1990 Ford Escort XR3i, from NL, time for zetec!

[colintempest]

Hello all!

Since my daily retro isn't going anywhere soon and new years resolutions and all I wanted to share my real pride and joy, my first retro and the one that is here to stay.
This car got me into the world of (hobby-)cars, their owners and stories. Joined the Dutch Ford XR/RS-club and have been a visitor of club- and car-events. I guess it all snowballed after getting into cars, working for a dealership and the automotive business as a whole. Whatever is going to happen with the modern day car was we know it, something like my Escort, or whatever we can put a ''retro'' or ''classic'' sticker on is irreplaceable and can never compare to the feeling, smell or soul of modern motors. 

It's my first car, got it in 2009 and it already needed some work as I bought it (it had no MOT). It needed a bit of welding, the tyres where worn out and just a quick service.

Here it is the day I bought it.


Got some early model XR3 leaf clovers with decent tyres on the cheap (i was still a student!)



And a mate of a mate of my uncle's mate knew a mate that thought he could weld!!
 

I couldn't care less, i wanted to drive it soooo badly! It passed its MOT, and I was off!




Went on with tinkering the first years...




Even was ballsy to go to the Ring!!



Clutch died that day though....


Early 2011 I was looking for a new job, had to leave the dealership. Bought a new daily and decided it was time for some TLC for the '3i... just a little bit..


So I contacted a body-shop, I couldn't weld or paint the car myself. Wouldn't take that long, I could work on the car myself, pick it apart and build it back together myself. So of we went....


Beware the '' bad parts '' pictures...
































































To make things a little easier, I took it home, borrowed my grandfather's unit for the build.











































2nd on the Club Concourse























And we're still here!!

These are not even half of all the pictures, XD

It's currently tucked away in the garage, uploading a few more pictures and after the daily is sorted out I need to check out my budget for further plans 8)


Thanks for watching, till next time!

Colin

[ChasR]

Well, that was an enjoyable read. It is interesting to see that your car rotted out where my dad's car did (an '89 XR3i) over 10 years ago.

I am not a massive fan of 3is being kitted out as RSTs (as in why not buy an RST) but I have to say that the finished result does look great, especially with the SportKa Wheels . Like you car, my Escort has also gone into storage.

What plans do you have for the future? .

[colintempest]

Jan 4, 2015 19:53:29 GMT ChasR said:

Well, that was an enjoyable read. It is interesting to see that your car rotted out where my dad's car did (an '89 XR3i) over 10 years ago.

I am not a massive fan of 3is being kitted out as RSTs (as in why not buy an RST) but I have to say that the finished result does look great, especially with the SportKa Wheels . Like you car, my Escort has also gone into storage.

What plans do you have for the future? .

Thanks there ChasR, the RST arches gave me trouble sleeping, I've seen enough resto threads about the rot they can create throughout the years!

Care was taken during the installation and I was quite happy with it. But after my mate bought his mk4 '3i (mercury grey one) I'm actually regretting my choice, but on the other hand my car is now inspiring his choice in fitting a kit, haha!

I did stop there with the RST cosmetic's though, no RS bonnet in my car (just performance RST bits though, brakes and suspension)

When the season starts I want to take on some small bits, since it's running the EFI setup I need to check things with the sensors and valve's, she's not running like she should atm.

Do fancy a zetec swap, not sure on that!

Other then, ride with it till the wheels fall off! 

[ChasR]

In the UK the Zetecs are a popular conversion and it is not hard to see why .

[Speedle]

Beautiful! Love these with a passion and great to see such a pristine example.

[fordmartin]

i have a 87 xr3i cab. great cars and loads of caracter love it

[baggabones]

Great work

[tdascott]

Love this - nice to see a proper restoration done

[colintempest]

First off, thanks for the kind words! I haven't been on here for to long, mostly have been just lurking everyone's projects and cars. In short, kinda had a curse word year, family-wise with some illness. We're still here, thats what counts!

Keeping it strict to cars now, the XR3i is still here, though it and I had some ups and downs as well though.

Normally I keep it off the road from november till march, so around my last upload it was nicely tucked away. That was until the lovely ''devious b*st*rd'' was giving me a headache! It failed its MOT because it was p*ss*ng itself with brake fluid. I kinda lost interest in it so I suspended it, took it off the road and to cheer myself up I took the '3i out and started driving that, it was the start of season anyway. Tried to repair the Sierra, busted up my knuckles and I thought the hell of it, I'm just run the '3i on a daily basis. For more on the POS-Sierra, try here : goo.gl/pRauD5

This thread is for the Escort

At the time, it was still driving a bit funny. High Idling meaning sitting in traffic was fun with a full stainless Magnex...(my ears will never be the same). So I did some research, tried giving the ''Idle Speed Valve'' a good clean



Did nothing really, Idle was still being funny. Just kept driving really.

