I am not sure if this has been noted before but it occurred to me that i think Ford acquired Mazda sometime around the time it was developing the Zetec engine. If that was so why wouldn't they raid the parts bin for engine peripherals to aid the development process?
Maybe they did, maybe they didn't.......
but since i had a Mondeo Zetec engine waiting for my next engine swap (Pinto 2.0L to go on ebay when it happens) and a Mazda MX5 i thought why not look and see?
so i bought a laser cut steel inlet manifold plate and offered it up to my MX5 inlet manifold.



as you can see there is an almost exact match..... a little work with a Dremmel and the ports will be a smooth match.....



You can also see that the Mazda inlet manifold will fix to the adaptor plate without interfering with the Zetec manifold mounts.

this will hopefully give me a better breathing inlet than the Ford plastic horror, i just have to keep the injector mounts and all should be well, hopefully figuring out the various sensors wont give me any unexpected hassles.

Good find, thanks. Know there are a few rover t series manifold mods but the mazda one must be easier to source.

Yep, Rover turbo manifold matches up, only the bolt holes are different. But easy with a 1.8 zetec injector plate.

[Edited on 20/4/14 by coozer]

I tried a Rover T series Turbo mani and it was miles out. Took no end of blending. That looks much closer.

The Zetec ports also line up with the X flow ports as well. For a short time I used the 32/36 carb on my Zetec using a similar set up.....