Beakster

Yes, here's a twin turbo one in a mk2: Great engine. 200bhp Naturally Aspirated for not a lot of money, and very driveable too. A 4 cylinder making that much power will cost a lot of money and not be well behaved for daily driving.

Great stuff. You can't beat a Capri for a daily. Perfect compromise between sporty and practical. How's the power on it though? I've never driven a 1.3. Is it enough to keep you happy for now, or are you going to fit something bigger? What was the problem with the servo? It had a hole in it?

Hi, You will need a low pressure lift pump to take fuel from the tank to the swirl pot. A high pressure pump to take fuel from the swirl pot to the engine. A high pressure injector filter to go between the high pressure pump and the engine. High pressure fuel injection hose to go after the high pressure pump.

Hey, I've recently had a few bits sent from the UK to Canada using https://www.transglobal.org.uk/ Once you have your parts packed you could organise to have them collected with that website from your hotel.

Yo! Just got back from a long weekend in New York City with my Capri! Absolutely knackered. Was up at 5:30am this morning and managed to drive back to Toronto in 11 hours which was pretty good going. Fantastic weekend though, the Capri ran perfectly with not even the slightest mechanical issue! Here are the highlites: We left Toronto at 6am on Thursday morning and headed for the US/Canada border and Niagara falls: Made it to the falls around 8am and took some photos. Not very easy to get a good photo with the car in it. The road doesn't really get close enough and there isn't a good vantage point to take the shot from. Here's a few with the Capri and a couple looking over the wall. Then we stopped in Niagara's oldest restaurant for breakfast. It was good enough but one of the things I miss about the UK most is the fry ups, they don't even come close here. My mate who came down as my passenger works in a pub and only finished work an hour before we left, so he napped most of the way. The approach to NYC. Its a big place alright. The trip down from Toronto to New York City took us 13 hours. That includes breakfast in Niagara and crossing the US-Canadian border. Never a pleasant process. I've crossed a lot of borders in my time and the US border officers seem to go our of their way to make you feel unwelcome. After a few beers we headed to bed, and the next day priority number one was some sightseeing in the Capri. First stop, The Empire State Building. Then the flat iron building: I love the Ford Crown Vic that the Taxis and Police use here. Yellow cabs are everywhere and you need to be a bit aggressive to make any progress in the traffic with them. We didn't get pulled over, just stopped to take a photo with the NYPD Crown Vic Then we got a photo with the Ghostbusters firestation. It's actually a real firestation now: Next we headed to New Jersey and Liberty Park... Again, it was difficult to find a place to put the car to get photos of the land marks. I wanted to drive down close to the water but there was a No Vehicles sign. We decided what the hell and just drove it all the way along the pedestrianised bit anyway. There were no rangers around, and we were doing a maximum of 10mph. There were probably only about 10 pedestrians there but the filthy looks they gave us were very amusing! Worth it for the pics though. Here's one with Time Square in the background. Next time I go back I want to try this photo again, but with an expensive camera and at night time when its all lit up. Driving around NYC is hard work. Drivers are very aggressive and its non-stop horns. We had one guy behind us going mental because I refused to go through the green light into the box junction as I knew I'd block it. He was hammering his horn and giving us the finger, but had I gone through then I would have blocked the cross traffic and someone else would have just done the same. The sat nav was a god send for getting in and out of the city centre, but in Manhattan it was useless because of all the tall buildings and sent us around circles. I was pretty tired after all the sightseeing, so we put the Capri to bed and went out on the piss. I found a bargain at one point during the night when I bought this fax machine from a homeless doris for $5. The subway was fun. Lots of interesting people there. Loved this sign and spotted a rat running about on the track. I even managed to find a bar which sold Tennents lager!!! I was delighted as I've not had it since I was back home at Christmas. The next day when I went out to the Capri I became very paranoid because my radio had reset to factory settings. I started thinking someone had been under the bonnet trying to disable the alarm or hot wire it, so I took off one of the wheels and kept it under my bed. Maybe that was overkill, but hey its New York City and apparently car crime isn't unheard of there. Despite its reputation we didn't see anyone get shot/robbed/killed or even raped which was nice. I'm sure like all cities it has its bad areas but I didn't feel unsafe at any time. All the police cars had one of these bumper stickers though... Great weekend, although very tiring. A long drive but with such cheap petrol in the US it would have been rude not to. I was paying about $30 to fill up the tank of my Capri, although remember that's only 91RON fuel and hence the cars all have less power, only 109BHP in my 2.8, but I'll soon have a few mods to increase that. I think my next road trip will be to Montreal in a few weeks as I haven't been there yet. I'd like to drive across the US to San Francisco but I don't have the money or time of work available to do that right now so it will probably have to wait until next year. If you enjoyed this and haven't seen my previous road trips then here are some links. Just scroll through them to find the pics Amsterdam: http://www.fordcapriforum.com/forum/vie ... =10&t=2039 Paris: http://www.fordcapriforum.com/forum/vie ... =10&t=2661 Le Mans-> Madrid -> Lisbon -> Gibraltar -> Ibiza: http://www.oldskoolford.co.uk/phpBB2/vi ... hp?t=71307 Scotland 2008: http://www.fordcapriforum.com/forum/vie ... 10&t=30155 Scotland 2009: http://www.fordcapriforum.com/forum/vie ... 10&t=33845 Indianapolis -> Detroit -> Toronto: http://www.oldskoolford.co.uk/phpBB2/vi ... p?t=118672

