95 Escort Aero improvements worklog

[300zxrb26dett]

Well since I have been thinking about doing this stuff for some time, its time to start planning and dive-in.

First up the goal for this is to improve my aero, but not take away from the cars looks, so most of these mods will be "hidden" to some extent or just try to make them not so obvious.

First up are the pictures of the car so I can cover all the areas I see for improvement and any others spots that others may see for improvement.




The car is as low as I am willing to go and still be streetable, so I have an airdam that I plan on fitting to the front, but it will be further back under the bumper to keep from ripping it off on steep driveways. The airdam is a nice piece from a mercury tracer LTS, and it will need modded to fit.

Since I recently changed to an undamaged bumper, I no longer have my front belly pan, but that is on the list of things to do as well. The grill will be modded in the future and some of that lower bumper opening will be closed off.

The gaps between the bumper, headlights and grill will be closed off as well.

A different rear bumper will be fitted with a wheel well vent in it and flat bottom tray that will extend to the rear suspension crossmember.

A belly pan will be fitted the full length of the car and some some skirts approx where the pinch seam goes.

I had installed my upper spoiler originally for looks but, after browsing this site and looking at the shape, I think this thing is actually helping my roof line, but I need to fix the gap between the top of the hatch and my roof line somehow, because I think most of the air is actually going in the gap and causing major turbulence because water never moves on that spoiler.

I think that covers the extent of my plans thus far.

[66sprint6]

Fellow Escort driver here! Im extremely interested in seeing what kinda numbers your already putting down and seein how it changes with your mods, especially with the 1.8 motor swap. If my little 1.9 goes down I might consider the swap if it still gets good mileage. I have a 4 door sedan with chin spoiler and my front gaps sealed and Im averaging 38mpg mostly city driving. I am planning on lowering it, adding GT sideskirts and possibly running a partial undertray as well. If you dont already have one, put together a fuel log in the garage area to help keep track of your MPG over time!!!
Matt

[300zxrb26dett]

Nice to see another one of us Well this 1.8 is not stock, so that is part of the problem of its bad fuel mileage I will admit, the other is its untuned, which a AEM wideband is in the future so I can tune the airflow meter and the last reason I have too much airflow thru the front, as my temp gauge reads 160 when cruising down the freeway. Compared to the 1.9, this engine is is a 100 times better, and if I can get the fuel mileage up close to the 1.9, I would be very happy. So lets say I would like to get 30MPG with this engine, and even modified I think it can be done.

The engine makes more power and can actually move the car when you need it too, less vibration and much smoother especially at idle, no more planning ahead to pass someone, and the best part: no more of those famous 1.9 valve seat issues.

Your mods are encouraging for me though that I can improve my mileage. I am currently getting 23.5 MPG

If you want more info on the swap, I have a parts list/how-to on another forum. Basically you will need a parts car to pull it off.

[66sprint6]

Simple mods, and mostly tweakin my driving made a HUGE difference. When I first got the car I was knockin down 34ish mpg "trying". I then learned a few teqniques and did a tuneup, added a couple small mods and she took off like a shot!!! Fun thing is, I dont even have to drive boring or slow! I love it so far. Im over on ClubProtege and Im thinkin ive seen your car somewhere, either there or on the Escort forum...not sure. Either way, keep us updated, Ide love to see what works for you. Especially in the Aero dept!
Matt

[Gone2]

Just curious, where did you get the rear window deflector at?

[300zxrb26dett]

Originally Posted by 66sprint6

Simple mods, and mostly tweakin my driving made a HUGE difference. When I first got the car I was knockin down 34ish mpg "trying". I then learned a few teqniques and did a tuneup, added a couple small mods and she took off like a shot!!! Fun thing is, I dont even have to drive boring or slow! I love it so far. Im over on ClubProtege and Im thinkin ive seen your car somewhere, either there or on the Escort forum...not sure. Either way, keep us updated, Ide love to see what works for you. Especially in the Aero dept!
Matt

I am on both those forums under the same name. I have a hard time keeping my foot out of it sometimes when the opportunity arises Good thing I sold the turbo stuff and decided to stay N/A

Originally Posted by Sentraguy

Just curious, where did you get the rear window deflector at?

Its a Solarwing II made by GTS the same guys that do the window deflectors (ventshades)

I bought it from Summit Racing. They make them for many different cars.

[300zxrb26dett]

Well I noticed something on my car that is causing some drag that I never thought about before.

I was looking at the gap at the top of my car between the roof and hatch, and the hatch is slightly higher then my roof which means it just acting like a big scoop funneling air down under the hatch.

Since I was at work, I came up with a crude test of dribbling some water on the roof and using compressed air to blow the water along the roof. The water gets to the roof edge and goes over but just hangs there as the turbulant air is pushing it back up and then after I sprinkled some water on the hatch it moves at a decent rate down the spoiler, but not as good as it could be.

I will be trying to solve this problem by adjusting the hatch and then work on sealing that gap with something to make it a nice smooth transition

[Gone2]

You could possibly put in some rubber tailgate seal and see if that helps the gap.

[300zxrb26dett]

Tonight I actually removed the hatch, well unbolted and slid it out of the way enough to get to the latches, and ground down the latches to about 1/2 their original thickness, then went and then sanded the mounting areas on the hatch down with a 3M pad in my drill. After a few tries I had the hatch down about 1/16-1/32 below the edge of the roof instead of about 1/16 above it. Also adjusted it to close that gap up slightly on top, so I am happy with it.

I think I will be using a thin strip of adhesive backed foam to fill the gap all the way around the hatch to make it nice and seamless.

[IsaacMTSU]

I thought about sealing the hatch on my CRX, just kind of a lip only attached to the hatch so I could still open it. I'd be interested to see how your hatch seal comes out.