New to site and asking some performance questions

[Ferdia]

Hello Everyone,

This is my first post here; I just joined this forum and hope to meet new people and get some great advice.

I own a '98 escort zx2 and want to start doing some modifications to it. I want to do this as a project with my son so we can both learn more about cars.

The zx2 is my daily driver (wife has her own vehile she uses as daily driver). A little bit more info about what I plan to use this for; I want to continue using it as a daily driver (for now) but still have fun with it. This will change and in the future so that I can use this as a purely racing car. I am more interested in course/rally racing rather than drag racing. Any modifications I make, I will keep this in mind.

I have a few questions that I would like to ask (I'm sure some of them have been asked in various forms; please forgive me if they have been).

1. What is the max horsepower/torque you have been able to get out of the zetec engine (both turboed and N/A but please specify which direction you have gone).

2. Has anyone ever done an engine swap with an engine from Cosworth? I have looked on Cosworth's site and thought this would be a nice engine to put into the escort. Here is the link to the engine --> Cosworth
However, right now I don't have the $13000 + paying for mechanic to do engine swap (but could in the near future). Just wanted to know if it is possible. Or has anyone else done an engine swap with a slightly different engine (nothing "exotic" like putting in a V6 or V8). From what I have read, the zetec engine seams like a pretty good foundation to work from so I don't know if many have gone this route.

3. If anyone has done this, has anyone ever tuned it further than the 250hp?

4. What "specialty" tools do you have when you are building/tuning your escort? I am not talking about typicial wrenches/sockets/screwdrivers/etc. but tools such as programmers for computer chips, etc. or any other "unusual" tool.

So far, these are my main questions. I am sure I will be posting many other questions, so please bear with me as I learn.

P.S. I am in Canada, I doubt this makes much difference about the actual tuning but just keep this in mind if I talk about Km/H, etc.