ST150

[Redjohn]

Hi guys, great to be part of this community. Im in england hope thats ok. Ive recently purchaced a 2008 st150 in performance blue with full leather. Its currently registering 97154 miles as ive added a couple of hundred since buying it. Its in incredible condition having been owned by a lady for the past six years. Its totally original without any modification. It does have a few age related faults which i.ll get to later. In my ownership ive fitted 2 new front tyres, a mountune short shift gear selector in the hope it would solve the dreaded stiff gears when cold but alas it didn't. It did however make the selection more precise and a shorter throw. Its been serviced with castrol magnetec A5 5/30 oil and ford filter, ngk iridium plugs, ford air filter, mann cabin filter and a mountune sump plug. The car has had a front to back inspection and is totally rust free. Ive purchaced eibach progresive lowering springs yet to be fitted when ive aquired the bilstein front and rear shox. For the most part im trying to replicate the limited edition at the time of production st165 so still to come a mountune cold air induction kit and a miltek full exhaust system to include sports cat. As for me guys im 61 years old with a knowledge of cars going back some 44 years, i live on my own as ive come to the conclusion that id rather not have to ask permission off of a penny pinching wife and so i now have nothing better to do than spend time and money on my new steed. Thanks for reading. If anyone has any suggestions as to why i can barely get any gears when cold id be greatfull bearing in mind ive already fitted the new selector. Someone suggested new cables. Ive read all sorts of threads about it but nothing that matches my experience. I.ll expand if anyone would be kind enough to open yet another thread on this subject. You know i didnt realise quite how quick these were. I raced an audi Q5 yesterday and slaughtered him. I was really quite pleased with myself. Perhaps a bit childish but fun. Anyway by for now and thanks

 

[D1JL]

Dave

 

[Redjohn]

Hi dave thankyou for your welcome. Thats a stunning car. What is it. ? I can recognise which mark in england by the registration number. As well as the st150 i have one of the last st line fiestas. With the 1.0 ecoboost engines its pretty quick off the mark and a completely different drive to the st. I like them both for different reasons. Yours looks to be heavily modified. Did you do it all yourself?

 

[dhminer]

Welcome. Let’s see some pics! Also, if racing random strangers between stop lights is childish, you’re in good company with a bunch of children here

 

[Redjohn]

dhminer, thanks for that. Im really enjoying the car. Its like stepping back in time. I just cant help driving like i stole it. The exhaust note even standard is so addictive. My photos are rubbish. Im not technically minded so forgive but i.ll get better promise.

 

[M-Sport fan]

WELCOME!

Those had a 2 liter, naturally aspirated Duratec powering them, correct?

 

[Redjohn]

Yes absolutely originally it went in the mondeo and mazda 6 but fords decided it needed a sporty fast ford in the fiesta line up so they dropped it in there. It was restricted in power down to 150bhp hence st150 so that youngsters could insure it. I imagine at the time that was their target market so as you can imagine very few original examples survive. Either theyve been blown up, stolen or seen the wrong side of a hedge. Over here they are a prime candidate for modding and either have been slammed to the ground or some even fitting the 5cyl engine out of a focus st which derived from volvo originally was a 2.5 turbo lump and were seeing figures of 500bhp from a fiesta, madness. But each to theyre own. After all we buy these things to give us pleasure and however you get it is fine with me.

 

[M-Sport fan]

^^^Were they being stolen and used for 'smash and grabs', just like the Escort Cossie RSes were back in the day? (Which was particularly a criminal shame to me, since there were so few of those produced in the first place!)

That five cylinder boosted powerplant was a (slightly) less tuned version of the insane one which was installed into the Mk2 Focus RSes, correct?

