1985 Ford Escort RS Turbo Series 1

[SebringMan]

I guess it is time I spoke of a relatively new purchase.

At the start of this year I have quite a few cars, with them working to some degree. One of them was a Triumph Stag which I had owned for a number of years and carried out quite a number of jobs on, including a new roof, gearbox refurb, interior retrim amongst other things:




After having a few issues with the gearbox once more in addition to a minor falling out with a specialist over other things occurring with the car I decided it was best to part ways. Waiting 10 minutes for a relatively new gearbox to pick any gear from cold was becoming quite annoying!

Another car which was sold this year was a Peugeot 205 GTi. Originally 3 of us bought this car so that we could rally in it. Thus the car received quite a bit of attention. Towards the end we decided that with the lack of use it would be best to get rid, even if the car itself was sound. That car was lovely to drive when all of the extra goodies were fitted.






Finally the last car to be sold was my beloved 1991 Porsche 944 Turbo. This for a year was a daily for me and then it became more of a weekend toy. In the 944 circles the car is relatively well known being ex ProMax Motorsport's Andrew Sweetenaham's car. As a result it had a very tasty spec including:

-Chipped engine with a different BOV and Wortec switchable exhaust producing 290BHP
-KWv3 Suspension with M030 ARBs and ARB poly bushes with 968 castor mounts
-928 GTS 'Big Black' brake conversion with smooth callipers at the rear
-17" Cup 1 wheels in anthracite finished with Michlin Pilot Sport tyres.

It was a joy to drive and it is a car I will miss. But it is always great to try other things.





For a brief moment in time (as a result of P/Xing the 205 against it) I owned a cheap Mercedes W124 300D with the OM603 engine. That car as great as it was has to be one of the slowest cars I have ever driven. I owned it for a day before my friend spared me of it, and with that it is the shortest timespan for me owning any car.

So what would I buy with this? Some nice Scooby, a BMW E46 330i Sport, an M3 maybe?

No, I went with one of these:



Yup, I went from owning a superb handling car to something not quite so superb! But an RST for some perverse reason is an itch I have been meaning to scratch for some time, although I always thought it would be in the S2 flavour.

My initial plan was to buy a tidy rust free car. This seemed tricky. When this one turned up it also happened to have a few other goodies present (and so no goody goodies!):






The spec of this car seems to be as follows following a recent engine rebuild:

Engine: 1.8 ZVH sporting a Stage 3 head, Piper TT cam with vernier pulley, Omega pistons with a tweaked KE Jetronic fuel system running an MFII 5th Injector. Pace chargecooler and alloy rads are also present with a swirl pot. CR Turbos Stage 2.5 T3 (360 degree bearings, 2WD Cosworth compressor housing with .55AR compressor wheel, -31 actuator). ARP bolts.
Brakes: Wilwood 4 pot Midlites on Hawk Racing pads with braided lines all round.
Gearbox: MkV RS2000 gearbox with LSD and a quickshift kit. Helix 4 paddle clutch.
Suspension: Fully polybushed with Leda coilovers all round
Interior: Stripped with Sparco seats and a rollcage.

It is quite a lively thing to drive and surprisingly well handling as well! However, a few things have changed since these shots, which I shall bring up to date in due course. Whilst this is not quite as fast or as agile as the Porsche it is certainly more fun, at least for me in more ways than one, and well I guess there is a soft spot for me and old Fords .

Edited by SebringMan on Saturday 17th January 19:55

Edited by SebringMan on Saturday 17th January 22:47

[selym]

I can't believe these things are 30 years old! Nice one, OP.

[DaMasterMind]

Love it although i would much prefer it with the original interior. How much power is that spec of engine running around?

[The Nur]

I swore out loud when I saw how clean the underneath of that Escort is. Good stuff.

[Tickle]

Love these, so much nicer looking than the S2. Did the S1 also have an LSD as standard IIRC?

[iacabu]

Wow!

It's nice to see a classic fast Ford on here once in a while, I have a bit of a soft spot for them.

The Porsche was very nice too.

