It's finally running!

[sdcat]

Six months now since I dropped the car off at the shop, but it's finally running. It's been a learning process for both myself and the shop. Here's a few things I learned / issues with rebuilding the ZX1:

- The machine shop had to buy new jigs just to be able to do the valve work, because of the ZX1's unique configuration. It was also difficult for them to find engine plugs. We think this must have been a European sourced engine. Parts are not as readily available for the ZX1's as later Zetecs.
- Cam choices for ZX1's are limited in the U.S. We ended up using the Kent FZ 2002's that were on it, which should be OK.
- The billet oil pump from Quicksilver only works for ZX2's onward.
- Jenveys won't work with the stock computer because the stock computer uses MAF instead of throttle position sensing.
- Once we figured out that the Emerald wasn't working because the crank sensor wasn't working, we tried many different recommended crank sensors, and the one that worked was off a ZX2.
- Once we got the car started, we found two cylinders with broken rings, probably from numerous attempts at starting while sorting out the computer/sensing issues, and flooding the cylinders with gas. The engine had to be rebuilt again on their dime.
- Last week the car finally was running smooth, but the throttle cable broke! Will get a new one Monday, and do an initial dyno tune, and then hopefully be on the road to break in the engine for a while before completing the tune.

The down side is the time it took to rebuild this thing, and the expense. It's been kind of a recurrent "just one more little thing to sort out and it should be ready," and I've had to practice a lot of patience. The shop has eaten a lot of the labor cost of rebuilding this, since they admit to it being a learning experience for them also! The up side is that is has stronger internals, balanced, better sump baffling, higher compression, porting/polishing, bigger valves, and is hopefully going to withstand a little abuse on the track. The wiring and finish of the engine actually looks quite impressive. Despite the problems the shop has had in figuring this out, they have quite a bit of experience building race engines, so I hope this engine runs well for a few years.

Can't wait to get it home to rebuild the suspension and brakes, and put the garage full of toys I've been accumulating in the meantime on it.

Justin

[Elv15]

Justin,

Sounds like quite an ordeal! Glad to see it running tough and thanks for posting your experiences with the ZX1. I hope you have a lot of fun with it!

Tom

[slomove]

Congratulations that you finally got that thing running!

As you may have noticed the ZX1 is a fine engine as long as you get the parts.....(ask me about CW vs. CCW turning water pumps).

.........It was also difficult for them to find engine plugs. We think this must have been a European sourced engine. Parts are not as readily available for the ZX1's as later Zetecs.

It is possible that you got a European Ford Mondeo engine, I heard a few were imported in the mid 90's. But they should be exceedingly rare and most ZX1s here in the US were made for the Ford Contour. They should be almost identical anyway, the only differences rumored are the big end bolts (8mm on the EU engine and 9mm on the US engine) and some minor differences in the head casting that requires a bit of Dremel work for high-lift cams. If you happen to have the 8mm bolts you may want to look for ARP bolts.
I don't understand your issue with "engine plugs"???

- Cam choices for ZX1's are limited in the U.S. We ended up using the Kent FZ 2002's that were on it, which should be OK.

Depending on your intended use that is probably as far as you want to go, anyway. The Kent FZ2003 and FZ2004 are more for high-rev track use only and require a wholesale change to solid lifters

- Jenveys won't work with the stock computer because the stock computer uses MAF instead of throttle position sensing.

Yes, but that is true for almost any engine, not just the ZX1

- Once we figured out that the Emerald wasn't working because the crank sensor wasn't working, we tried many different recommended crank sensors, and the one that worked was off a ZX2.

That is strange...I never looked up what sensor is in my engine but I would swear it is a bog standard inductive pickup that Ford uses for many engines. On my car, an identical sensor gizmo even serves to supply the signal to the speedo, picking up the prop shaft rotation. However, the Emerald CPU must be configured to the type of sensor, in this case an inductive one. There are other Hall-Effect type sensors that have solid state output.

Gert

[sdcat]

Gert,

Much of the above was learned, of course, with the help of you all. The big problem at first was the shop figuring out that there is a difference between each generation of Zetec!

I don't know about the freeze plugs - the shop said they were a strange size that weren't readily available, and ended up using something from a different engine. Maybe the freeze plugs are different sizes for European ZX1's?

We're going on the dyno tomorrow!

Justin

[slomove]

......I don't know about the freeze plugs..........

Ah, you mean the freeze plugs. Well, I don't even know exactly where they are on my engine and I never heard someone else mention it. Maybe a dumb question.... but why in the world would someone want to touch them (if they are not frozen out or corroded)?

Gert

[sdcat]

Not sure, maybe to clean out all the nooks and crannies in the cooling paths. Despite the problems and delays this shop has had, they appear to be very thorough!

[Doug Liedblad]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freeze_plug

When I worked at an auto parts store they always removed the plugs when hot tanking an engine prior to rebuild.

The hot tank would remove any internal rust, crud, etc. in the water passages.

Doug