Try these guys: http://www.endsleigh.co.uk/ They specialise in student insurance, its who I went with when I was 17.

Yo, i did this just the other day and did a write up on www.capriwiki.com. Take a look here: http://www.capriwiki.com/index.php?titl ... -_Beakster Escort mk1 and mk2 use the same TCAs as mk1/2/3 Capris so same should apply. You should beable to do the whole thing in under 3 hours.

Yeah, I'm giving up on this idea for now. I'm sure it is possible though if I could locate all the correct parts. Getting some of those TCAs with poly bushes from Rally Design sent to an address in the UK, then posted on to Canada. I've found some suppliers in China who can supply TCAs, so I might look at ordering a batch if they are cheap enough to sell in North America. Probably not much of a market though.

Hi, Does anyone know where I can get ball joint kits to replace the ball joints in the track control arms? (Escort/Capri) I normally buy the complete TCA and replace it, but it costs more to post a pair of TCAs to Canada than it does to buy them, so I'd like to just get the ball joints and do it myself. I know it is possible, its just locating the kit with the ball, boot, spring, seals etc. I would imagine, but don't know for sure, that the ball joint is common to lots of different cars, even though the actual arm is only for the Capri/Escort. Anyone know anything about getting such kits? Thanks -Chris

After much searching over here in Canada for a Capri, I eventually found one. Not in Canada though, as all the ones here have rusted away due to all the salt on the roads in the winter. The one I found was in Danville, Indiana, which is just outside Indianapolis. I worked out the cheapest way to get there (certainly not the quickest tho), put my tools in my rucksack and headed to the bus station. I left Toronto at 9pm on Friday night, and made it back at home at 3:30am Monday morning. The car had only been driven 1300 miles in the last 9 years, so taking it over 500 miles in 2 days was bound to show some problems. Here's the story of my American Capri adventure.... I took the bus from Toronto to Buffalo New York, as its much cheaper to fly there. The border guards entering the US weren't too impressed by my plan of buying an old car in Indiana and asked me lots of questions about how I was going to get there, how I was going to get back etc, and why I needed so many tools! :xd: I eventually satisfied them and they let me through. I arrived in Buffalo airport at 1am and slept on a bench until my flight at 6am. A quick stop over in Washington DC and I was in Indianapolis for about 10am, although pretty tired due to lack of sleep but excited about the journey ahead. The Capri is a 1976 Ghia with a 2.8 Cologne. I was originally a California car and hence has a Motorcraft 2100 polution carb, with air pump and EGR and all that other crazy gubbins European cars didn't have back then. The cars current owner met me and my travelling companion at the airport in the Capri and took us to the Bureau of Motor Vehicles to transfer the title to my name. After a bit of faffing about trying to get their computer systems to accept my Canadian address it was done and I had a bit of paper with "Temporary Permit" on it to stick on my windscreen so I could drive the car without plates. The cars previous owner wished us luck and pointed us North and we were off. After 5 minutes of driving I decided I wasn't happy with the steering so pulled into a KwikFit type place to get the tracking done. They said go have some breakfast and come back in an hour. We did and they hadn't started. 30 mins later they gave me the car back and told me they couldn't track it as there tracking machine was broken. We headed up the road to another place who said come back in an hour so we went to wall mart and got some Panama hats and Hawaiian shirts. When we came back they hadn't started either, but eventually it was done and we set off, 3 hours later than planned. It was just before setting off I head my first Capri cliche in the US. If you have ever driven a Capri, or probably any old ford for that matter, someone has probably said to you, "Cor, you don't see many of them these days". One of the mechanics at the place that did the tracking said to me, "Hey man, I didn't think there was any of them left". Given that they were never a very popular car, most Americans don't even know what the Capri is. This guy seemed quite jealous I'd found one so near him and he hadn't heard about it. Here we are with the car, all tracked up, wearing our new Panama hats. We set off, heading North towards Detroit as that is where we would be stopping for the night. All was going well and I was getting the feel of the car when disaster struck. There was a loud bang, steam sprayed over the windscreen and the back wheels locked up. We slid across the road and I managed to come to a stop in the hard shoulder. I got out to asses the damage. I was very confused about what I saw. Water and come out of the radiator cap, and the rear drivers side tire was shreaded and all wrapped up in the wheel arch. I was trying to find a connection, thinking something had broken off the engine and punctured the tire. My theory was that the blow out had locked the wheels up as the tire wrapped its self up in the wheel arch, stopping the engine and the pressure had blown the cap. After filling up the radiator I couldnt get the cap back on. On closer inspection it appeared that part of the neck had broken! I managed to bodge it on using some fuel hose clips, then I pulled in at the next petrol station and got some jump leads and used the croc clip to hold the cap in place. Amazingly it seemed to work and we weren't