Good to see the post moved & the drama deleted.


First of all, is the car a manual or auto? If it is an auto, you have to be careful as the innards are made of paper mache. Abused autotragic Foci have a hard enough time staying in one piece with a stock motor, so if you plan on upgrading the motor you must also plan on some transmission upgrades (Ford Racing sells a couple things for the autotragic).

The 2.0l Zetec responds well to the usual bolt-ons. My '00 ZX3 saw some great gains with a conical air filter, 4-1 race header, and exhaust. Forget exactly what the car dyno'd, but it was a fairly impressive gain for the minimal mods.

By far, the best bang for the buck are cams. Crower Stage 2 cams are fairly cheap and do not require shimming of the lash caps (under normal circumstances). They changed the whole attitude on my Focus. Where the powerband dropped off around 5000 rpm stock, the cams made power all the way up to redline.

In short...full exhaust, some sort of air induction, and cams will get you the best power for the money. The car will never be fast, but with a few bolt ons and some decent suspension bits the car can be a blast to drive.