Mk1 escort with 98 laser motor

Hey everyone. Just thought I'd start a thread about my project escort

picked up a mk1 4 door without a motor and I found a laser to donate the motor as it was a wreck anyway. Now onto the task of removing all the old stuff from the engine bay and start modifying so the laser motor will fit!

I was looking through the conversions before and looks like this has been done before but no ones said anything on those topics for months.

Anything I should do to the engine or engine bay majorly before I put it in the car?

It's a 1.8 and I think the 1.8s are the BPs?

I know about the inlet swap so that's not a big worry. Not too sure about the water hoses but I'll keep it in mind

Speak to Wozza on the forums. He's put a 1.8ltr BP Twim Cam engine out of a 1990 Ford Laser TX3 into a MK1 but used twin webbers instead of the fuel injection. Might also be an option.

Now there is also one other thing that you need to think about and that is the distributor. In the Laser it is at the back of the head, so when fitted into the Escort it will right where the firewall is. Wozza made a 90 deg elbow drive set-up for his, but others have used the MX5 engine which places it on the side of the head, but also has the thermostat housing at the front of the engine as well.

With the thermostat housing, I have seen someone plug the old one at the back of the head and drill a new one into the front of the head and make up an adapter for it to come out from underneath the cam pulleys.

Gearbox wise, use an MX5 box, but you might have to modify it a bit to get the shifter in the right spot to suit you.

This conversion has been done by quite a few people now and is gaining in popularity as they are a good motor and easy to repair and get parts for.

The guys who currently have are are fitting these engines into Escorts are Wozza, Simon (http://www.classic-ford.org/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=291&whichpage=6) and Mish. Simon is one of the Mods and is currently doing this set-up into his MK1 2 door so he will be a wealth of information, as too will be Mish who just installed a BPT into his MK2 4 door. I think I'm o.k. in saying that you can contact any of these guys with questions regarding your conversion and they will be able to help with the answers.

Good luck with it. Will be a great little sleeper once it's done.

Chippa

glad to see someone else giving this a go.

conversion parts i used

Inlet manifold
- NA MX5 (NB MX5 has variable torque length runners)
you will also need the mx5 fuel rail as the laser one doesnt fit the manifold.

Thermostat housing
- NA MX5 lower with 351 falcon top section. ( i blanked the rear section in the head and there is a welsh plug in the front under the cam gears to knock out and the new bolt holes are already there and tapped to suit the MX5 housing.

Dissy
- i didn't use one as i am running an after market ECU, so i ran a crank angle sensor off a chopper wheel mounted on the std balancer.

Bottom Radiator Hose
- AE92 Toyota Corolla Top hose, shortened to fit correctly. This will overcome the inlet on the bottom of the radiator being on the incorrect side.

Gearbox & Bellhousing
- Std MX5 5 spd, ull need a custom length tailshaft with correct ends to suit new box. Get a new gearbox end uni as the factory uni and yoke are a peen over job and pretty usless.

Clutch & Flywheel
- I used a Fidenza lightened flywheel which is the same design as the BP motor yet different to the MX5 style. tho the clutch dics are the same and have the same spline design.

They are the bigger things u will need to know, i hope this has been helpful

What turbo/manifold did you use?

It's was built early '98 in feb. It has BP stamped on the block somewhere cause I saw it. Yeah I know it'll need forged internals for boosting. But that'll be later down the line. I'll be happy to have the car going for now

go onto ebay USA and search BPT RODS & PISTONS
with the current dollar you can have them landed her for under a grand for eagle rods and wiseco pistons, ask anyone thats silly cheap.

cheers Zac

quote:

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Originally posted by Troza

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/CP-Forged-Pistons-Eagle-Rods-Miata-323-BP-1-8-9-0-83mm-_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQfitsZMakeQ3aMazdaQQhashZitem5ae133009dQQitemZ390325272733QQptZMotorsQ5fCarQ5fTruckQ5fPartsQ5fAccessories

will these do? :)

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If you're going to turbo it, no. You will need a dish top piston.

Woz