My Ford Focus ST3
Discussion
Hi Everyone!
I'm Luke, i'm 24, I'm from Cheshire and in October 2016 I bought my first Focus ST!
I have been on the forum for a little while getting some great information and maybe pinching some ideas other people have had and adding them to my own pride and joy! [
]
I guess I will start from the very beginning and catch you all up!
So as shown in the pictures above, from the age of 17 I have gone through my little collection of cars!
Going in order I had...
1.1 Peugeot 106 zest
1.2 Fiat Punto
1.4 Rover 25
1.6 Vauxhall Astra
2.0 Hyundai Coupe
1.8 Mitsubishi FTO
BMW 118D coupe
BMW 120D MSport
3.0 Lexus GS300
I know I haven't the most usual choice in cars but I have loved all of them (apart from the Punto! That was just to get me from A to B
) So toward the end of last year I wanted a new toy that I can enjoy, play around with, and have a good looking brum brum! So I sold the old Lexus and bought myself this!...
It is a 2008 ST3 with 52000 miles on the clock! It has 8 service stamps and body work is in amazing condition so from what I could tell it was really well looked after! When I bought it, it was up for sale with it having a few extra goodies on!
RS injectors
RS spark plugs
Airtec intercooler
3" full de-carted mongoose exhaust system
RS clutch & flywheel
Dreamscience XRS re-map
Forge recirc valve
K+N cold air induction kit
It was posted up saying it had over 300bhp on the add, I have no proof but it pulls like a train!... when the wheels stop spinning anyway!
Since I have had the car I have only done a few tiny things like changing interior lights to nice LED ones, put 4 nice new decent tyres on it and replaced all the exterior badges to nice new ones to help tidy it up! I had a few teething issues to start off with but they were quick and easy fixes thanks to you guys helping out with some great info on here!
This is how I had it from October up until this week in January when the worst happened....
I was on a drive back home from a night away, and the car started to miss-fire when it was idling, and I noticed large clouds of vapor coming from the backside of the ST as though i had just started it on a freezing cold morning - but I was actually over an hour into the drive back home. Then when i got home i noticed the coolant had gone from the max mark to nearly completely empty in the reservoir & a bit of emulsion under the oil filler cap. So I sent it to the garage hoping that it was just a head gasket issue... Turned out to be a cracked block!
Its hard to tell from the picture taken from a phone but there is a crack. After finding out I did a bit of research and found there was a garage nearby that deal with this sort of thing all of the time! So I got my ST sent down to BD Performance in Wrexham. They ran me through my options and I have found them to be extremely helpful! The car is actually with them now as i write this! I could either look for a second hand engine which I didn't quite fancy as I would have no idea of how the engine has been treated in the past or go for a re-sleeved block (I think that's how they described it). After a long conversation over the phone and me worrying about my bank balance I finally decided what I wanted done...
I chose to change my block for a slightly bigger bore block, including the block mod (installing shims in the slim gaps between the cylinders to prevent them from cracking) so that this didn't happen again! I also chose to go with forged internals and a full engine rebuild with all new nice shiny seals, bearings, gaskets, head bolts, belts and I even opted to have my head refurbished too! Below are the pictures I have received so far of how things are getting on!
Engine out...
New block being steam cleaned...
And a bit more progress...
More progress!
Nice clean sump...
Head back on...
Nice and shiny!...
Cam belt on...
Looking more like an engine again! [
] ...
And that's where I'm up to so far! I chose to go for a full rebuild just for piece of mind and so that I can be at ease when I'm driving around, not worrying about breaking down or having any future problems... the forged internals were just a bonus, I couldn't help myself but go down that route whilst the engine was already in pieces which will also allow me to go for some bigger ponies if i decide to go down that route in the future! The guys at BD performance really are making this whole experience as pleasant and enjoyable as it possible could be! Sending me pictures and updates throughout the day, putting it into laymen terms for me so i know what is going on and really are cracking on with some great progress!
More progress coming soon!
Thanks!
I'm Luke, i'm 24, I'm from Cheshire and in October 2016 I bought my first Focus ST!
I have been on the forum for a little while getting some great information and maybe pinching some ideas other people have had and adding them to my own pride and joy! [
]I guess I will start from the very beginning and catch you all up!
So as shown in the pictures above, from the age of 17 I have gone through my little collection of cars!
Going in order I had...
1.1 Peugeot 106 zest
1.2 Fiat Punto
1.4 Rover 25
1.6 Vauxhall Astra
2.0 Hyundai Coupe
1.8 Mitsubishi FTO
BMW 118D coupe
BMW 120D MSport
3.0 Lexus GS300
I know I haven't the most usual choice in cars but I have loved all of them (apart from the Punto! That was just to get me from A to B
) So toward the end of last year I wanted a new toy that I can enjoy, play around with, and have a good looking brum brum! So I sold the old Lexus and bought myself this!...