And I was making the most out of my garage/workshop/speedshack/mancave/lair








By June, I was really fed up now with the Idle so I bought some parts: another ISCV, MAP and a TPS. Wish I've done it sooner, the TPS made A LOT of difference, Idle was nice now, no need for another ISCV, the TPS did the trick. Give or take a few weeks. For no reason at all, the car loses power until I floor the pedal and slowly crawl up to 4.000 rpm, then it just lifts off. It is never consistent, comes out of nowhere, cold startup, when warm and it goes away just like that.

After several sensors, ISCV's, TPS's, more cleaning and even a couple of hard resets I was done. When it runs, its fine, the engine provides more than enough HP for the car, the camshaft is still good, it doesn't knack around or anything, its the EFI-setup thats whats the problem.

So I got this:




For that:


Yup, 2.0 Zetec. The Focus was in an accident, stripped of the most, owner just couldn't get the engine out, car was still drive-able at the time. So deal was made, the man even drove the car to my garage. I remember him giving me the keys and asking me ''If have ever took an engine out?''

Nope....

So i just started stripping!


there are a lot of parts here i do not need!


With the most being stripped, I had no idea how to get it out. Not like I have a engine hoist laying around here or something. I just got creative

*que the dubstep*







Done!


Anyone wants some Focus?





Got the rest stripped so I was left with and Engine, stubbern gearbox and a lot, lot, lot, lot a heck of a lot of cables...and a ECU, somewhere.

So the garage was starting to look like:


Did my homework on how to get this to work, other wise I wouldnt even have started with it, but i have hit a snare rather early in the build. See, I have 2001-ish Blacktop zetec. And its US-spec, imported to Holland. Anyway, have a looksie:


I have out two gearbox splash shields on here, you see where I'm getting at?


The sump on the Blacktop is for a bloody rear-starter kind of gearbox. Great.

Last couple of months resulted in the Zetec being shelved, I've run out of space because around that time more parts where brought to the garage, mate of my bought a RS-turbo engine and parts for his car and I still needed to get my car inside. Tight fit I tell ya.

Anyway, since I'm close to tucking the '3i in for winter, the Sierra is ok-ish to drive and I have room and mojo, I'm good to go at it.

First up, getting the Zetec on this thing:



That means lifting it.... from pallet-height. Yay..

Thanks for watching/reading again, hope to keep things updated!

Here's some snappy snaps from this season to finish off with, cheers!

[The Doctor]

Nice car! You've done great work on it!

Also great to see fellow dutchies popping up here! Write down Retro Rides Gathering in your agenda for an event you'll NEVER see in the Netherlands ;D

[GT4ME]

Great results.

[colintempest]

Nov 15, 2015 20:49:11 GMT The Doctor said:

Nice car! You've done great work on it!

Also great to see fellow dutchies popping up here! Write down Retro Rides Gathering in your agenda for an event you'll NEVER see in the Netherlands ;D

Thanks! I think it was an online article about the Gathering that brought me to RetroRides in the first place, i love this site! The Gatering would be nice to see, might have to flip a coin for the Gathering or Ford Fair, I can only visit the UK once a year. 

[colintempest]

Right, so when me and a couple of mates had some time, we started on getting the engine ready for putting it on the stand.







Do you even lift bro?






It is on!!


I started stripping the engine, first thing I'll need is to take care of fitting the old type gearbox to the two-piece sump.







First up, degreasing the lot. Then it will need some cutting to clear space for the starter and drive shafts. Think I'll start cutting this weekend.

Ow, and I've bought myself something nice. Can anyone make out what it is



Thanks again for looking, happy newyear everybody!

[slammedorion]

Nice
Escort Cossie Hex trim?

[colintempest]

Yes sir you are correct!

Been looking out for these for a loooooooooooong time. Still amazed that they are in my posession now. Now just fitting them.

Meanwhile, we've been busy!



Chopchop, cleared the sump for the front starter.






It fits!



Very snug, but is doesn't hit the sump now.

Next up, swith the hoist mount to the rear so i can work on the intake side. Then lets see....
*fabricate the engine mount
*find the perfect drivebelt/waterpump/alternator option
*clean and paint block
*mock up engine for the loom
*remove old CVH
*throw in zetec
*panic with wiring
*July happens
*get it ready before August to drive 2.500 kms to Scotland and back without losing a bolt or two

No pressure right? :eek:

[colintempest]

I am way overdue on an update, so let's just pick up where I left off.

To put the focus on the last 'to-do list', here's where things weren't really working out:

*throw in zetec
*panic with wiring
*July happens
*get it ready before August to drive 2.500 kms to Scotland and back


The Zetec was thrown in, that was already in last July and then I panicked on the wiring. It was very frustrating and has slowed the build all together. I haven't touched to car in nearly 4 months, but I'm ready and a little bit confident to pull through this time. 

First off, lets recap:

Major improvements to the ''Workshop'' had to be made, as storage was getting an issue and I needed something to lift heavy stuff. Like old CVH's and new Zetec's...








