Hi I recently purchased mkii escort, ive decided to stick with the 1600 and throw a bit of coin at that, how ever a lot of people are telling me to upgrade the front struts as the 1600 struts are a bit fragile ( smaller bearings were mentioned i have the memory of a gold fish) car is to be used for track days, hopefully some club events etc not for daily use
 
I have got at this point
 
Sway Bar front 24mm (Kmac)
Sway Bar rear 16mm (Kmac)
Adjustable Strut Mounts (Kmac)
Rear Springs 4 leafs reverse eye
koni sport rear
koni adjustable front
 
Now I was told to upgrade the front struts to cortina or capri v6 (which i imagine are hard to get) has anyone got any suggestions as to aftermarket brands that are going to give a marked improvement in strength and weight, or should i just start ringing wreckers to find cortina struts ?
 
will the change in struts, then require a change in shock or will they still fit ?
 
one of the suspension blokes was talking about welding a triangle bracket onto the bottom of the strut as well, if anyone could shed some light on this would be appreciated too
 
Cheers
 
 
 

You will struggle to find any decent strut inserts for the 1600 legs particularly if you plan to do some track stuff so upgrading to 2 litre Escort legs is a must in my opinion. They have larger diameter tubes and you will find more options with inserts and springs.  The bearing size is no different on MK2's. Get a vernier and measure the tube diameter because im pretty sure Koni havent made an insert for 1600 legs for years so it is possiblt that you already have 2 litre legs. From memory, the 2 litre legs are 50mm tube (others should be able to verify this)
 
I reckon your 16mm rear bar will be counter productive particularly if you still have an open diff but if your leafs are set up correctly you shouldnt really need a rear bar anyway.  My experience has been that they dont work well on Escorts, yet others will say they do ...
 
Bracing the bottom of the strut is a simple but effective way to strengthen the legs.

Only bit i can see giving you dramas is.
The 24mm front sway bar will cause the Esky the understeer.
Especially with the lighter 1600.
http://www.rsmotorsport.c...wtopic.php?f=25&t=1112

well i measured the tubes and its comming back at me with 48mm exactly, due you know what the strut tube diameter was for the 1600 i think someone told me it was 47mm ?, Is there anyway of telling if the shocks that ive got are for the 50mm or the 1600 size "47mm" ? 
 
cheers for the advice btw
 
Dave
 

Yes sounds like they are the original 1600 struts. 2 litre struts are 51mm from memory. Front sway does seem to thick. I wouldnt go bigger then 22mm max.

hmm well that sucks, so the consensus is that the sway bar is to thick and ive got the original struts with shocks that are unlikely to fit
 

2 litre legs arent too hard to find and shouldnt cost much. Surely someone on here has wrecked a 2 litre MK2 and can help this dude out??
 
I would but recently sold my last 'spare' set.