It is a 2008 ST3 with 52000 miles on the clock! It has 8 service stamps and body work is in amazing condition so from what I could tell it was really well looked after! When I bought it, it was up for sale with it having a few extra goodies on!
RS injectors
RS spark plugs
Airtec intercooler
3" full de-carted mongoose exhaust system
RS clutch & flywheel
Dreamscience XRS re-map
Forge recirc valve
K+N cold air induction kit
It was posted up saying it had over 300bhp on the add, I have no proof but it pulls like a train!... when the wheels stop spinning anyway!
Since I have had the car I have only done a few tiny things like changing interior lights to nice LED ones, put 4 nice new decent tyres on it and replaced all the exterior badges to nice new ones to help tidy it up! I had a few teething issues to start off with but they were quick and easy fixes thanks to you guys helping out with some great info on here!
This is how I had it from October up until this week in January when the worst happened....
I was on a drive back home from a night away, and the car started to miss-fire when it was idling, and I noticed large clouds of vapor coming from the backside of the ST as though i had just started it on a freezing cold morning - but I was actually over an hour into the drive back home. Then when i got home i noticed the coolant had gone from the max mark to nearly completely empty in the reservoir & a bit of emulsion under the oil filler cap. So I sent it to the garage hoping that it was just a head gasket issue... Turned out to be a cracked block!
Its hard to tell from the picture taken from a phone but there is a crack. After finding out I did a bit of research and found there was a garage nearby that deal with this sort of thing all of the time! So I got my ST sent down to BD Performance in Wrexham. They ran me through my options and I have found them to be extremely helpful! The car is actually with them now as i write this! I could either look for a second hand engine which I didn't quite fancy as I would have no idea of how the engine has been treated in the past or go for a re-sleeved block (I think that's how they described it). After a long conversation over the phone and me worrying about my bank balance I finally decided what I wanted done...
I chose to change my block for a slightly bigger bore block, including the block mod (installing shims in the slim gaps between the cylinders to prevent them from cracking) so that this didn't happen again! I also chose to go with forged internals and a full engine rebuild with all new nice shiny seals, bearings, gaskets, head bolts, belts and I even opted to have my head refurbished too! Below are the pictures I have received so far of how things are getting on!
Engine out...
New block being steam cleaned...
And a bit more progress...
More progress!
Nice clean sump...
Head back on...
Nice and shiny!...
Cam belt on...
Looking more like an engine again! [
] ...
And that's where I'm up to so far! I chose to go for a full rebuild just for piece of mind and so that I can be at ease when I'm driving around, not worrying about breaking down or having any future problems... the forged internals were just a bonus, I couldn't help myself but go down that route whilst the engine was already in pieces which will also allow me to go for some bigger ponies if i decide to go down that route in the future! The guys at BD performance really are making this whole experience as pleasant and enjoyable as it possible could be! Sending me pictures and updates throughout the day, putting it into laymen terms for me so i know what is going on and really are cracking on with some great progress!
More progress coming soon!
Thanks!
Edited by Lshore on Tuesday 24th January 22:40
t the bed though. The cracking liners is not really uncommon though.Probably one of the hardest cars to part with, was my ST. Mine was about 300 bhp and was just utterly brilliant. Would have mine back in a heartbeat. As for cracking blocks, seeing the photo above about the thickness of the liner , does make you wonder why Ford oversized the bore from Volvo engines slightly smaller bore.
Glad things have picked up for you mate, I had dreamscience carry out the block mod on mine while the belts were changed, it gives some peace of mind. Which map are you running with those mods if you don't mind me asking? With those mods listed I would of thought 'mod XRS' would suit the best.
BD performance are very knowledgeable guys.
BD performance are very knowledgeable guys.
Patch888 said:
Glad things have picked up for you mate, I had dreamscience carry out the block mod on mine while the belts were changed, it gives some peace of mind. Which map are you running with those mods if you don't mind me asking? With those mods listed I would of thought 'mod XRS' would suit the best.
