Not a Mustang- father son turbo car project.

Steve@Tasca

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So, picked this up last year. It's a 2000 Focus with an Aerocharger Stage3 turbo kit. It was one of the first if not the first full kit made for these cars and in doing a little looking around it's very possible that this is the oldest and longest continuously boosted Focus in North America as this kit has been in the car since 2002.

Really neat car actually, full european body kit, the turbo obviously, lowered, Quaife diff, Hella HIDs and other goodies I'm sure I'm forgetting.

The Aerocharger is a small variable vane turbo, in this car at 9psi it bumps it from 130hp and 120lb.ft. at the crank to 195hp and 215lb.ft. at the wheels which isn't a lot but in this little car it's a whole lot of fun.

Here it is as we got it.




We've been wrenching and cleaning and tweaking since we got it, sent the hood to a friend over the winter and he worked his magic on it.





His and mine together,


Car came with a spare turbo but neither one seemed to be working right so I sent one to get it rebuilt, got it back and installed it and due to a misrouted boost line it spiked to 15 psi which is absolutely above the stock engines limits, after fixing the boost line it was making the 9psi it was supposed to but the damage was done and it snapped two rods the next day.

The rebuilt turbo,


The ensuing carnage,




Yanked it the blown up junk and installed a 111k mile salvage yard Zetec in the garage over the last week and just got it running on Sunday.



Putting the boy to work,




Workbench was a disaster when we got done,


Anyways, the salvage yard engine fired right up and runs smooth and quiet. Turbo makes the 9psi it should so this thing should stay together for a while now. Eventually we want to get a set of forged rods and pistons so we can up the boost. The turbo is capable of 20psi so it's got a lot of room to grow.
 

Wicked GT

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Wow, you guys didn't waste any time getting it put back together! Congrats!
 

flyfaster1

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Awesome father/son project and nice work... looking forward to seeing you guys turn it up on a forged setup.
 

CPRsm

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Damn I bet it's a ton of fun. My little focus is the only Ford out of 4, that's isn't turbocharged lol. Since we retired it as the wifes DD, I've been thinking real hard. Turbo or LS swap lol
I've been thinking also about this kind of stuff, and kinda wonder if I just want my sons to stay away from cars all together lol
 

roberts

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saw this on fb and looks good steve and fun to do dad and son as me and my dad did a lot together on mine. Nothing better than that!!!
 

gtman

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Steve, the best oem part supplier salesman I have ever dealt with. Keep up the good work!
 

Steve@Tasca

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Thanks guys, it's been a lot of fun and really a pleasure working with my son on this car. He's been raised around cars and going to the races to crew for my dad so he had no hope of avoiding an addiction to cars.

While both my grandfather and father were/are very mechanically inclined no one ever really taught me anything about wrenching, I had to learn on my own and make all the painful and expensive mistakes along the way so I've made it a goal to teach my son and share my 30+ years of experience wrenching with him so he can avoid some of those mistakes and painful lessons.

The kid is a natural, very mechanically inclined, understands how things work, strong hands and he doesn't pretend to know everything. He asks questions and listens to answers and it really seems to sink in.

It will be an ongoing project, I'll update the thread from time to time.

-Steve
 

AR Stang

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Looks like fun and a great project!

I miss my old svt focus, and wish I never sold it. It was orange with the euro package or wheels whatever it was back then, and recaros.
 

Steve@Tasca

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Looks like fun and a great project!

I miss my old svt focus, and wish I never sold it. It was orange with the euro package or wheels whatever it was back then, and recaros.

My '02 SVT has been my daily since 2004, best, most reliable car I've ever owned. Still fun to drive after all these years. :cheersman:

-Steve
 

skwerl

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What a pleasure to read this, Steve. Love the pic of his greasy hands, just as they should be. :)
 

Steve@Tasca

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What a pleasure to read this, Steve. Love the pic of his greasy hands, just as they should be. :)

LOL, I had to wash my hands to take the picture. We were both covered in grease and oil. :cheersman:

Would have been nice to have more time to really clean things up during this swap but it was more a matter of getting it done and driving again than making it pretty and clean.

-Steve
 

Steve@Tasca

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Well, so far so good. Car seems to be running and functioning flawlessly at this point. Fingers crossed.

-Steve
 

Steve@Tasca

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By the way, Here's what's left of the two rods, still need to get the correct Torx sockets to pull the head so I can get the pistons out but it's not a real high priority at this point.

 

07TR

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Well I was expecting them to be mangled worse after seeing the pictures further above and reading what you stated, so now what are the plans for this father son project
 

Steve@Tasca

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Well I was expecting them to be mangled worse after seeing the pictures further above and reading what you stated, so now what are the plans for this father son project

He's driving it now, seems to have a slight, slow coolant leak we need to track down but until we can get forged internals it's just getting driven as is. It is an external leak, somewhere near the stat housing but it's no obvious enough to be easy to spot. Hate leaks like that.

No other issues so far.

-Steve
 
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Wicked GT

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Those should be mounted on a plaque and put on the wall... I love crap like that and its a great conversation piece!

By the way, Here's what's left of the two rods, still need to get the correct Torx sockets to pull the head so I can get the pistons out but it's not a real high priority at this point.

 

Steve@Tasca

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Well I was expecting them to be mangled worse after seeing the pictures further above and reading what you stated, so now what are the plans for this father son project

Almost forgot, "Mangled worse"?

They look pretty bad to me. :thumb:
 

07TR

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They look bad but I was expecting them to be in multiple pieces but no matter they are for sure not usable at the moment
 

Steve@Tasca

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They look bad but I was expecting them to be in multiple pieces but no matter they are for sure not usable at the moment

Yeah, just destroyed the center section of the rods. Both were missing pieces.

Still need to pull the head and get the rest out. Old pistons make great pen holders, especially if they're from a blow up/oil down.

-Steve
 

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