 

[Redjohn]

Hi again, fords were notorious for being easy to steal. They were stolen in this country because just like any other we have this culture amongst our blessed youth that theyd rather take whats yours than work and afford their own. Once in the little cherubs hands theyd thrash the nuts off your pride and joy and deficate on ur seats and the unlucky owners would sometimes get them back. Your better off if you dont in some circumstances lol. Smash and grab rades were reserved for as you say escort cossies or the Sierra cossies. Speaking of which, there were so many stolen in the uk that the insurance cost at the time if you were lucky to get a quote far exceeded the value of the car. Weve got a similar thing with range rovers at present. In answer to ur question on the rs focus yes your correct. The engine started life as a 2.3 turbo fitted to the volvo 850r and the v70r and the s60t5 which over here the police loved. 0-60 in just over 5 seconds and armchair luxury. Ive had the latter. They really are a missile. The engine was nicked by ford when they owned volvo for a while. Im a big fan of volvos and fords. Those escort cossies over here if clean are fetching between 50-60,000 pounds. I dont know what the exchange rate is where you are but its a shed load of cash. What do you drive?

 

[M-Sport fan]

I have my '16 model year Fiesta ST as an only and daily driver.

But I have always lusted after an Escort Cossie RS (or even the latter to end of the line, smaller, single plane wing version which was the Escort WRC in full rally build).
Much in the same way many on this side of the pond lust after the rarer, low build number, JDM rides.

I am so into the Brit fast Fords that if I had unlimited funds (like Bezos wealth), I would commission Malcolm Wilson to build me a road going, as street legal as is possible, version of a Mk8 Fiesta R5/Rally 2 car to drive on our roads, in lieu of the P-cars, McLarens and various other exotics every other disgustingly filthy rich asshole drives.

 

[Redjohn]

Oh im with you every step of the way there. I think your knowledge of the ford marque is incredible. The trouble with it i suppose and im guilty of it too is that it makes us without a lottery win lust after the purest exotica because of the knowledge we have. Putting those cars and builds to one side i looked at what was possible for me on a budget that i could spend an amount per month to improve what is lets face it a pretty tame car in todays standards.my daily driver which i lease is a 2023 st line fiesta. Its a 1.0 ecoboost and in comparison to the st rather drab. Yes you can rag it and to be fair it does get along the road but its like a blamange on the corners where as the st is so much more of a drivers car. I too would love to own one of the exotic builds you mention but researching the st and the upgrades that work is all part of the fun. I watch a lot of u tube videos of what people have done and you can see the uncertainty in peoples faces when they try and convince you that a set of lowering springs from ebay that cost the same as a ham sandwich actually work. Its a minefield of upgrades that lets face it 50% just dont work they just upset the car then its fitting more and more to try to get back what you had in the first place. I am so torn between keeping things standard and changing what fords ploughed millions into trying to get right. Let me ask you something, what would you do to tune and upgrade one of these st150s. Now i know the obvious answer would be to save ya money and buy what you drive but theres something quite satisfying about making a car work hard periodically especially if i i know this sounds mad but it actually seems to thank you for it. My thinking is to ignore for now the stance of the car and concentrate which i have on putting the car back to as new condition. This way im starting from an even playing field, lets face it ford parts arnt expensive. So now ive got a car thats as good as it can be in standard form then maybe address the known weaknesses ie the restrictions built in to keep ins costs down. Cold air induction kit and full exhaust system and a stage 1 remap and some quality brakes and tyres on. Then im going to drive the car for a while. The reason for that is rather than putting lowering springs or coilovers or anything else is we dont all own a race track with glass like surface and traction, we travel on british roads that for the most part they upset the most comfortable of cars. Id love to live or at least drive in one of those that spent money on and took pride in their road surface. Dya know what happens over here is the local councils would rather pay compensation to motorists who claim for tyres and suspension componants rather than go to the greater expense of fixing the roads to a good standard. The other alternative is to forget the value and make an out and out track car where then at least one can take advantage of the tuners that offer some rather lish kit for these that would have porsche 911 owners running for the hills rather than face the embarrassment of telling their mates down the pub that the were out manouvered, out braked and downright shamed by a 16 year old fiesta. It seems to me that in this country at least you cant have both but id love to hear what you and others think about what ive said and make my mind up once and for all whether i can make this a fire breathing monster for the road and still retain my skeleton as god created. Oh btw i appolagise for the late reply. Different time zones. All the best. Martin

 

[dhminer]

