Ecoscort - 98 Ford Escort ZX2 ecomodding thread

[BabyDiesel]

Excellent! That alone should boost the acceleration mpg up a good bit.

I called my exhaust man today and we worked out a time to get my wideband O2 bung installed. Friday morning can't get here soon enough!!!

Since I'm not going to have all my updated aero mods in place by Friday, I am going to cancel the plan for coast down testing and focus exclusively on tuft testing after the wideband is in. I've got to get yarn and masking tape by then *mental note*. I'm hoping the data I find will show large gains with any modification to the ZX2's rear!

Also planned is
- new shoes and hardware for the rear drums (very important!!)
- intake manifold gasket
- adjust rear skirts
- 100% lower grill block and figure out how to block upper grill
- replace driver's side front inner fender plastic
- upload tuft videos to YouTube & Eco odder

The drum brakes are scrubbing as of now, hence the importance! I've also had to reevaluate ecomodding in general after I had a rather nasty outburst towards a red light the other morning. I realized that I'm taking this too seriously and have sucked all the fun out of it for myself. No worries, I'm not going anywhere just want to get back to the way it was last year!

That's all I can think of right now trying to keep 50+ mpg going into and through winter is going to be tougher than I thought, but I'm going to go at it as hard as I can

[BabyDiesel]

Well, the plans for yesterday fell completely through. No tuft testing was done, not was the wideband installed. The mechanic who was to do the exhaust work for me and my brother (who is getting 2" true duals with 2014 Ram cats, no mufflers on his 97 Ram 5.2, !$$$!) had a fuel pump to do that wound up taking all day. We were waiting around most of the day, afraid to do much of anything because he would sure enough call us. No brakes done, no IM gasket, no new fender plastic. Ba-humbug

I did get somethings accomplished in spite of it all I started by ripping the spot where the CD player and Climate Control knobs are.




What am I doing next may stun you...



I'm simply making a new center piece to house all of my new gauges and switches. This will house a MPGuino, AFR gauge, lean burn switch, TCC lockup switch, etc. Cutting was done with a temper-mental Zaw-Zaw, hence the imperfections.

It won't stay plywood for long. Here is preliminary backyard hydro-dipping testing on a scrap piece of plywood


I absolutely LOVE it! It will be triple dipped when complete.

I was able to have enough daylight to complete a almost 100% lower grill block and fix my rear fender skirts. The front edge of the skirts were sticking out past the body, and I installed a piece of hardware to pull them back in. That is what you're seeing, freshly tucked!




I do plan on redoing everything to look better in the future

I also had several really good trips yesterday before the mods. 41.9 to McDonald's, 66.3 coming back to la casa. 48.1 to get a haircut, 61.7 coming back home. Tank average is 54.0 mpg, hoping that it can stay at that or increase!

[pgfpro]

Man I wish you lived closer I could install your wide band in about a 1/2 hour.
Shoot we could even have a turbo system done in a day or so.

[BabyDiesel]

Originally Posted by pgfpro

Man I wish you lived closer I could install your wide band in about a 1/2 hour.
Shoot we could even have a turbo system done in a day or so.

Keep talking and I'll randomly show up in Idaho!

I had my first legitimate 60 mpg trip Sunday night! It was over a usual 33ish mile route from my fiancés back to my house. I only hit 2 stoplights on the way home, and didn't even come to a complete stop for them. That was a big contributer, along with keeping my instant readout between 65-75 mpg. Speeds were 37-50 mph, conditions were low 60s, calm, and clear.

[pgfpro]

Originally Posted by BabyDiesel

Keep talking and I'll randomly show up in Idaho!

I had my first legitimate 60 mpg trip Sunday night! It was over a usual 33ish mile route from my fiancés back to my house. I only hit 2 stoplights on the way home, and didn't even come to a complete stop for them. That was a big contributer, along with keeping my instant readout between 65-75 mpg. Speeds were 37-50 mph, conditions were low 60s, calm, and clear.

