[16/08/06 - Changed title now to something more obvious
]Anyway, after seeing fiestamodder123's post, I thought I might as well post a little about mine. I've always loved sleepers and I've always wanted to build one - I've had a few ideas in the past of what to use for the car; these included Orions (don't ask me why, but I've always loved the shape and EFi ones make it easy for FRST lumps
), MK2 Fiestas, MK3 Escorts (I WILL get one of these sometime in the near future anyway!), and well, you get the idea. But I always end up with the same problem - I want to keep my Fiesta, but I don't have an easy place to store it for the year or so that I would need to 
So this is something I've been wanting to do with mine for the last 3 or so years (inbetween being incredibly indecisive and looking at other cars to buy) but after having an accident which was my fault in February 2004, it put my insurance up a bit more than I could afford at the time (being a student without a loan!), and therefore had to put up with a standard car for a bit longer - not fun! People wonder how I can drive a 1.1 for 6 years... Trust me, it’s not easy!
Well this first post is really only about the parts I’ve collected over time, so pretty boring, and more so because it’s very long! Sorry!
Part 1 - Parts Collection! (And a bit of loom-swapping)
Anyway, after finishing my degree last year, I decided this would be the year that I change that. Back in about March time, I decided to start adding to some of the parts that I'd already collected the last few years in preparation for this. Bear in mind, my car is a 1990 1.1 Popular Plus – this means it had literally nothing of use for a decent engine – so it was going to take some time getting everything necessary. Up until this point, current list of parts I’d collected were as follows:
CFi Fuel Tank – Came up cheap, so decided to get it as then all I needed to do was replace the pump with an EFi one:
(nice and rusty where it’s been sitting in my garden for quite some time!)
XR2i 16v Car and Engine Loom (Only car loom shown)
5 Speed Gear Linkage (Yes, my car is a 4 speed!)
<Picture to come>
Possibly some other bits, but nothing major…
My car had central locking and electric windows which I’d fitted a long while back at different times a few years ago, but having had the 16v car loom sit in my bedroom doing nothing for quite some time, I decided in August 2005 to spend a day where I work, ripping my car apart and fit it – a few reasons for this: 1) So I could move the electric window switches to the door pockets, and 2) I would now have all the loom in place for any potential engine swap
I’d already figured out what pins of my current engine loom (all 3 or 4 of them!
) go where on the 16v car loom, so I couldn’t see any problems in doing the swap, so got to work on it.(Same image as above as it was taken when I was doing the swap!)
I had to pull just about all the interior out, dash, sill trims, door cards (for new door looms), driver’s seat and lift the carpet (to get to the handbrake switch), rear bench (for access to the fuel tank/sender unit), parcel shelf support on driver’s side, head lining had to be undone at the front to get to the courtesy light and god knows what else.
I have more photos but this is all I can find at the moment – I think I’d just started at this point as the headunit is still in! I’ll add the rest of the photos when I find them.
The car loom also includes all the non-engine-associated engine bay wiring too, such as the washer pump, wiper motor, lighting, horn, brake fluid level, starter motor, rad fan etc. It does differ to the old HCS car loom in one way though; the temperature switch/sensor wiring for the fan is part of the car loom on the old carb’d HCS loom (not sure how it is on the injection one), whereas on the 16v, it is part of the engine loom. So to get round this while my car was still running the on the old 1.1 lump, I borrowed the nice brown/white temperature sensor wire/connector from my old car loom and connected it to the 16v car loom just before the car/engine loom connector.
I also had to borrow the fuel sender wire/connector from the old car loom too, as my current tank uses a single push-on type connector as opposed to the multiplug connector on the 16v car loom (obviously for the fuel pump).
After completely disconnecting everything, I was able to pull the engine bay part of the loom through the big hole in the driver’s side bulk head and take the whole lot out – the car was now completely disabled – 3 miles from home! Scary!
At this time, it was about 4pm and I’d spent about 4 or so broken hours just pulling everything apart and disconnecting it all. I also now had about an hour to get the new loom in so I could drive home again! In a mad rush, I managed to do it, moving the engine loom pins out of the 6-pin connector and into the 12 pin 16v connector so that it would plug straight into the car loom, connecting everything up (most of the trim, dash, etc., still out though) and at 5pm, I put the key in and it started – seriously relieved! Especially after my dad spent most of the day giving the impression that he didn’t have much faith in it going to plan
Having done this, and tested everything (all worked
), I decided I would fit my new indicator/wiper stalks so I could take advantage of the intermittent wiper feature, only to not realise it was not in the cancelled position and I broke the cancellation tab when putting on the steering wheel Not impressed…But anyhow, that was that done, the first step to fitting a newer and bigger engine easier – I now had all the wiring to fit anything, although Zetec was most likely going to be the way I would go… If I did decide on anything.
