Mk4 Escort Estate, ST170 on Throttle Bodies
Posted: Fri Jan 02, 2009 10:20 pmI've owned this a good while now, so I may as well do a thread on it as it's had a fair bit done to it, and still has plenty more planned for it 
A couple of years ago I was realising that I really needed an Estate car for doing my photoshoots. I considered all the usual off the shelf typical modern options but nothing really inspired me, I just couldn't get any enthusiasm up for them.
So thinking of what I really wanted I narrowed it down to either a Mk4 Escort or Sierra Estate.
I already had a Mk3 Escort project so that ruled out one of them, and I figured a Mk4 would be easier to find anyway. The Sierra idea was killed off for the time being as I realised it would be a lot more uneconomical and cost me a lot more as I'd probably end up putting something with a Cosworth badge on the rocker cover under the bonnet
A 5dr for practicality was decided upon, and Mercury grey was the colour I had my mind set on, and bloody hell was finding one difficult!
Various wanted ads, scouring eBay, Autotrader, small ads etc for 3 months eventaully found me an ideal candidate.
Being sold by a small time trader in London for a few hundred quid, I didn't waste a minute and got the overnight bus down to meet a bemused seller at 9am in Wimbeldon!!
Money exchanged and I was smoking my way back up north with the 1.4's valve stem seals being replaced high on the agenda
I can't seem to find any pix of it as it was originally on the skinny steels, but here's an early one with just RST rims as its only mod:
Next came an RST bonnet, mirrors, pressed plates (and Fast Ford sticker!):
And a mint 90 spec interior was bought late one night in Bolton on my way back from a London trip!
[url="http://www.diamondwindowtints.co.uk"]Diamond Tints[/url] sorted me out next:
It also has been used as a tripod in it's working life:
The CVH was fine, but I constantly had it in my mind that more power could be had for the same sub 30MPG economy. So the next job was a trip to Sitech Racing for a 2.0 Zetec conversion
An S2 RST tank and full fueling setup was installed, as were the LSD gearbox and brakes.
Needless to say I enjoyed the hike in power
Still running on standard suspension it was a bloody handful, as the standard gear is so soft it can barely cope with a 60 BHP 1.3 let alone more than double that
I'm often hanging out the estate doing car to car action photos so the soft suspension was ideal in theory but in practice it was lethal!!!
So now it runs a spax setup, which is actually fairly smooth!
Bringing us up to date is the latest and best mod, a full Weber Alpha Gold Turnkey kit. A proper plug and play throttle bodies and ECU kit that has utterly transformed the car. Weber say it should be 165BHP but it feels much quicker! It's kept up with a brand new Astra VXR and just managed to pull away from a Focus ST that was 3 up :shocked:
It's a whole lot of fun now (a bit too much if you ask the local Traffics actually ).
Out with the old:
In with the new:
More to come soon.....
A couple of years ago I was realising that I really needed an Estate car for doing my photoshoots. I considered all the usual off the shelf typical modern options but nothing really inspired me, I just couldn't get any enthusiasm up for them.
So thinking of what I really wanted I narrowed it down to either a Mk4 Escort or Sierra Estate.
I already had a Mk3 Escort project so that ruled out one of them, and I figured a Mk4 would be easier to find anyway. The Sierra idea was killed off for the time being as I realised it would be a lot more uneconomical and cost me a lot more as I'd probably end up putting something with a Cosworth badge on the rocker cover under the bonnet
A 5dr for practicality was decided upon, and Mercury grey was the colour I had my mind set on, and bloody hell was finding one difficult!
Various wanted ads, scouring eBay, Autotrader, small ads etc for 3 months eventaully found me an ideal candidate.
Being sold by a small time trader in London for a few hundred quid, I didn't waste a minute and got the overnight bus down to meet a bemused seller at 9am in Wimbeldon!!
Money exchanged and I was smoking my way back up north with the 1.4's valve stem seals being replaced high on the agenda
I can't seem to find any pix of it as it was originally on the skinny steels, but here's an early one with just RST rims as its only mod:
Next came an RST bonnet, mirrors, pressed plates (and Fast Ford sticker!):
And a mint 90 spec interior was bought late one night in Bolton on my way back from a London trip!
[url="http://www.diamondwindowtints.co.uk"]Diamond Tints[/url] sorted me out next:
It also has been used as a tripod in it's working life:
The CVH was fine, but I constantly had it in my mind that more power could be had for the same sub 30MPG economy. So the next job was a trip to Sitech Racing for a 2.0 Zetec conversion
An S2 RST tank and full fueling setup was installed, as were the LSD gearbox and brakes.
Needless to say I enjoyed the hike in power
Still running on standard suspension it was a bloody handful, as the standard gear is so soft it can barely cope with a 60 BHP 1.3 let alone more than double that
I'm often hanging out the estate doing car to car action photos so the soft suspension was ideal in theory but in practice it was lethal!!!
So now it runs a spax setup, which is actually fairly smooth!
Bringing us up to date is the latest and best mod, a full Weber Alpha Gold Turnkey kit. A proper plug and play throttle bodies and ECU kit that has utterly transformed the car. Weber say it should be 165BHP but it feels much quicker! It's kept up with a brand new Astra VXR and just managed to pull away from a Focus ST that was 3 up
:shocked:It's a whole lot of fun now (a bit too much if you ask the local Traffics actually
).Out with the old:
In with the new:
More to come soon.....
..always liked the estate for some reason..nice 1 
Very streetsleeper