So you must have the lean burn working???

When will you get the W/B installed???

[BabyDiesel]

Originally Posted by pgfpro

So you must have the lean burn working???

When will you get the W/B installed???

Oh! If I had not made it obviously to the viewing public, then yes, lean burn is working and working very well

I'm beginning to get the checkpoints down where my computer figures out my deceit and goes open loop crazy. It seems to be 4-6 mile intervals, so I am EonC neutral coasting when these points come up so I can go from 65 mpg to 250 mpg and back to 65 mpg, instead of cruising 65 mpg, car sputtering and shaking as it goes in open loop, LB off, 30 mpg for 15 seconds till it goes back into closed loop, then back to LB and 65 mpg. I look at this as automatic Nox purge cycles

I'm hoping to get the wideband installed this weekend. I usually work 7:30 am to 7 pm, so it is hard to get there during the week.

[pgfpro]

Great News!!!

[kafer65]

I just read through the entire thread! Interesting. Very interesting. I'm very tardy to this party! Oh, and I just saw a silver ZX2 20 minutes ago Its kinda like a Taurus and an insight had chill-wren. The lean burn box and turbo talk definitely caught my attention.
IF I can ever get my '61 Beetle engine back together (waiting on connecting rods) I may get brave enough to eco-mod it. It has EFI running from a 1991 something ECU with the old CB Performance 4 dial box and Schwitzer turbo(very small) on a 2176cc engine.

I have a dial for idle, main, transition, boost. My LM1 wideband quite working but before it did I would run supper rich until I got into boost just past 5 psi and I would run lean. It started out getting 9 mpg! Right before the lifter bore let go I would get 19. Wonder if I can learn something about how to get that thing working better. It only has a turnable TPS, no idle control (I just dial up the idle knob three turns for cold start) and I have an adjustable fuel pressure regulator set to 100psi. I locked the timing to max of 21.

Most of the time I drove it around with no more than 3 psi. That had plenty of get up and go. I know a guy with virtually the same setup getting 35 mpg using megasquirt.

My old '87 Dodge had a lean burn computer that worked with a Carter carb and just adjusted timing upwards of 50+ degrees I'm told so I'm hitting many of the things you've gone over here including pressure washing carpets and mission trips. Keep it coming!

[Tygen1]

Glad to hear that things are starting to jive with the old lean burn box :-)
Just takes some time to get used to driving with it and learning it's quirks.
It sounds like it's performing exactly like it did on my car. I'm sure you will be able to squeeze a 60mpg tank out of it in ideal conditions...however winter is hard on lean burn, or at least it was for me. You can see the large differences in the summer mpgs and winter mpgs in my fuel log. Lean likes hot weather. If you haven't already, it's time to get a trans pan, oil pan, block and radiator heater hooked up! I had about 1400watts of heating power and came out to a 100-120 degree engine in the dead of winter. This would allow me to go lean less than a mile from my house.

Also wondering why you went with a 99% grill block? I found that a full grill block was costing me mpg's over having a half license plate sized hole (I also had it ducted to help keep the air flowing past the radiator and trans cooler. The radiator fan cycling is what cost me mpg's. It would come on every couple miles and foul my lean burn burn by loading the engine more than what I could maintain a nice 16.5:1 AFR.

Originally Posted by BabyDiesel

Oh! If I had not made it obviously to the viewing public, then yes, lean burn is working and working very well

I'm beginning to get the checkpoints down where my computer figures out my deceit and goes open loop crazy. It seems to be 4-6 mile intervals, so I am EonC neutral coasting when these points come up so I can go from 65 mpg to 250 mpg and back to 65 mpg, instead of cruising 65 mpg, car sputtering and shaking as it goes in open loop, LB off, 30 mpg for 15 seconds till it goes back into closed loop, then back to LB and 65 mpg. I look at this as automatic Nox purge cycles

I'm hoping to get the wideband installed this weekend. I usually work 7:30 am to 7 pm, so it is hard to get there during the week.