I have a vice now. Rad

And for the said heavy lifting:


Ready to get rid of this:

Stripping all the bits:











Always make sure to keep up on your Haynes manuals, they're really helpfull!!


And then you get left with this:



Next up, strip various bits and pieces, remove wiring. Get out masking tape, paint thinner, scotch pads and start degreasing:




When you're left with a nice smooth and clean surface, bring out the old Radiant Red Rattle Can's!!





Pro tip, use a better camera for the ''fresh paint pictures'' 

For the next part, I'll try to to write up for fitting and modifying the Zetec. There a lot of them on the internet, for Silvertop and Blacktops alike. I have read a lot of them but I have hit my own difficulties and screwups along the way. Hope to be of help for someone out there. 


So, onwards then. After the logical cleaning up and degreasing your Zetec, the first steps are for making sure the Zetec will fit. Luckily, most of all the Ford parts fit and are interchangeable.

Things you will need to fabricate are the engine-mount, the exhaust and you'll have to modify the sump for the gearbox. Take note, about most of the holes of the BC gearbox from the mk3/4 Escort wil fit the Zetec. Its possible to use a later type, the IB5 (found in Ka's if I'm correct) that will fit the Zetec and will fit the original driveshafts. The IB5 has a rear starter, the BC is front. I'm keeping the BC type because of the LSD found in the RS Turbo boxes. Keeping the BC and front starter means you''ll have to cut a piece of the Blacktop sump (it has two) as mentioned earlier. As a reminder:

The two sumps:


You can cleary see:
 

To make the marriage of a Zetec with the BC gearbox happy, use the flywheel of an CVH with EFI. You'll need to drill out the holes to make it fit the zetec crank bolts.
 



Next up, the engine mount. My photobucket has slowed down and is not letting me upload. Will update when possible.

Thanks for watching! 

[stefan1971]

Great work can't wait to see it finished.

[sherv]

Informative and interesting write up!Good job Sir

[colintempest]

Cheers for the replies!

I've been wanting to do this write up for some time, finally have some mojo back, now if my wifi would get to work....


Right, so, the engine mount.

Start off with a piece of cardboard. Line up against engine block. Poke holes, like so:



Now take the engine mount and chop bits of:

Grind some of the edges off, use the cardboard to line up with the existing hole and mark the side of the engine mount to weld in a piece of tube:





You'll need to shorten this end, otherwise it wont line up correct.



Grind some more, making room for the tube then line up and tack like so:





Now if you wish to use the timing belt plate, you'll need to grind a corner out if it, otherwise its never going to fit. I did it as following:











And it fits just perfect



Weld up the mount, paint it black and its done!




Moving on to the alternator. Now with the CVH, the alternator sits at the front, the blacktop has it at the back where you have now fitted your custom made engine mount. Luckily, Ford's design hasn't changed much and the bolt holes for the Zetec's airco pump line up with the CVH alternator bracket, so you can use that with a bit of modifying. You'll need to chop and grind a corner of as you can clearly see. (take note, there are some really nice brackets out there. I just wanted to use what I got) 

But, if you look closely you can see that the waterpump is now hanging where the top of the alternator should be.



To fix that, lower the bracket by one row of bolts and use a piece of cardboard to draw up a plate so you can bolt up all the four bracket bolts


It lowers the whole alternator bracket and you clear the waterpump with ease. Take not, it will fit with the front anti-rollbar but it will hang low. Basically, everything will become much more snug in the engine bay. 


Now you'll need an extra pully to make sure the water pump spins the right direction. You can use the blacktop's power steering pump's bracket for that and I've seen a lot of home made pulley brackets. It works, but I don't like the looks of it. I did some research and I was really exited with what I came up with.

At first, I tried making something out of aluminium that would fit the bracket. Only to make it match a pulley I had to use some 90 degree plate or something.





Then I found this!!!!




Look at it! It fits the bracket like a glove, bolt holes and the rounding, everything! It's from a much later type engine, a 1.8 flexifuel used by Ford/Mazda/Volvo.
And uhm..In these pictures? Its upside down... 


Right, with the alternator and pulley fixed. Assemble! 




Now some of the Ford guys will recognize the intake and exhaust I'm using. A lot of the Zetec (and CVH and apparently other Ford bits) are interchangeable. I'm keeping close to the orginal look so I'm using the ''over-the-valve-cover'' intake from an early '90's Zetec, the 1.8 HO 130bhp variant. It just bolts up. It has a bigger throttle body than the other versions.

The exhaust is from a Focus ST170. Ford OEM, it breathes better and looks the part. You will have to have it modified, offcourse, to fit the rest of the Escort exhaust. 

Looks good enough to drop in right?



Right, I'm sorting and uploading the last of photo's now and update later this week.

Again thanks for reading, cheers!

[79cord]

Great to see the thought & care that has gone into your conversion.