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Lifetime Fuel Economy: 30.2 MPG(US)
90 Day Running Average: 0 MPG(US) |
View this vehicle's gaslog and gas mileage chart |
| General Description |
EPA Values |
Year: 1995
Make: Ford
Model: Escort
Trim: LX
Vehicle Type : Gasoline
Curb Weight: 2440
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EPA City: 23
EPA Highway: 31
EPA Combined: 26 |
| Description |
Bought her "as is" for $500, she had high miles but very clean and recent looking running gear, good bodywork, and the engine sounded great. Put about 20,000km on her in 6 months (don't ask) and then blew the headgasket. So she's sitting waiting for winter to go the hell away so I can get working on her. She has the 4 speed F4EAT electronic automatic, which after some familiarisation and debugging, seems like a decent tranny, I got so I could make it dance up and down the ratios with various twitches of the foot. Initially MPG seemed dissapointing, in the first month I saw 27 and 28mpg tanks with mostly city driving. Then I got more familiar with her, and sorted out a bunch of maintenance issues (CTS grounding, MAF cleaning, PCV service, tune up), realised she was rather sensitive to tire pressure, and was then getting 29mpg in mostly city driving. Then I stuck an Airhog filter in her, and Tech2000 0W30 and she started getting 30+. The hot weather that summer came, and I was pounding her between here and the next city 2x a day with quite a bit of city crawling each end, and was seeing 32-34mpg tanks, they weather got hotter still and I was still seeing 32s and 34s with a lot of on highway A/C use. Record "everyday" tank in this period was 36mpg, and record other tank was 38mpg on a camping trip, loaded to the gunwhales with 2 bikes strapped to the back (still trying to figure that one out)
She seemed to be running purrrrfectly, although there was an odd chuff at times I guess I should have been more suspicious of... so it was an insanely hot day towards the end of summer... I had to get on the highway on a dangerously short on-ramp and the highway traffic was heavy and speeding... so I had it dropped into 3 and floored... somewhere around 4500 rpm just getting on the highway, the head gasket let go 
Had many other distractions and cash sinks and time sinks since. I got to tear her down, beautifully clean inside with that walmart synth, beautifully tight bores, examining things, it appeared the HG had probably been leaking for quite a while, it just didn't blow a water channel until then. So pretty impressed that it was turning in such good numbers with partial compression on 2 cylinders (Think it was kind of valving at higher revs though because idle was smooth enough)
HEAD IS NOW BACK ON AND SHE'S RUNNING!!!! WOOHOO!!!
Wagon Cd=0.36, sedan=0.35 hatch=0.34 per http://www.automotive.com/1995/101/ford/escort/lx-wagon/1079/specifications/index.html
Calling it "her" but s/he is named for Wile-E Coyote, and that's the mascot I've got for it. Figure s/he will never catch the Road Runner, but will have some interesting gadgets on the way.... |
| Modifications |
Airhog airfilter (This felt like an extra 5HP I swear, very impressed with it)
Tech2000 0W30 synthetic. ditto that ^^^^
And now...
Ported and polished head, consisting of...
Intake port gasket match.
Intake port bowls rounded out and radiussed
Intake turbulation groove flow tweak around valve boss.
Intake ports textured with mpgmike type lynz texture for variable boundary layer effect, low flow core velocity enhancement, turbulation to help flow discontinuities and mix fuel and to "wick" fuel around port. Texture angled with flow to discourage reversion.
Intake port helmholtz cavities designed to resonate in ultrasonic range for fuel droplet busting.
Intake port plated with copper to encourage catalytic de-hydrogenation of ethanol in the fuel.
Intake valve grooved on back. (Trips air around it, supposedly equivalent to 15% bigger valve)
Intake valve slightly back cut to round angle.
Intake valve seat top and back cut to "5 angle" it.
Skimmed 30 thou, probably had 10 thou off in previous life, so now about 40 thou from stock, CR around 11:1
Exhaust ports bowls rounded out
Exhaust port casting/machine ridge around boss smoothed back.
Exhaust port short side radius increased/smoothed
Exhaust port turbulation grooves around exit to flow bias for stock manifold.
Exhaust valve grooved on face in the style of "Rimflow" valves. (Again helps flow bend around it)
Exhaust valve slightly back cut to round angle.
Exhaust valve seat top and back cut to "5 angle" it.
Valves lapped to seats.
Single Singh style grooves added to squish pad, 1/8" wide, 1/2" long, 3/16" deep, U cross section, "ski jump" longitudinal section. Aimed to compliment stock swirl and focus round exhaust valve.
Light deshrouding of valves.
Radiussing of valve seat entries.
Full "de-edging" to eliminate hotspots.
High polish for heat rejection. |
| Planned Modifications |
Intake and fuel system modifications:
Intake spacer for cooler intake air. (and the inch of length will drop torque peak by a hundred or two RPM)
Coolant heated fuel heater/heat exchanger.
Remove "silencer" from airbox.
Exhaust system modifications:
Insert plate for exhaust port radius improvements.
Header off older GT model (maybe)
Exhaust wrap to maintain velocity for best scavenging.
Walker Sound FX muffler (Very reasonably priced, excellent performing and lasting mufflers, increased mpg +1 on my van, if you replace your cheap chinese muffler once a year, spend $10 more and get one of these)
Ignition mods:
Good 8 or 9mm wire set.
Extra heavy gauge ground wiring.
Sidegapped copper plugs or my take on the magic plug mod.
Other engine mods:
Crank scraper
Camshaft Timing advance
Aero:
Grille restriction
Rear air deflector
Air dam
Turbulation devices at rear
Rear wheel spats.
Other: (Including stuff I'm still thinking about, researching, or haven't got a clue how to do quite yet)
Find 15" lighter Saturn 4x100 alloys, for reduced wheel weight and reducing rolling resistance with smaller sidewall on tires.
Potential variable camshaft timing modification.
Hydraulic lash adjuster bleed down modification for less valve lift at lower speed/high vacuum
Water/steam injection or HHO
Coanda effect surface driven by exhaust flow for improved rear aero plus small amount of thrust.
Belly pan and rear diffuser if airdam not very effective.
Fuel pressure increase.
EEC-VI hacking.
Secondary, possibly static driven 2-3kV ignition voltage to maintain spark longer.
O2 sensor interceptor/emulator, or various sensor fudging gizmos.
Transmission refill with UTF for improved lubricity and better friction modifiers (Firmer engagement, less slush, less drag)
Boron treatment of engine, bearing lube with boron and moly greases.
... oh and a set of ACME rocket roller skates. |
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