The main issue with the cortina was always rust. they rotted absolutely everywhere. mine had new sills, new boot floor, new chassis rails.. I had 5 years of reliable motoring before finding out that the bulkhead was totally rotten. I decided to call it a day.
Water leaked onto the front carpet from day one, it needed void bushes for every MOT, but the engine was virtually indestructable. it was still running fine the day I scrapped it, just a little smokey after 190,000 miles.
The carb was knackered (fords crappy VV effort) so I replaced with a weber
This was one of the last family sized fords you could actually fix anything on yourself.
Simplicity itself to work on, and ultra reliable. they show their age by lack of 5th gear and sheer thirst of engines, even the 1.6 won't get more than about 28 mpg.
I loved mine dearly, if they still made them I'd buy one today.
Easy to uprate, get a 4-2-1 manifold (cortina GT) and a 38dgas weber from a capri 3.0 and they fly. just watch that fuel gauge..
I owned one of every variant over the years, from the poverty spec and slow 1300 to the thirsty and dissapointing 2.3.
The Sierra was no more difficult to work on. Mechanically identical, but with independent rear suspension.
.. Sierra no more difficult to work on? Ever changed the head gasket on a 2.0 DOHC?
I think they mean the earlier sierras, not the early 90's dohc efi etc... models.
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Sierra mechanically identical apart from independant rear suspension? don't forget the macpherson front struts, (which the outgoing cortina didn't have) the 5 speed gearbox (which no cortina had) so different steering, diff, brakes, etc etc. means The only thing they had in common was the pinto engine.
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