RSF2000 Rally Sport Focus! RWD Revolution

I have been thinking about rear knuckles, I wanted to do a bolt on hub
bearing assembly which I still might but if I make a lot of parts the cost gos up
so I have been looking at making a one peace knuckle and getting the bore
done after the part has been fully welded.

I just completed a duratec swap into my rally focus. I have some things you may want to consider for the motor side of it. This is all assuming you are planning on using a duratec from a focus or a focus that started life with a Duratec.

What intake manifold are you planning on using since the stock focus one would put the throttle body facing the firewall and likely touching it once the motor is turned.

There is also a multi outlet coolant manifold that bolts to the motor and is above the transmission. This could also interfere with the firewall.

Maybe these issues are resolved if you started with a duratec that came out of a ranger.

If you are going to market to the largest number of a duratec foci I would make the kit around the 2.0L motor since there are vastly more foci that shipped with the 2.0 than the 2.3.

Also, what I found with the swap is that Ford was constantly making changes to how things were wired or run in the focus even outside of the major model year changes like the '05 refresh or the '08 refresh to the current body style. So be careful about what years the parts you are test fitting came off of. I know there are at least 3-4 different knuckle designs that are not interchangable.

Let me know if you want any pics of my duratec car.

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Andrew_Frick
I just completed a duratec swap into my rally focus. I have some things you may want to consider for the motor side of it. This is all assuming you are planning on using a duratec from a focus or a focus that started life with a Duratec.

What intake manifold are you planning on using since the stock focus one would put the throttle body facing the firewall and likely touching it once the motor is turned.

There is also a multi outlet coolant manifold that bolts to the motor and is above the transmission. This could also interfere with the firewall.

Maybe these issues are resolved if you started with a duratec that came out of a ranger.

If you are going to market to the largest number of a duratec foci I would make the kit around the 2.0L motor since there are vastly more foci that shipped with the 2.0 than the 2.3.

Also, what I found with the swap is that Ford was constantly making changes to how things were wired or run in the focus even outside of the major model year changes like the '05 refresh or the '08 refresh to the current body style. So be careful about what years the parts you are test fitting came off of. I know there are at least 3-4 different knuckle designs that are not interchangable.

Let me know if you want any pics of my duratec car.

I plan on making intakes for the focus my self or contracting them out. I can
make one off ones in my sleep since the injectors are in the head.

The ranger water out let dose work but it can be made for cheap.

I plan on putting a lot of effort in to making sure people have the options of the 2.0
the main thing is steel crank.

Do you know how I could find all the differences I do know a few. but they did not
change the frame mounts its too costly too.

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SteelSolutions



I plan on making intakes for the focus my self or contracting them out. I can
make one off ones in my sleep since the injectors are in the head.

The ranger water out let dose work but it can be made for cheap.

I plan on putting a lot of effort in to making sure people have the options of the 2.0
the main thing is steel crank.

Do you know how I could find all the differences I do know a few. but they did not
change the frame mounts its too costly too.

For the intake make sure you mock it up with both of the available PS pumps. The newer cars moved the reservoir to the top of the pump which causes problems for the Coswoth intake manifold that was built for the earlier motors.

I do not know all of the differences. I know most of the suspension ones from other the years. Yes, I do not think they changed the location of the bolts for the subframes. But they did change some of the hard points for example the drivers side motor mount was changed in 2004. This was a weld on part that you will likely remove for the RWD conversion but just one of things that caught me out of my swap.

The biggest issue I had was with the change of the cars to the CAN wiring system. Similar major connectors but the car was wired very differently. And lots of little connectors were different around the car that required me to swap over parts that I did not really plan on swapping like the hazard light switch and the front indicator lights.

crazy Well I have some Irons in the fire I have 60k in cars sitting in my driveway and
I'm trying hard as hell to sell them and I'm going to get an 05 focus and if I
can pick up a wrecked 08 2 door and I will find out about all the little things when they come to
light. For now I am working on the parts I know best and thats rear suspension.
Then the front frame.

Cool project.

Couple of things to think about:

Mazda3 struts are larger diamater than the old Focus stuff. 53mm at the clamp if I remember correctly. If you do keep the C170 family (fuckus, M3, Volvo shared chassis code) suspension bits, you'll probably want to switch over to Mazda3 stuff just for that. Second advantage is that I believe the brakes are easier to upgrade. Early Focus, at least, had part of the caliper built in to the knuckle. Mazda calipers are conventional bolt on deals. From what I've seen (I know the Mazda suff way better than the Ford stuff) Mazda and Ford seem to use different ball joints, so to use Mazda bits, you'd also have to use Mazda control arms.

Oil pans: Make sure you have room for the Miata pan. I doubt the Ranger pan is designed for 1.2 g sustained cornering.

Intake manifold: Just use a Miata manifold. You've got your hands full fabricating the rest of the bits. I'd be surprised if you could whip up something that works better than the Miata's nice, lightweight plastic variable-runner manifold.

I'm not really sure how the ranger deals with engine mounts and coolant outlets, so I don't know which is better, but I'd suggest at least putting the Ranger and Miata bits side by side before committing to one or the other.

-Dave

There are so many things I know a lot about the different parts but I need to
concentrate one part at a time, I don't want to be rude about anything its just
I can come up with pages of have you thoughts and what abouts.

I want to use stock front wheel sump so i don't have too swap racks and knuckles

05 focus has ears for brakes, and the exploder hub is already Mazda bolt pattern
so I will be mixing anyway and selling other parts with new bearings for the focus
in case some one needs to save some money.

I do like the idea of the mx5 intake I have talked to some places about making an after market
plastic intake. Depending on what people want or if theres a market for a good front
facing intake to also sell to the after market crowd in the uk.

I will be touching on these options and parts after I get a rear end mounted in the focus.
thanks for the ideas I eat and breath this idea now and don't want to be rude.

I know you've got bigger fish to fry on this project right now, but I just stumbled into this picture of the inside of an MX-5 oil pan, so I'll put it here for reference. When you have a Focus and/or Ranger pan in your hands some day, you can come back here and compare.

-Dave

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eyesoreracing


I know you've got bigger fish to fry on this project right now, but I just stumbled into this picture of the inside of an MX-5 oil pan, so I'll put it here for reference. When you have a Focus and/or Ranger pan in your hands some day, you can come back here and compare.

-Dave

We have a few now.
Whole motors, one for him and one for me.

lots of pan options is cool though, I hope to use stock focus pan.

done yet?

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brianallmotor
done yet?

Yeah, its not like this is rocket science or anything.

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wvonkessler

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brianallmotor
done yet?

Yeah, its not like this is rocket science or anything.

Yeah al we'ze needs to dos is just focus on the problem. (groan!)

I like where this is going. Looks like I am going to have to start hunting a focus...

Dumb realization for the rear bearing problem.

Why not just use a bolt on hub assembly from the front of something? That way all you need to fabricate is a big fat plate with a big hole in the middle, and three or four tapped or drilled holes.

I've seen stock press-in style hubs modified to take bolt-in bearings (GM 4-cyl drivetrain into Honda chassis swap) and it didn't fare too badly. Plus pressing bearings when they fail sucks.

edit - just looked at the pictures again - the Explorer looks like it already uses a bolt in bearing/hub. That makes finding parts a little easier...



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/06/2011 06:48AM by Pete.