A focus that doesn't want to stay stock

Ok, I just got an '02 Focus 4 dr with the vetec 4 cylinder and DOHC last week. whoever had it made a couple modifications, but nothing big. they put a cold air intake on, an raked it in the back. that's about it. I want to do more, but I don't know where to put my money. I am not really worried about appearance, seeing as how Focus' already look awsesome :naughty: , I want to work on the engine, or electronics. where should I put the money?

Randy

Hey...well i have an 86 fiero se, which is stock at the moment, but wont be for soon...i got a couple of parts at my house that will boost it a little...the main thing is to build up the engine and a lil on the electronics...forget bout the reast...make ur car into a sleeper...hahaha

Casey

ut the fiero is ugly.:puke: no paint, just primer. the focus actually looks decent.

Randy

well to tell u the truth...my car is about ready to paint anyways...plus my car looks better...the back of the focus is sitting to high in the air...decent to who??? yeah maybe u...

i am pretty sure you have zetec not a v-tec

convert it to an RS or a cosworth(sp?)

ATI Motorsports can swap the engine with a 03 svt cobra engine. Check it out online.

keep your stock engine, engine swaps are so much time and money there not worth it unless the engine is MUCH better and the svt engine isn't that much of an improvement. i'd look at putting a turbo in. turbo tom makes the best turbos for the focus. or you could look at a cheeper one, but no matter what its gonna end up costing like 2,200+

but just look at it this way the SVT engine only does about 160 - 190 horsepower wile a normal one with a turbo can push out nearly 220-300 horsepower depending on the kit ect ect.

bascliy when it comes to the focus heres the mods you need in the order in my opeion. (if your gonna go turbo eventually)

0)port the TB
1) SVT Headers - buy from mcnews automovie, this is why the svt really has much more power, its the best bang for your buck giveing nearly 17whp for only 270 dollers.
2) Trublendz exhaust - best bang for your buck as well, sience you have the headers done you might as well have the catback up as well.
3) Turbo - which brand is your choice (if your cats an auto you need a tranny upgrade at this point too)
4) cams
5) Pulleys
6) 2000 focus intake mani then port and polish it.

i think other than a few other little things with those your foci is deffnately going to be the fastest in town.

Trubendz exhaust is crap. Check out my car clubs website...www.focaljet.com they did an exhaust shoot out. every exhaust company that makes focus products participated except the japanese manufacturers (tanabe, 5zigen, and apex'i) as well as thermal. To go FI with an automatic, you dont need to upgrade the tranny, you just need a new chip that will remap shift points. here you go....what is definatly what you should go with...(not in order)

1.) Borla exhaust (has the most HP gains out of all the exhaust tested.....and it did it in the 2.25 size. also available in 2.5" and 3" sizes.
2.) Focussport header (street or race)
3.) FS cams and cam gears
4.) FS Throttle body
5.) Diablo Racing Chip
6.) CAI (my preference on this one is Injen but its up to you...all intakes of the same kind basically have the same HP gains give or take .1 of a horse)
7.) FS or FC intake manifold
8.) some head work...port and polish everything possible
9.) new ignition set up (new wires and plugs)
10.) If you want to go with a turbo (eck) then go with whatever suits your fancy..turbonetics and Garrett make the best available for focus...ORRRR you can get almost double the HP of a turbo by going with a supercharger. you will notice the boost and torque available at all ends of the RPM range and the best part...no spool time. Jackson Racing or Vortech are the way to go. PM me if you want to hear more on why a supercharger is better on a focus than a turbo.

and thats engine only, there so much more...strut and sway bars, coilovers, new wheels/tires, weigh reduction...whatever man haha.

Im with Oi_Boy with some minor modifications to his list..... Diablo Sports Chip isnt my choice id rather get a flasher over a chip and just copy over the OEM stock file.... plus the flasher offers free upgrades for 6 months usually so as you add more mods you can get your flasher file updated.... The flasher will also store the OEM stock file on it so if you ever want to reset to back to stock settings there it is..... also there are flashers that can act as a ECU read out so you can get your powerband read outs and what not while your engine is running..... and the last bonus is "Vallet Mode" it keeps your car from exceeding 30 mph so vallets and shit cant hot rod your car when you dont know it.

man there's nothing cooler than pulling next to a car having them laugh at you for driving a focus, then leaving them in your dust!! :) Good luck with the mods.

man there's nothing cooler than pulling next to a car having them laugh at you for driving a focus, then leaving them in your dust!! :) Good luck with the mods.