loosing any water! We were back out on the open road again, crusin But then, it happened again. Another blow out. Thankfully this one wasn't as dramatic. Luckily the previous owner had given us 2 of the original wheels as well as the spare, but we only had 2 sets of lug nuts to fit the original wheels, so if we had another blow out we were gonna be screwed, and I didn't fancy out chances of finding some 13 inch tires in the middle of nowhere, so we proceeded cautiously. More cautiously than American bikes who don't wear helmets! After all the hold ups with the blow outs and getting the tracking done it was 11:30pm by the time that we arrived at our hotel for the night. The Detroit Motorcity Casino Hotel. The road coming into Detroit was pretty rough. All the street lights were out and there were gangs of people hanging about in the dark on every street corner. Inside the casino it was nice though, although it was an interesting crowd. Half the guys there were dressed up like huggy bear. We played some roulette and black jack, had a few pints, and went to bed when the bars closed. Here's the Casino by day, massive place: The next morning we got up and I made some calls to try and track down some 205/60/13 tires. It was still a good way to Toronto and I had lost faith on the tires that came with the car after the previous 2 blow outs. They looked good but I think they were just a little old and the high speed long distance drive was finishing them off. Luckily I found a place that had some new ones in stock. I'd never heard of them before, "Tempra" but decided I'd take what I could get. We hurried down there to catch the place as it was closing at 1pm and we only finished breakfast at 11:30. We go there and found that non of the staff could speak english, they were all mexicans. Then the boss came out and he translated for us and set his boys to work putting the new tires on and balancing them. Once the new tires were on and I'd handed over $270US of my hard earned we headed to our next destination, The Henry Ford Museum, so I could make my Pilgrimage to the great man. Its a massive places, filled with planes, trains and cars, as well as all sorts of other stuff. Definitely worth a visit if you are there. Here's some of the more interesting exhibits: The Prototype Mustang This thing is powered by 4 Hemi V8s! This was Henry Ford's attempt at a model T for the skies. The dimensions were set when he said he wanted a plane that would fit in his office. It was too dangerous and hard to fly though and only 3 were ever made. The Car JFK was shot in The above is my favorite car there. A father and son from the south of Chile set out one day in this Model A Ford, with $5 in their pockets and aimed to realise their life long dream of visiting the Henry Ford museum. They set out in 1992 and after 2 years of staying in shelters and taking donations for the drive North they arrived at the museum in this car where it has remained ever since. That must have been one hell of a road trip. The Henry Ford Museum is surrounded by other Ford buildings and factories. The factory tour wasn't on as it was Sunday but I'm going to go back another time and do it. It was really getting late now, about 5pm and we still had to cross the border into Canada, so we headed to the Ambassador bridge: Once in Canada I did all the necessary paper work to import the vehicle, paid the tax and we headed East to Toronto. I really wanted to stop and take a photo with Detroit in the back ground of the Capri, but time was pressing on and I didn't want to come off the high way and get lost so we pressed on. I'll get some better photos when I go back to do the Ford factory tour. The plan was to stop in half way between Detroit and Toronto at London and visit a fellow Capri enthusiast, David. He has a very nice 2.0 mk1 as well as a V6 mk2 which is an ongoing project. Its a very good thing we had this stop coming up. All the way there I was watching the temp gauge slowly creep up. It had been a 1/4 all the way, but in the last 30 mins had risen to 3/4. As we came off the motorway and dropped the revs we heard the engine was not happy and making lots of rumbling noises. We stopped at David's place, turned off the engine, saw coolant pissing out of the hole in the water pump. It must have been leaking out all the way since detroit and thats why the temp was going up. This is where David really saved the day and announced that he had a new waterpump in the garage, as well as a radiator with a good neck on it. We had a couple of beers and got busy. A few hours, a tube of silicone and a tub of swarfega later and we were done! The temperature stayed low all the way back, and the car we sounding much happier. I finally got into my bed at 3:30am, dreading getting up at 8am for work. But I'd made it home in one piece, with the car and without needing to call a tow truck! :woot: Today I took it for a safety inspection. That is a bit like an MOT but it only happens when the car transfers owners. They don't have annual inspections here and the whole thing is a bit of a farce. They told me I need new rear shoes, a wheel cylinder and a new pair of TCAs. I wasn't happy about the TCAs and they seemed fine to me. I challenged the mechanic and he put it up on the ramps and showed me the play. I couldn't see any play and complained. He said "Hey man, they aren't bad, but its the safety you know". Not happy but its not big deal replacing them, just need to find a set. Parts availability here isn't the best as it was never a popular car. Anyway, I'll find some, go for the retest, then I can put plates on it. And then, I can start with the modifications and driving it like I stole it. :xd:

