Snoozin

Not entirely true, depending on the specs of your engine, "tuning" extractors to suit can be a valuable performance aid. OK so admittedly on a relatively unmodified engine such as the subject matter at hand, designing a correct set of extractors is of less benefit. But factors such as port design, CR, squish, intake velocity, conbustion chamber capacity, etc etc. all influence how you can design a set of extractors.... then you start delving into different lengths of primary pipes, secondary pipes (if you use for example a 4-2-1 layout on a 4cyl engine) and also diameters of these pipes, and then the "tuning" label as you put it comes into play, as varying exhaust design can influence where maximum torque, power etc. comes in, just to generalise a little.

LTSA Structural Rust Guidelines Check this out, scroll down a few pages to find some diagrams showing where they consider problematic structural rust to! be

You'd have the choice also of the 1.8 V6 found in Lancers and Galants, 2l and 2.5l NA V6s from the same cars and the 2l, 2.5l, and 3l twin turbo V6s from VR4s and GTOs...... man you could build something crazy with the right amount of funds....

Removing the balance shafts creates all sorts of engine life shortening harmonics so I understand. Those non-turbo 4G63's out of the Sigma's go surprisingly well, I had the opportunity to thrash a mates GJ Sigma at one point, and it did impress me for all it's big fat family car-ness!!!

The Lancers were not so much a fast rally car as a tough one. They won the Safari 4 times I think, with the old round headlight shape one (dunno any codes.... fill me in if ya do!) and the EX2000 turbo was moderately successful in some cases, unfortunately it came at the dawn of Group B and turbo 4WD, so was really redundant, much like the Nissan 240RS (which in reality was quite the POS rally car.....)

Lucky lucky you have only one Weber to worry about. With the twin Dellorto DRLA 40s I have it's a bitch to get it running smoothly.... doing without a set of vacuum gauges is near pointless.

Softer rear suspension.... big fat tyres.

Nice one.... I had a mate who was right (scarily so) into the Mk2 Supras, and they're a strangely cool car!!! Should move with a 7M in it.... my mates had the 2.8 24V six in it and that went fairly well, so I imagine yours should have no dramas lighting up the rear treads!

Oh god oh god oh gaaawwwwwd damn thats fine! You sure don't fuck about when it comes to modifying cars good and proper mate!!! I would be VERY keen to check those out some time if I'm ever up in your neck of the woods.... Auckland is it??? Good luck with the build and be sure to keep us up to date on what looks to be an amazing wee car!

The increase an exhaust will give to a turbo car like a WRX or an S15 is mauch much more than the same exhaust applied to an NA car. Trubo's rely on having a freer flow to produce more boost.... whereas the variables regarding an NA engine ar a little more complicated, such as length of primary, secondary pipes in extractors, what types of resonators/mufflers etc etc. So simply bunging a filter and larger exhaust on an NA car may not give you a power increase at all really - I found that when twin pod filters were put on the DHLA40 Dellortos on the Alfa, it actually lost power and torque, due to the fact that we effectively lost the velocity the intake runners were adding to the air as it was sucked into the carbs. With some trumpets inside it may well have proved to increase power, but I elected to stick with the K&N panel filter. Matching an exhaust to your head and engine mods is important if you are expecting to get any kind of noticable performance gain.

Yep and while ya at it, get rid of any emission gears that the engine might have on it to make it run cleaner (oil rebreathing etc etc.).... Anyways.... a 2T KP60 should be cool! Let us know how she goes!

What you call "series X" was what was the "X pack" for a Mk2 Esky, and from what I can gather, various X pack bits could be fitted to pretty much any Escort.

How do tey do it? There's no painting required is there? I need to get the rear guards lipped on the Alfa if I want to keep it low and fit 205/40s on it.

I realise that it is legal to shorten shocks to fit springs, I have shorter shocks to accomodate my springs. Acually the front setup is technically illegal because the strut has been modified to accept an adjustable Bilstein insert. Modifying the seats is the no-no however. A WOF officer will pick it up and gove ya shit about it. The spring has to remain in contact with the OE springs seats at top and bottom. Thats mostly what I'm trying to say. And I have never been a fan of cut or heated springs, simply because they are A) bouncier than a properly made lowering spring and they're weaker and sag quickly... I know this from experience. Since you have an Escort, have you looked at any European brands of spring (if there's any available?) I put a set of Spax lowered coils in my car, they dropped it 50mm MORE than the what Kings claimed was a "superlow" spring. And coilovers are also not the be all and end all of suspension setups. A set of progressive lowering springs, matched to a set of compression and rebound adjustable shocks will give you all the adjustment of a coilover, just without the height adjustment.

well Mr. Shizzl, your certifier that you spoke to obviously isn't worth a pinch of shit, giving you advice like that. Sure if he certifies it it will be legal, but if you want to get away without a cert, uh uh.... hello pink sticker! But do what you want.... the general attitude of some people to modifying cars on this forum is pretty fucking scary if ya ask me. Do it once do it properly. But tell it to the WOF man, or the police man, whoever gets you first. As Alfalfa said, a hardout setup is not necessary... but a well engineered, legal and safe one is! Have fun bouncing uncontrollably around the place!

you can't fuck around with the spring seat without needing a cert. LTSA website states that "aftermarket coils must fit into unmodified OE spring seats" and this means no cutting or welding. Trust me, I went through all of this stuff with a fine toothed comb at my last WOF, I had a massive dispute with the WOF Testing station about my suspension mods, some of you may have read my thread on NZPC about it. I would not do a half assed job on suspension, that is what is keeping your car on the ground. I don't know much about Escorts, but do they have inserts in the front struts? If so, get hold of some shortened shock inserts, and get springs custom made to suit. Cutting coils off springs is not a good idea, especially when they are compressed. This will fuck up the spring rates totally. As an added note, the LTSA site states that heated and cut springs are not acceptable. If your going to lower a car, do it properly... it's only going to cause more grief than its worth if ya do a half assed job

my mate had a 4K in a Starlet that was boostin at 15psi reliably with only a decompression plate! It used a blow thru system with a big ass SU carby, and a turbo off a GSR Mitsi! It was a scary as car round Manfeild, as it had standard suspension, and the 12 inch biscuit tyres pumped up to like 50psi so they wouldn't roll of the rim... showed up the drifter boys tho!!!