Hi again, fords were notorious for being easy to steal. They were stolen in this country because just like any other we have this culture amongst our blessed youth that theyd rather take whats yours than work and afford their own. Once in the little cherubs hands theyd thrash the nuts off your pride and joy and deficate on ur seats and the unlucky owners would sometimes get them back. Your better off if you dont in some circumstances lol. Smash and grab rades were reserved for as you say escort cossies or the Sierra cossies. Speaking of which, there were so many stolen in the uk that the insurance cost at the time if you were lucky to get a quote far exceeded the value of the car. Weve got a similar thing with range rovers at present. In answer to ur question on the rs focus yes your correct. The engine started life as a 2.3 turbo fitted to the volvo 850r and the v70r and the s60t5 which over here the police loved. 0-60 in just over 5 seconds and armchair luxury. Ive had the latter. They really are a missile. The engine was nicked by ford when they owned volvo for a while. Im a big fan of volvos and fords. Those escort cossies over here if clean are fetching between 50-60,000 pounds. I dont know what the exchange rate is where you are but its a shed load of cash. What do you drive?

My first car was an 850R. I absolutely loved that thing! Would’ve never got rid of it if it was a manual which we didn’t get in the states.

 

[Redjohn]

You miss out on quite a lot over there dont you but omg dont you produce some stunning cars. One that i owned for a while was a 1970 caddilac eldorado with a landau roof, or at least that was how it was sold to me. It had the t. Roof like the trans am and the rear section of the roof came away as well. All neatly stashed in the boot. Up front was an 8.2 litre engine. It was a dream to drive. You are so lucky living over there. Is it expensive for you to import cars from europe. Actually if you want rust free and totally mint then japan is the best source of cars but youve still got the dreaded rhd. I love volvos in fact im almost regretting buying the st over a v70r 4x4 in silver. It had been off the road some time but rust free. I suppose i chose to get a car that was up and running and bits relativly cheap where as the volvo parts were very expensive in comparison. Im prob a bit older than you if your first car was an 850 as i started driving with a volvo 144 in white with the b20 engine manual transmission and red leather upholstry throughout. I wen everywhere in that thing. So so nice. Since then ive had hundreds of cars, i get bored easily but ive had the 2.0 850 estate, an 850 saloon 2.5 i think, a 164 in yellow, another in gold and an ex police s60t5. All have been awsome cars so i fully appreciate what your saying about your attachment to yours. Ive been scrabbling round on the interweb and found a company called pumaspeed who prepared a very nice st150 and theyre selling an upgrade manifold from miltech. Its a evo 2 edition. Sounds like a good deal and impressive figures. They do a package including fitting and a stage 1 remap. I think im gonna go for that. The manifold can fit on your standard exhaust allowing you to do it in stages so i.ll do that and remap later when its all done with a mountune cold air induction or one that pumaspeed supply. Ive read more and more that just fitting eibach springs with standard shox is notva great idea so i.ll probably look at complete suspension packages later on. Its just a shame i didnt have that information when i bought the eibach pro kit. I was led to believe by the sales rubbish that it was perfectly acceptable to do. Thats why i joined this club so i can get real world experience from the people that have actually done these things

 

[dhminer]

You miss out on quite a lot over there dont you but omg dont you produce some stunning cars. One that i owned for a while was a 1970 caddilac eldorado with a landau roof, or at least that was how it was sold to me. It had the t. Roof like the trans am and the rear section of the roof came away as well. All neatly stashed in the boot. Up front was an 8.2 litre engine. It was a dream to drive. You are so lucky living over there. Is it expensive for you to import cars from europe. Actually if you want rust free and totally mint then japan is the best source of cars but youve still got the dreaded rhd. I love volvos in fact im almost regretting buying the st over a v70r 4x4 in silver. It had been off the road some time but rust free. I suppose i chose to get a car that was up and running and bits relativly cheap where as the volvo parts were very expensive in comparison. Im prob a bit older than you if your first car was an 850 as i started driving with a volvo 144 in white with the b20 engine manual transmission and red leather upholstry throughout. I wen everywhere in that thing. So so nice. Since then ive had hundreds of cars, i get bored easily but ive had the 2.0 850 estate, an 850 saloon 2.5 i think, a 164 in yellow, another in gold and an ex police s60t5. All have been awsome cars so i fully appreciate what your saying about your attachment to yours. Ive been scrabbling round on the interweb and found a company called pumaspeed who prepared a very nice st150 and theyre selling an upgrade manifold from miltech. Its a evo 2 edition. Sounds like a good deal and impressive figures. They do a package including fitting and a stage 1 remap. I think im gonna go for that. The manifold can fit on your standard exhaust allowing you to do it in stages so i.ll do that and remap later when its all done with a mountune cold air induction or one that pumaspeed supply. Ive read more and more that just fitting eibach springs with standard shox is notva great idea so i.ll probably look at complete suspension packages later on. Its just a shame i didnt have that information when i bought the eibach pro kit. I was led to believe by the sales rubbish that it was perfectly acceptable to do. Thats why i joined this club so i can get real world experience from the people that have actually done these things

