Zetec Upgrade

[CMA]

After been off the road since May last year I've finally finished the engine upgrade from the old gorgeous crossflow running on R1 carbs to a AT throttle body adorned 2.0 Zetec powered by an Emerald ECU

I managed to do almost everything myself, including making and welding the engine mounts, wiring, making and welding up the new alternator bracket mounts and idler bracket.

Only problems I had was:

Cam belt was 1 tooth out so wouldn't idle properly. Adjusted this and started up without any front covers on. It idled but then the belt walked off so bent 8 valves. Rebuilt the head with new valves and re-shimmed it (not a fun job)

Then it still wouldn't idle properly. After paying a local kit company an hours labour it turned out I had the signal and ground wires mixed up on the TPS. Now it runs. Will need a pro RR tune as my exhaust is more free flowing than the map is set up for.

Just waiting for some sunshine now to see if it all works on the road and my welding holds up.

Now all looks like this:

[stylussprinter]

Looking very nice Rob , a blacktop along with bigger valves and no hyd tappets --- lovely exhaust manifold too. Any internal tuning It must be 180bhp minimum even without internal mod's so will propel it along a little quicker than the crossflow

[CMA]

All standard inside. Just 8 new valves and all 16 reground. Bores all looked hood and rings felt tight considering its 70k miles.

Stuck ARP bolts on the rods just in case. Got a 1.8 Zetec flywheel drilled for a pinto clutch, so 2 kgs lighter than normal (8kg instead of 10kg) It also has a Scholar sump so won't have any oil probs if I get on track.

Believe its about 175bhp ish. So about 35 more than the Xflow but more torque and less highly strung. But I will miss that Xflow, it was a gorgeous engine. revved up to 7000+ and was still pulling....

[DH2]

Looks good, Rob.
Please tell me you are going to put the cambelt cover back on...!

[stylussprinter]

Looks good, Rob.
Please tell me you are going to put the cambelt cover back on...!

Ditto that (little stones etc )

[hearbear]

I would be a bit worried about the belt coming off in the first place, you don't have a pulley slightly out of true allowing the belt to walk of or do you think it wasn't on correctly?

[CMA]

I'm unsure of the reason the belt walked off in the first place. May have been a misaligned tensioner or idler. It is staying perfectly still now so what ever caused it is now fixed.

As for the cam cover....I was going to refit it but unsure now. I have to remove the alternator to get it back on. Not much room for things to get down there. We'll see....

Did 60+ miles yesterday around the peak district....not a single problem. Few pops and bangs on hard acceleration changes. So just needs the map tweaking, need to save up for that though at £300 a pop.