Engine Stay With The Factory 6 Or Go For The 8

I hear ya on having to change everything in there. The gauges all work but the cluster that holds everything is dry rotted dash cover gone sets faded as well as dry rotted carpets just faded badly. The headliner is falling down and the back rocker panel on the driver side has a big hole rotted out of it. I need to find a new set of wheels for it the ones that r on it came of a newer escort and they rub the upper a arms. I need new weather stripping for the whole car. And i want to pull the motor and repaint everthing in the engine bay. The old computer box melted from the heat and the gel ran down the firewall. I have never seen one do that. I also need a windshield for it. I like how you did your turbo. Was it hard to make the alt bracket on there?
 
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Yours doesn't sound all too bad believe it or not! :) I started with a seized engine, water-logged transmission, no brakes (rusted lines, seized calipers, bad master cylinder and booster), blown heater core, faulty and hacked electrical system, you name it. The headliner wasn't too bad to change and they're still available. For the carpet I cut my own using "carpet by the yard" found online, was a lot cheaper than the pre-cut and formed really easily. The dashpad I used one of the self-adhesive dash-caps that's available, it looks great and you can't really tell unless you check very closely. Definitely better than those old carpeted ones with double-sided tape. My wheels are from my SN95, I needed some 2" 4-5 lug spacers to mount them. Windshields are still available commercially, you can call Safelite and they'll come install one on your driveway.

The alternator bracket was pretty easy... thick steel is easier to weld. Just needed a cutoff wheel, drill, and a couple of welds. There were plenty of nearby bolts to anchor it. I initially thought that a solid lower mount and the adjustable sliding top-mount would be enough but it shook around like crazy so I welded a brace in on the back-side as well and anchored it to where the engine lift-hooks had been attached to the cylinder heads.