It's even better when you have an Escort.


Wait why did this post come to the top?

ledjer, i just wanted to say that if you looked close at his post about the engine swap you'll notice that he said SVT COBRA not just SVT, there is a kit out there to drop in any 4.6 that ford builds into the focus (also converts it to rwd) so the 390 hp cobra motor would probally yeild a fairly good improvement :D

ledjer, i just wanted to say that if you looked close at his post about the engine swap you'll notice that he said SVT COBRA not just SVT, there is a kit out there to drop in any 4.6 that ford builds into the focus (also converts it to rwd) so the 390 hp cobra motor would probally yeild a fairly good improvement :D


I believe that conversion runs upwards of $60,000 does it not? Also, someone mentioned that you could get twice the horsepower advantage with a supercharger over a turbo. I think that perhaps they have that backwards.

well i do believe the kit is fairly cheap, assuming you can do it yourself, the one ford built was around that cost, but then thats because they did some special custom work,mainly because it was used as a show car for Ford Racing and as a showcase for the cammer motor in my mind, i'd go buy a Mustang first, but you have to admit it would be cool to see the reaction on peoples faces when they hear a V8 rumble and see the smoke coming off the Rear tires, and i just generally prefer rwd, allot more fun, but there certany are allot more cost effective routes that can be taken

If you do a v8 conversion and have a suitable donor car for the driveline, it would run you about $10k for mounts, adapters etc. Check out http://www.ford-v8-focus.com/ for conversion kits if it interests you. A jackson racing Sc kit runs about $2500 netting you roughly180whp, or a intercooled turbo kit will get you a reliable 200-225 whp for about $3000 without radically altering the engine (head, pistons, cam, etc.) Go to stupid boost levels and you're starting toward the same price as a v8 conversion, and as TW points out, hearing that rumble out of a Focus would be sweet. However, a turbo or Sc conversion preserves handling, and imo, that's just as important.

yes please to handling, but would the rwd be sorta the buffer, so the turbo/sc car has the better weight dist. and the V8 has the rwd for more balanced handling and more power outta the corners, and also FI with all the extra plumbing adds allot of weight too it'll still be lighter than the V8 but still. and the one advantage here is that if you want the power of the V8 from a 4 banger you need turbo, and when you start hitting boost to hit 300 hp your gonna have lag, not the nice linear power delvery of the NA V8

yes please to handling, but would the rwd be sorta the buffer, so the turbo/sc car has the better weight dist. and the V8 has the rwd for more balanced handling and more power outta the corners, and also FI with all the extra plumbing adds allot of weight too it'll still be lighter than the V8 but still. and the one advantage here is that if you want the power of the V8 from a 4 banger you need turbo, and when you start hitting boost to hit 300 hp your gonna have lag, not the nice linear power delvery of the NA V8

One of the main reasons that the focus handles so well out of the box is because it has independent rear suspension. If you choose to swap in a v8 you will lose your independent rear suspension in favor of a solid rear axle. The only way to retain independent rear suspension is to transplant the 99^ cobra suspension onto your focus. This is indeed very time consuming and expensive.

hey, dont knowck solid axels, they acctualy handle quite well. and cna handle many more times the horsepwoer that indies can..... that said the weight balance of a front driver is only an advantage during very low grip driving such as snow and ice where you want alot of weight on the drive wheels. other then that you either want a 50-50 distrabution or something towards the rear like a 911 porsche. with that said, i do like the way the focus handles, but it could be better. esp, for a stock 4 door. grab either the factory SVT kit or an aftermarket kit, its not big power that these little front drive focuses are about, throw too much power at them and they will become VERY difficult to drive. torque steer being only one of your problems. just aim for a well balanced and efficiant motor setup and then get the car to go round corners as best as possible, that way, soon as a mountain road comes up you can roast more expensive cars. screw big power, ill take handeling any day:iceslolan nothing like seeing the face of the guy who owns a $100,000 maserati getting flat out SMOKED by a tiny 4 cylinder porsche or ford focus on a twisty mountain road.

