This has been my Christmas Vacation project, and I thought it might be worthwhile to post here for anyone else looking for options and details regarding an oil pan to use on a Zetec.
For those not familiar, the stock oil pan on the Zetec is canted at an angle to cope with the stock slanted FWD mounting position. If I were just building the Europa to be a cruiser, that probably wouldn't pose any problems, but since this car will see some sustained G-loads at autocross, I didn't want to risk using the stock pan. There are aftermarket alternatives available for RWD Zetec installations - but they're upwards of $500-$600...for just a cast-aluminum oil pan! Of course, there are dry-sump kits available too, but they're closer to $2k, and I'm not sure I'd have the clearance for the external oil pump, given the V-shape of the Europa frame.
After doing a bit of research on the UK Ford forums, it seemed like an oil pan from a Ford CVH engine could be made to work with a bit of modification. The CVH was used in a variety of cars here in the US, but I found a salvage yard on eBay selling brand-new oil pans for a late-80's Escort/Lynx for $45-shipped, so I took a gamble.
The good news is the bolt holes all match, as do the arches at each end. The problem, as I'd also read online, is there's not quite enough clearance for the stock Zetec oil pump, which is mounted to the very front of the engine.
This is what it looked like when it first arrived.
After a bit of fiddling about, I determined there were 3-different locations of interference, so the easiest option seemed to be for me to cut the front of the pan off and move it forward about 1/4", then slope it back into the pan.
I have neither the skill nor the equipment to tig cast aluminum, so this was going to be a JB Weld job. In order to get the fitment correct and also prevent the JB Weld from leaking into anything important, I bought some Play-doh to sculpt between the oil pump and the pan, and to seal up the edges.
Once I had the cut out piece back in place, I used small dabs of JB Weld on the corners to hold it in place, then once it dried I removed the pan from the engine, and went to work with the JB Weld sealing everything up. This is the current status. I still need to build up the right side to try and match the existing support ribs, then make sure everything is sealed up on the inside. I might go over the outside again to smooth everything out as well. Then it will be time to fill it with water and see if it leaks!
Hopefully this will provide some clarification and documentation for anyone looking into a Zetec swap.
