1974 Ford Escort mk1 - Upgrades & Track preperation 2
With several spare Sierra 5-speed boxes sitting around, using one was an obvious choice; cheap, plentiful, fairly reliable and plenty of aftermarket gearkits available if we choose to uprate or strengthen the box at a later date.
However, as our MK1 has quite a narrow transmission tunel (as do all other non-automatic models) there is some work to do in fabricating a new tunnel to accomodate the bigger 5-Speed gearbox and the special alloy bellhousing which mates the Vauxhall engine to the Ford gearbox.
All the parts to mate the Vauxhall engine to a Ford Rocket or Ford Type-9 are available from SBD Motorsport.
With the amount of power that will now be transmitted through the propshaft, axle and differential, we took the decision to completely replace them.Although a steel limited slip diff would have been nice, the cost was jsut too prohibitive. Instead we chose a 3.0 V6 Atlas axle from a MK2 Capri, complete with 3.0 half shafts and wide 9" drums.
Being a MK2 Capri V6 meant it is 52" wide, pushing the wheels beyond the arches, but we'll put bubble arches on anyway.Normal ratios of the V6 diff are 3.09:1, giving speeds in excess of 140mph, but poorer (comparatively) acceleration. We bought and fitted a brand new Ford 4.6:1 crown wheel and pinion set, that should give a massive boost to acceleration, but limit top speeds to 120mph or less (not a problem!)
To help keep the rear end under control we also junked the tired old
multi leaf spings and fitted a set of new, uprated single leaf springs.
We also bought an RS-style anti tramp/radius arm kit, which helps to stop
the axle jumping around under power - it also helps in positively locating
the axle... ie it sits straighter and doesn't squirm around as much.
So we've got increase power sorted, a better back end... but we need to
do something about the brakes now that the back has potentially more bias
than the front (wide, 9" drums on the Capri axle).
The old-school brake upgrade is to find an Austin Princess and strip it of its big 4-piston brake calipers... but these are getting rare and hard to find nowadays.. so people are going for lightweight items like Wilwood ally 4-pots... well in some respects, Old-school is best (though if you can afford modern stuff then by all means go for it!)... so we got some Princess calipers ... for £20. If you're using the vented 2.8 discs, then you'll need a spacer kit to use the 4-pot calipers. Rally Design usually have them available.
This page updated: 4/Feb/2007