Ecoscort - 98 Ford Escort ZX2 ecomodding thread - Fuel Economy, Hypermiling, EcoModding News and Forum

BabyDiesel · 10-29-2014, 11:26 AM

Hello y'all

This will be my first modding thread for any vehicle, and I'm excited to show how far I have come!

The car is a 1998 Ford Escort ZX2 Cool Coupe. It has the 2.0 Zetec motor, automatic transmission and 3.74 gears. Bought the car two years ago with 200,000 miles for only $800

As it was -

As it is today -

From 2012 till the middle of August this year, it was my reliable DD. It gave very few problems, surprisingly (for a Ford)

I lost my job crop scouting and that catapulted me into needed to save every penny possible. Into the Ecomodding world I went

Since August 18th, here have been my mods -
-Scangauge
-Keman intake w/ Spectre high-flow air filter
-Warm Air Intake
-Tire air pressure set at 60f/55r
-5/6 grill block
-Wal-mart lawn-edging air dam
-Double SV mirror deletion
-Air line disconnect thingy
-Weight removal (Rear seat, etc.)
-5.6K resistor in the IAT (for timing advance)
-Spark plugs gapped @ 0.070 (stock is 0.050)
-5w20 Pennzoil Ultra Platinum oil
-Lighter weight Mazda Miata Aluminum rims
-Upsized tires (185/70R14 BlackLion BH15)
from bald 185/65s to these, I gained ~1.5" in diameter
-Mufflerless exhaust

Here is my fuel log. The red at the beginning was my usual pre-eco average. Still pretty good for the ZX2.

My progress has been good. All this has been with an ATX, btw

Daox · 10-29-2014, 12:07 PM

Very impressive fuel mileage, especially for an automatic! Nicely done.

What is your typical commute like?

BabyDiesel · 10-29-2014, 12:51 PM

...An Eco-Administrator tells me "Very impressive." Now that is a mark of success! Thank you Daox!

A typical commute for me is country roads, both primary and seconodary state roads. U.S. 701, U.S. 70, N.C. 50/55, N.C. 117 are my typical roads. Though I do have backways with less traffic. One in particular is Devil's Racetrack Road.

Here is my usual routes -

Devil's Racetrack/55

701/55

117/70

96/95/70

I try to avoid I-95 & I-40 at all cost. FE goes down bad when I get above 55 mph

BabyDiesel · 10-29-2014, 01:22 PM

Here is an elevation change chart that I mapped out for the 701/55 route to school. The units are in feet (y-axis) and miles (x-axis). At times there are 6% grades

and that long climb to start off with really dampens my efforts to reach 50 mpg

BabyDiesel · 10-29-2014, 01:27 PM

Btw, I never said my goals...

The short term goal is to have 50+mpg tank. I have already had a 54 mpg trip and a few in the 46-49 range. I am going to have to replicate that continuously while refining my techniques... might have to wait till next year though. The cooler weather is already having a negative effect

The long term goal is to achieve a 75 mpg tank. With the automatic transmission. Yep, my eyes are set on reaching 200% above the EPA compined FE figures for this vehicle. Likely? Nope. But I'll never know the true limits of my set up unless I try!

BabyDiesel · 10-29-2014, 01:38 PM

Adding another elevation route chart, this time of Devil's Racetrack/55. It seems to have better fluctuations, though the lack of hills means less Engine-On coasting.

BabyDiesel · 10-30-2014, 02:36 PM

The ZX2's 83.33333% grill block

It is made out of cardboard, painted with 2 coats of rustoleum spray paint, and black duct tape. Works well and holds up in the rain better than plain cardboard. Also pictured is the lawn edging air-dam from Wal-Mart

BabyDiesel · 11-01-2014, 01:52 AM

Some of the mods I currently have. The top photo is my warm air intake, made out of 5" dryer duct routed to hover just over the exhaust manifold. Would it be worth it to downsize the duct diameter to increase velocity?

Second photo is part of my Keman intake. Top resonator has been removed and replaced with high heat resistant pvc pipe. Not pictutred is the bottom resonator delete and the cut open air box to allow more air in... the stock intake was sipping air from 2 1" ports

Last is a vacuum leak for timing advance. This mod seems to be special to just the ZX2s... It has been tried and test true by Tygen1 to cause all benefits and no harm. Gained 1-2* of timing and ~1.5 mpg's from this mod alone.

BabyDiesel · 11-06-2014, 03:30 AM

Been busy busy lately... but not too much with the ZX2

college life...

I have took the WAI's dryer duct off of the intake. Turns out it was restricting airflow due to the bulging front of my air filter. Has a lil' mo' power now, lil' better economy, and lower IATs.

With election day over, me and my brother went on a tear yesterday morning and swipped up a lot of election signs. You know what that means.... AERO MODZZ FTW!!! Soon!

Had a P0446 code pop up this evening. Either a vent control valve or gas cap is to blame. So I re-tightened my gas cap and it has backed off... hoping it'll stay that way.

Btw, last tank was 41.77

Tygen1 · 11-06-2014, 01:35 PM

Good Job! I noticed your fuel log the other day. Although I don't log fuel mileage anymore, I'm still in the ecomodding game. I topped out with a 56mpg tank average and have not been able to better that. It took me two years to top 50mpg, it's quite a lot of trial an error and more difficult with an ATX. You'll learn that the commute route is very important when you are not able to EOC. You need rear fender skirts BAD. They were quite effective for me. You need to check out my worklog on TeamZX2, in there I detail all that I have done :-)