Hello

[chrismc]

Yep, needs to be the SE5 axle at 54" wide. The SE6 is a bit too wide for a Viva.
If you are fitting a Jag Power lock LSD as well you will need a small spacer making to control the halfshaft end float. I can help you with this if you go this route...

[lord13]

Hi

Still early days but fancy doing something different

if you want to do something different why not go the ford zetec route? The engines are nice and powerful, cheap as chips and bolt straight to the ford rwd gearboxes with no hassle ( except the SE, that engine is honda based and does not use standard ford bellhousing patteren....but will rev to 8k !!!) also the mondeo 2.0 runs it's auxillary belts the wrong way but you can get round that by taking off all the pumps and stuff etc. Earlier silver top zetecs are the easiest to do as they dont have fords PATS system in the ecu. Also you can get a rocker cover in the style of the BDA which is fords 'holy grail'
The ford I4 is a good solid engine, earliest types are also on carbs, later 2.3 16v types chuck out lots of torque. But are getting thin on the ground ...
Or keep it fairly simple and buy a scrap v6 omega. It will have all you need, including the gearbox, to chuck straight in, will need some head scratching with the sump though as its a front bowl and pretty big if i remember correctly ...
The XE has been done to death, the ford boys have jumped on the band wagon and shoved the prices up as usual and you have to do as much to one of those as you have to do to fitting the zetec, if not more, and because the ford boys are chucking away zetecs by the boatload they are stupid cheap, kick out much the same power and have pretty much the same spares support for RWD as the XE, and if your zetec blows up just buy a scrap focus for £50 and bolt a new one in, hell, my focus was given to me for free and its my daily driver now as it was too good to scrap!