st or bt, which would you buy?

[francie]

thanks folks for the advice, the reason why i asked this question because theres both bt and st in my price bracket, im going for the mintest example i can find but just wanted a bit of input from folks that already own an escort.

[martinembleton]

Only until the first rebuild!

y do u say that??

[georgie1]

y do u say that??

well i always thought the st has got more safety stuff like sensors then the big turbo

[AJC]

big turbo for me but i'd always buy on condition.

[redrsmk5]

not really, its got oil jets in the block which is better but other wise no real big difference

Arent you also forgetting the inlet manifold and bigger throttle body? Cylinder head is also different too

[radiant rob]

1st change managment to Vipec or Autronic then turbo to what ever spec you want.

Mark

What sort of power would you get with a decent turbo.

[TREVCOS]

It really does depend what you want it for and what you want to spend. The small turbo is a better road car, the big turbo is a more tunable track car. And as Karl says you can always convert a small turbo to a big turbo, although I wouldn't myself because mine's only used on the road, when it goes out at all, which isn't very often!

[Dan]

What sort of power would you get with a decent turbo.

The sky's the limit Rob, obviously converting the management doesn't mean that things like the head and manifold's won't become restrictive at certain power levels, IIRC with a T34.63 on a standard engine, using Autronic and 2.6bar boost one of Mark's conversions made 390bhp & 430lb/ft! This is what I'll being going for next year but maybe with a GT30 and not so much boost so I don't have to buy two turbo's!

[dom123]

small turbo engines look so nice,

[SCS j1mbo]

Arent you also forgetting the inlet manifold and bigger throttle body? Cylinder head is also different too

bigger throttle body isnt better, a normal 2wd body can do 600bhp fine so why the need for bigger ?

and yes the head is different but not better really mor atleast no big gains over a normal 4x4 ?!,

the inlet is better for big power though

[Mr.Ford]

Not easy to say... It would depent on the condition of the car IMO

I've had 2 ST's, now have a BT. I really missed the big "punch" in the ST you get when putting the pedal to the floor (even my last ST had 300 BHP)

When opening the bonnet, the BT looks more oldskool

A ST is a bit more reliable, but both are old cars so...

Good point, most ST are full options (leather, aircon etc) and most are not tuned over 260BHP , but as said I should go for the best car.

A full service history, no rust, never had an accident, good engine/gearbox etc. That are the important things to look out for

[Mr.Ford]

The sky's the limit Rob, obviously converting the management doesn't mean that things like the head and manifold's won't become restrictive at certain power levels, IIRC with a T34.63 on a standard engine, using Autronic and 2.6bar boost one of Mark's conversions made 390bhp & 430lb/ft! This is what I'll being going for next year but maybe with a GT30 and not so much boost so I don't have to buy two turbo's!

What about the MSD 360 BHP conversion on standard management????

Never heart anything from it since last year???

[Craig H]

i went for small turbo for the colour and also leather and prefer the petrol cap in th st but i have a big turbo engine going into mine for the power the engine i have is 334bhp rolling roaded so should only need to do a couple of more things and i will be happy

[Darren]

As Paul Ripley said tbh, either one will no doubt end up costing a small fortune so just go for the best one you can find and you can always change anything you like later

OR

Just get one of each