V8 Powered xr3i

[Kronos]

hi ya guyz,

i'm here... well asking for some opinions really... i got a really cheap and yet still in nice condition xr3i a few weeks ago with the grand plan being converting it to pretty much a tunned up RS turbo... i was gonna turbo the CVH i have which has only got 80k miles and is in pretty good condition for the age and specially compared with others out there.

I've always been a fan of sideways action and rwd cars... i was gonna get a Capri but i couldn't come to terms with spending 1 or 2 grand on a decent Capri only for me to smash up and besides i much prefer the way that the xr3i looks...

Anyway i'd thought of all kinds of cool stuff i wanted to do to it including making it rwd... but it required too much work, know how, equipment, space to work and above all money, so i ended up giving up the plan... so i thought i'd sick with an engine rebuild on the cvh with some fast road/race bits but then i meet a few crazy ppl and they didn't rest until they woke up my mod bug again, which i fought so hard to put to sleep...

Now i came up with the master plan to convert my poor little xr3i into a rwd V8 powered monster...

Anyway what i'm here to ask is what you would usualy expect, you know?, comments if you or anyone you know have tried doing this, if there are any threads atm about this or related to this that you know of (i've searched the forum but i couldn't find anything) what problems can u see with the design straight away things like that...

stuff that i am aware atm is breaks and steering would have to be relocated due to the position of the engine also suspension ... i would need some really stiff heavy duty coil overs since i don't know exact figures but i assume a V8 wights at least 2 times as much as a cvh... i'd need a rear axle i'm also still unsure on size but i think something off a Granada or a Capri would do, it would be a bit of a prob as well finding the space of either one massive exhaust or 2 exhausts to run underneath the full length of the car...


anyway drop me a line let me know what you think about it...

[zahistorics]

RWD has been done in that shell. Ford's RS 1700T Mk3 rally cars (http://www.rsownersclub.co.uk/car_info/esc31700t.htm) were RWD so a lot of the R&D has been done, and done well.

As far as engine goes Small Block Ford (SBF) is a remarkably compact unit, one of the narrowest V8s out there. Lengthways its not much longer than a four. What makes it long is the waterpump and the rest of the pulleys. Lose the waterpump in favour of an electric one, make a shallower crankshaft pulley, move the altenator and you have a shorter V8. The GT40 kit car guys do a lot of this 'shortening'.

Height is not too bad except for the 5.0 EFI. That is just huge.
Holley on a low rise manifold or EFI and 8 throttle bodies are compact.

So the question is: Will the two banks fit between the suspension towers? With space to sqeeze in headers?

Mustang 5.0 shorty tubular headers are very compact. See a pic here: http://turbosport.co.uk/showthread.php?t=115394


In US there is a crowd (http://www.ford-v8-focus.com/) who do a RWD SBF V8 into a Focus kit. May give you some ideas.

I'd say it is do-able.
SBF's are cheap.

Go for it!

[DarrenM]

I think a few MK3/4's have had MK2 Escort floor pans grafted in for rally cars. If you want a V8 engined rear wheel drive car it would be easier to start with a Capri or buy one done!

[Kronos]

cheers for the insight there zahistorics, as for your suggestion dlmjlm well as i said in my original post aint a huge fan of capris, yeh i think they're ok i don't mind or diss ppl who love them at all i just prefer the escorts myself, as for buying one already done ... well there aren't many about and even if i found one I'd imagine the price wouldn't be low at all and lets just say i'm on a budget... and besides theres also the fact that i absolutely love projects ... specially big ones like sticking a V8 in an xr3i... something i've always wanted to do...

dont know if this is the right place for a work log but i sopose i'll start one here if any moderators get a little angry i'm sorry i'm new round here please just move the thread to the right place...

so ... so far i've stripped the car down as much as i could without getting hold of an engine lifter... i'm trying to disconnect the drive shafts with one of the wheels stuck in the car since some daft previous owner of the car put a set of alloy locking wheel bolts on the car and lost the locking socket, so i had to buy a socket with reverse threads inside to remove the darn bolt but the bolt is now stuck in the socket and my vice is too small to hold it hard enough ... guess i'll have to wait till tomoz to take it off at work with a bigger vice...

anyway guess i'm off to take a few more things off the car... there isnt much left now... i'll soon be able to start body work repairs...

pics coming soon...

[Si_Steve]

Can help with your locking nut problem, get a bolt with the same thread as the inside of the nut and keep tighteneing it, eventually it will get to the end of the thread and start turning the nut itself, keep turning it until the nut is free from the socket...................well worked for me anyway
http://media.turbosport.co.uk/2007/5/2007050715343348084DSC00160.JPG

tip, i used an old cvh cam sproket bolt

[DarrenM]

I meant buy a V8 Capri not a XR3!

