A second newbie from somerset

Broken Cambelt

Torque Junkie
Points
0
Location
Somerset, UK
Car
Fiesta 1.4
Hi there, my name is Rick, i found this site while pondering what to do next with my car, its a toss up between an engine swap, some tuning, or a new vehicle altogether, after all its only a fiesta, any advice guys?

oh, if you are wondering about the username, that was the last thing to go wrong in a long list of breakdowns.
 
thanks for saying hi,

a great deal of things, as you might expect with any second hand car, a month after i brought it, the fuel lines exploded, turns out someone had done a cowboy job on it in the past, since then ive had to get work done on the gearbox, suspension , and flywheel, not to mention the rust, but hey the joys of an older car right?
 
ouch sounds like the previous owner didnt look after it.
my 97 fiesta had really bad rear arches for rust and that was only 6 years old
in contrast i had a 1990 prelude that only had 2 tiny small areas at 16 year old.
 
too true, i dont trust the adverts that say "one lady owner" anymore
the thinner steel in fords may make them a little lighter, but it doesnt do anything for making them last. its why im seriously considering a new car to realy start pursuing my interst in tuning. im also told that there is very little benifit to modding a 1.6l engine
 
not really you could get high figures but youll need deep pockets and could buy a faster, better looking and better handling car for the money.

aany idea what your looking for ?
 
No real plan about what to do , several of my friends have fitted aftermarket turbo's or new camshafts to their small hatches, though i am dubious about the increase in performance vrs the cost, at this moment in time i have about £5000 to spend (not counting the £700 or so i could get for the car)

when it comes to new cars im a sucker for the japanese tuners,(nissan z cars, supras) but so many of them are terrible rotboxes in my pricerange so i would probably lean towards a more powerful hatchback.
 
yeah that is the problem with small engines you ould spend the 5k on parts only to see maybe 40 bhp gain. yet you could pick up a 200sx in decent condition for less than that and get close to 100bhp gain over your fiesta.

insurance may be a pain however
 
insurance, the main reason i havent already snapped up one of the many high perfomance cars at a good price for sale, being in your early 20's anthing above say group 14 insurance-wise will immedietly cost over2k to insure, not accounting for any mods you may undertake, though when i first began driving i paid off my insurance monthly, which did enable me to command just a little more power than the 998cc vw polos everyone else was driving
 
yeah gets better mate.
my boras group 17. and i pay £450 full comp with business class one at 24
used to pay 3 times that for my 1400 civic.
if you can pay it off on a oner it saves you so much as the interest can be around 20%

nothing wrong with the 1.0 polos my lil sis has one. does take something like 21seconds to 60. bit slower than the 7 sec im more used to
 
it is a killer, at 17 it cost me £1600 in total to insure the fiesta (about what the car was worth), thankfully i have not had one claim or conviction since and it has dropped to £400,

im not going to be doing any racing anytime soon , so any car with just that bit more overtaking power, plus maybe the ability to go round a corner at a more reasonable speed ( what is up with the body roll in fiesta's, its terrifying! ) would be on my buying radar, a neighbor is selling an old mkII golf with a pile of mods, plus there is a more classic VW Corrado V6 on sale locally, both cheap, and possible to insure. but its still a case of balancing the argument of modding my present car or buying new, i love the idea of a sleeper fiesta that could shock the buisness exec's in their mercs as i blitz past.
 
Hi there BC and welcome to TorqueCars, good to have you with us. It sounds like you have had a really rough deal with your car.

See if you can drop a Cosworth engine in? That would be an awesome project although I'm sure the insurance would massacre you.;)

Post loads and get involved in our other threads, we are a friendly bunch and all love driving and cars!
 
Welcome to Torque Cars buddy.
Why not go out and find an accident damaged RS2000 Escort and drop that engine in. Or alternatively I've heard the Mondeo 2 litre is a lighter engine than the RS so that is a possibility too.
 
Hello mate is that the zetec lump 1.6l 16valve? if it is? its not worth modding better off sourcing a mk5 escort 1.8 16valve XR3i engine 130bhp standard and readily available. In local scrapyards you will probably find the mondeo engine easily along with loom maybe cost £100. unfortunately that engine will be 115bhp take into account mileage. can suffer with head gasket probs so be careful. check header tank and dipstick for gunk. worth a look with a chip, induction kit and exhaust could easily see 150bhp. believe me with 130bhp she will fly. if not try an rs turbo engine? Wooosh Tssss remember the fiesta is light more power than standard u will notice it...
 
Good point about the rs2000 lump but u will need box aswell cos bolt patern is slightly off of what the standard zetec is. brakes and suspension upgrades will be a must. I reckon for a grand you'll have a tarmac shredder...;)
 
Thanks for the warm welcome and all of the advice guys,

yes it its the zetec 1.6, so it looks like an engine swap is the way to go, a 2 litre ford engine with some induction sounds dead tempting, the only concern is how much i can fit in the engine bay, and a little worry about how the car would handle with a beast under the bonnet, guess ill go see what the scrapheap has in store.
 
I know its not much bigger mate not impossible. take a battery with u see if u can get it running before removal. suspension will need doing mate also your brakes try some green stuff pads first EBC love em.
 
hello rick, nice to meet you. How much do you think this will cost you?
 
I know its not much bigger mate not impossible. take a battery with u see if u can get it running before removal. suspension will need doing mate also your brakes try some green stuff pads first EBC love em.

Good idea on the battery. If you can get it running might as well take a compression tester and test it too.

Welcome along btw, Broken Cambelt!
 
but its still a case of balancing the argument of modding my present car or buying new, i love the idea of a sleeper fiesta that could shock the buisness exec's in their mercs as i blitz past.

Good lad. 2ltr Zetec Turbo it, lose some weight and it'll be Evo's you'll be blitzing past. You need deep pockets though as you'll have been able to buy a couple of Evo's by the time you've finished.
 
MMmm, a couple of evos, thats a worrying thought if it were to cost that much, thankfully ive got a great salvage yard nearby, and some friends in the buisness, so an engine could be pulled from a crash damaged mondeo, or if i feel crazy (and lucky because theres not many around ) an old cosworth, i recon i could get her running 130-150 bhp for a couple of grand, leaving me change to mod up the suspension and brakes,

ill have to do some scrap heap rummaging , and research on the net for parts before i get started properly though, if its more than a few grand i may look into a new vehicle instead.
 

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