Mk1 fiesta fun

[p38benny]

Hi all, Ive recently purchased myself a cracker of a little 950 1982 fiesta bravo. The car is real fun but the 40BHP engine is lacking a bit! i plan to build up an 1100 to raise the power to an amazing 54BHP and i think im also going to lighten the flywheel and gas flow the head. I was planning on having a tube manifold made instead of the cast iron one too.

One of my mates suggeted that it might be fun and pretty easy to bolt in a small turbo, something like a T15. Has anyone ever done this?

Thanks.

[neil-935ql]

Forget all that go for a more modern engine like a Zetec or even a cvh stick it on a nice set of carbs and you will have a quick lovely sounding car in a older body , lovely

[AdamIndy]

Or stick with a period engine and put a tuned 1700 Xflow in there. Funnily enough, mine may be for sale in the winter! 140bhp of barking Xflow goodness!

[p38benny]

I'd love to stick to a xflow but it's hard to find one. I've not looked at the cvh but that sounds a good idea, do they fit relatively easy? If you have any links to threads that would be great

Thanks

[AdamIndy]

p38benny said:

I'd love to stick to a xflow but it's hard to find one. I've not looked at the cvh but that sounds a good idea, do they fit relatively easy? If you have any links to threads that would be great

Thanks

A good one is difficult to find and very expensive. They do crop up from time to time but don't stick around very long. I was looking for a spare but anything with a similar spec to mine was around £2000!

If an engine swap is what you are after then it's hard to look past a zetec. A standard 2.0 is 135bhp and plenty of torque for a little mk1. I put a 2.0 in a mk3 and it went extremely well! Surprised a lot of cars to 100mph. You can buy a rusty focus for £200 and pull everything you need from that.

[Trabi601]

p38benny said:

I'd love to stick to a xflow but it's hard to find one. I've not looked at the cvh but that sounds a good idea, do they fit relatively easy? If you have any links to threads that would be great

Thanks

The CVH is a hateful engine, I'd avoid like the plague.

[neil-935ql]

Trabi601 said:

The CVH is a hateful engine, I'd avoid like the plague.

Not sure hateful is fair ! Agreed by today's standards it's not anywhere near but I loved my mk2 xr2's and I found the engine gave reasonable power and was reliable ,and it's cheap . Maybe it's my age but I loved ragging it around in the old cvh , ah them were the days !

[Trabi601]

neil-935ql said:

Trabi601 said:

The CVH is a hateful engine, I'd avoid like the plague.

Not sure hateful is fair ! Agreed by today's standards it's not anywhere near but I loved my mk2 xr2's and I found the engine gave reasonable power and was reliable ,and it's cheap . Maybe it's my age but I loved ragging it around in the old cvh , ah them were the days !

I had a 1.6 Escort with that CVH. Had all the usual CVH issues - wouldn't start on cold mornings, death rattle and smokey valve stem oil seals.

[neil-935ql]

Trabi601 said:

I had a 1.6 Escort with that CVH. Had all the usual CVH issues - wouldn't start on cold mornings, death rattle and smokey valve stem oil seals.

All the best cvh engines were used in the xr2's ! Loved it , I can see what your saying now I had a 1.3 cvh escort did not like the cold mornings

[p38benny]

Been doing some reading and thinking it may be easier to get an old 1.8 focus or mondeo as the sumps are different. Do you know if I still have to notch the chassis leg for that?