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The N/A Zetec Performance Thread

68K views 144 replies 57 participants last post by  daspazzZX3 
#1 · (Edited)
In response to all the questions about N/A Zetec performance lately

Post em if you got em boys.... [headbang]
Heres my recepie


Breathe Easier
- Full Intake/Exhaust w/2.5" (Inside Diameter) Piping
- 65mm Throttle Body
- 70mm MAF tube
- SVT Fuel Pump
- 24 lbs Fuel Injectors
- Tune

Engine Efficency
- Headwork (Port, Polish, Deck, 3 Angle Valve Job, Oversized Valves)
- Built engine (High Compression, Lightweight Pistons/Rods, ARP hardware)
- Reinforced Main caps
- Knife-Edged Crankshaft
- AC Delete
- PS Delete
- (Tune) Alternator cutoff at WOT

Rev Higher
- Custom Intake Manifold w/short runners
- Aggressive Camshafts (High lift, Good Overlap)
- Adjustable Cam Gears
- Valves/Springs (Lightweight and designed for high rpm)
- Billet Oil Pump Gears
- (tune) Rev limiter set to 8k

Stay in the sweet spot
- 4.06 gears

Reduce Rotational Mass
- Underdrive Pulleys
- Lightweight Rims/Tires
- Lightweight Flywheel

And as always, due to the High Revving, low tq, not daily driver friendly nature of a pure N/A build, Weight reduction is a must to help combat the lack of low end response.
LINK[/URL]

Daily Driver Friendly
Lightweight battery, Carbon Fiber Hood, Carbon Fiber Hatch, Wheels (most important), Flywheel (2nd Most important), Front Race Seats, Rear Seat Delete, Receiver only with only the front door speakers

Track Oriented
Remove the AC stuff, Remove the Powersteering stuff, Remove the Dash accept for the gauges, Swap all of the glass for Lexan, Remove the wheel well guards, Remove the rear bumper support, Remove both the air bags, scrape off all the sound barrier stuff, Remove all interior panels

thx to: mlbbaseball, besthaticouldo
 
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#59 ·
you never lose power off the line, its just hard to gain that power. see, a V8 has lots more cylinders to get everything moving, you only have 4. that in turn is the killer of low end torque, and the reason why when you turn the ac on in a v8, you hardly feel it; and when you turn it on in your car and it takes 14 seconds to get to 60.

Bottom line, the car is very quick in the turns, if you do alot of suspension work to it, it handles better than many more expensive cars. lowering springs, strut braces, traction bars, sway bars, roll cages, they all work wonders. I personally would supercharge if i were going to road race, since the power is there all the time and you don't have to wait for spool up of a turbo, ever. If you don't have the means for that, stick some big cams in it, get a Ford Racing Cylinder head, balanced internals (high compression pistons are a big one for N/A) and get an LSD for your trans, and cut out all the unneeded weight in the car. 170 whp is acheivable on race gas, just talk to mlbbaseball. and in a car as light as a focus, that is a lot more power than you think.

Matt
 
#63 ·
I will post my current set up it isn't much.
Ngk spiral wound low resistance 8mm spark wires
Castrol edge 5w-20 full synthetic
Spectre racing cotton/oil cone filter mated to maf housing.
Sport edition cd wheels 16"x7.5" with 205/50R16
Gives a little bit more umph but that's about it
 
#67 ·
haha for one its plural header meaning 1 not headers which would be 2 and second like he said you can take the svt header and put it on any zetec motor from another zetec motor or svt car the engines were designed that way...wow [8]
 
#71 ·
Exhaust, then full intake (cai/sri, throttle body, possibly early 00 intake mani)
Tune
Cams w/gears
Head work
Then possibly race intake manifold and possibly 4.10 gears at that point.

The list goes on and on, just depends where you wanna stop.
 
#74 ·
Okay i have a 2000 Focus SE and i just put a Flowmaster catback exhaust on the other day. At first it was kinda quiet but then i let the gas run out and put 93 grade gasoline in. It sounds a whole lot better but the downside is when i rev; the RPM's drop down and theres low popping or grumbling sound like a Honda with a 3.5 inch exhaust smh. My friend told me that i may be running rich; because i do have a huge problem with gas and i need to replace my plugs because the maintenance of this car wasn't done entirely before i bought it earlier this year. What by this what do you think my prob is?

what else could i do to boost performance after this. I also installed a Steeda CAI.
im trying to get to at least 250hp by this upcoming summer.
 
#75 ·
Sorry for the bump but I've been doing a lot of research myself as I'm considering buying a ZX3 Zetec and doing an all motor build.

What strikes me as intriguing is when you compare the Zetec to say stock rice B series, there's a 20 horsepower gap between the two despite the Zetec having a slightly higher capacity. On the other hand, the Zetec is much torquier. Also interesting is where the two engines are making these numbers. The Zetec peaks at around 5800 revs whilst the B16 is making peak power up at 7600. Other than that, the two engines are similar.

After reading around on the forums, I just wonder why the general consensus is that 200hp is the max output for a Zetec? Guys are pushing 240-250 with N/A B16's, what's holding the Zetec back? Forget about the money nor time needed to do so, I want to know if one of these engines can push 235 all motor.

