capri zetec conversion

[ryan.minshall]

hi all,

Been reading on her alot for some time been massive help thanks. I thought i put up a post of my conversion, i have done everything to the car myself including the crappy spray job what will be re done when i have the cash. when i got the car it was a rot box, it had new wings both sides, one rear wing, rear lower panel and cut alot of rust out and filed with new metal. Also had 2nd hand rust free doors, bonnet, boot, sunroof, and even the filler cap. Well i went for the zetec conversion as i have done a few in the past but only in mk2 xr2's so this is my 1st rwd one. From the start i wanted to save as much money as i can by making most things myself so on went the coversion after the body was all ready for it so this is how i have done it so far.

1st thing was to find a engine, and with the help of the bay i found one for a good price from a kit car that the guy had given up on lol always the way. and to go with it he had a lightened fly wheel that had been drilled for a pinto clutch, and he had that too so i got all that off him and took it to my work shop where i cleaned and gave it a lick of paint.

pleased with that i set about making my own water rail. I had the idea of getting a pinto stat and cutting the end of and getting a mate of mine to alloy tig weld a peace of alloy 32mm pipe on to it, doint this allowed me to use the pinto stat. Then i made the back part from steel and mig welded it all together with a out let for the heater and tapped a hole for the temp sensor.



Once i was happy with that i mated it up with the gear box and droped it into the engine bay where after a few hours making it sit right i could make up some mounts. i went with the DIY kit from retro ford to save some time making wise, and also is a have to for the capri really.
(sorry for the crap pictures)



Now with the engine in and mounted i can start bolting on new shiny stuff such as cam belt kit and new studds ready for the manifolds, also i bought the retro for alt kit (so much for saving money).

Next after a few head aches i put the rad in and started the plumbing, this i made myself out of some 32mm steel tube and some old hose's i had floating about. Also i put the starter in at this time sorry no pics of that.

Well got alot more to do, but as with most things the only thing slowing me down is money, next thing i be doing is making a mount for the coil pack and also putting on a inlet manifold and bolting up a 38 dgas carb to it and then come the head ache of wiring lol.

thanks for looking will keep updating this for every one.

[helinelly]

awesome......popcorn out......nic fabrication on the water rail too regards nel

[v8ish]

Just putting a zetec in my Capri too! Good DIY job on the water rail, this should be great when finished.

[ryan.minshall]

thanks chaps as said i will update when i do more.

[wellys]

what is the sump you are using on this engine, thanks

[ryan.minshall]

i got a cvh one thats been converted cant see it in any of the picks tho

[ryan.minshall]

does anyone know if it is better to have a push fan or a pull fan i got one i can use both ways, and i can set it up both ways, just wanna know what's the best to do. will have some more pictures soon just waiting on lots of parts to arrive.

[looneytune]

a pull fan that fits engine side of rad. if the fan is fitted the other side of rad it could cause slight restriction in air flow

[ryan.minshall]

i remember being told before that a fan can blow more air through the rad more than it can suck, i think might just put it on the front so i can lots of space to work with.

[pintopower]

I got mine on front with zetec no cooling issues cheers

[ryan.minshall]

well got alot done today,

brake lines made and fitted
steel braided fuel line fitted
fuel pump fitted, just need to wire it in
inlet manifold ported a bit to tidy it up painted and fitted
and carb plonked on

as you can see the car looks to be on a bit of a slant, but don't think this will be much bother.
just gotta work out the throttle linkage??????

[alladdin]

good progress. are they aftermarket plug leads ?

[ryan.minshall]

na lol just 4 long ones from a scrappy

[Graham]

as you can see the car looks to be on a bit of a slant, but don't think this will be much bother.
just gotta work out the throttle linkage??????

its also facing the wrong way! you might get strange mixture/running issues under hard cornering acceration etc, as the main jet locations and float designs are for level forward facing fitment only only

but seeing as you have it you might as well try it

[ryan.minshall]

Well, where to start. been a busy few days wiring her in to get her to start, from yesterday around 12 it was just turning over I had fuel and but no spark, and it took me a while to find out it was to do with crank sensor, because I did not know because my engine must of been a auto one the crank sensor are will be different for the auto flywheel, so I went to the scrappy to fined a manual one only to find out they are the same, so a proper head scratching moment. Then I found a auto Mondeo and a manual one next to each other so I had a look, and found out its the housing for the sensor that is different. To get one of these off you need to have the flywheel off so you can undo the one bolt that holds it on oh joys. So lucky me I found a black top engine out of a car gear box off the lot so was easy to get hold of it after driving to a few scrappy's. So when I got back to my car now was the task to take out the engine, and off with the clutch and flywheel and swap over the offending parts so a long day.

Her is what the problem is, the one on the left is the one manual one, and the one on the right is the auto one. The Auto one had the sensor about 10mm away from the flywheel and no where near the holes on the flywheel, the manual one the sensor is about 3mm away.

Picture of the engine out and the engine bay.


Well after all that I was determined to get it back in the car so I can fire her up and see if that was the problem, and on the 1st turn of the key we had life.... yey
(vid was the 2nd time, and its a bit crap in sound)


Now the task of tidying up wires and sorting out a few more things like a exhaust, and get it running right. Thanks for looking.

[gumpy]

can i ask what flywheel and clutch you are using please? and did you have to move the gearbox ? cheers.

[ryan.minshall]

no gear box is in the same place, i have a turbo sport fly which is lightened and drilled for a pinto clutch.

also worked out the throttle linkage yesterday just need painting up now

[ryan.minshall]

Sorry its been sometime been bust with work and the car.
Well after a bit of a clean up the engine bay looks like this, got a few more wires to sort out still not sorted my rev counter tho I need a 85 onwards rev counter from a 4cyl capri for a start. But here is how she looking now with the mocked up carbon plug cover I have been making.

[evans2822]

Hello mate...scrap the questian In the other thread I didnt notice you posted this..

Any Issues with running the carb that way around as I have a manifold similar to that already also what are you using to run the Ignition I have a red pack esc box and loom and dont know weather to use It or not..

Nice job on the Install I hope mine goes ok

Cheers

Lee

[ryan.minshall]

hello,
i have not had a full chance to run it yet as have a breaking problem at the moment, but yeah running it of the red esc with the vac take off and just that its not the best but works and gets the car running, will be moving to megajolt soon.

[rwd2ltrfiesta]

dude what starter yu using ????? are u using a spacer if so were can i get 1 from??? ta m8

[ryan.minshall]

i am using a started from a 2lt serria twin cam mate

[rwd2ltrfiesta]

sweet ta mate. how do u find the throttle response with the twin choke???(pc dont have sound)

[ryan.minshall]

very good but spent a long time on the linkage making sure i got that right.

[ryan.minshall]

hello all,
the car is already for the mot now but i have encountered one problem, if the car is cold it starts well but after the car has been ran up to temp its very hard to start. sometime the starter turns over slow other times it fine but i get nothing but after a little while it starts fine. i had this problem with the xr2 i did and found out it was heat soak to the starter but the manifold was right on it then, the manifold on my car is not touching it at all.

has anyone else had this problem with there conv

[radar tech]

mine does exactly the same. i have even covered the starter in heat reflective cloth. still does it though, click click....but only when hot.

it gets embarassing at petrol stations !

[ryan.minshall]

i dont get a click click it just turns over slow and does not want to fire?

[caprimentle]

sounds like you need a new starter, but before doing that, try a new high amperage cable to the starter, would prob make the world of difference alone if your still using the original 30 year old ford one

keep up the good work fella, i plan putting a zetec in my other capri so this has been a helpfull thread.

[Graham]

you should do some volt drop checks, get a voltmeter set to volts, connect one lead to + battery terminal the other directly to the stud sticking out the starter and watch the volt reading as an assistant cranks the engine, you should see a reading of less than 0.5volt, if its more you have a badd connection between the starter and battery, do likewise with the earth, one lead of multimeter dirctly to battery the other somewhere nice and clean on the engine again if you have more than 0.5v when cranking you have a bad connection

[ryan.minshall]

cool i try that thanks

[ryan.minshall]

well tried the above and on cranking i have 0.6v on the + and 0.3 on the - moved the earth and cleaned it up good and also put some heat reflective tape on the starter and all seems good. MOT tomorrow so fingers crossed everyone.

[caprimentle]

good luck

[rwd2ltrfiesta]

iya dude ow did the mot go????
ow did u wire up ur esc unit???? did u have a black box type relay looking thing on your loom?? a noise filter ive bin told dont spose u no ow 2 wire that up aswell??

on mine i have a temp sender wire 1 live and an earth and also the coil pack but just by the esc box is a black relay box ( thats spose 2 b a noise filter)
thanks anyway

[biffco]

i dont get a click click it just turns over slow and does not want to fire?

I had a similar fault to this - I found it to be the Starter solenoid, (the contacts inside the solenoid switch get worn out). The solenoid can be replaced on there own -as I did - and now the starter whizzes round every time !!

[ryan.minshall]

hello all i was just looking for some tips on the problems i have been having,

had the engine out yet again to replace my oil pump to try and get a bit more pressure from it and also to re seal the leaky sump well finished putting it back together and now i have a tapping noise from the bottom front of the engine on tick over and when you rev the engine it goes but then it comes back when idling, also my sum is still leaking its starting to really do my head in now. so any one got any idea what the knocking noise can be and also how can i seal my sump for good.

[alladdin]

re knock, crank not touching pickp i hope ?
leak, i used a bucket of rtv / silicone seal as mine was awfull fit, seems ok so far.

[ryan.minshall]

is that common then it has never done it before, if it is what's the fix for it

[alladdin]

im just pondering on what you might have disturbed, the pickup does come close to crank or vice versa and theres some play when bolting up from memory.

[ryan.minshall]

i think you might be right there well engine out again on tues will let you know

[caprimentle]

surely if the crank was hitting the pick up, it would stop after a few miles, it can only bash it so far if you know what i mean.