[BabyDiesel]

Originally Posted by kafer65

I just read through the entire thread! Interesting. Very interesting. I'm very tardy to this party! Oh, and I just saw a silver ZX2 20 minutes ago Its kinda like a Taurus and an insight had chill-wren. The lean burn box and turbo talk definitely caught my attention.
IF I can ever get my '61 Beetle engine back together (waiting on connecting rods) I may get brave enough to eco-mod it. It has EFI running from a 1991 something ECU with the old CB Performance 4 dial box and Schwitzer turbo(very small) on a 2176cc engine.

I have a dial for idle, main, transition, boost. My LM1 wideband quite working but before it did I would run supper rich until I got into boost just past 5 psi and I would run lean. It started out getting 9 mpg! Right before the lifter bore let go I would get 19. Wonder if I can learn something about how to get that thing working better. It only has a turnable TPS, no idle control (I just dial up the idle knob three turns for cold start) and I have an adjustable fuel pressure regulator set to 100psi. I locked the timing to max of 21.

Most of the time I drove it around with no more than 3 psi. That had plenty of get up and go. I know a guy with virtually the same setup getting 35 mpg using megasquirt.

My old '87 Dodge had a lean burn computer that worked with a Carter carb and just adjusted timing upwards of 50+ degrees I'm told so I'm hitting many of the things you've gone over here including pressure washing carpets and mission trips. Keep it coming!

Thanks for the kind words kafer! The party is always open here in the Ecoscort thread

I'm no expert on tuning, but your timing and fuel pressure seem way off. The ZX2 is running 21* timing at idle. And if you are running 100psi fuel pressure, then I can see why you are running rich! Your car should not need much over 50 psi FPR, and the timing needs advancing. Just my perspective and trying to be helpful

Originally Posted by Tygen1

Glad to hear that things are starting to jive with the old lean burn box :-)
Just takes some time to get used to driving with it and learning it's quirks.
It sounds like it's performing exactly like it did on my car. I'm sure you will be able to squeeze a 60mpg tank out of it in ideal conditions...however winter is hard on lean burn, or at least it was for me. You can see the large differences in the summer mpgs and winter mpgs in my fuel log. Lean likes hot weather. If you haven't already, it's time to get a trans pan, oil pan, block and radiator heater hooked up! I had about 1400watts of heating power and came out to a 100-120 degree engine in the dead of winter. This would allow me to go lean less than a mile from my house.

Also wondering why you went with a 99% grill block? I found that a full grill block was costing me mpg's over having a half license plate sized hole (I also had it ducted to help keep the air flowing past the radiator and trans cooler. The radiator fan cycling is what cost me mpg's. It would come on every couple miles and foul my lean burn burn by loading the engine more than what I could maintain a nice 16.5:1 AFR.

I'll be purchasing all the heaters you listed before too long! I think (based purely on speculation) that pre-heating can be worth up to 5 mpg on my car.

I'm assuming you did not go lean until you reached operating temperature? I'm in lean burn mode less than 1/2 a mile from my house, always. This means coolant temps of 90-100*. The engine does not make good power during this time, but it works for my flat landed area. I'm cruising between 40-50 mpg from the 1/2 mile mark onward, with mpgs slowly following the coolant temps up. As always, YMMV

There should not be a potentially damaging scenario during this time, right?

I went with the 99% grill block because my car simply would not get warm with the 75% grill block and for better aerodynamics. After removing the A/C condenser and rigging a piece of coroplast along the open side of the radiator so it directs all the air through it, my coolant temps were lucky to reach 200 by the time I finished driving 30 miles! Right now, it takes over 15 miles of driving for the fan to come on (220*), and then it does so regularly about every 3 minutes. I really need to make an adjustable grill block...

What you said about the fan coming on ruining your lean burn has me concerned. I still don't think I am running that lean, because I have good power and can even accelerate from a stop! The fan does nothing to my load or lean burn... grrr, I need that wideband installed ASAP!!!