[ubbs]

Tickle said:

Love these, so much nicer looking than the S2. Did the S1 also have an LSD as standard IIRC?

Yes they did on the s1 and were far more "twitchy" than the s2 something to do with the front anti roll bar set up totally different to the s2, something to do with its motor sports homologation fantastic cars back in the day I bought mine in 1988 off a retired engineer and sold it 1994 longest I've ever owned a car

[Martin_M]

Cool - looking forward to reading about your mods.

[sleeky]

Hello Chas!

That is the last thing I expected to see you get...I thought the ford loving days were long gone, hehe.

I may just have to make an effort to come up and see this

[150bhp]

Very nice collection you've had, love the Porsche and the RS turbo.

[rallycross]

Looks very nice and will only go up in value but how much are you going to miss that 944 now If that's its replacement?!

[clarki]

Nice ford, but wow that 944 is fantastic.

[SebringMan]

Well, many thanks for the comments! It is good to see that there is some Ford appreciation here for the few times they pop on here . As for the comms:

DaMasterMind said:

Love it although i would much prefer it with the original interior. How much power is that spec of engine running around?

I am working on the first part . On the plus side I got to see that the car was not full of rot in this state.

AFAIK the engine is making around 230-240BHP. I need to get this confirmed as the clutch in this car is far from friendly. I have actually got used to it (and I think it has bedded in since I have owned it) but it still requires thought. What are your peeps opinions? Depending on the power the car makes for sure I'll probably get Helix's fast road clutch (or the ubiquitous AP2000-35 organic clutch) or try what others have; fitting a stock pressure plate and release bearing to the 4 plate pressure plate.

However, the clutch does seem to aid the experience when putting your foot down .

ubbs said:

Yes they did on the s1 and were far more "twitchy" than the s2 something to do with the front anti roll bar set up totally different to the s2, something to do with its motor sports homologation fantastic cars back in the day I bought mine in 1988 off a retired engineer and sold it 1994 longest I've ever owned a car

What this man said regarding if they came with an LSD or not. I believe that where almost all of the MkIII (and IV) Escorts had track control arms with the ARB locating them (very much like a Capri or MkI & II Escort) the very early MkIII Escorts along with the RS1600i and RSTs (in MKIII flavour) had tie bars fitted as well, with them being adjustable on the RS versions, allowing for the castor to be changed. This was ditched when the MkIV came along.

sleeky said:

Hello Chas!

That is the last thing I expected to see you get...I thought the ford loving days were long gone, hehe.

I may just have to make an effort to come up and see this

Hello stranger! I was not expecting you to be lurking on here! What are you driving these days?

I thought you always knew that I was a fan of Fords. I merely fancied trying hand at a few things along the way before I got this (and generally got myself tied down to the car due to varying issues etc.!). As for having a peek just let me know .

rallycross said:

Looks very nice and will only go up in value but how much are you going to miss that 944 now If that's its replacement?!

Many thanks. The 944 will be missed for sure. Having other S2 owners come into the car and for me to make them grip various parts of the car's interior due to it's grip has to show the car's capabilities. If I am honest, it allowed me to realise just what a great chassis the 944 has with such a setup. But as said I do like many cars, and the Escort is quite fun for different reasons .

So, where was I? Ah yes, what has been done to the car since its purchase!

For a month or two this car became a daily driver. Being a relatively fresh rebuild I was expecting to run into a few teething problems and sure enough I did! But the car was getting quite a bit of attention and it was great going to a few well known meets across the country in it:




But the issues would not go away with them including:

-The engine not warming up (it did in traffic if left idling for a very long time, but it never overheated)
-A drain on the battery where the car would not start if left for a week
-Deal with the plumbing of the tanks etc.

The cooling issue I have yet to fix. I have purchased a genuine Ford Puma thermostat (same as an RST item, but it is 82 degrees as opposed to 88) along with a seal, gasket and clip. I know from past experience (or at least for me anyway) that pattern thermostats seem to be a complete lottery. On a few occasions I have had a car overcool more with a new pattern thermostat over the old item! I also obtained some genuine Ford coolant. Fingers are crossed that this helps the issue.

