Ford Focus Mk2 [ST] Estate Sleeper - Build Thread

Ford Focus Mk2 [ST] Estate Sleeper - Build Thread

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CHR15 G

Original Poster:

267 posts

153 months

Tuesday 6th October 2015
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Hello all,

So I'm a long term reader, but [nearly] first time contributor and I thought what better way to start than with my project build thread.

A bit about me first; I'm a 26 year old Mechanical Engineer who works for a small company that design and manufacture bespoke torque measurement systems for the Oil&Gas, aerospace and, my specialty, the F1 industry. In my spare time I'm also the Trackside Team Manager for a race team that run these F3 cars:



My current fleet:
Daily Driver: Clio 182. I have a 25 mile commute each way across back roads and this is just perfect! It's getting a bit high on miles (90k) so I want to replace it with the Focus sleeper, and then save it for fair weather Sunday drives and keep it forever!



Shed: Ford Focus 1.8 Zetec estate. This has actually been owned by my family since new, I remember the day my dad picked it up. 130k miles but it still drives so nicely. This will succumb to rust before the new Focus is finished and will fail its next MOT.



Classic: 205 GTi 1.9. I've had this for about 5 years now and is a bit of a rolling restoration project. It isn't perfect, but that just means I'm happy to drive it.



Next Project: Land Rover Series 3 109. I've owned this for about 10 years now, and to start with I used it daily. It's now suffered the usual rust and needs a new chassis and bulkhead so this will be my next project after the Focus. It's currently used occasionally around my parents land.



So that's my current fleet, which will hopefully show why I want to build the Focus and what I want it to be.

The basic plan is to transplant the complete running gear (engine, 'box, suspension, brakes), electronics and interior from a mk2 Focus ST (2.5 inline 5 turbo, 225bhp) into a poverty spec Focus estate. What I want to achieve is:
1. Usable daily driver
2. Enough power to annoy people in 'flashy', fast cars
3. Tatty enough to leave in supermarket car parks and not worry about it
4. Not feel the need to clean it and keep the paint in good condition
5. Big enough for a weekend of mountain biking
6. Tow car for small race car trailers
7. A few subtle hints, such as big brakes and visible intercooler
8. Doesn't need to be the finest handling as I have the Clio and 205

I think that's about it for now, but I'll try and keep this updated with my progress.

AdamIndy

1,661 posts

103 months

Tuesday 6th October 2015
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I will be watching with interest! Sounds like a great tool. I would imagine it's no small task though. Good luck with the build.

JonoG81

384 posts

104 months

Wednesday 7th October 2015
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AdamIndy said:
I will be watching with interest! Sounds like a great tool. I would imagine it's no small task though. Good luck with the build.
Me too, I like the sound of this a lot

Kitchski

6,514 posts

230 months

Wednesday 7th October 2015
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The Volvo 5-pot is a gem of an engine. We've got one in an S-Max. The torque curve is so wide, it's really hard to know when the turbo spools up! It'll pull from 1000rpm in 6th gear with absolutely no fuss at all, and the S-Max/Mondeo package has much taller gears than the Focus, so it should be even better in one of those. It's better at low down grunt than many diesels I've driven, yet will pull to 6000rpm. Ok, it's no rocket ship in nearly 2000kgs of S-Max, but it makes it thoroughly decent to drive. Sounds good too. Only issue is this cylinder liner problem that affects the 2.5 versions, which, according to the Volvo forums, is a modification Ford did, and funnily enough it's considered a bit of a penny-pinching bodge among the Swedes.

I've often thought a mk2 Focus ST would be near on a perfect daily driver. Enough grunt for fun, enough noise for character, enough refinement and build quality to be relaxing and Ford know how to make cars handle these days. Only issue for me is looks, which sounds totally daft, but they're not cheap cars yet, and I think they look pretty awful from the back. If I was spending a few quid, I'd want to like the looks too. Weirdly, I think an estate version would look the nuts, however! I'd want the arches, wheels and orange paint, but then there goes the sleeper value.

Would be a great car though, perfect for what you've outlined you want it for.

Anyway, since when did 90k miles become high miles? You're an engineer, you should know the whole 'high-mileage' thing is for people who don't know about cars hehe

C70R

17,596 posts

103 months

Wednesday 7th October 2015
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Sounds like an excellent plan.

By way of managing build costs (i.e. not pouring money into an old Focus estate unnecessarily), would it be feasible to easily drop the 2.3 T5 Volvo lump in? There are many more of these floating around, and could even be paired to an autobox for ultimate lazy daily driving. An inexpensive remap and exhaust sees one of these around the 280-290bhp mark, which should be more than enough for a Focus...
(although, to that end you would be better just buying and tuning a decent 850 T5 in cooking spec and enjoying the better seats/ride)

Megaflow

9,345 posts

224 months

Wednesday 7th October 2015
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The 2.5 was not modified by Ford, it was a completely new design of 5 cylinder, because the 2.3 litre unit was too big for the mk2 Focus platform.

Fast Bug

11,595 posts

160 months

Wednesday 7th October 2015
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Sounds like a great project!

Rick101

6,959 posts

149 months

Wednesday 7th October 2015
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Sounds a good project. Looking forward to lots of pics.

