Which engine has the better intake manifold design?

[crazyoldcougar]

if i were to want to do a nice port and polish on a intake manifold which engine should i grab one from?

obviously i dont want to rip my car apart until i have to...

should i grab one off a contour, focus, ZX2, or keep the one off my early 99 coug, and just have my car down for a couple months?

Btw anyone know if any of the above mentioned manifolds are aluminum or not...if i have it out i might as well polish it too...if i can.

i am just looking for a nice simple winter project to take on..since i am not looking forward to swaping the cam gears and drive pully yet. too damn cold out there and my car wont fit in the gargae right now..:(

i hae also noticed that most of the designs vary considerably from ours in terms of TB placement. would that adversely effect the tb and cruise cable placements and function? can our cables be shortened toaccount for the difference? the ones i have seen all seem to come off the side rather then the top.

[wadespencer99]

My wife drives a Fukus ZX3 with the 2.0 Zetec in it...I can get you some good engine shots if you want.

[crazyoldcougar]

nice...the wreckers i was last at only had a contour and a ZX2 smashed up..but the engines minus a couple acessories where fully intact...some fukus pix would be nice..

[james99]

i think in the zetec mod list, ness said the earlier cougar manifold was better. you might wanna read through that.

[Seawulf]

My dad has a 2001 Focus and it's manifold is made of the same material but doesn't look as good as mine.

They should all be plastic. They say a ported manifold would be good for an easy 5hp.

[crazyoldcougar]

They say a ported manifold would be good for an easy 5hp.
exactly what i am after.....trying to pull all the stock ponies out before i do major upgrades...since the AC is shot i will be entertaining the idea of FI, either in its place or atleast with it out it will make more room for piping..

but first i want the stock ponies out...
i will be hitting the bone yard on Monday or tuesday to see what i can come up with...

[fx3]

The early (up to 2000 1/2) Focus intake manifold is metal and said to give more power than the later plastic ones before you port it out. I think.....

[Ness1216]

They arent metal, they are made of a solid 1 piece plastic manifold just like ours. The later ones were a two piece manifold.

[Seawulf]

Also the Focus has EGR and so you'd need a to block off the EGR on it's intake to get it to work on ours.

A same year contour/cougar/zx2 shouldn't have that and should all work. I would go for a 2000 model.

[peanuts_parts]

Also the Focus has EGR and so you'd need a to block off the EGR on it's intake to get it to work on ours.

A same year contour/cougar/zx2 shouldn't have that and should all work. I would go for a 2000 model.


The intake manifold is made of plastic, and can be ported easly with a damnel tool.

[cbman]

Here's a nice pic I found on Focaljet of the two Focus intake manifolds.
The left is the early 2000 (better) and the right is the one from late 2000.
Although I'm not exactly sure how similar they are to ours'.
I could take some pics considering I have all parts from the engine sitting on a bench.