The answer to this question lies in whether Ford used the same engine Stateside on the Contour, Taurus and Escape cars.
If they did, then I'm pretty certain that the Series 1 and Series 2 Roadster basic engines are to all intents and purposes identical. Including the camshafts.
The big uncertainty in my mind is whether Ford modified the engine in the Escape compared to the Contour.
The Ford Contour engine ( i.e. the American Mondeo ) had different air intake, exhaust and more importantly different ECU mapping compared to the Engine shipped to Europe for the Mondeo. However the base engine was identical from what I can see from my investigations.
The US spec Contour had 201hp compared to the European Mondeo ST220 having 222hp which relates very closely to the Morgan S1 v S2 engines having 223hp v 201hp (could be translation differences between SAE or DIN etc).
The big difference is in the ECU and mapping which is why I think it's relatively easy to bring the S2 engine up to the S1 performance specs.
However all that goes out of the window if Ford US modified the Contour engine when they fitted it to the Escape but I'm still working on that question
For me, the next big question is what did they do to upgrade the engine in the S3 ????
