What’s Your Preference when it Comes to Engines??
In part due to the indulgence of Burton Power of the UK, we have been running in Type 49 Racing a series of articles titled “What Donk is That” that highlights some of the engines types that were seen in the Escort. There was the Twink, the Kent Cross Flow pushrod, the Pinto series in 1600cc and 2000cc and the venerable BDA series. That was just the standard offerings from Ford. Blokes with welders also have had a lash at the power plant question and a plethora of engine makes and types have been nestled into the front and sometimes the middle of Escorts for both Race. Rally, drag strip and even street use. It is mind boggling the types and configurations that have been transplanted into Escorts for various reasons but primarily in the quest for the need for speed. A common sight when I was racing was the Rotary powered Escort in firstly N/A form but sometimes latterly turbo charged rotaries. Cheap horsepower in a good handling chassis with excellent power down characteristics when fully set up with 5 and 6 bar rear ends these vehicles were a common sight in Sport Sedan fields here in Australia during the late 80’s to the current day. Then there were the four cylinder transplants that arrived in bulk with the move by the modern manufacturers to the common use of 16 valves and twin cams. There have Toyota powered Escorts, Mazda powered Escorts Nissan powered Escorts and a common transplant in the UK the Vauxhall powered Escort. Added to this is the spate of YB Cosworth powered Escorts in N/A and Turbocharged form and the Duratec family of Escorts where front wheel drive engines are modified and kitted to fit into RWD applications in Escorts. Then there are the beasts, the straight six cylinder powered Escorts and the booming V8 powered Escorts where American small block power or sometimes English Alloy Rover V8 engines are shoehorned into an Escort for some perverse reason that equated normally to travelling very fast predominantly in a straight line. So what is your favourite, rotary or four cylinder? Straight six or thumping V8? I personally prefer to keep my engines in the Ford family and given that I was racing and given the budget I would plump for a BDA series every time. Next (and it’s a close second!) is the Ford Cosworth YB series in N/A form – I really love these engines and the offer good power and drivability coupled with a simple to live with character that is a bit hard to source in the BDA series as BDA is really a competition engine that is not meant to idle at much less than about 2,500 rpm to keep sufficient oil supply to the cams and valve gear as just one of their idiosyncrasies. Yep, the YB Cossie strikes me as being the best of all worlds and probably the best all-round choice for power and reliability. And if you want ridiculous horsepower you can always run the YB Cossie with a turbo on it. The makings of one very fast Escort!