That’s pretty much how things stayed for while. I was still fairly broke, and couldn’t really do anything until I found a job. I had just about enough money to drive over to Max’s place in October so that I could collect some old wheels with good tyres on that he no longer wanted, just so I could get my car through the MOT
Thanks again for that, Max, you have no idea how much you helped me out back then!Along came February, and I managed to get a temporary job which would give me a little bit of money to may be add to my small collection of parts, and in March I purchased a matching 2.0 MAF sensor and ECU (DESK) from someone breaking a Mondeo 2.0 Si:
Annoyingly, as you can tell, the MAF sensor has been a little chive’d up!
However, I had all faith that it was decent 
Also annoying, one of the clips was broken…
Just in case anyone is interested in knowing the part number(s)
Around about the same time, I also bought an EFi fuel pump/sender unit from an XR2i:
Random shot of the connector for no apparent reason
All very boring so far, I know
Then came a slightly new plan… Up until this point, I’d pretty much decided that I was going to fit a 2.0 – been done a fair bit, but in a Popular Plus shell which wasn’t going to look much more, it should be quite fun. However, I’d been looking for quite some time, and trying to find a reasonably-priced engine was proving a nightmare
eBay to the rescue! Along with numerous other favourite searches that I have on eBay, I had “zetec engine” and “mondeo engine”, so one morning I find an automated email informing me of an Orion 1.8 Zetec Engine and Gearbox – “oooh” I think. Wasn’t really what I wanted, but decided to have a look at the auction anyway. Turns out the car was very low mileage at only 45,500 odd miles and I decided I wanted it.
(Photos as shown in the auction)
The rocker cover looked a mess, but it all seemed pretty genuine, so I decided to wait until the end day, and after a few fighting bids, I won
I also got the ECU and EDIS module from this car.
(Notice the SMO code - made for me
)I would take a picture of the EDIS module, but it’s gone for a walk… I’m sure it’ll be back soon…
As a lot of you would have worked out/made out from the pics, it’s only a 105PS engine, however it didn’t really bother me at the time. Even if I didn’t use it, it still provided me with a lot of parts that I could use on a 2.0 conversion, and if I did use it, it was nice and low mileage – should prove a reliable engine to use for a while. At the same time, it’s still a good engine to tune, as a lot of you will know.
One problem though, got home, and found the sump was cracked – not happy!
We’re guessing that he tried to jack engine up when trying to get it out, but it wasn’t worth my time complaining – I knew where I could get a replacement relatively cheap, so would do that.
Well along came May, and I met up with bakewell001 (Steve) who had a set of 14” Si steel wheels he no longer needed, so I kindly took them off him
After a bit of a clean up and some spray paint later, I managed to get them looking pretty much how I wanted – although sometimes I think they’re a little bit too clean! I did manage to get a set a while before this, but unfortunately they were so rusty that they just couldn’t be cleaned which was a major pain because they were just so hard to come by around here But never mind:
What with Fiesta In The Park, I arranged to collect a few bits from some people. Some were the rad and fan plus most of the water pipes from Percy! (Andy) – Nice to meet you
No pics of the pipes, but I’m sure you can imagine
XRMike (Mike) was kind enough to give me an airbox and crossmember too
Still really appreciated!
Unfortunately, the crossmember wasn’t going to be any good to me as I didn’t realise the cat hangs from this, and the one Mike gave me didn’t have the brackets or the holes for the brackets, however I didn’t realise this until after I got it home! But not to worry
In between now and then, I also managed to pick up a downpipe and cat, along with the needed MAF sensor (an XR2i 16v one – compatible with the 2FCD ECU I removed from the Orion).
(Nice and restrictive! But it’s the right one for the ECU, so I’m using it)
(Just in case the code might be helpful to anyone)
The same person also had the front alternator bracket (which also doubles as the bracket for the front mount), however he wasn’t willing to let go of this, so I managed to get this from a guy breaking an XR2i 16v on eBay. I also asked for the front mount BRACKET that goes onto the side of the chassis leg, but unfortunately he sent the entire mount (minus the bracket)
However, the one I had already got, I found was stuffed anyway, so decided not to complain, and I’ll get the bracket at a later date.