CHR15 G

Original Poster:

267 posts

153 months

Wednesday 7th October 2015
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I know the whole mileage/age/service thing on cars, but once you get north of 100k on a little fragile car like the Clio you are looking at clutch, gearbox, engine mounts etc. Because the bodywork is still nearly perfect I'm terrified of leaving it in car parks or parked on street overnight.

It terms of other Volvo engines, I already think that this project won't be easy and it's my first, so I don't want to make things even more difficult for myself. Although a 2.3 could be made to fit, I know a Focus 2.5 will drop straight in and the bigger bonus is that all the wiring and ancillaries will swap straight over. Think of it as re-shelling an ST into an estate body.

Costs will be kept down by using a bodywork written off ST (so I get all the wiring) and a blown engine estate.

I don't want to 'just' tune up an existing car either, I want to build something that no one else has.

CHR15 G

Original Poster:

267 posts

153 months

Wednesday 7th October 2015
quotequote all
I'm also a Ford boy, always have been. I respect Volvos and realise that they are great cars (hands down the best alround car I have ever driven was a brand new XC70 rental last year, that includes super cars, luxury, SUVs), but they are just a bit to big, over engineered, heavy and lacking chassis finesse for what I want everyday.

My personal preference, but it's my build so I can do what I want to!

rb5er

11,657 posts

171 months

Wednesday 7th October 2015
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Bookmarked. That orange estate ST cgi looked great, hopefully this will look similar.

KingNothing

3,159 posts

152 months

Wednesday 7th October 2015
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Love the 2.5 5 cylinder engine, had my ST for 5 years, and now have an RS, very nice power delivery.

CHR15 G

Original Poster:

267 posts

153 months

Wednesday 7th October 2015
quotequote all
rb5er said:
Bookmarked. That orange estate ST cgi looked great, hopefully this will look similar.
Thanks for the support, although I haven't seen the picture I suspect that it won't look anything like that. Imagine dark coloured bog spec estate, on slightly bigger steel wheels, sitting a bit lower and wider, hint of big brakes, intercooler through the grill and big but mainly hidden exhaust. And a nice interior.

Sorry to disappoint!

KingNothing

3,159 posts

152 months

Wednesday 7th October 2015
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You planning on running a standard engine?

Kitchski

6,514 posts

230 months

Wednesday 7th October 2015
quotequote all
Megaflow said:
The 2.5 was not modified by Ford, it was a completely new design of 5 cylinder, because the 2.3 litre unit was too big for the mk2 Focus platform.
Tell me more!

Kitchski

6,514 posts

230 months

Wednesday 7th October 2015
quotequote all
CHR15 G said:
I know the whole mileage/age/service thing on cars, but once you get north of 100k on a little fragile car like the Clio you are looking at clutch, gearbox, engine mounts etc. Because the bodywork is still nearly perfect I'm terrified of leaving it in car parks or parked on street overnight.
Ah yeah, fair enough. Totally understand there!

Should be good though!

CHR15 G

Original Poster:

267 posts

153 months

Wednesday 7th October 2015
quotequote all
KingNothing said:
You planning on running a standard engine?
What does 'standard' mean...? I'll leave the actual engine internals for the moment, but I'm thinking induction kit, intercooler, exhaust and remap to start with. I'll aim for 300bhp for starters, then push for 350bhp when it's up and running.

Megaflow

9,345 posts

224 months

Wednesday 7th October 2015
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Kitchski said:
Megaflow said:
The 2.5 was not modified by Ford, it was a completely new design of 5 cylinder, because the 2.3 litre unit was too big for the mk2 Focus platform.
Tell me more!
It seems I may have been led up a garden path with that piece of information. I was told the 2.3l was know as a Redblock, and IIRC, the 2.5 was a white block.

Excuse the wiki links, but these pages suggest the Redblock is the 2.3 from the 80's and there is a 2.3 and a 2.5 of the new engine platform.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volvo_Redblock_Engin...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volvo_Modular_engine

bakerstreet

4,755 posts

164 months

Wednesday 7th October 2015
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Whats wrong with the Series chassis and bulkhead? There is a wide variety of repair parts for both.

My series has had a new rear 3/4 and two outriggers, so they can be repaired. I have also seen ones with more repairs than that too. You can get new footwells for the bulkheads as well as top sections.

I wish you the best of luck with the ST project smile I'm surprised that Ford took so long to bring out a full fat ST Estate. Maybe they were put off by poor sales of the ST170 estate.

CHR15 G

Original Poster:

267 posts

153 months

Wednesday 7th October 2015
quotequote all
bakerstreet said:
Whats wrong with the Series chassis and bulkhead? There is a wide variety of repair parts for both.

My series has had a new rear 3/4 and two outriggers, so they can be repaired. I have also seen ones with more repairs than that too. You can get new footwells for the bulkheads as well as top sections.

I wish you the best of luck with the ST project smile I'm surprised that Ford took so long to bring out a full fat ST Estate. Maybe they were put off by poor sales of the ST170 estate.
Mine have been patched up so much, and need so much work now that I just want to start with new galvanised parts, and ground up re-build it. But I won't be tackling that just yet, still planing to do on it.

The ST170 was a bit of a flop, nobody really wanted fast estates then (apart from RSs and AMGs), but they've definitely come back in vogue now.