Hey, Not been mentioned yet as its not a popular choice, but.... How about a Ford 2.3 16V Engine from a Scorpio 2.3? Once you up the compression radio and fit reprofiled cams you are looking around the 200bhp mark. With some uprated pistons and conrods, a turbo charger and megasquirt I'm sure you could manage 400bhp for not a lot of money. And the engines themselves are really cheap and easily found. Here's one in a Sierr@:

Either the Ford Performance Vehicles Boss 315, 5.4-litre capacity, 32 valves and double overhead camshafts, 315kW of power and 551Nm of torque.. Or, the Ford Coyote 5.0 litre, 412bhp and 390 lb-ft.

According to some of these rules, most of our cars would need to be re-registered and undergo such a test. But it's not something thats strictly enforced at the moment.

Is it a new water pump? Could be the pump itself leaking. They are cheap and easy to get at motorfactors for a pinto. I did the diff front oil seal a while ago. Couldn't pull it out, so cut it out with a dremel. Put some sealer around the new one when putting it in. You got to be careful about the torque on the bolt for the part that needs removing to get at it. Check haynes manual. I got the replacement front diff seal from Ford, they still had them in. Was about 8 quid I think.

Do the 2.9 Cosworth 200BHP standard, very nice and smooth to drive with loads of torque and power when you put your foot down. Not to mention very very cheap and easy to fit. Pinto is very tuneable, but to get 200bhp you are talking thousands of pounds and it won't be nice to drive on the road. I'm in the process of writing up a how to guide on fitting a 24v cosworth if you want a look... have a look on the Capri Wiki http://www.capriwiki.com then go to Engine Conversions and 2.9 24v. Not finished yet but should have most of the info you need.

It was a complete Mazda... Capri name was also applied to a Fox body Mustang too. Have a look here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury_Capri

Selling it hopefully (The Ford Thunderbird) and going to see a Mercury Capri mk2.

