oliwally

Rebuild the pinto. Cheapest option. Had a zetec in my mk2. Sounded ok. Reved well but shit torque and felt flat/slow unroll around 5000 when the cams really made noticeable power. A good pinto head with hotrod cam and some 45's will be cheaper and make it feel lively. Balanced bottom end. Decent rods and lightened pitons. Job done

Been doing some research on my car and found out the 'AA in my registration means it came from Salisbury in 1974. Anyone know of the dealers in that area? I'm after making some dealer stick for the rear window. Would like an actual ford dealer name even if it's no longer with us. Any one have a dealer list or know of a main dealer in that area during the '70's?

So would I.

As little as I could. They rot like fook under the sill covers and filler necks. Plus anything that's in between the from and rear badges. A proper look underneath is needed. Early zetec usually burn out their exhaust valves. Ford did modified valves, retainers. Tappets and pressure relief. If starting from cold it sounds like it has a flat or low battery when it starts that usually the first sign of trouble. Plastic cambelt tensioners are troublesome too. I don't like them but say around £1000 is fair if all is good.

Yes. I have one from oldfordautos and it's pretty damn well made and has all internals in place. Even all threads to mount to hinges

I had same problem with mine. Passengers fitted ok and with a bit of tweaking would have been ok. Drivers was a different story. That's why I went with fibreglass in the end. The overal fit is much better as is easier to add or remove what's needed. And no rust. Was going to bolt the wings on anyway. Shame really as apart from the issues with drivers one they were a good quality wing. But NoS drivers wings always have a bad fit. Even ford ones.

dont know whats with your silver top but my black top kit car goes like sh*t off a stick Every tuned one I been in was shit. Only Liam's mk1 zetec tina went well but that cheated with a hair dryer. Sold it and been sorting the body on my mk1 escort. Which will be using a 2.2 NA YB on 50's

My silver top had lightened and balanced crank. Which was knife edged. 4-1 manifold. Weber alpha and 45's with a set of rally cams and that made 180bhp. £1000 head and valve work too. Low geared as it was a hill climb car

cant see that being too much effort getting near that my black top in the kit car is completely standard apart from 45's an a 4 branch an produces 175bhp Really? How's that? What rolling road/dyno? Ford couldn't manage to do that with the ST170 ,which is a country mile short of 170! My mk2 had a sliver top and was ment to be running 180bhp. It was a hillclimb car. Single seat. Light weight. Etc. was as slow as anything. Raced my mate back home in a BMW E30 cab and his tired 325i pissed over me,and I mean pissed over me. His car had 10 brake less and near half a tonne extra to carry.

The compomotive th turbo style wheels would look good and be different.

Type R

A long while ago there was a selection of old oval racing pictures in rides past a present of hot rods,stock cars and bangers from early 60's and 70's. Was talking to my mate who races hotrods and his dad used to race seriously during that period,showed me an old photo or 2 of his Anglia and brand new mk1 escort shell that he raced. Been looking for ages but can't remember who posted them. Anyone have any old oval pictures or remember the post ? Used to race Wimbledon and loads of other tracks. At one point even had Dees of croydon on the side of his car

Rubbish. When webers,dellortos,bike carbs are set up they should remain balanced. Anything mechanical like tappers and carbs need periodic adjustments. Throttle bodies also require balancing every so often. Bikes are too small. 250cc chambers verses 500cc chambers. Why do you think ford went to 44mm down draughts for the grp1 rs2000. That's the smallest they felt the pinto needed.

You need webers. Bike carbs are too small. Look at all the real quick engines from wpe,Ashton, HPE etc and they all have webers. Bike carbs are cheaper, but people have realised and they're slowly getting exspensive. Biggest size you can get with an accelerator pump and direct pull slides. FCR carbs would be good but expensive

Bolt them on like I am. I got some thread inserts and some smart countersunk bolts and matching domed washers.

Doughnut

Measure the ones on the rs then. Youngsters.......always an excuse lol

Measure the length of the original wings and compare with the new one. The drivers one I had was pants. 15mm too short and swage line was bent and about 8mm too low when compared to the door line.

I would say its the body shop not trying hard enough to fit it as theres always a problem fitting the os wing even gen ones.I've never seen the new ones they made and deal in panels myself but did ask people what they fitted like and they said the worst was the os wing to fit but got around it.you would prob have the same prob with any wing you buy.they have to make it fit these are old cars now and every body is different. My o/s wing was terrible. The swage line was at least a 1/4 inch out and 15mm to short. Ended up getting fibreglass wings in the end

Playing devil's advocate here: You're right that the original Zetec was built with economy in mind, it was a mess up by Ford in fact as they restricted the engine quite heavily on purpose as they expected strict guidelines to come into force regarding emissions, and they didn't. Hence why the Blacktop is a big port/better designed engine that shares very few parts. I was told this by someone who worked for Ford and helped develop the Zetec engine from the very beginning. Comparing them to a BDG isn't quite fair; one was an all out race engine designed for power. A Zetec in full balls out race trim can (and has) pushed 270bhp. Also yes, a Zetec will feel a gutless compared to a 325 largely due to the extra torque and 25% more capacity! I'm a Zetec fan, but must admit they are not great engines in comparison to some, but it's not fair to write them off IMO I've never seen one,they're like the 200 bhp 1700 xflows. The point I was making both were 2.0l,twin cam,16v engine with points 40 years ago. I finished my apprenticeship at ford when they were a new engine. Always in with broken cam belts and pulleys,burnt out exhaust valves of shagged oil pumps. Slightly better than sierra twink or the 16v version in the Scorpio. And the point I was making about the E30,that had less power and an extra half tonne than my more powerful 4 pot in a lighter car

Trouble is most engines from the mid '90's on are designed for economy rather than power. Look at the zetec,on paper should do very well,good solid crank,well balanced,good bore and stroke,fairly large valves,16 of the buggers. But when put up against a BDG it's actually a joke,40yr old engine on points will make 270 in full race form where as the zetec a country miles short. Pinto will make near 200 and have bags of torque and feel quick. My zetec felt shit next to one. All revs no bottom. And even then my mates E30 325i cab pissed past me and I was canning the bitch,single seat stripped out and 5 linked RS2K and he left me for dead. Just because something's new,doesn't mean it's better than what went before. Even the cosworth yb is 30 years old now. First drawn in the early '80's. Not many around to piss over it still.

The thing I don't like I don't like is their power delivery. Oh and as standard they look messy under the bonnet. Pipes,wires,hoses everywhere. I like the clean look and growling carbs lol

Trouble going turbo is the massive mid range torque when it boosts hard. An English will shit itself very quickly. Same to for the box and brakes. If horse power is what you want the turbo/supercharge it. But pick wisely. Drivability is key. Select one that best suits what you'll be using it for most. Look at Andy H's pinto, that's a pretty quick motor. Faster than a few mild tuned turbos with nearly twice the power. And let's not forget the humble crossflow. Quite a few on here are into the 12's at the strip. The same sort of times a Sierra cosworth with a stage 1 tune manages. Best engine by far is a bdg but unless you win lottery it's never going to happen. Best off seeing if any members on here will take you out in their cars and let you judge what you want.

Power is power, but how that power is made is just as important. I drove a T-5R for 4 years as my daily. Ended up hating how it started to boost up at the point of changing gear when going for gentle drive. That was on low boost too.

You'll miss the growl of carbs