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Ford Escort RS1800


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Weird engine, did Ford develope this just for racing?

It is a production engine that Ford used in the Escort. Cosworth was involved in developing the engine for racing. They eventually coaxed 272 bhp out of this little beast.

Ford-Cosworth-BDA-Engine.jpg

Originally conceived by Mike Hall (Cosworth Engineering) as a belt driven version of Cosworth’s FVA power plant, this engine is based on the Ford 1600 X/Flow bottom end.

It made its first appearance in the Mk1 Escort in 1970 and replaced the Lotus twin cam engine as the new high performance engine for the Ford Rally Sport models. During the early seventies Brian Hart (amongst many others) developed this engine further and his 87mm big bore alloy block version, giving an increased capacity to 1840cc, was eventually adopted by Ford and used to power the later RS1800 Escort.

The BDA and all its derivatives went on to dominate the motorsport scene and even today, 30 years on, it is still providing many winning cars with their power. At least 15 types have been produced ranging from the 1098cc BDJ (150bhp) through to the 2 litre BDTE turbo version (650bhp in full race trim) which was produced with a slightly longer block to improve its structural strength.

Edited by afx
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Thanx for the info JC. I see what you mean now. The head is dang near as tall as the block! I wouldn't mind having a similar engine for my little Escort build. It's in stall mode at the moment.

This engine or a Twin Cam would look cool in your Escort build Roger. The only source of the BDA that I am aware of is the Esci/Revell Escort kits. The Twin Cam is available in a few kits and at one time a resin cast version was available from Mini Exotics if I remember correctly. Pretty sure Mini Exotics is out of business.

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Great work JC, I think the engine looks real good so far.

About that header I think you got it as close as you could without making an entire engine from scratch.

Thanks Robert. I have more scratch building to do for the engine so I didn't want to add to that with a custom header.

Just plain outstanding scratch building skills.

Thanks Jim.

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Very cool bro, this one's gonna be killer when done!

Thanks Marcos.

Coming along very nice! The wheels & Tire dwgs are very nice...should make for some great parts!

Thanks Dave. I can hardly wait to see the actual wheel and tires.

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Hi JC,

Beautiful work as always !!!!! Is your motor going to have some sidedraft webers ?

Randy

Yes sir. A pair of side draft Webers. I'm working on the throttle linkage right now.

Edited by afx
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Fabricated carburetor linkage. The linkage attaches the cylinder head like on the 1:1. Therefore I need to wait until everything is permanently installed to complete the rest of the linkage.

DSCN2379-vi.jpg

DSCN2384-vi.jpg

Edited by afx
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If my updates are too trivial please let me know. I'm sure it looks like very little has been accomplished sometimes but when you're making most of the parts the progress feels more significant.

Edited by afx
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Good work JC, Everything but the obvious plastic parts looks like a real engine, those brass pieces add to that as well. What did you paint the block with JC?

Edit: It's not too trivial :)

Thanks Gene. Nothing has been painted yet the engine in the kit is molded in gray plastic.

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Might just be the pictures, but compared to the reference picture the bottom pulley appears to sit too high. Look how the belt wraps around the bottom right pulley before going back.
Maybe it's just a mirage.

Great updates as always. Your builds are great.

Edit: Might actually be the lower right pulley sitting too low?

Edited by fitforbattle
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Might just be the pictures, but compared to the reference picture the bottom pulley appears to sit too high. Look how the belt wraps around the bottom right pulley before going back.

Maybe it's just a mirage.

Great updates as always. Your builds are great.

Edit: Might actually be the lower right pulley sitting too low?

Thanks for following Robin. I'm pretty happy with the pulleys.

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