I wanted a mk1 Escort for quite a while. Kept an eye out for a good example and ended up buying one from QLD. Most the paint was stripped so I could see the quality of the shell, most importantly, the amount of rush was minimal. This is how it looked on the way home.







The car came with a Hilux LSD. So the first thing we did was 4-link the rear end, watts linkage, turrets and GAZ Gold coilovers, 190lbs springs.













Next on the list was to get an SR20DET front cut. I opted for an S14 with around 100,000km on the clock.




That was all about 10 months ago.
Since then I've been saving the pennies and getting all the parts I need to build an Escort that can handle a little track time but still be good around the street.
Been doing a bit of seam welding, body stiffening.
We finished the engine mounts a few weeks ago.










Then mounted the intercooler, PWR 600x300x73mm core.
It only just fit.
Had to cut some pretty big holes to help get it in and out.

Braced the slam panel with some RHS, about 15x7mm, 1.5mm wall thickness.
Used the same RHS to brace the wings where the quarter panel mount as I was using the fibreglass bubble arch quarters that came with the car, and thought a little extra stiffness wouldn't hurt.

Nice 1!

Looks great, can't wait to see more pics.

I'm fitting a Davies Craig electric water pump, so I cut the blades off the water pump and removed the pully.



I went the fit my new tension strut kit and adjustable TCA's and found the twats at Rally Design sent me 2 of the same TCA rather than an opposite pair.
Even worse, they wouldn't do me a refund or exchange becasue I boughtthem 6 months ago.
They did say they will discount a new one for me, but the postage cost more than the TCA.



Becasue I got the Hilux diff I had to do a 5-stud conversion to the front.
I checked out what others had done, did a little research of my own and decided on a billet aluminium Wilwood hub.
It had the same size bearings as the escort, just spaced further apart.
I had to remove the inner bearing cup and machine the cup seat further into the hub and shave 6mm off the overall length.
I was real happy wih the end result, showed it to the engineer signing off on my car mods and he was ok with it.









The car came with fibreglass front quarter panels, what a mongrel to fit.
Lucky I got a panel beater mate helping me on the build.



I got a round headlight grille, so started the round headlight conversion.

Lovely idea with those front hubs!

Cool project mate, some nice ideas, will be watching...

Well done. Going to be a very quick reliable car when finished.

Can you post up some pic's of the sump and rack? The rack height does make it hard to install a SR into Escort yeah?

Space is very tight in all dimensions.
I managed to get the engine in without lowering the crossmember (some people lower the xmember 10mm).
I got the aluminium rack mounts that are thicker than standard ones.
You can see how close it is at the bottom of below pic (about 10-12mm clearance).
I will probably shave the sharp edge off the mount where it is closest to the engine.



The steering shaft only just misses that engine bolt hole.
It's not used for anything so I'm gonna cut it off.



And a pic from underneath.



Had to cut out part of the transmission tunnel crossmember and weld a new section in. Double plated the top.



There is about 10-15mm clearance between closest part of engine and firewall.
About the same at front of engine and sway bar. I'm using a real thin one that came with my tension strut kit.
There's about 15mm clearence when bonnet is closed.

Been collecting a few parts to help the engine cope with the extra boost and be able to handle a good flogging
Electronic water pump.
Decent BOV - plumb back type.
Electronic boost controller.
Z32 air flow meter.
Turbo Timer.
Twin 11" Spal thermo fans.










The radiator is a custom PWR unit, 680mm x 380mm overall with 42mm thick core (end tanks 51mm).
With a little hindsight, I should have got the radiator top mounts spaced the same as the intercooler.
Anyway, Ill probably change the radiator mounts to be straight rather than the angle they are in the photo.






Only the neccessary millimetres clearance between intercooler and radiator



I'll have to figure out something to cover that hole.
Probably a removable panel, the hole is needed to get the intercooler in and out the car.
Next job is the custom pipework for intercooler and radiator.
I've ordered some 2.5" aluminium pipe to cut and weld, a few silicon joiners, reducers etc.
Also ordered a BMC air filter. Fingers crossed it fits.

This is going to be a monster! You can't dislike an arched MK1.

Great build well done