Thanks buddy! I just looked through the pack of paperwork that came with the car, it is the XRS remap that is on the car from Dreamscience!And the build which is including full engine strip down & rebuild including bigger bore cylinders and forged internals with a refurbished head is costing a total... £3700
Lshore said:
And the build which is including full engine strip down & rebuild including bigger bore cylinders and forged internals with a refurbished head is costing a total... £3700
Make sure you keep it a few years then! It is a good engine though. Lad at work had one at 280 and it sounded tasty with the work he had done
Yeah I think I will be keeping it for a good few years now! It really is a tidy car, i just got unlucky with the cracked sleeve! As for more power, I'm not sure if i will go much higher just yet as it already has issues with putting the power down onto the road as it is! I may have to look at a few supporting mods before hand like suspension/brakes and maybe do a little research as to what option there are to help with a little extra traction!
mackay45 said:
Impressive mileage! What's it been like for reliability in that time? Are you still on the original clutch (guessing not but you never know!)?
Not sure to be honest, I bought it at 148k miles , but its been fine so far, just needed some new front wishbones and rear ARB droplinks. Had full Ford service stamps though. Still runs great though. Ill take some pics at some point and start my own thread.
So a bit of an udate!... Not long after i made the first post the engine was back together and back in the car being topped up with some new fluids! Did't get much pictures at this point as the guys at BD Performance was in a bit of a rush to get it back on the road for me!
I really couldn't recommend BD Performance enough if anyone wants to get work done to their focus! The engine was out, stripped, and rebuilt completely with new parts within a week... And as i said i could have had it done cheaper but i wanted the piece of mind that it was done properly! ... And i couldn't help but upgrading a few things at the same time! So this is the option i went for...
And this was the final break down...
Same again... could have been cheaper but i needed a few extra things like a new drive shaft, i chose for my gearbox to be cleaned up with new fluids, a refurbished head and i also had to exchange my turbo as my downpipe wasnt fitted with a locking set which caused the bolts to shear off in my turbo
(I also asked them to fit a downpipe locking set when i found this out haha)
It was another week till i had the car back as the guys at BD performance wanted to test it for the first 250/300 miles. I then had to do another 700 or so break in miles of driving nicely before it goes back to them for a final look over and oil change!
I really couldn't recommend BD Performance enough if anyone wants to get work done to their focus! The engine was out, stripped, and rebuilt completely with new parts within a week... And as i said i could have had it done cheaper but i wanted the piece of mind that it was done properly! ... And i couldn't help but upgrading a few things at the same time! So this is the option i went for...
And this was the final break down...
Same again... could have been cheaper but i needed a few extra things like a new drive shaft, i chose for my gearbox to be cleaned up with new fluids, a refurbished head and i also had to exchange my turbo as my downpipe wasnt fitted with a locking set which caused the bolts to shear off in my turbo
(I also asked them to fit a downpipe locking set when i found this out haha)It was another week till i had the car back as the guys at BD performance wanted to test it for the first 250/300 miles. I then had to do another 700 or so break in miles of driving nicely before it goes back to them for a final look over and oil change!
With a nice clean engine under the bonnet i decided i wanted to do some engine dress up so i started painting my engine cover! I didn't get a before picture but im sure you can all imagine a plain black plastic engine cover! 
So i went to halfords, got myself some paint and gave it a go! This is how it came out...
Really pleased with the results! I did the white and red lettering with touch up pen paint and a tiny paint brush!
And then Laquered...
And then whilst playing round in the engine bay i cracked my slam panel cover... i tried fixing it with fibre glass but it did not work :')
This bugged me so i decided to look for another one on ebay... for the life of me i could not find a replacement... all the ones that were being sold was for the pre-facelift ST which doesn't quite fit so i decided to take the plunge and buy the slam panel cover for the RS. For those who don't know these covers help direct the air intake, for the ST this is towards the drivers side and for the RS it guides the air towards the passengers side. So one thing led to another i bought myself a group A induction kit (which sits in the same place as the RS induction does so the slam panel cover will work a treat!) For it all to work i had to also buy the RS ECU box to move my ECU so the new induction kit can fit! I also bought a deflector plate from AutoSpecialists to help guide the air where i need it!
For those who don't really like reading... here are pictures!
The parents weren't happy with me taking up the dining room table for pictures of all my new parts so i got to fitting! You may have also noticed, there are two white boxes in the corner! These are a MAP sensor & MAF sensor, genuine parts from Ford that i wanted to swap over to make sure the new engine is running as good as it can! I also bought myself a new Eonon headunit that i need to get round to fitting in the future - it fits nicely in the factory oval hole so it doesnt look out of place / too aftermarkety I bought the car with the old Eonon headunit but it isn't quite working well anymore and has the old andriod software so it is due a replacement!
How the day started in the engine bay... The engine cover is already off from painting...
Slam panel & passengers side headlight off to make room...
Old K&N induction kit removed - I was keen to get rid of this as the K&N kit havent got the best reviews on the Focus forums and they have the air filter right down low near the passenger tyre which can get flooded if someone drives through a big enough puddle! So out it went! You can see here that the ECU has been re-located into the RS ECU box which sits infront of the engine - i like how it looks! It got rid of the big gap where the factory ST induction used to sit!
