Interesting proposition

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Outlandish_Bandit

Senior Member
Tonight I got an interesting proposition from a buddy of mine up here at Fort Drum. He's got a mid 80's Ford Escort he offered to sell me for 2 CARTONS OF CIGARETTES. So, my plan is as follows: Make a wicked crazy off-road machine. I'm talking engine swap, new suspension, roll cage, the works. Now I plan on doing it ghetto-style, so we're talking total junkyard donations, except for the roll cage tubing and whatnot. I was wondering if anyone here on Hondaswap, knows any sites or anything that would get me started. ie engine swap how-to's, rollcage build info, or just plain crazy ideas that ya'll might have. Keep in mind that I'm totally willing to go all out on this bad boy, as it's only costing me like... maybe 80 bucks (Marlboro Reds). Feel free to flame away, but any contributions to Project Escort would be greatly appreciated.



Oh yeah, I've been googling for about an hour now, and, well, I suck at it:p So forget the Google emote, cause baby, I done did it! haha
 
www.feoa.net

There's not a whole hell of a lot of swap options for an 80s escort though. and that 88 hp 1.9L straight 4 is pretty weak.
 
it's a hatchback right? do like that dude on project crx did, and put front wheel drive-front engine in the rear. pick a sturdy engin, and try to get a front clip or somethin. just make sure you get a decent engine, not a ford :p
 
302 with a 5speed.... rollcage and make sure you get some good seats and harnesses to hold you in
 
I'd loooove to go the V8 route, that would be totally sick. Thats gonna prolly take alot of fab though.... I'm gonna go down today and take some pics of the interior, and the engine bay, see what I can rip out and whether or not theres gonna be enough room for a small block in this bish
 
gut it
cage it
HALON it

GTU here you come.


those escorts actually fair farily well in GTU or GTL
 
Smallblock y0! I think it will fit. If the 1.9L is carb'ed it should be a straightforward swap (at least mechincally). engine mounts and some wiring work will need to be done. But seeing at its about 15 years old - I don't think you need to pass emissions... :ph34r:

Speaking of Cosworth, theres a cherry XR4TI for sale around my college for 2.5k...might look at it next week.
Turbo 2.3L + RWD = holy burnout.
 
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Smallblock y0! I think it will fit. If the 1.9L is carb'ed it should be a straightforward swap (at least mechincally). engine mounts and some wiring work will need to be done. But seeing at its about 15 years old - I don't think you need to pass emissions... :ph34r:

Speaking of Cosworth, theres a cherry XR4TI for sale around my college for 2.5k...might look at it next week.
Turbo 2.3L + RWD = holy burnout.

85+ are FI if I remember right.

Basically there is NO straightforward swaps into a mid 80s escort. Even the GT models with the 1.9 high output.

A 2.3 would take engine and tranny mounts, and might have hood clearance problems.
A 5.0 would take gutting the entire chassis, along with the floor board and firewall to make room for the rear gears, driveshaft, engine and transmission.

I would think if it's an 85.5-89 model you might be able to swap in the 1.9 high output engine and turbocharge it. For that you'd need a custom exhaust manifold. IMO that'd be the least amount of work.

But, on the plus side. The Escort DID actually come as a turbocharged model in 84-85. It used the IHI series turbo. You'll be able to read more into that on Jeff's cardomain page that I provide later on.

Now, if you were getting a 91-96 LX model, you could drop in a 97-02 2.0 SPI, drop a Garrett T3 (.48/.42) on it, and use Megasquirt for tuning and engine management. (megasquirt basically = uberdata)

If you're serious about it, I would SERIOUSLY consider trying to sell the 80s Escort and buy a 91-96 LX. They're cheap, I could pick one up for 200-300 bucks. Then you could swap the 2.0 SPI.

The best page in the universe right here...

Jeff's cardomain page. this guy has done it all. He's a well respected moderator on feoa.net.
 
Quoted post[/post]]
A 2.3 would take engine and tranny mounts, and might have hood clearance problems.
A 5.0 would take gutting the entire chassis, along with the floor board and firewall to make room for the rear gears, driveshaft, engine and transmission.


2.3- hood clearance? Thats why God created man... so he could invent a sawzall

5.0- as far as gutting the chassis, whattya talkin about there? im thinking it would be alot easier to source a 5.0 out of a 'stang then bothering looking around for a nice 2.3. I'm already gonna gut the whole interior down to the bare metal, so a little extra cutting and whatnot isn't that much of a big deal beyond that.

