Now is a great time to think out loud on here, before I lose any of this awesome insanity n my head
So I think Ecoscort will probably max out in the low-mid 50's next summer before lean burn is installed. To reach 70-80 mpg, there is going to have to be drastic changes. I am looking into a 5-speed swap... Yeah, I know what i said a couple weeks ago about not doing a manual swap. I want do the swap after I have maxed out the auto's truest potential. If the auto decides to puke sometime soon, well then I have no choice
I can purchase one of several ZX2's around where I live for $500-$1000. People on Craigslist are wanting close to that for just a motor
So I am planning on purchasing another car for parts down the road. I can easily make my money back on the purchase, so I do not fear that circumstance!
With the new-to-me motor and tranny, I can do some work and experiments
The 5-speed would receive new bearings and a freshening up before being swapped. Also, replacing the 5th gear with a higher ratio from a 97+ SPI Escort would be in order. With the motor, I want to experiment with the intake cam... I would attempt to round a cam lobe off per cylinder. This is to increase intake velocity with only one valve opening. I am thinking that with a tuner, I will be able to adjust the parameters if any drivability issues occurred.
With the cam done, I would add EV6 injectors from another Ford vehicle and an adjustable cam gear (ACG). The EV6 injectors have been shown to spray the fuel finer, resulting in a more efficient burn. The ACG would allow me to advance the cam, possibly increasing low-end torque through increased cylinder filling.
Up next would be to swap out the ring & pinion with a set of 3.21 gears from an earlier model Escort. In conjunction with the different 5th gear ratio (0.717) and smaller tires (165/65R14 Bridgestone Potenza RE92's FTW
) my rpms at my usual cruise speeds would be -
45 - 1582
50 - 1758
55 - 1933
60 (Interstate only) - 2109
This is a small difference, even from now. I am spinning roughly 1840 @ 50 mph. 100 rpms with less rotational mass will certainly help.
Either before or after this (probably before) will be a complete belly pan, wheel well covers and boattail. All these coupled with lean burn, adjusting spark tables, UD/OD pulleys, P/S & A/C deletes and weight reduction should put me over the edge of 200%... hopefully.