At this point, I still needed a sump, so one was purchased off a local FT member who had a 2.0 Si until recently (he doesn’t post much at all on here, and I can’t remember his username!). Only got one photo, but after a bit of a clean, it came out looking pretty good:
Most importantly, no cracks! I’ve also got a brand new Ford sump gasket and some sealant stuff for when I fit it
Also needed was the rest of the exhaust system. Luck saw me getting an Si back box on eBay – brand new, but fell off the guy’s car about a week after purchase and fitting at a well known exhaust fitters, so I assume some how it was replaced and he ended up keeping the old one! Only a small dent on it, but for what I paid, I can’t complain
Hopefully it won’t stand out too much. If it does, I’ll just get it adjusted. As you can see, the tailpipe is just an end piece with a few tacks of weld, and so if the actual pipe is long enough, I may just remove the end piece – it’s not like I have an Si bumper that it needs to extend to anyway
I also needed a mid section, however finding a decent second hand or cheap one was proving very difficult, but after much ringing about of parts places and exhaust companies, I eventually found a new one for about £30 from - wait for it – Halfords. Yep, they gave me the best price… Was rather shocked at that, but very impressed nonetheless, and was with me next day!
(Pic also shows the back box and 16v crossmember – see further down)
I decided to buy a new rear engine mount, as it’s pretty much the most important one of the lot, plus the second hand one I’d purchased at a previous date was buggered. A little bit gutted though, as I paid the £47 that it cost me from Ford, only to get offered a near-new one for £20 last week
Having looked at it, it really was perfect! But never mind, it’s done now and I know it’s good 
You’ll also see attached to that the bracket which goes between the block and the mount – major pain to find one second hand as people generally use them if they’re changing engines, or can’t be arsed to remove the engine to get it when breaking the car – can’t blame them though really!
Luckily, a mate of mine wanted an engine out of a local guy’s car, so I managed to get that at the same time Also at the same time, I obtained the crossmember I needed to hang the cat on (see mid section pic above). As you can see, it has the brackets and rubbers which the cat hangs on, to stop it from swinging about and obviously provide added support.
Something to bear in mind when putting a Zetec in a non-Zetec car, is that the mid section box has a different bracket to all other MK3 exhaust systems and therefore can’t use the standard bracket in that area. The 16v uses a bracket which is fixed to two of the rear beam fixing bolts, although these are actually special studs which according to Ford are no longer available. They didn’t tell me this at the time when trying to order them (like they did with a load of other bits I wanted), but when I went to collect them, so I assume they were told by the main parts centre – I will try another branch still, as I really do need them, unless someone breaking an Si would like send me them
I’ll get a pic of the bracket when I have some shoes on and I’m not so comfortable on my bed, so those that don’t know what I’m on about can see
Ok, so I think that’s about it for now… Rather boring stuff, but some people may be interested in seeing just what parts are needed when doing this with a non-Zetec (and in my case, non-injection and non-cat) car. There’s probably some parts I’ve missed out that I’ve got that are needed, but then there’s also some parts that I haven’t bought which would be needed if using a Mondeo engine – so remember that if you’re putting a 2.0 in!
There’s also another reason for this post – to hopefully give me some enthusiasm! Anyone who knows me, or who I talk to a lot will know what I’ve been like – I keep changing my mind for various reasons, and keep getting attracted to other cars! The amount of times I’ve gone searching eBay and Auto Trader for Fiesta and Escort Turbos, XR2i 16vs, and even Sis is unbelievable. I’m surprised some of you are still talking to me! I had actually planned on doing this this weekend, but due to some tiny little parts I still have missing (stupid reason that I won’t bother to explain, but thanks Ford) I couldn’t do it, and so I had pretty much decided to forget about it and buy something else. However, after a good night’s sleep, I woke up with the urge to do it again, and so hopefully this week or next, you’ll be seeing lots more boring photos and hopefully a Fiesta Popular Plus with a working 1.8 Zetec… For now
Lastly, just for those that are wondering… I do intend to upgrade the brakes and suspension! Thanks to some great people on here for getting it to me, I have a standard Turbo suspension setup waiting to go on, and I’ll be fitting RS2000 brakes as soon as I can get hold of some… Should be fun
Cheers,
Simon
P.S. Wake up
i am thinking about looking for another 1800 zetec engine as i just found out that the one i have has done at least 100kmiles 
so i would maybe be better looking for a nice low milage unit to use ,bit gutted as when i got my donor car i was told that it done about 70k but having managed to track down one of the previous owners he said it had done 75k when he sold it and its had 2 owners since then 
good luck and i hope to see some good progress 
) as he has done that exact thing that you're asking 
