hi guys newbie here I have a 1978 mk2 escort 1600 sport with a 1600 crossflow 4 speed box and a bourg warner rear axle. I was planning on getting the engine rebuild and tuned then bolt on a mazda rx8 gearbox which I already have the adapter plate for, but it's going to cost a grand and a half at least to get the engine running good and still not have a great deal of power and not be able to handle much with the rear axle. so then I thought what about more than just the gear box what if I got a donnar mazda rx8 and used all the running gear from that? plenty of power pick them up cheap as chips

The reason they are so cheap is because the rotary engines in them will be either worn out or nearly worn out, they are expensive to rebuild so that's why the cars are so cheap!

the engines been my main worry, my other worry would be getting the rear subframe in I'd probably have to put turrets in and do away with leaf springs but I'd save a fortune on a lsd and having a rear disk brake setup an axle that will take more power and 6 speed as well, I've thought of different set ups I know that the fiesta st150 engine will mate up to a mx5 gearbox but then there's also a lot of extras to make it fit and work changing the orientation of the engine, I was thinking of just making things easier and cheaper, another possible idea would be to use a mx5 as the donnar

What ever you do needs to be done 'right' with the car being worth quite a lot of money.

What's the shell like?

Any pics, love a nice mk2

I've just posted an album Billy bobs mk2 escort

I was using RX8 running gear on my Scimitar - have a look at http://scimitarv8project.blogspot.com/ for pics.

Have other things that are taking priority now so whole got scrapped, by hey ho!!

Wack a Zetec into it Mate, you can use your adaptor plate so no waste there.

Big Wasa on here is your man for advice on that route.