I'm going to be going to ODU this fall to study Motorsports Engineering Technology and when I get out (or hell, if I had $8000 bucks to spend), I want to build an all motor Zetec pushing over 200 (235 ideally). It's crazy as hell and although I could easily get that with forced induction, you have to respect a 4cyl making numbers like that N/A. I'd also like to take a S-Type and do a possible AWD conversion but that's a whole nother thread altogether and I won't go into that.

So 235 is what I believe to be the ideal number. Anymore than that I feel is overkill for a front wheel drive car because I want something more track oriented and torque steer would be a big issue.

The question lies in how to get there. Obviously, you'd have to go the whole nine yards. Pistons, rods, port, head, camshaft, there'd be some serious engine work to be done. Compression ratio through the roof. But is it possible? I think it is. What I'd like to know is how the Zetec would perform if one was to fully build one out and run it at 8000rpm. With a higher compression ration, better breathing, crazy cams and some ecu work, could we be pushing power past 6700rpm? That's what I wanna know. It looks to me that there's a lot that can be made with the engine IF one had the dedication to go that route. I also would be interested in seeing a Zetec put on a airflow bench. That would tell us what could truly be made
 
#77 ·
Yes it can be done I did it back in the early 2000`s for a track car , almost 14to 1 compression , custom cams , HUGH head from a casting you cant find any more , custom intake , SVT header etc , question is ... why do it needs 12.00 a gallon fuel , will eat it self in about 5000 miles , to much cost for the return but it has been done , did 230ish

Tom
 
#76 ·
The head on the zetec does not flow now where near like the B-series motors that's why we can't make the power they make. Or well we can get close but by then your using race gas. Also you can take the zetec to 8k rpm but we are known to have oil pump failures even with the billet oil pump gears they can still break.
 
#79 ·
I should be able to confirm weather or not better than 200 is possible in the next few months.
Also once the summer fuel comes back I need to run a before dyno. My bottom end will consist of Eagle rods and Wossner 12:1 pistons. With my shaved head this should put my static compression ratio near the 14:1 point, I'll have to clay/measure to make sure though. last dyno was half-assed tuned and on a different intake manifold. I now have the Ford Racing Intake Manifold and a bit more tuning into it as well as more RPM.
Even still I'm easily 200 motor HP as it sits.
My goal from the get go has been 200 wheel HP, at reasonable cost.

I see 235 being easily attainable, with enough RPM. Which happens to be what you're overlooking when comparing the zetec to Honda's. I'm sure once you get a bit of schooling under your belt you'll understand the interactions better and see were you're errors are.

The kicker on any high compression build is the quality of the fuel. Pump 93 isn't going to cut it if you want good real power.
... but I'm not using 'gasoline' so I'm not really scared of deto.
 
#83 · (Edited)
Still very curious as to what the limit is with these engines. Surely with the right head, 200 should be possible. If the smaller Hondas can make that power all motor, I don't see why we can't. There's no replacement for displacement.

I'm just curious, what are the flow numbers for a stock head and a SVT head? and Tom, with your experience on the flow bench what were the highest numbers you have ever seen in a Zetec head? I know for a fact that the Zetec isn't exactly he most effecient head design but we can surely push 250cfm on the intake from one of these heads. The B18 head can do that in stock form as can be seen below.




I believe that intake and exhaust flow is what's killing our potential to make power. That's why the Duratec is happy when you install simple bolt ins - you've already got a very nice flowing head on there giving you a much better base. So why not drop in a Duratec and call it a day? First, I'd like to be able to work with what I've got. Second, I'd like to see a Zeta engine putting out the power all engine the B-series engines can. Most likely impossible, yes. But there's no replacement for displacement. We've got a bigger engine that was made around the same timeframe. Despite a less aggressive design, I legitimately believe that there is more potential to be found in the Zetec. With work, I think 200-215 is very much possible.
 
#84 ·
Is there any flow information for the Zetec/SVT head? I just picked up a spare engine for free and am planning on doing some exploration into the port geometry of this head. I have done my fare share of porting on Honda heads. Just wondering if there are any explorers on this site? Haven't been able to find very many ported head threads using the search function.
 
#85 ·
Check the Massive website for the 5 Axis CNC ultimate Zetec, head, and the FF vendor discussions for the ultimate SVT head numbers. Pretty impressive Zetec numbers for the best in CONSISTENCY & FLOW to me.
 
#86 ·
Thank you for the reference......Wow! Stock 159cfm Int. & 128cfm Exh. @ .4" lift is pretty low!

The Massive stage 2 port job with 237cfm Int. & 218cfm Exh. @ .4" lift is a big improvement. The +1mm valves probably had a lot to do with that as well.
 
#87 ·
Well I was given the opportunity to pick up a 60k km 2004 2.0L Zetec w/trans last weekend. For $200, I jumped all over it. Grabbed it and have it torn down already.

Once I was able to take a took at the head it's was very easy to see why it flows as little as it does in stock form. My Briggs and Stratton 500cc lawn tractor engine had better port dressing than this thing does.




After a little bit of cleaning.......

 
#88 ·
Then there was the difference between the SVT intake and these brutal intake ports. Anyone who just swaps an SVT intake onto a regular head is missing out on a lot of potential.

Here is a pic of the OEM Zetec head with an SVT intake outline stained onto the head. When I mounted the SVT intake onto the head half of the fuel injection tunnel was blocked.



After a little bit of port work, here it is opened up to match an SVT intake.
 
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