I bet that caddy was awesome and extremely rare over there.

I love Volvos too. My 850R odometer stopped at 240k miles and it kept going another few years without issue. It’s not crazy expensive to import cars from Europe, but we’re only allowed to register cars more than 25 years old for public road use unless they pass our emissions and safety regulations, which almost none do.

Your duratec will sound awesome with a tubular manifold and freer flowing exhaust I’m sure.

 

[Redjohn]

Yeah ive had a few american cars, theres nothing like a v8. When i was a kid i used to cycle up to 15 miles to visit one of three volvo dealerships peering through the window at the 244/5 and 264/5 and the 1800/es that was in 1975 dreaming of the day id own one. I had all the brochures mind you i had them all for the jeep grand cherokee at the time as well. I had one of those too. 5.7 litre 3 door monster. Your emissions and safety regulations seems like our mot test. Cars over 40 yrs old dont need one. The way cars rust over here its a wonder they make it to 40. I.ll let you know how i get on with the exhaust on st. Thanks for listening to my dribble over the last couple of days. All the best. Martin

 

[M-Sport fan]

Oh im with you every step of the way there. I think your knowledge of the ford marque is incredible. The trouble with it i suppose and im guilty of it too is that it makes us without a lottery win lust after the purest exotica because of the knowledge we have. Putting those cars and builds to one side i looked at what was possible for me on a budget that i could spend an amount per month to improve what is lets face it a pretty tame car in todays standards.my daily driver which i lease is a 2023 st line fiesta. Its a 1.0 ecoboost and in comparison to the st rather drab. Yes you can rag it and to be fair it does get along the road but its like a blamange on the corners where as the st is so much more of a drivers car. I too would love to own one of the exotic builds you mention but researching the st and the upgrades that work is all part of the fun. I watch a lot of u tube videos of what people have done and you can see the uncertainty in peoples faces when they try and convince you that a set of lowering springs from ebay that cost the same as a ham sandwich actually work. Its a minefield of upgrades that lets face it 50% just dont work they just upset the car then its fitting more and more to try to get back what you had in the first place. I am so torn between keeping things standard and changing what fords ploughed millions into trying to get right. Let me ask you something, what would you do to tune and upgrade one of these st150s. Now i know the obvious answer would be to save ya money and buy what you drive but theres something quite satisfying about making a car work hard periodically especially if i i know this sounds mad but it actually seems to thank you for it. My thinking is to ignore for now the stance of the car and concentrate which i have on putting the car back to as new condition. This way im starting from an even playing field, lets face it ford parts arnt expensive. So now ive got a car thats as good as it can be in standard form then maybe address the known weaknesses ie the restrictions built in to keep ins costs down. Cold air induction kit and full exhaust system and a stage 1 remap and some quality brakes and tyres on. Then im going to drive the car for a while. The reason for that is rather than putting lowering springs or coilovers or anything else is we dont all own a race track with glass like surface and traction, we travel on british roads that for the most part they upset the most comfortable of cars. Id love to live or at least drive in one of those that spent money on and took pride in their road surface. Dya know what happens over here is the local councils would rather pay compensation to motorists who claim for tyres and suspension componants rather than go to the greater expense of fixing the roads to a good standard. The other alternative is to forget the value and make an out and out track car where then at least one can take advantage of the tuners that offer some rather lish kit for these that would have porsche 911 owners running for the hills rather than face the embarrassment of telling their mates down the pub that the were out manouvered, out braked and downright shamed by a 16 year old fiesta. It seems to me that in this country at least you cant have both but id love to hear what you and others think about what ive said and make my mind up once and for all whether i can make this a fire breathing monster for the road and still retain my skeleton as god created. Oh btw i appolagise for the late reply. Different time zones. All the best. Martin

I don't know just how mechanically astute you are, or whether or not you have all of the facilities or tools necessary, but for the 2.0 Duratec, besides the external/ancillary stuff you plan on doing (along with a tune, I am guessing), cams (Piper?, Crower?,Esslinger?, Kelford?, MZR?) seem to be the only way to gain even a bit of power without an exorbitant, full bottom end rebuild with balancing and lighter, higher compression pistons.

