As far as shockers go I would recomend Koni.
I know they are expensive but they are worth the extra dollars.
I have had Koni's on all my Escorts and wouldn't use anything else.
The ride quality plus the adjustability puts them streets ahead of your average Pedders/Monroe type shock.

As far as springs go you could contact the various manufacturers, Kings, Lovells, Whiteline/Selbys, etc and see what they have to offer.
The rear springs would be best to have reset rather than go for a "lowering block" arrangement.

For sway bars I would replace the standard 20mm front bar with a 22mm version from a 2 Litre Rally Pack model or RS2000 and along with that I would fit an anti-dive kit to the front bar as well.

Fitting lowered springs will also automatically increase the amount of negative camber on the front end, this combined with the sway bar and shocks will totaly transform your car compared to what you have now.
No more scraping the door handles going around corners like a standard Escort does, the steering response will be much sharper and you will have a car that turn's into corners nicely.

I would do the changes to the front end and see how you like it before adding a rear bar .... you may find that you don't need one.

Do you have a pic of your car so we can all have a look?

Cheers,

Alan.

Sounds good.

Will try and get a photo up but dont have access to a digital camera at the moment. Will have it back in about 3 weeks.

To give you a general idea its midnight blue (well at least the paint that's still on there. haha). Nah its not too bad from far but up close you can see its begging for a respray. Got RS2000 mags and spoiler. Interior is nice... black door panels and has a nice seat cover set. Oh yeah its the square headlight model.

Alright, will look into the suspension you suggested but will most likely leave it till after uni exams now.

Look forward to seeing the pics when you get a chance to post them

You didn't mention if it's a 4 door or 2 door?

Yeah its a 4 door

i agree with sierra on the suspension..

about the only thing i did different was use a 32mm front sway bar with threaded ends for caster adjustment. and use K-Mac strut tops for both camber and caster adjustment.

one good thing about the strut tops is that dont try to wind and un-wind the springs when you turn the wheel. makes for a much easyer drive

tickford_6 has given you some more "advanced" options with the adjustable strut tops and adjustable castor bar .... so as you can see you have plenty of choices

yeah i noticed,

i think i'll seek that kind of perfection further down the track.

I'm sure that just changing shocks and springs over the aging stock items will give great improvements over current handling and comfort.

But i guess its a case of always wanting more so i assume once ive done these initial improvements i'll want to tweak the set up in future. Spose u guys have just been there before and aim striaght for optimum setup.

Tell me if u disagree and think that i need to consider these points more so, coz at the moment i didn't really think i'd notice the little things after changing the whole set up.

cheers

just changing the spirings and shocke will be a big improvment.

the only reason i changed the strut tops was because the stock ones split the rubber from age. so i figured i would go the whole hog with the new ones.
and the K-mac sway bar came one a car i bought for parts.

if it wasn't for that i'd not have changed them. (well as soon as i did anyway)

will be interesting to see how your comes along.i hope you keep us both up to date with every thing.

I'll be buying my friends MK2 2 door soon to build a track day/ hillclimb car

for the first season every thing will be very close to stock bar the engine, we gave the engine some kick a few years back so it's not lacking in power.

then the next season 2007 i'll get a little more full-on.
coilover front with a 6 link rear end 6 point weld in cage and around 200hp 2L if i stay in the 1501 to 2000cc class. if not it'll be a 1500 precross flow with a cross flow head that will put me in the up to 1500 class