The most obvious candidate for surgical removal was the long diagonal brace that ran from shoulder level on the forward engine bay bulkhead and which then descended down to the upper engine bay rail where that rail was bolted to the bellhousing. This diagonal brace was right in the way of where the Zetec intake manifold assembly needed to be. So it was cut away.
The intake manifold assembly was bolted back to the Zetec powerplant to double check clearances and to make certain that no other right side surgery was required.
A small protrusion at the right front of the bellhousing was ground away to assure that there would be no interference with any of the fasteners affixing any manifold to the cylinder head.
The remnants of the now removed diagonal engine bay brace were subjected to additional cutting and grinding until their presence was but a memory.
The tasks associated with right side surgery reached nearly an hour.
Zetec Conversion 