Dropped off the cartons today, homeboy got booted out of Air Assault school because he forgot to pack a pencil (anal mofo's over there). Went to the parking lot, and due to his recent loss of the keys, used the master spare key ( flathead screwdriver) i keep on me at all times :p Car runs, just has a flat LR tire, and thats no biggie to me either. Gonna toss on the donut and strip it out today most likely, get rid of all that pseky interior stuff! I'll take some pics of it when it gets light out.
 
You name it under the hood and on the floor panel, you're pretty much going to have to chop it to fit a 5.0 in. The firewall will have to be moved back at least 4-5 inches just to get the engine to fit in, let alone the transmission an driveshaft.

Cutting up a unibody car is not a good thing to do.
 
Nice day out, gonna start stripping the interior today. Hopefully I get it down to metal... with the exception of the dash and crap before it gets dark. Pics to follow.


Edit** - Rear half of the car is fully stripped: Seats, interior and door paneling, headliner
- Took the left front headlight out and cut the airbox up for some better airflow (until I get the new engine in there)
- Turns out it's actually a 92 Lx, so I'm gonna be lookin at the 2.0L route now.

As far as suspension, does anyone know if theres a way to increase suspension travel via swap from something else, or would i have to get it all fabbed? Looking to fit some larger tires with some aggressive off-road tread on it, so I'm gonna nead clearance, and suspension travel = <3
By the way, 2000si, were you talking about this engine?

1997 FORD ESCORT SPORT

Engine Type L4
Engine Size 2.0 Liters , 1989 CC , 122.0 CID
Fuel Type Gas Engine
Fuel Delivery Fuel Injection
Aspiration Non Turbo

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1999-Escort...1QQcmdZViewItem
 
oh its a 92 Escort? well hell, theres alot of stuff you can do to those body styles. checkout corksport.com because they have alot stuff for Escorts over there. as far as suspension goes, there are lowering springs, coilovers and strut tower braces available. and if you are looking for a motor, 2000si has an engine out of a 91-96 Escort GT thats just laying around. im sure he can give you a good deal on it.
 
`you don't need to cut the fire wall completly just the tunnel. i will post some opics of a truck that was just brought to me to fix the home made work on
 
Quoted post[/post]]
Nice day out, gonna start stripping the interior today. Hopefully I get it down to metal... with the exception of the dash and crap before it gets dark. Pics to follow.


Edit** - Rear half of the car is fully stripped: Seats, interior and door paneling, headliner
- Took the left front headlight out and cut the airbox up for some better airflow (until I get the new engine in there)
- Turns out it's actually a 92 Lx, so I'm gonna be lookin at the 2.0L route now.

As far as suspension, does anyone know if theres a way to increase suspension travel via swap from something else, or would i have to get it all fabbed? Looking to fit some larger tires with some aggressive off-road tread on it, so I'm gonna nead clearance, and suspension travel = <3
By the way, 2000si, were you talking about this engine?

1997 FORD ESCORT SPORT

Engine Type L4
Engine Size 2.0 Liters , 1989 CC , 122.0 CID
Fuel Type Gas Engine
Fuel Delivery Fuel Injection
Aspiration Non Turbo

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1999-Escort...1QQcmdZViewItem

ah shit, it's a 2nd generation? You're in luck mang. Engine swaps out the yingyang for that car.

First things first, the engine in the link is a DOHC from the ZX2 probably.... cause 3rd gens didn't come with DOHC engines. The engine I'm talking about is a SOHC called the SPI (split port intake) 2.0L 110 hp, etc. That SOHC SPI will BOLT DIRECTLY INTO YOUR 92, and it WILL use the same transmission. 22 hp jump, right there... let alone torque production.

The problem with using the 1.8 DOHC engine from a 91-96 Escort GT, 90-94 Protege, 91-95 Tracer LTS/Escort LX-E is the fact that you need EVERYTHING from the GT for it to work, transmission and ECU. Which I don't have.

BUT... if you're interested... please say yes... I have damn near an entire 1.8L engine sitting in the garage.

valve cover, head, cams, engine block, crank, rods and pistons, as well as a fuel rail with four injectors. Only thing I don't have is the Throttle body and oil pump/pan.

250 + shipping and it's yours. But the block and head are heavy as shit. so probably not.

Anyway, check out the link to that guys Cardomain page I provided earlier for anything you might want to consider doing.

Also check out www.corksport.com and www.zxtuner.com for modification Ideas.

Swing on by www.feoa.net and ask some questions if you want as well.

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`you don't need to cut the fire wall completly just the tunnel. i will post some opics of a truck that was just brought to me to fix the home made work on

A truck and a sub compact Escort are two different animals. An Escort is a unibody car, there is no "frame".

You would have to move the firewall back into the drivers compartment to get a V8 to fit, Unless you're going to raise the car to the height of a full size truck to make room for the transmission and driveshaft?
 
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