2.0 Zetec Swap

[TMeadows]

Yo people, I have been away from mx-3.com for quite a while now, so I am not sure if anyone has covered this yet. Back in the day I had a 92 mx-3 with a bp swap and a mitsu 16g turbo. After blowing up my last oil pump on the bp I parked my mx for a few years. Then my sister totaled her 98 escort sport (with 2.0L Zetec engine) Naturally I was curious, as they are essentially the same car. After much deliberation (and not checking the forums) I decided that it seemed to be a direct swap. Keep in mind my car was already fitted for the BP and Pro LX tranny. Everything dropped right in, with the only issue being the exhaust.

Unfortunately when her car was wrecked it smashed quite a bit of the electrical components under the hood. In addition to that minor shortfall I had the car parked at my grandparents house when he retired and casually decided he was just going to let the back take his house back. (Thank you wonderful economy)

Long story short the motor and trans dropped right in, and the only modifications I saw that it may have needed was the fuel line>fuel rail connection, down pipe>exhaust connection and the electronics.

Once again, I have been away for quite a while, so if this has been covered already my apologies.

[Ryan]

so the swap was successful? I haven't heard of anyone doing it before.... ususally because itsa pretty crappy motor, from what I hear

[TMeadows]

I thought it was a pretty decent motor when I drove the escort that it came out of. To be bone stock it seemed pretty peppy, and I am sure a little modification would go a long way. In addition I found a pretty beefy stroker kit for it a while back. Tried to talk my sister into letting me install it while the engine was still in her car.

As for the fittment of the zetec (remember car was already modded to fit a bp) it dropped right in. This has been a few years back, but I think we used the axles from the bp/pro-lx setup. Also, the rear suspension looked quite a bit beefier, and we were planning to see if it would swap out of the escort but the county got on us for having to many cars sitting around and we had to call the scrap yard to come get it.

[mikeinaus]

are you still working on this? ive been doing some research on the zetec the past few days and it looks like a very nice motor. some people are getting around 135whp with some basic mods and no boost. with boost ive seen a build with 700whp , but average builds 200-300whp seems to be pretty easy/safe.

[RS_OBD'oh_2]

but average builds 200-300whp seems to be pretty easy/safe.

same with the B6 or BP

[seawulff]

this is exactly what i want to hear. i have an mx3 with a b6 and have been planning a build for a while but was not sure the best motor to use. i researched the zetec a little while ago and it looks close to bolt on too. only thing im not sure of is the axles. the excort axles are differnt lengths on one side and have different spline count on the input shafts. so more importantly. what is a better motor to build. b series or zetec series. they both have 1.6 and 1.8 liter and zetec has also a 2.0 liter. the ultimate question is which one is the better prospect for building. zetec or b series. which one has stronger motor for handling wear and tear and which one has better flowing heads. mostly im wondering about block strength. i want to put out somewhere in the 300hp range and maintain fuel efficiency. massive boost of course. so which is the better motor.

[Ryan]

There are many many very impressive boosted BP's. The crank is said to be made of invincible, and I have never heard of one going.

BP + rods + excellent tune = 200+ HP on 15+ PSI. Check out worklogs by Shades, kab-rst, Limegreen, Mil<e, and many others, here and on CP.

[seawulff]

yeah im looking a little more into the 300 hp range. im curious how much boost you can run on 92 octane. i originally wanted to build a 1.6 litre to the 300 range just for the fuel mileage out of boost but i just dont know how possible that is without race fuel.

[RS_OBD'oh_2]

octane and displacement have little to do with mpg or psi range. A good tune is the key here. A 3.0L turbo engine can get better mpg than a NA B6. Too many variables here. 300hp on a b6 might be a stretch.. 300hp on a F-series tranny will not happen, and is the outer limits for a G-series.

[seawulff]

well octain is important with boost corilated to compression. if im running 9 to 1 compression how much boost can you run till your out of using 92 octain range. i know tuning is key but at some point the fuel is just going to detonate no mater what you do cause its too much compression.

[RS_OBD'oh_2]

ok. So, I guess you either didn't understand or read my post. Here is the short answer yet again.

3-20 psi. All depends on the quality of the tune. AFRs and timing and bla bla bla.. like I said too many variables to say.
Read a book.

[seawulff]

right, well i guess i will ask the same question in a different manner so you can maybe understand it this time. even assuming a PERFECT tune at some point you CAN NOT RUN 92 OCTANE cause there is TOO MUCH COMPRESSION. my question is purely about where the limit or compression is with 92 octane. i understand that tuning is key, again i will reiterate, i understand tuning is key. my question is the the maximum amount of compression related to boost before you will have issues with not having a high enough octane level. (and i will say again, this is assuming a perfect tune). if you are incapable of answer this question that is fine, i can talk to a professional I'm sure, or wait for someone ells with an educated answer. lets not make this a childish, derogative insinuation, pissing match.

[Mi|<E]

I'll try to answer you in a different manner so you can maybe understand it this time. There is no compression limit that makes
the grade of gas you use matter. Tuning is the key, timing is the variable that will determine where the engine pings or detonates.
For example motorcycle engines run as high as 14:1 compression whereas with a car you will typically not find more than 12:1
compression. With said car at 12:1 compression naturally aspirated lets say a 15 degree advance is attainable with 87 octane. With
the same vehicle if switched to 92 octane maybe you can advance the timing by 2 or 3 degrees. The 92 burns slower and is less
likely to ping.

Now we get into the turbo side of things and it gets more fun. You take your turbocharged Zetec swap and run 15 psi of boost
making a theoretical 170 horse. You have 11:1 compression pistons and have a full tank of 87 octane. Your timing is at 5 degrees
because any further advance and it detonates terribly. This makes no sense to run such a setup so you change your boost to
9 psi and up the timing to 12 degrees (this is a very very basic example of tuning, there is much more to it) and make 230 horse.
You change up your gas to 92 and run 15ish degrees timing and get another increase in power to 240 horse. You can run both
87 and 92 with some decent numbers. The point at which there is too much compression is when you can no longer satisfy the
amount of air and gas entering the cylinder with safe timing. Im sure it would make a nice curve on a graph but that would
change depending on the engine, compression ratio, turbo, injectors, fuel pressure, timing, monitoring and control, exhaust etc.
There are too many variables that are missing from the question to give you anything resembling a definite answer. You are
sort of asking what the square root of orange with respect to apples is. Reading a book was an excellent suggestion, id start
with 'Maximum Boost' by Corky Bell. The last bit of your post is not so excellent, it takes two to dance and you called out
the wrong crowd.

[seawulff]

i guess im just looking for maximum perimeters, so i will go ahead and post this out of curiosity.

The octane rating of gasoline tells you how much the fuel can be compressed before it spontaneously ignites. When gas ignites by compression rather than because of the spark from the spark plug, it causes knocking in the engine. Knocking can damage an engine, so it is not something you want to have happening. Lower-octane gas (like "regular" 87-octane gasoline) can handle the least amount of compression before igniting.

[RS_OBD'oh_2]

what spark plug you planning to use?