in a motor trend aritcle, the focus with the solid axle out did a lamborghini in the skidpad and slalom, and around a race track, now tell me a solid axle can't corner with the best

thats not to impressive....a ZX2 S/R will sloam and skidpad w/ a c5

not my point. my point was that solid axels arent the horrendus handlers that you make them out to be. the ZX2 equaling a C5 in a slolam is a no-brainer, the ford has a huge weight advantage over the chevy, not to mention its distrobution is much better suited to being thrown left and right very quickly then the chevy. if you can convince a stock ZX2 or focus to oversteer to the point you have to seriously work to bring it back your doing something HORRIBLY wrong...... throw a vette back and forth in the same way and it will be a wonder if you keep the thing facing the right direction when the weight at the rear of the car decides it wants to keep going left when the front wants to go right.....

but the question is how does a C5 compair to a Lamborghini, something tells me with all the expensive race hardware and a preformance tuned AWD system, the lamborghini would have no trouble smoking a C5 (assuming equal power that is) who saud anything about a C5 anyway?

dont know, but back to the topic, focus (no pun intended) on making the car handle. thats my opinion.

all ill say is please dont rice it. ive seen way to many riced and they look like horendous bubbles on wheels. a minor kit maybe, but nothing to wild. then motor and tranny stuff ( if performance is your bag). at advance auto i bought a focus customizing book ( to see if they would touch on the zx2, because they didnt have a cougar or zx2 book) but they had plenty of ideas. im debating on selling my 03 zx2 for a focus, stick this time. <that is if i cant find an zx2 stick. but good luck with yours theres parts all over. and soon you will routinely kicking import rice off the road.

dude you are definitely right. nobody should rice their cars, it is just makes the driver look like a joke

Just some thoughts------------sport compact car magazine did a couple of features as well as a short lived mag called focusfanatics. The V8 conversions ran really well, VERY fast. Although they did not have power steering or a/c. There was also some minor cooling issues becasue the stock radiator in the focus doesn't cool the big V8 very efficiently. The biggest "problem" with these cars is that they would not hook up. The focus is just too light to handle 300 hp. There was a ZX3 conversion that was run on the 1/4 and pulled "only" around 13 sec. The lack of traction slowed it down. They said the car went down the track practically smoking the tires the entire way!! And that was with two full grown men in front and two more in the back seat!!! LOL

Papi you need to see sports car revolution (this last season... they should still be running reruns of it on speed channel). this year they had a zx3 (pos... i mean fenders falling off, donut on one hub... tough shape) and they dropped the 4.6 into it... well it didnt exactly "drop" they had to do ALOT of work i mean complete mustang front end ( all the S and S parts. even mustang engine mounts if i recall) they had to cut into the body to fit the trans and shaft. they had to rework the tail for the diff. deffonitely not the "drop in and go" that its been advertised as... and deffoinitely not the "week end warrior" job... i mean this needs real proffessional work... and i cant even imagine tuning the car afterwards yould need a stand alone computer system, to run both focus and mustang connections. now i am not dissing the idea personnally i think that would kick ass to see a focus smoke a comaro, firebird, or mustang. but unless you are really into this... have the materials, and the facilities. not to mention a tuner that has a few favors infavor of him with god. i would just do the f/i route... but thats me

the more i see v8s in focu's the more pointless they get.

for the money you spend you could have the zetec running circles around the v8.

ZX2, you are right. I myself prefer to go with F/I, it just seems so much more logical. Spend 70,000 on the kit and find a donor focus for V8 powered focii, or spend so much less and make it faster then the 70k V8 conversion!!

i dont know much about the f/i applications on the focus... i know gude makes one... but they do have some fittment problems (on their zx2 stuff). but im willing to bet alot of those problems could have been avoided with a tuner that knew a little more about my car. he was on the phone more w/ gude and ford asking questions then actual work on the car.

this thread is so old