.

Bahaha I forgot that happened! I was lucky it was in second.

Nothing wrong with the old farmers trick and twitching it in with a bit of fencing wire, worked in my old esky for quite a while.

That's the ticket!

Type9 (Sierra) 5spd is definitely a worthwile conversion! I have still have all the measurements from the jig I made up to make the gbox mounts for a type9 conversion if you ever need them plus a whole bunch of pics of the floor cut out and all that. Type9's also have a bolt in shifter. Win!

Anyway definitely a brilliant starting point you've got there dude! The body looks mint.

by **apoc** » February 22nd, 2012, 9:07 am

How do celica 5spds go fitting to these things? The celica I had copped an aaaabsolute raping, the box didn't whine after clutch dumps, smashed clutches, burnouts, first to reverse smashings etc lol! Seemed like a fairly tough 5speed.

by **apoc** » February 22nd, 2012, 9:07 am

The escort looks mint by the way! Very nice car!

by **juiceman** » February 22nd, 2012, 10:50 am

apoc wrote:How do celica 5spds go fitting to these things? The celica I had copped an aaaabsolute raping, the box didn't whine after clutch dumps, smashed clutches, burnouts, first to reverse smashings etc lol! Seemed like a fairly tough 5speed.

Celica 5spd conversions quite common also. Very good g'box! The type9 is generally cheaper because it's basically the same as the standard bw single rail, just with an extra gear and different ratios. There are also heaps of different ratios available and straight cut gear sets if you want to get really serious.

by **bad_mk1_escort** » February 23rd, 2012, 10:44 pm

nice little escort there mate looks good as are u able to pm the specs of the motor with the big cam and all and if ya need parts give me a yell and congrats on the win also

by **monstermk2** » February 24th, 2012, 7:27 am

specs of motor are secret, but if ya get a early 90s non turbo sierra, ya will be well on ya way to starting to build one like this one

by **monstermk2** » February 24th, 2012, 11:44 am

if ya want to look at the history of this cars driveline, have a look at this thread , it shows the original escort that the motor was bought in

viewtopic.php?f=7&t=23449

by **juiceman** » February 28th, 2012, 9:17 am

bad_mk1_escort wrote:nice little escort there mate looks good as are u able to pm the specs of the motor with the big cam and all and if ya need parts give me a yell and congrats on the win also

Never mind if he wants to keep engine specs a secret, I can PM you how to make a geniune 200hp from a pinto if you like, it's not hard, just very expensive! It's all in the porting :-) Otherwise check out the rsmotorsport forums or classic-ford forums, the guys over there will be more than happy to help as there's no need to keep secrets.

I'm keen to see a dyno sheet from this pinto by the way, 200hp from a pinto isn't something you can just go out and do with a few little mods, and with the stock carby there is absolutely no chance of it making 160hp. Unless of course it was flywheel hp. Still a beautiful looking Escort nonetheless!

by **Eb Barbie** » February 28th, 2012, 10:43 am

Big congrats on the trophy, awesome for a P plater

by **Liam0123** » March 3rd, 2012, 3:46 pm

Thanks again everyone!
juiceman - thanks for the info on gearboxes, a type9 conversion would be ideal i recon, do you need an escort with the automatic trans tunnel for them to fit though? I know 160bhp from this thing sounds a bit over the top, the block has been built with the bits Cosworth used to build the YB 2.3 motor that raced around Bathurst in Sierra's in the early 90's. The head has been ported within a few mills of it's life, flat top pistons, roller rockers and with a turbo cam it's hard to see why it wouldn't put out the power, i'm also keen to see what the dyno says too but i really don't want to kill it as it is my daily haha
Did you have any experience with electronic igition conversions with these? There are a few kits for sale but im not sure if its worth it or not

by **juiceman** » March 6th, 2012, 9:29 am

No worries mate glad to help. The auto trans tunnel is ideal, but not necessary, you can make the required adjustments with a rubber mallet!

With the specs you just listed 160hp does sound about right, it would just be impossible to make that power with the 32/36 Weber on top of it. With some good induction you would easily see 160! The beauty with these is they're relatively light :-) I totally miss mine!
The YB motor was the 2L twin cam cossie, the 2.3L turbo was a single cam used in the pre-Cosworth days when the XR4 Sierra was all the rage. Still was a quick car though.

There are a lot of options when it comes to electronic ignition, I used a Mallory Hy-Fire6 which had a hand controller for launch control and an adjustable rev limiter and a few other things which was great, but a bit over the top. One of the most common conversions is the Crane Fireball with a Bosch coil (can't remember what sort) and the stock dizzy with some Sierra internals.

by **Liam0123** » March 7th, 2012, 7:16 pm

Yeah you're right about the carby, it cant quite keep up with it all, if it turns into a weekend car there will definitley be twin side drafts on the side at some stage. Iv ordered a pertronix electronic ignition kit (don't know if its junk or not) so should be good to see how that goes with it all. Sounds like you're the guy to talk to if things get serious with it!

by **Liam0123** » March 25th, 2012, 11:55 am

Well after driving around for a while and getting sick of the noisy tappets i thought it was time to adjust them and give the rocker cover a paint at the same time,

after a strip & rubdown

coat of primer

after a few coats of paint and the tappets done, all back together

fairly happy with the result, brightens and freshens up the bay a little bit, next addition will be a nice throaty exhaust

by **sexyr6** » April 17th, 2013, 7:51 pm

Anymore updates on this little beast?

by **Liam0123** » April 19th, 2013, 6:32 pm

Just bits and pieces, typical old car maintenance and trying to keep it clean. Did have the privilege to use it for my sisters wedding car which was cool, heres a pic

if I keep the car it'll eventually receive twin webers and maybe a 5 speed, but im tempted to sell up and start a fresh project

by **GIFFO97** » April 22nd, 2013, 2:06 pm

Mk2 Magic wrote:Just bits and pieces, typical old car maintenance and trying to keep it clean. Did have the privilege to use it for my sisters wedding car which was cool, heres a pic

if I keep the car it'll eventually receive twin webers and maybe a 5 speed, but im tempted to sell up and start a fresh project

Would of been a bit squashy for a Wedding car? Looks good, You should get the late model grille with square lights for it :grin:

by **Liam0123** » April 22nd, 2013, 7:35 pm

Better than a ute.. I sold my square lights and grill, best $30 ever made