Given what they co$t on their own, before you even pay for any labor (if this cannot be done yourself?), they are most definitely not a great return on investment, power-wise.

BTW; Yes, at this point it would take much wealth, AND a big lottery win in order to afford one of the very very few remaining, acceptable condition, RS200s!

 

[rallytaff]

Interesting reads. If I had the money I would invest in the Welsh made MST's (Ford Escort lookalikes) with the Millington engine installed. Gorgeous looking machines!

 

[Dialcaliper]

That’s a beautiful looking ST150! Welcome to the forum.

Since you’re in GB, Pumaspeed does appear to have reasonably good aftermarket support for the ST150.

I’d say with that kind of mileage, you’re on the right track with updating the suspension. However, with the knowledge that the Mk6 suspension running gear is actually quite similar to the Mk7 and Mk8, unless you really like the look of the car lowered, the Eibachs are generally not an actual performance improvement, and are designed as an upgrade to the base model fiesta. If you like the handling now, consider installing the Bilsteins but retaining the original ST150 springs.

The one thing suspiciously absent from Pumaspeed’s catalog is sway bars (aka anti-roll bars) which I’d do before (possibly instead of) changing the springs, which don’t really wear out like the shocks do. Sway bars for the Mk6 can be had from DNA, Ultra Racing or Corksport and provide a noticable performance improvement. That said, the Mk7 uses identical sway bars, so you can use those as well (I actually have a UR Mk6 front sway bar on my USA car, which is essentially comparable to a 5-door Mk7.5 ST180. Start with just the rear bar and see if you like it, as the front bar is a big job to replace.

Not as familiar with the mk6 gearbox which is the IB5 similar to the earlier focus, but the cable swap is a good first step, as the UK cars (at least the ST180) for some reason do not have a center adjustment like the US cars and have to be replaced if they eventually stretch out.

 

[Redjohn]

I don't know just how mechanically astute you are, or whether or not you have all of the facilities or tools necessary, but for the 2.0 Duratec, besides the external/ancillary stuff you plan on doing (along with a tune, I am guessing), cams (Piper?, Crower?,Esslinger?, Kelford?, MZR?) seem to be the only way to gain even a bit of power without an exorbitant, full bottom end rebuild with balancing and lighter, higher compression pistons.

Given what they co$t on their own, before you even pay for any labor (if this cannot be done yourself?), they are most definitely not a great return on investment, power-wise.

BTW; Yes, at this point it would take much wealth, AND a big lottery win in order to afford one of the very very few remaining, acceptable condition, RS200s!

I dont disagree with anything you say, you make some very good points. I think at the level st150 s are just about anything one spends on them becomes a loss finance wise and power gains if thats ultimately what turns you on as ive said before just simply drop the focus rs engine from volvo and hey presto weve got 400-500bhp but thats not what its about is it. I get my buzz from the research, the buying , the fitting and knowing that im building what is for me in the area that i live taking into account road conditions etc a little gem that puts a smile on my face every time i get in. Whatever we buy someone is gonna have something faster, that handles better, that makes all the right noises that they've just paid 50 zillion pounds straight out the showroom. Whatever i decide to do It.ll be a great car made even better. Fast fords are rocketing in value over here and the st150 has bottomed out so nows the time to get one and just enjoy it for what it is.

 

[Redjohn]

Interesting reads. If I had the money I would invest in the Welsh made MST's (Ford Escort lookalikes) with the Millington engine installed. Gorgeous looking machines!

Im not familiar with those so cant comment at the moment but didnt want to ignore your reply, thanks for taking the trouble i.ll have a look and get back to you