Hi all,

I have a 2001 Mondeo 1.8 LX, this is only my second Ford that I have owned (first was a MK1 Escort many years ago) and I am in need of some advice. I bought it about 6 months ago for £300 and its been superb, it has been doing 200 miles a day for work and has never missed a beat, it has just turnes 173K on the clock which for a petrol is good going and has just sailed its MOT with only 1 minor advisory (brake pipe showing signs of corrosion). Now, recently it has developed a rattle which I am thinking is piston slap as it is now using about 2lts of oil a week on its long run, just pottering around town at home it obviously uses less. When at speed its fine but on acceleration it puts out a cloud of smoke and rattles like a can full of gravel! I reckon its on about 20 a day!! :D

So the way I see it is I have 3 choices, I get rid completely (not really what I want to do as shes a good motor), I whip the engine out and rebuild it, there are a few concerns with that as to me it seems very under powered for a 1.8, not sure if this is due to its rattle, if its piston slap then maybe its reduced the compression a little? and thirdly, my favorite idea, is to stick a 2,5 V6 in it and retire it from work in favor of something else (which was on the cards anyway). So my question is are the engine bays the same through the model range? has anyone done this conversion before? pros and cons? I am no newcomer to engine conversions, I run a show car in the summer (Opel Manta) and that has had 2 engine conversions already. I realize that shes not worth a hell of a lot but thats not really the issue, I don't mind spending some cash if shes going to last a few more years.

Thanks in advance.

Mike,

Nice and tidy Mondeo!