There did used to be a RWD V8 XR3 Drag racing about 20 years ago, may have been in an old Street Machine magazine I think. I think a full tube chassis was used.

[Kronos]

Cheers for the tip there Si must admit i hadn't thought of that b4, but it doesn't work in my particular case :(, they use bolts rather than nuts on xr3is and even if they used nuts it wouldn't quite work since i'm using special sockets with reverse threads inside so that as you try to undo the nut/bolt the thread is actually digging in deeper and deeper into the nut/bolt... it gets to a point where usually either whatever ur trying to undo comes loose or something breaks and that;s when u usually go mental grab the angle grinder and do something you regret later... i haven't quite reached that stage yet...

i promised pics... so i'm gonna see if i can sort out a few to upload now, nothing much interesting happening atm just stripping it but i'll put some up anyway

[zahistorics]

Si_Steves tip will work for a wheel bolt as well. Just use an M12 nut. Keep tightening up. When the bolt runs up against the nut the socket will start to unscrew.

Remember the socket's threads are opposite to the wheel bolt.

When you were undoing the bolt the socket was screwing on tighter and tighter

When you reverese the process doing the bolt up again against the nut instead of the wheel, the socket will be unscrewing looser and looser till it lets go.

[Kronos]

Dam... that's right.... GRRRR how could i have missed that.... ... GRRRR :wall::wall::wall: darn now i'll have to remove that one with a stupidly big vice coz its so tight and the thread is rounded off on that one since i put it in my small/medium sized vice and it just keept going round and round...

[Kronos]

http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j198/ep1centre/Picture001.jpg

The Start

http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j198/ep1centre/Picture009.jpg

Everything still there...

http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j198/ep1centre/Picture012.jpg

same here... for the moment

http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j198/ep1centre/Picture025.jpg

after a little while there wore a few bits missing.

http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j198/ep1centre/Picture044.jpg

http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j198/ep1centre/Picture045.jpg

it seems the car has had some previous fights with rust as you can see the rear suspension turret had been changed before... typical ford...

http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j198/ep1centre/Picture051.jpg

http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j198/ep1centre/Picture096.jpg

theres a darn locking wheel bolt that has been giving me a headache

http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j198/ep1centre/Picture101.jpg

http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j198/ep1centre/Picture104.jpg

http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j198/ep1centre/Picture107.jpg

http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j198/ep1centre/Picture120.jpg

Getting there slowly...

http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j198/ep1centre/Picture122.jpg

trying to get the drive shaft out ... its proving to be a rather challenging task without the right tools... gotta buy some bigger ones...

anyway thats all for today, i've made some nice progress this afternoon but i forgot the camera out in the garage, will upload some more pics in a few days... now the bank holyday's over and so is the weekend its time to go back to the normal everyday boring work life...

[Si_Steve]

Smart motor, makes me wish i hadnt gotten rid of my orion

[Kronos]

meh... even if i was to use this engine in my project (which i was going to initially) it would need a big rebuild... sounds a bit rough after 4k rpm and pisses oil from the head gasket... other than that it seems to be in perfect working order... its only got 80k miles... and from the paperwork they seem to be original..

[Mark V8]

Easiest way would be to use a Sierra floorpan, it's been done plenty of times to the Mk3 & 4 Escort and you can buy kits of parts to bolt a Rover V8 into a Sierra making your job much easier:thumb:

http://www.magnum-engineering.com/SVServRep/index.htm

Mark

[lowscorts]

buy a cheap 18mm socket and hammer it over the wheel bolt.

Thats a minor hurdle if your making it rwd!!

[zahistorics]

Progress report please!

[Kronos]

Progress report please!

:(

uhmm i'm sorry for the long wait for the progress report but i'm afraid i have bad news, lets just say the situation changed i'm beeing "forced" to move house due to some family circumstances thus no longer having access to that garage which tho rather small its bigger than the average garage and fefenatly bigger than the one i'm going to have access to when i move, due to this i'm now beeing forced to sell everything i still cant really belive that i have no choice but what am i soposed to do with a shell and a ton of bits, i'm barely gonna have space at the new house to put my tools let alone the rest of the stuff... so everythings up for sale if anyone's interested in anything just mail me, things will be going cheap as i have 3 months max to get rid of them.

sorry guyz maybe one i'll be able to create conditions again give it another shot...:stu::stu::stu: