Mk1 Escort F20c Turbo build

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For anybody interested.

This is my Mk1, I completed my F20c engine install a fair few years ago now and it has been well used in that time. I always did set out to complete it on a shoestring, maintained a wet sump instead of a dry sump setup, maintained the standard ECU instead of a stand alone and It worked! It had its flaws, sure and some corners were cut but the total cost of the conversion came in at £3k. Which was respectable for 240bhp and a 9k Rev limit.










This time, I am setting out to do things properly. Full weld in cage, proper suspension and some decent power. The goal is 500bhp (420whp), obviously the way to get there, is with a turbo. Getting the engine there itself isn’t a problem. It’s a well documented field, with the F20c being fully forged from factory, a couple of tweaks and a reliable 800-900bhp is achievable without any major work. We are aiming a little lower, which should help packaging issues, but we do have a big problem right off the bat.






Space. Front to rear. The current setup has the engine pushed as far back as I can get it without the sump fowling the steering rack. This allows me a 5mm gap to the current radiator. Not ideal.
Now we need space for an intercooler and and a radiator, what we really need is for the engine to go further back in its hole. You could go with a dry sump, but with the pump and separate tank, plus all the associated pipework, I think this creates more packaging issues than it solves. So we want to retain a wet sump, I’ll probably add a baffle or two later on.

First Job, strip off the front suspension and crossmember.






The idea here is to use a rear mounted rack. This would afford us a fair few precious inches I love the engine rearwards. Having a think about it, if you could mount a rack on the rear of the crossmember, or simply turn the crossmember around and then swap the front left and right struts around so that the steering arms face backwards, in theory it should work. Expect that the steering would steer backwards. So utilising a LHD rack and mounting it upside down, and backwards, Here is what I have come up with. It needed a few brackets tweaking and reworking, but I’m happy with the end result. Once I know it works, I’m considering welding a centre brace with some captive nuts in the crossmember, just to eliminate and movement.


^^This is how it would sit in a normal application.


^^ this is where we want it to sit.














^^ A few tweaks and we have it sat where we want it.




^^This is it offered up to the car, it won’t fit until we move the engine and remake the mounts. Which we will come to later.

All seems well, but after a chat with someone far more cleverer than me, apparently swapping over the escort struts would affect the steering arm angle which would be reversed, having potential bump steer issues, coupled with the lack of KPI built into the escort struts. Im led to believe this would be less than desirable. The escort front suspension has always been notoriously bad when lowering the car anyway as it does sill things with its geometry, so i’m looking for a better option. I’m using the guys called M11RF out in Thailand who modify Nissan S13 front hubs to take the escort steering arm, escort lower arm, and will also kindly modify the hub to 4x108 from the original 4x114.4 for you.

You can purchase the hub from here.

http://www.m11rf.com/product_info.ph...roducts_id=138

This is how they looked when they arrived.









This hub does a few things. Firstly the stub axle is higher meaning it statically lowers the car without affecting the geometry, allowing you to go lower if you wish, it also apparently has KPI built in, plus a nice bigger wheel bearing which should make the escort fee more modern at speed. The Nissan parts also have a wealth of aftermarket suspension and braking options, which do not have the Ford tax applied to them. Once they had arrived, after a clean up, removal of the dust shield, a splash of paint and a set of genuine Nissan £60 bolts (ouch) they look pretty good.







Thinking ahead to wheel choice, we are going to be using 15” wheels, which gives us a massive range of brakes I can choose from. I’ve settled on a set of alloy 4 pots from an R33 Nissan skyline GTS-T. The callipers cost me £180, the 296mm vented EBC discs and redstuff pads were £350. That’s one hell of a brake setup for an escort for just over £500. A similar willwood or AP setup would be considerably more.






After a clean up and splash of paint they look great.




Another issue is that the Nissan r33 is a 5 lug pattern and that the centre bore on the s13 hubs are 2.5mm too big for ford wheels. Nothing a lathe, a mill
and a willing dad cannot sort.










As for suspension, after a quick email conversation with BC racing, I have ordered a set of s13 Fully adjustable front Coilovers with a 4kg spring rate (220lbs). The top escort turret mounts will need modifying to suit the s13 top mount at a later date. But here it all is ready to go.




The next Job is to remake the engine mounts for the engine in its new position but to be sure I have enough space for the turbo to fit before I do that, I’ve had to order it to get it in hand, the turbo of choice is a Borgwarner S257sxe with a 0.83 A/R. This size turbo should be at full spool by 4K and the larger hot side should keep the power flowing up to 8000+Rpm. I Chose this turbo for a few reasons, the first reason is because it’s well priced. An equivalent Garrett unit would have been circa £1800. This Borg came in at less than £1000. The second reason is for packing concerns, I like the fact that it is oil cooled only, this engine bay is small enough and not having to run coolant lines to the turbo is a welcome thought.









And it fits! This is have as as I’ve got for now. I’ll report back when more progress is made.
😎


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[rallyrob]

Sounds like a nice project. The problem is you've used tapatalk to host the photo's and they rarely work on TS.
I'm not sure about anyone else but I can't see any of the photos I presume you've posted.

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Ah 😅 I’ll repost this eve on the laptop👍🏻


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[Awol]

I'd also like to see some pictures

[wildo105e]

I see them on my phone in Tapatalk. It’s worth the wait.

Nice work


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[alladdin]

all blank posts abpove ? ( last two)

[M11rf]

Also cannot see any pics...

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Man, nothings working and I can’t even edit my posts. I give up. 😤


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[rallyrob]

Funnily enough I can see the pics today.
You can only edit posts for about 10 minutes after you 1st posted them.