High Mileage-what do?

[kensaysrawr]

I was converted from honda, after totaling my Del Sol, and recently bought a 2003 foci zx3 with 193K

I'm Loving the car so far. and I defiantly want to build onto the 2.0 zetec engine. Not a lot though. maybe turbo with 6 or 7lbs psi with supporting mods but keeping a stock look on the outside


Now I know 193k is a lot. what would be most cost effective (and smart)

1.) buying a new P&P Head with new valvetrain and keeping everything else I have. (the tranny is a year old since it was replaced)

2.) Buying a whole new shortblock and swapping it out and mounting up to my existing tranny to save a few bucks.

3.) P&P my existing head. with new valvetrain

PS. I've been here a few days and you guys are a lot less "conceited" compared to Honda Fanatics. Love what you guys are doing here.

[Sponsor]

[iminhell]

I'm confident you'll make the best decision once you've got a few miles on the car. You'll know pretty quickly if the engine needs work or if it's up to the task.
How's the compression?
How clean does the oil stay?
Does it overheat or run overly hot?
Any leaks?

Odds are if any of the above exist or check bad, you'll really want to refresh the engine before doing any modification to it.
Or just say hell with it and buy a new reman off ebay, if they're still on there.

Just be aware that turboing a Focus is not cheap like a Honda. At minimum you'll be spending around $2,000.

[sailor]

X2 on the above, your Del Sol was from the last generation of Hondas that had nice steering "feel" - the Focus is one of the best avail. at ANY price in this regard....

The performance areas on this site will show you a LOT of options to dream about & make plans while you test the new car out in real world use & learn where you're starting from to get the "basics" solid to start....

[kensaysrawr]

Originally Posted by iminhell

How's the compression?
How clean does the oil stay?
Does it overheat or run overly hot?
Any leaks?

-Haven't had a chance to test compression. will do soon though, gotta find a buddy with a compression tester. But it doesn't seem to have a loss of power.

-NO Leaks as far as I can see. None on the head, Coolant was clean so no rust in the cooling.
-No overheating
-Only problem is a low idle which is most likely just dirty IM and IACV
I checked all the vacuum hoses and replaced the ones I thought were bad.
About to do the timing as well. found a VERY informative step by step video on YouTube to do so.

I understand nothing is as cheap as the hondas but I'm willing to put in the money and effort.
Thanks for the feedback though!