Step by step Zetec installation - Page 2

Last on November 04 2024

So just what are the 10 steps to installing a Zetec engine?

1. Obtaining & preparing the engine

When I started the project in 1998, I had difficulty obtaining a 2.0 Zetec from a Mondeo (known as a Ford Contour in the US). My breakers yard found me a low mileage 2.0 unit from a rolled Mondeo.


Once we collected the engine, it had to be stripped of the manifolds (headers), emission control equipment, starter motor, power steering pump, alternator etc, until we were left with a basic engine sitting on its sump. This shot shows my rebuilt engine, after the rocker cover was powder coated, and a few bits had been changed like the sump, oil and water pumps etc. More of that below...

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2. Change the sump and oil pickup pipe

The 2.0 Mondeo sump is the wrong shape to accept the Fiesta/Escort BC/IB5 gearbox. The gearbox on the Mondeo is known as the MTX75, and is physically much larger than the Fiesta gearbox, and accordingly has different mounting points, so if you want to use the BC/IB5 gearbox, you must replace the sump with the 1.8 Zetec Escort sump. I bought mine online, and the 1800 sumps are readily available on ebay.

This is a picture of the 2.0 Mondeo sump. The picture illustrates the difference between the two types of sump in the end casing, most notably around the area where the flange bolts on to the Fiesta/Escort gearbox.
If you change to the 1800 sump, you must use the 1.8 Escort/Fiesta oil pickup pipe, as the 2.0 pipe is the wrong shape for use with the 1800 sump. The 2.0 pickup pipe would hit the inside of the sump, and therefore you wouldn't be able to fit the sump without first changing the oil pickup pipe. From experience at race tracks, the Zetec mounted transversely does not suffer from oil surge problems, like the old Crossflow did. So theres no point in fitting baffle plates etc in the sump, unless you're running a single seater, which experience much higher G-forces than a saloon car, in which case a dry sump is probably the best solution.

3. Change the standard Zetec waterpump

Why? Well the difference between the 1.8 Escort/Fiesta water pump, and the 1.8/2.0 Mondeo water pumps, is that they spin in opposite directions. You see, on the Mondeo there's a serpentine drive belt driving the water pump and ancillaries. When you use a triangulated drive belt setup, the water pump is driven in the opposite direction to the serpentine belt setup (see diagram).

So if you are not using the serpentine drive belt setup, you must change the 1.8/2.0 Mondeo pump for the Fiesta or Escort Zetec 1.8 water pump.

For the later black top, or series 3 Zetec from the Focus, the solution is a reversed impellor from a place called Quicksilver Race Engines in the States, or an idler pulley made up to run the pulley in the same way as stock.

The two pictures below show the two different arrangements for driving the water pump. The serpentine system, as used on the Mondeo, and the triangulated system, as used on the Fiesta.

Key to pulleys: A = Alternator, W =Water Pump, C = Crankshaft

The Serpentine system (Mondeo)
The Triangulated system (Fiesta)

Zetec cooling system

And how is a Zetec cooled? Check the diagram below to see how the water circulates before and after the thermostat opens