The other problem was the battery drain. I did not realise this when I bought the car but both previous owners after contacting them felt that the drain was down to a shoddy immobiliser (which would have been my hunch as well). After further investigation this turned out not to be the case. The first issue was the alternator belt. Due to the car running a different pulley (as a result of the engine having a Zetec Bottom end) the belt for car was too long. Off I went for a trip to the motor factors to get a Gates belt from a Series II RST. The alternator was now changing properly. This helped matters but it did not cure it.

After checking for a drain with the multimeter a 0.15A drain was found. Not massive IMO but not great either, The issue was found to be the clock wiring. This has now been amended with the car now becoming a reliable starter. The other issue is the car running a too small battery (it is running a 063 (genuine Ford calcium as well) although Ford specify a 065 for this application. I may well change it to this at a later date now that I have removed pipes which were obscuring the space of the battery .

Finally, there was the issue of the tanks. If I was to ever reinstate the interior the tanks would have to go. However, one was for an iffy Water injection setup with the larger tank being for the Pace chargecooler. Seeing as the water injection setup was crude at best that setup was binned pronto (the previous engine (a 1.9 long block) threw a rod out of the block; if the injection setup was working I cannot say that I am surprised. The other tank however required more careful consideration.

The larger tank forms part of the chargecooler setup. I would guess that the previous owner somewhere along the line had issues with the car keeping low charge temps (it has a charge temp display inside the car as well ). Here is what Pace used to sell saying that this setup could deal with 25PSi:



Mine however differs from this with it having:
-a much larger chargecooler tank
-a chargecooler rad about 3 times (maybe even 4) larger than what Pace provide
-a larger pump (a Davis Craig EWP80).

I would guess looking at the parts that the tank and pump were added first with the rad being the final addition (and probably the addition which worked!).

And so I got to work.

Firstly, the tanks went:



Naturally, this left me with a car that technically did not have a way of cooling down the charge air temperatures! A new ally tank helped matters here (spot the difference in the engine bay :



This of course allowed me to do this:




As of now it is looking more like this:



Shall I show a frontal shot?




Ahhh, go on then!



This was done so that I can still move the car if necessary. Is still much to do? Of course, this includes:

-Weld up the holes left from the rollcage.
-Find the boot parts (I am already 66% of the way there).
-Reinstate the doorcards all round.
-Refit the carpet.
-Sort out something else to do with the gauges (They will probably live in the tape deck cubby hole ; They will not be going (or the very least I'll need to keep two of the gauges ; Oil Pressure and Boost).
-Reinstate a centre airvent (I have never been a fan of losing them in any car ; how else can you warm your hands up on cold mornings (or maybe I just need to man up!).
-Drive the car .

When did Ford bits become pricey? This lot of parts were not cheap!

[TheLordJohn]

Yours looks the business.
I owned one for around a year in about 2008. Made over £1k when I sold it on.
BUT - it was a bag of bks. 2.1 ZVH, hybrid turbo, uprated everything with over £11k of receipts in a year so so the previous owner had spent. Horrible to drive.
The £400 Mk2 MR2 I bought to replace it drove infinitely better.

[starf]

That 205 looks fantastic. But it looks like the boot is a different colour - was that on purpose?

The 944 looks brilliant too! I bet that was a right handful on the country roads.

Is this your first Escort? You mention you're a fan of Fast Fords. Have you had many others? I always had a soft spot for the convertible myself, but yours looks good too.

[joshc]

Very cool, I think it will look much better with the original interior put back in, good luck with it.

[coopedup]

That is a thing of beauty, still miss my old XR3i from many moons ago and have always lusted after one of these

[Dammit]

Was this the car I saw in Altiss Engineering the other day?

[s p a c e m a n]

Nice, I've got a soft spot for the mk3. What does it run like on a bodged KE? That was a pants system even on a standard car once it was a few years old, needed to be set up every weekend to stay in tune

[SebringMan]

I am glad to see that a few peeps are appreciating an old Ford here .