I had the AA for a few years now and they've been great. There is no age limit with Personal cover. Fixed my 2.8 at the side of the road 3 times. Once when the fuel pipe split, another time when the duraspark module went faulty, and one time when the water pump gasket went. Also recovered me when the head gasket went on the 2.8 and when the head gasket blew on my Lancia Beta.

yeah, they wer for the mk3, this is a mk2 louvre, i dont like the mk3 ones as they are about 3 times the size and square and ruin the lines Yeah, this is mine. Rear wiper still works when its fitted:

Just under a dollar a litre, so probably about 55p per litre. Still though, look at all the people you see in big 4x4s and SUVs in the UK that don't ever go off road. People have the money to spend on fuel. New Mustangs get about 26Mpg, which isn't much different to what a lot of us get with our modified OSFs. To put it into perspective, the new Range Rover gets 18Mpg and the Porsche 911 gets 25mpg (All highway driving figures). There's plenty Range Rovers and 911s on the Road, so why not Mustangs? Especially as the Mustang will have a lower sell price and maintenance cost than a Porsche. Back to the original argument though, a new Capri would be smaller than a new mustang. Lighter = better MPG, and I'm sure there would be a 4 cylinder and V6 version like there was in the 80s.

The Capri was one of the best selling cars in Britain because it was something a bit different, and sporty but affordable. I don't know why Ford think that won't work again. It's not that "European's don't buy RWD cars with big engines", its that they don't have the choice to. You would think with the number of BMWs on the road these days, Ford would see that there is a market for a new Capri, or Granada. The Falcon would fit the bill for a new Granada perfectly. The Mustang would be great too, but something a little smaller (new Capri) to still feel sporty on the tiny British roads would be idea... I really don't know why they don't sell the Mustang in the UK. I'm living in Toronto just now, and the Mustang is one of the most popular cars on the road. I see probably about 40 of them every day on my way to work. I couldn't afford a decent one though, so I'm driving a 1997 Ford Thunderbird now. Still got RWD and a V8

You can have a shot at it. Its fun and you can make some small gains. Like WPE said though, you really need to know exactly what you are doing or have a flow bench to hand to get the most out of it. I did mine just for fun, without having ever done it before. The standard carb pinto head flows quite badly. There is a step just before the valve that really needs smoothing down. I believe this is the main difference in terms of flow between the carb and injection heads. Have a look at this diagram. The big black bit at bottom left is the step I'm talking about: I did mine with a Dremel, but really you want a air die grinder and compressor. If you just remove the metal where highlited on that diagram you cant go wrong really. Here's some tips: -Be careful of the valve seats and be sure to lap the valves in when you are done. -Don't remove any material from the inlet ports not shown in the diagram. The ports are already big enough, and don't try and make them smooth, the roughness helps the atomisation of fuel. -Don't bother with the combustion chambers, the only advantage of polishing these is to prevent carbon build up. Not worth the hassle, even though it looks nice. -You can open up the exhaust ports a little bit, but be careful as they are quite close to the water jacket. But its worth trying to get as much carbon out of them as possible. Here's a pic of mine before I put it back on:

Found someone here that does dash tops for 35 quid: http://www.kevminay.com/flocking.htm

Must be secure to pass MOT, but also new batteries have a vent on them. Its like a little pipe. You should connect this to a tube which vents to outside the car ideally so any fumes generated when its charging don't come into the cab. Not essential, but a good idea.

All depends on what you mean by had its day. But they seem to be going up in price a lot now. Gone are the days of finding a cheap accident damaged sapphhire cosworth to remove one from on the cheap. The engines are getting impossible to find at a reasonable price. So I think its getting to the end of its day as an affordable way to getting a fast old skool ford. I couldn't have afforded a 16V Cosworth for my Capri. The car only cost 700 quid and was one of the most expensive things I've ever bought. Granted though due to the cost of 2 door Escorts, people who buy them usually have a bit more expendable income so more to spend on these engines. I got a 24V Cosworth for my Capri. Can't go wrong with 200bhp for 200quid. I understand that Escort owners usually don't like more than 4 cylinders, so I think we'll probably see more cheap turbo jap engines in old skool fords, like the CA18DET in the future, especially as they seem to be a cheaper option than a turbo Zetec.