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Engine of choice is a Duratec HE 2.3 ltr.
The reason for going C30 was because of the great experience I had with the SD3. A very fun car to drive and after trading the SD3 I already knew one day I would go back to C30. Earlier this year I aquired a C30 but this time not a T5 but the most basic version available, a 1.6 NA. Cost was one of the reasons since used C30's are still pretty expensive in my country but the other reason for going 1.6 was because I was somewhat done with the 5 cylinders, wanted something different.
The choice for me was between 1.6 and 1.8/2.0. The difference is that the 1.6 is a Zetec-SE engine and the 1.8/2.0 are Duratec HE engine's. Soon it became obvious that Duratec HE C30's were hard to get in the basic form. Because of this the used prices of these cars were high.
Building an SD means a very sober interior and buying a loaded C30 would be a waste since most of the luxury will go out. Then I ran in to a C30 1.6 "Base" version while searching the internet and it turned out a Volvo 850 Club member was working at this dealrship so I contacted him and asked if something could be arranged concerning the price. The person made me a very nice offer and soon I was the new owner of a C30 1.6 Base edition.
Suspension and rims were still shelved from the former SD3 project, interior would be removed and two Sparco seats should go in. Sparco's were used in SD1, SD2 and SD-C. All this would make a nice going setup except for the engine which only does 100 crank HP.
The assumption was that it would be a very slow car but later on after taking the car to the Nürburgring and driving the Ring with two people in the car it turned out to be a great car to drive. The 100 HP wasn't much but it certainly didn't disappoint me. It could have been a nice basis for great fun however driving the Ring there are a couple of places where the power really counts and where I like to go a tad faster, these are the uphill parts. At one part called Kesselchen the speed went down a bit to much for my liking. One might even say safety becomes a concern in this part of the track because stronger cars will fly by with conciderable speed difference. It was clear more power was needed. This also was the plan from the start anyway. Experiences with the SDM car and the turbo cars showed me that a minimum of 160-180 HP is needed to make these parts at the Ring go a bit faster and these numbers is where I want to be with this car for starters.
At first the plan was to turbo the 1.6. With the engine in stock form the power could have been raised to maybe 140-150 HP and maybe some more with more effort but then the gearbox would become a concern. Having set 170 HP as a starting piont for this car a bit more work to engine and gearbox were needed anyway and I couldn't find much information on the Zetec-SE's strength. After driving the Ring with the stock setup my co-driver insisted not to turbo this engine.. He said it was the easy way out to which I didn't fully agree but I could understand what he was trying to say.
It meant the next obvious choice was a bigger NA engine. This lead to the only logical next step which is the Duratec HE. It also told me that maybe I should have bought a 1.8 or 2.0 C30 in the first place which would have made the conversion a hell of a lot easier but still up to this point the cost difference in car and parts purchase is still in favour of the 1.6. The engine management system will be a lot more challenging.
A Duratec 2.0 C30 should be capable of reaching the desired power level and some more without modification to the engine management system's hardware, the 1.6 management needs modification to fit a Duratec engine but is basically a much simpler system which, in theory, should be capable of running the Duratec engine. Only time will tell if this will fly. So..
Duratec HE it was but it is also available in a 2.3 version and since I needed to aquire an engine anyway I decided to go give the 2.3 a try. This engine should bring a bit more torque compared to a 2.0 and should bring me at the desired power level a bit easier and maybe the engine will be a bit less stressed when driving at the track. I'm not very familiar with these engine's and what they are capable of but the research done so far shows that 180 HP is certainly in there and it might even lift it over 200. Should make a great fun track car specially given the weight of a gutted C30.
Duratec 2.3's were hard to find. The few I did find were high mileage Mondeo versions and they were expensive. While searching I found several UK Ford tuning companies offering 2.3 "crate" engine's which were only slightly more expensive but rebuild or new. Eventually Is chose to aquire an engine form a company named Pumabuild. Little did I know at that point but it turned out to become a very unplesant experience. All in all it took Pumabuild over 3 months to deliver the engine and when it arrived it wasn't packed in a box but only wrapped in plastic. Expecting a delivery time of maybe a week or 6, which doesn't seem unreasonable in my opinion, I mailed the company several times and each time there were excuses and promises. The owner of the company called Alan always remained friendly in the communication but still.. In the end I mailed them on a near daily basis.. It was clear I was given the runaround. Eventually November the 19th the engine arrived.
While waiting for the engine I also aquired a Miltek 4-2-1 header and a Cosworth intake manifold. |
| Engine is a 2.3 which also shows on the engine casting. From what I have been told and promised and which turned out to be true the head is CNC ported and probably a 2.0 head from origin. I don't know if there are huge differences between a 2.0 and 2.3 head. The CNC porting itself appears very rough. Although smooth from a machining point of view the ports aren't polished but machining grooves are very visible. This doesn't necessarily mean the porting is bad but at least it raises an eyebrow. The other promise to make up for the long delivery time but hard to verify at this point is that Piper Fast road cams are supposed to be fitted. This would mean and extra 10-15 HP should be in there. The overall quality of build is acceptable although two oil galleries in the head weren't plugged. I expected a "new" engine also and this clearly isn't a new engine but a rebuild engine.
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