TheLordJohn said:

Yours looks the business.
I owned one for around a year in about 2008. Made over £1k when I sold it on.
BUT - it was a bag of bks. 2.1 ZVH, hybrid turbo, uprated everything with over £11k of receipts in a year so so the previous owner had spent. Horrible to drive.
The £400 Mk2 MR2 I bought to replace it drove infinitely better.

There was me thinking the market was a weak time for an RST back then! Yours sounds great on paper. But what made it so bad to drive? If I am honest (possibly because I went in with zero expectations) I am quite enjoying mine. Of course, there are negatives (if you floor it torque steer is one (although it seems to add to the fun :/) as is the clutch (but I may have a plan for that ). Even the steering is not horrifically heavy surprisingly, well in comparison to other MkIII and IVs I have driven.

Dammit said:

Was this the car I saw in Altiss Engineering the other day?

Not this one, no . Do you have much experience of Altiss? It is always good to keep some local guys nos. to hand.

starf said:

That 205 looks fantastic. But it looks like the boot is a different colour - was that on purpose?

The 944 looks brilliant too! I bet that was a right handful on the country roads.

Is this your first Escort? You mention you're a fan of Fast Fords. Have you had many others? I always had a soft spot for the convertible myself, but yours looks good too.

Well, I wonder who this is .

The boot was all the same colour though.

It is funny you mention a Cabrio. Many moons ago I may have owned one. It was good fun even when it did let us down:

s p a c e m a n said:

Nice, I've got a soft spot for the mk3. What does it run like on a bodged KE? That was a pants system even on a standard car once it was a few years old, needed to be set up every weekend to stay in tune

Many thanks . I was never a fan of the MkIII bar the RS 1600i but I did like the RSTs more than the other RSTs and preferred the MKIVs. It is funny how time changes that. The MkIIIs have some great retro touches to them IMO .

When you say bodged, I take it you are referring to it running a 5th Injector setup? TBH for 80% of the time it has run absolutely fine. If I am honest it drove better than the 944 it replaced ; it is smooth off boost and while it does give you a kick when coming onto power it is all very smooth and transient. As a daily it worked very well. The only issue was that it would stutter slightly at lower rpm on part throttle, which I guess could be partially down to advanced timing. Naturally I could cheat and get the ignition timing retarded at that point at the expense of it feeling flat. The latter I am aware can happen to most cars out there with a pokier camshaft but a single throttle body .

I did have an issue before it was put away for storage mind you (with these winters!). After leaving it for two weeks the car would misfire (as if it had hit a rev limiter) when going higher up the boost with the odd backfire through the exhaust after or even randomly without boost on occasion. Initially I was quite worried (it is never good news!) and suspected the 5th injector. The issue did clear itself however, but I am aware that there is always a cause. Maybe the car was retaliating for being left outside for two very cold weeks (with condensation forming :/, hence why I put it away ).

Maybe I have been lucky but bar one car (which was neglected and £200 for a car!) I have not really had any issues with K-Jetronic on any previous car. I did do some no-nos on them like attempting to keep the metering head plate clean, but it also fixed 99% of the running issues with the cheap Volvo I owned ).

I am wondering whether the ignition system is to blame. Going through the receipts it has an Intermotor cap and rotor arm fitted, possibly because it is all the motor factor had (I know ECP seem to only stock no name brands for the caps and rotor arms on these) and the bonus of them being cheap (£5 for the cap and arm in total). On a VW Beetle (which uses the same bits oddly enough!) these brand of parts (despite being cheap) gave me a plethora of running issues, to the point where the car would barely run (as detailed in another thread). The Stag had very similar issues to this (it would not rev beyond 3.5krpm) until I went to an old school rotor arm. On a friend's Dolomite, his issues were similar to the brief problem my Escort seemed to suffer. As a result a BERU cap and NOS Ford rotor arm have been sourced, which shall be fitted once things begin to warm up .

Naturally the best solution would be to convert the car to run something like an Emerald setup, but where would the fun be in that? .

Edited by SebringMan on Tuesday 20th January 22:14