Motorsport Studio - The Art of Racing

Original racing art and prints

	2001 Ford Focus Wagon So the Focus spun a rod bearing due to oil starvation (careless owner may have been driven it for many winter months without checking oil level, brrrr). Decided to freshen it up instead of parting it out so a new engine and trans went in to get it on the road again. Also took care of a few things that were on the back of my mind. Sold it shortly after it got running, really wanted something AWD after seeing Ken Block goofing off on the VDA. So, here's the old engine/trans out, the SVT header was Swain Tech coated but didn't like the salt on the roads so much: First, I wanted to do a better job matching the ports on the JRSC manifold. This is an SVT system intalled on a base Zetec head so the port heights and shapes are different. I was in a rush when I put it together the first time and only altered the mounting holes and not the port shapes. This time I wanted to match the ports as well as improve the entry angle at the roof and floor of the intake manifold port to match the intake port in the cylinder head. Cleaned the manifold as best I could in an ultrasonic cleaner and then lots of soap and hot water, but there was still alot of oil in the casting, not so much fun to weld, and difficult to get deep into the port. I did the best I could, here it is set up on the mill to start cleaning the port face: After it's roughed with an end mill then two passes with a face milling cutter to true the surface: Then blue it up and scribe the reference lines for the ports, and rough with an end mill. The flange is angled on the fixture the same as the intake port entrance angle on the cylinder head, this also helps provide a reference for the correct port angles while hand porting: Then, lots of time listening to the whine of the die grinder. The port floors needed some devcon to give a bellmouth shape to the floor to help blend into the angled floor on the cylinder head. On the roof there was a decent amount of material removal required to get the correct angle: With that done, the throttle body inlet adaptor was next. A supercharger cares much more about the volume and flow immediately upstream of the throttle body than a turbocharged engine, and there was much room for improvement with this one. A little bit of devcon was required in one corner, but otherwise it was just porting: Last thing for the manifold is a little press in tube for the brake booster fitting so that it pulls from the top of the manifold (where there isn't oil) instead of the bottom of the manifold where oil tends to puddle, it's just a press in stand pipe: Now onto engine dress. Oh, the engine, about the same spec as before, SVT bottom end, Swain Tech coated OEM +0.5mm pistons, CNC ported cylinder head. After much deliberation I'm using stock Zetec intake and a stock SVT exhaust cam, degreed to the production centerlines. Here is the phenolic intake manifold spacer/gasket, just 0.125" raw material cut to shape: Fresh SVT header, this time Jet Hot coated: Next the clutch. I never liked the Exedy Stage III clutch for daily driving, takeup and modulation were never good with the 6 puck disk, although it never slipped. But I wanted a more streetable set up so a production style lined disk was sourced from Clutchnet and the assembly sent out for modification to Fort Wayne Clutch. The pressure plate friction surface and the flywheel were both cut down to allow for the much thicker lined disk. Service and communication from Fort Wayne Clutch was top notch, price was good and the finished assembly works great: Then just bolt everything back together and into the car. The trans is fresh from Liberty's, same spec as previous, tall 1st gear Duratec MTX75 gearset (new) with Torsen. Case powder coated black: That's it, just running it in now, feels great, initial response at small throttle openings is noticeably increased, should be pretty good when it's broken in. No pics, looks the same as before.