Call it the modern answer to a BDA or call it treachery to the blue oval, you can't argue with the C20XE's reputation for cheap power. Of course, it's all relative, but until the recent rise of the Duratec, the XE has been kings of the multi-valve castle. The Cosworth YB is a great engine for big power, but can be costly to make it work properly when it does the breathing itself. The Zetec will produce the numbers too, but some folk argue that it's a tad on the pricey side. This is where the Griffon shoulders its way in. With a reputation for good power in standard trim and even better power after a few basic modifications, it's definitely worth some thought. The populatity of the XE stems from it, at one point, being the motorsport engine of choice for sub two-litre naturally aspirated classes.

In standard, Astra GTE trim the Vauxhall unit produces 150bhp and 144lbft. Bolt on a set of carbs and a four-branch manifold, you'll have around 180bhp; change the carbs for throttle bodies and you'll be knocking on the door of the magic 200bhp. Some clever bugger then realised that you could turn the engine around to power the rear wheels and this opened the floodgates to rally Escorts everywhere.

Don't fear this conversion, embrace it. Thanks to the likes of SBD you can buy everything that you need to defect to the dark side with relative ease. Bellhousings, engine mounts, sumps and now armed with this handy guide, you can get one in your Escort.

Sump

You have three choices of sump, the first is the Manta 1.8 alloy sump. Ideal for the Escort conversion as the Manta was rear-wheel drive and shares the same engine block. The Manta sump is designed to be mounted with a 7-degree tilt and thus works better with either the Manta gearbox or SBD's special bellhousing. You will also need the Manta oil pick up pipe too. The only problem with this is that they are rarer than us finishing a magazine on time and thus fetch a premium sum of money. You may also need to use a lowered rack mount crossmember to get the engine in the ultimate position. Yukspeed manufacture a big wing tin sump for this conversion which works best mounted flat, so for this you should use a straightforward vertical mount belhousing.

If budget permits, dry sump is the ultimate route giving maximum clearance and ultimate performance, although this is really only needed for competition. While the sump is off, get a set of ARP rod bolts fitted, this will serve you in good stead and allow the engine to safely rev to 7750rpm rather than the 7250rpm it does in factory trim.

Apart from those chassis mounts, you can actually slot an XE in the engine of an Escort with minimal work. Use a Ford gearbox in its standard position and mount the enigne where it wants to sit. At worst you may need to trim up your bulkhead lip. Don't be fooled into thinking that this is the best route to take however. Do yourself a favour and fit a large gearbox tunnel and while you are there, raise the prop tunnel too. The reason for this is that crossmembers and sumps dictate the engine position in such a way that the gearbox tailshaft can end up pointed at the floor. With a raised tunnel you will be able to lift the back of the gearbox up into the tunnel and not worry about anything catching. Plus, when clutch change time arrives, you'll thank us for all that extra room.

Engine Mounts

As a rule of thumb, the resting position of your engine is dictated by the position and type of your gearbox. There are World Cup crossmember engine mount kits available to buy, but for the sake of a small amount of welding, we'd advise going down the chassis mount route.

Sparks

As you have now removed the distributor you'll need something to send the sparks to the relevant places. Here you have a couple of options. The budget option is to buy a distributor mounting bracket similar to that found on the Manta. This will relocate the distributor to the front of the engine. It is then driven by a belt leading to a modified exhaust cam pulley.

The second is to bin the dizzy altogether. The valver operates with a crank trigger as standard, which gives you options for aftermarket management. When you buy the engine, make sure that it still has the crank sensor in it as these are quite pricey to buy new. SBD use MBE management with its throttle body and carb kits for this engine. However if money is tight, but you still wants to lose the dizzy, it's worth looking at a Megaspark or Gotech setup.

Hydraulics

Due to the inlet side of things now taking place on the driver's side of your Escort, the brake master cylinder is going to be in the way. You need to get yourself a bias pedal box from the likes of GRP4 Fabrications, which will relocate the cylinders to the inside of the car and the fliud reservoirs to the bulkhead. As it's highly likely that your Escort came with a cable clutch you can either retain this, or chose to convert to hydraulic with one of the necessary kits available from Burton Power.

Exhaust

The fact that it originally powered the wrong wheels (the front ones), means that the original exhaust manifold is no good for your Escort, which is also a blessing in disguise. When Cosworth designed the engine, it originally made 170bhp, but the company wanted an increase in low down torque and so reduced the exhaust manifold tube size. this in turn helped with emissions but reduced the overall power.

SBD sell two exhausts for the RWD conversion, a cheaper 'clubman' version which suits fairly standard engines on carbs. The more expensive special exhaust is the one to plump for as this has been developed for ultimate flow and can free up a lot of ponies. Your other option is to get one made, but make sure whoever does it knows what they are doing. There is no exhaust system on the market for this conversion, but providing it's got a 2.5" bore, you should be able to adapt an aftermarket one.

Power to the people

Let's face it, with this conversion you might have just doubled the amount of power under your right foot, so you're going to need to use your head and spend a few pennies on bringing the rest of the car up to scratch. Moving forwards at a greatly accelerated pace means that you need the reassurance of being able to slow down a bit quicker too. As it's an Escort, you've got a plethora of choices of brake upgrades. At a minimum go for Princess four-pots, but if you can afford the extra pennies, it's weill worth investing in a big disc brake kit from the likes of Hi-Spec, AP or Wilwood.

The XE won't really trouble your rear English rear axle in a road car and so all you'll really need is an LSD to make it a bit more playful in the corners. If you are going to compete or looking for power figures in excess of about 230bhp, it might be worth investing an Atlas axle. Being as the valver is a high revver, the standard Type 9 won't last long behind it. So plan for a straight-cut gearset if you are aiming to raise the horsepower by a significant amount.

Thanks & Contact

A big thanks to SBD (020 8391 0121) for their help with this feature, your first port of call for advise and parts when attempting this conversion.