New induction kit on from BD performance, with new MAF sensor...
Air deflector plate from Auto Specialists fitted!...
And the RS slam panel cover fitted! Productive day!
I'm chuffed with how it all looks! I havent fitted the engine cover just yet as it is still a little soft and needs a bit longer to dry! I also need to paint the timing belt cover that sits next to it but i want to have the car on the drive for a day or two to get that done just incase i get any flying debris jump up into the belts! I will post another picture when both parts of the engine cover are painted and i have gave the engine bay a good clean!
I also went round the car and changed every ford badge for new OEM ones as the others were getting a little old! so that was wing badges, front and back Ford badge and 4x Ford center caps replaced to make the car look ice and new! And i changed the front and back license plates for plane new ones as the others were starting to peel! I will get a few more pictures of the car over all once it is nice enough weather to give it a good wash and wax!
Finals little update was a little interior update!
Before...
After...
Thanks for reading if you got this far! :') Apologies if it a bit un-organised and all over the place but its my first time Blogging my progress!
So i went to halfords, got myself some paint and gave it a go! This is how it came out...
Really pleased with the results! I did the white and red lettering with touch up pen paint and a tiny paint brush!
And then Laquered...
And then whilst playing round in the engine bay i cracked my slam panel cover... i tried fixing it with fibre glass but it did not work :')
This bugged me so i decided to look for another one on ebay... for the life of me i could not find a replacement... all the ones that were being sold was for the pre-facelift ST which doesn't quite fit so i decided to take the plunge and buy the slam panel cover for the RS. For those who don't know these covers help direct the air intake, for the ST this is towards the drivers side and for the RS it guides the air towards the passengers side. So one thing led to another i bought myself a group A induction kit (which sits in the same place as the RS induction does so the slam panel cover will work a treat!) For it all to work i had to also buy the RS ECU box to move my ECU so the new induction kit can fit! I also bought a deflector plate from AutoSpecialists to help guide the air where i need it!
For those who don't really like reading... here are pictures!
The parents weren't happy with me taking up the dining room table for pictures of all my new parts so i got to fitting! You may have also noticed, there are two white boxes in the corner! These are a MAP sensor & MAF sensor, genuine parts from Ford that i wanted to swap over to make sure the new engine is running as good as it can! I also bought myself a new Eonon headunit that i need to get round to fitting in the future - it fits nicely in the factory oval hole so it doesnt look out of place / too aftermarkety
I bought the car with the old Eonon headunit but it isn't quite working well anymore and has the old andriod software so it is due a replacement!How the day started in the engine bay... The engine cover is already off from painting...
Slam panel & passengers side headlight off to make room...
Old K&N induction kit removed - I was keen to get rid of this as the K&N kit havent got the best reviews on the Focus forums and they have the air filter right down low near the passenger tyre which can get flooded if someone drives through a big enough puddle! So out it went! You can see here that the ECU has been re-located into the RS ECU box which sits infront of the engine - i like how it looks! It got rid of the big gap where the factory ST induction used to sit!
New induction kit on from BD performance, with new MAF sensor...
Air deflector plate from Auto Specialists fitted!...
And the RS slam panel cover fitted! Productive day!
I'm chuffed with how it all looks! I havent fitted the engine cover just yet as it is still a little soft and needs a bit longer to dry! I also need to paint the timing belt cover that sits next to it but i want to have the car on the drive for a day or two to get that done just incase i get any flying debris jump up into the belts!
I will post another picture when both parts of the engine cover are painted and i have gave the engine bay a good clean!I also went round the car and changed every ford badge for new OEM ones as the others were getting a little old! so that was wing badges, front and back Ford badge and 4x Ford center caps replaced to make the car look ice and new! And i changed the front and back license plates for plane new ones as the others were starting to peel! I will get a few more pictures of the car over all once it is nice enough weather to give it a good wash and wax!
Finals little update was a little interior update!
Before...
After...
Thanks for reading if you got this far! :') Apologies if it a bit un-organised and all over the place but its my first time Blogging my progress!
Edited by Lshore on Wednesday 1st March 20:38
Edited by Lshore on Wednesday 1st March 20:44
Great cars. A mate of mine had a facelift ST and went down the Dreamscience route; an absolute weapon once on a roll, but th clutch started to struggle with the output after some 18-24 months. I dare say an upgraded drivetrain would have to be on the cards if this is a keeper.
Like the new interior control dials; I guess they pop out to allow for adjustment?
Like the new interior control dials; I guess they pop out to allow for adjustment?
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