Dave’s Garage UK is a YouTube channel following a long home restoration of a Mk1 Escort, and one of its most useful threads is the engine swap. Instead of a period Ford engine, the car gets the 2.0-litre Zetec from the Ford Focus ST170, mounted north–south and driving the rear wheels through a gearbox from a first-generation (NA) Mazda MX-5. Almost everything that joins them to the car is made in the garage: the sump and oil pickup, the gearbox adaptor plate, the engine and gearbox mounts, the water rail and the exhaust manifold.
That makes it a good series for anyone weighing up a Zetec swap themselves. Each video tackles one job, and the channel explains its reasoning as well as the method, including the places where a plainer silver-top or black-top Zetec would make life easier. We’re writing it up one video at a time, in the order of the channel’s own Zetec RWD playlist, which isn’t the order the videos were published.
Why a Zetec in a Mk1?
The Zetec was designed for front-wheel-drive Fords, mounted across the car. Turning it through 90 degrees for a rear-drive Mk1 means its own sump, pickup and mounts won’t fit, and its gearbox has to be swapped for a rear-drive one. Ready-made conversion parts exist, but Dave’s point in the first video is that they’re expensive because of the labour involved, so if you have more time than money you can make them yourself.
Episodes written up so far
- Making an Oil Pickup Pipe – Dave's Garage Zetec RWD Mk1 Escort Ep 1
Dave's Garage UK scratch-builds an oil pickup pipe for an ST170 Zetec in a rear-drive Mk1 Escort: steel flange, 16mm tube, VW Beetle strainer, and the jig tricks.
Still to come
These are the rest of the videos in the order of the channel’s Zetec RWD Conversion playlist, with the titles as published. We’ll add each write-up here as it goes live, along with two related videos that sit outside the playlist: the sump drain plug and baffles, and home-made ignition leads.
- Ford Escort MK1 Zetec water rail DIY
- Zetec ST170 engine start up on DCOE carbs and ESC module
- Ford Escort MK1 Restoration Project, Engine reveal
- Ford Escort MK1 Restoration Project, fitting big gearbox tunnel
- Ford Escort MK1 MK2 DIY Zetec Sump Part 4 Testing Rig
- DIY Gearbox Adaptor Plate, MX5 NA to ST170, Part 1
- Gearbox Adaptor Plate Part 2, MX5 NA to Zetec ST170
- MX5 Mk1 NA Gearbox to ST170 Zetec engine, Hybrid Clutch
- Ford Escort MK1 Restoration Project (full episode)
- MX5 NA Gearbox onto Zetec part 5
- RWD Zetec Conversion, Fitting the Sump
- DIY Engine Mounts Zetec Conversion, ST170, Part 1
- DIY Engine Mounts and Fitting the ST170 Zetec RWD conversion
- DIY Gearbox Mounts, Zetec RWD, Mazda MX5 Gearbox
- RWD ST170 Zetec Alternator Kit
About the channel
All the videos are by Dave’s Garage on YouTube. The Zetec conversion is one part of the channel’s wider Mk1 restoration, which also covers scratch-built panels, bubble arches, a left- to right-hand-drive conversion and paint. For a very different take on a modern engine in a Mk1, see Retropower’s Gordon Murray build, with its Cosworth Duratec, or browse all our Mk1 Escort builds.