Engine Swap

[fry61]

Hi all, Florin's 1800 CVH engine is starting to use a lot of oil -- have changed the valve stem seals & done a leak down test which shows all similar readings on each cylinder. A re-build is on the cards or maybe a swap to a Zetec.

Florin at present is fitted with injection gear from an XR3i -- inlet was blue-printed to adaptor plate & plate blue-printed to head,exhaust is my lovely bit of bling made by a local company.

If I go for a Zetec how much of the existing kit will fit the Zetec head, don't wish for any more power or change Florins look, just wish for an engine that is not consuming loads of oil.

[Fossett]

Hope this helps;

 

My Westie was a CVH and is now a Zetec.

 

From what I can see the fella just got hold of an exhaust manifold plate, chopped off the cvh one and welded the new one in place.

 

Inlet side there are now bike carbs on a danst manifold which to be honest have been totally fine.

 

Ignition is now Nodiz, which is so simple to fit using the ford sensor thats already there.

 

There are a couple of other considerations of course; sump, alternator, cooling - but all of this is available readily.

[Guest 2b cruising]

As stated your manifold will fit with a new plate welded on but the pipe ends might need a little reshaping to fit the shape of the head ports. A decent metal worker would easily sewage them to the correct oval shape for you.

If you can buy a full ready to run engine my opinion would be to go for the Zetec.

They might be a little dated but cheap spares are still available and will be for many years.

Hope this helps Bob.

[Guest snowy2]

buy a focus engine from the early noughties (2000-2004) they will be almost certainly a Zetec E engine dont get a 1700 engine they are the sigma engine (Yamaha derived) and wont fit your gear box.

the Focus engine comes with a tubular manifold on the exhaust that has a nice mounting plate on it......a bit of angle grinder surgery and it will addapt to your manifold (the zetec E engine is a later variant of the CVH and the heads swap over as will the alternator with its bracket)

i have used the Focus 60 pin ecu with the stock alternator but my own inlet manifold and 4-1 exhaust. fitting the factory ECU is VERY easy. and i have a full set of wiring diagrams (available on the LOCOST forum) on how to sort it for the car.

i also modified my bell housing to accept the standard Zetec starter motor in its (correct for the Zetec) location. this is because the forums are full of folks with starting issues when they use the CVH starters, and its one less potential hassle.

making the inlet manifold was a weekends work, it allows me to use the Zetec ecu controlled alternator and makes the fitting of the "fan belt" much easier. the Zetec tensioner provides a ribbed pulley and the idler pully will provide a bearing when together makes a ribbed pully for an adjuster, i have kept the power steering mounting bracket and made a slotted bracket to fit the tensioner pully to and it all works fine. it allows the water pump to rotate in the correct direction.......you can buy modified water pumps (look for the BRISCA F2 stock car racing sites) but they cost an extra £100 or so.

Look for the Mondeo Zetec engines to provide a dip stick tube...they fit very close to the cylinder head and fit better under "snug" bonnets, the focus one stands about 4" away from the head and is less easy to get under a bonnet on a "7"

[femster87]

Hi all, Florin's 1800 CVH engine is starting to use a lot of oil -- have changed the valve stem seals & done a leak down test which shows all similar readings on each cylinder. A re-build is on the cards or maybe a swap to a Zetec.

Florin at present is fitted with injection gear from an XR3i -- inlet was blue-printed to adaptor plate & plate blue-printed to head,exhaust is my lovely bit of bling made by a local company.

If I go for a Zetec how much of the existing kit will fit the Zetec head, don't wish for any more power or change Florins look, just wish for an engine that is not consuming loads of oil.

Bob,buy my zetec, bring the car down. I have a decent sized workshop with all the tools. You can have a holiday in Yorkshire as well

 

Anything you don't have we can make. I have some engine mounts we can try reuse. Are you using carbs

Edited June 25, 2016 by femster

[Al Milton]

What a top offer for Bob (& Mo) Femi

 

It's offers like that which make this club truly brilliant

 

So, what do you get for your £15??????????????

 

Top marks Femi

[tractor]

eh Femster calm down I have the 2ltr zetec for sale better torque than the 1.8

[kevin the chicken]

My mot tester who races stock cars says you can get a brand new crated zetec for about 650 pounds. Sounds like a lot of money but it's not for a brand new engine. You could buy a second hand unit for 100 quid and have it go bang first time out. Now it sounds like a good deal doesn't It? A properly run in and cared for new engine would last a good long time in one of these cars.

[steve in stockport]

CVH sump will fit a zetec, just needs two extra bolt holes drilling in the flange. You could also do a ZVH hybrid engine, can't remember if it's cvh head on zetec block or vice versa.

[fry61]

Cheers Femi, sounds like a plan, will P.M tomorrow to see what can be arranged.

[fry61]

Thanks to all for your input, great info once again from our club.

[Guest 2b cruising]

Good choice Bob.

Hope all ones well.

[Guest snowy2]

The 2.0 L engine is nice but the 1.8 L engine is more common and often cheaper to buy, its only 15hp shy of the 2.0L and has the flywheel you need from the off. modest "tuning" will give 165hp on the 2.0L and around 150hp on the 1.8L way better than the CVH and likely better fuel economy. the extra 15hp for the 2.0L will only really be noticed on the track, so don’t loose sleep over finding one.

[steve in stockport]

Hi Bob, don't know how far along you are with this but have had a couple of thoughts that might interest you.

With regards to keeping as much as possible from the cvh Dan ST does cvh to zetec manifold adapters for inlet and exhaust so there's a fair chance you could keep both your existing inlet and exhaust.

Your current ecu could well run the zetec using the crank position sensor and if you go 1.8 to 1.8 your existing fuel system should be just about there too.

I might be talking rubbish, but worth trying before splashing out unnecessarily.

[fry61]

Thanks for your input Steve, we have put this on the back burner at present as the 1800CVH fitted to the Sierra is different to all the other CVH models.

 

Will probably buy a new Zetec crate engine later in the year as it will be complete with a lot more bits required.