Another ZX2
 

Hey guys,

We have another 1999 Ford ZX2 on these forums. I was getting a steady 33 mpg through the cold weather with a cold air intake, k&n filter, plugs, and limiting my spirited driving. Now that I'm getting serious about getting better gas mileage I'm planning quite a few mods and have a SGII on the way.

Planned: front lip, grill cover, shorten/bend antenna, undertray to the oil pan (read that any further is useless without a wind tunnel), injector kill switch, unhook a vacuum line (another zx2 member on this site had tried it out), and possibly removing the passenger mirror (still unsure though).

Any other ZX2ners still hanging around here? Either way, glad I finally joined up, and lets see if I can hit 45mpg routinely!

I had a 2001 ZX2 a few years ago. Never did any ecomodding or careful driving really. I averaged between 32-34 overall with it. I wish I would have found this site a few years ago, I could have got much better mileage out of that car with a SGII.

Good luck LmidgitD, I'm sure you can achieve 45 with some careful driving. There are alot of really good guys on this site and they won't steer you wrong.

Good to see you here LmidgetD :) I presume you are on TeamZX2? If not, then get there.
When you mod your car, you need to mod it around your drive/commute. I spend a lot of time at 50mph and holding it steady, so aero mods and lean burn really help. Aeromods won't help you if you are in the city or in traffic. So lets talk about your drive before you go too crazy.
I like to compare Basjoos vs. PaleMalnsian {sp} Basjoos has modded his car the highest degree and get's excellent results. PaleM. has almost no mods and just uses PAG to get excellent results as well. You should read up a bit on those guys and look at what they have done to get an idea of what you can do.
I have an ATX, so my commute is well suited to it. You have an MTX, so you have a bunch of options that are open to you adjusting the way you drive. On TeamZX2 you will see a little post I had about a 107mpg ZX2, read about that guy to get some ideas. I also got a worklog over their that covers almost all of my mods in some detail.
Ecomodding is a natural step from "tuning".
It is possible to have performance and mpg as well. 98% of the time, I am driving slow and boring, but occasionaly I like to take it to the drag strip :)

Yea I'm under the same name over there. I used to be a member quite a few years ago, but college consumed my time until recently. My gf lives 35 miles away from me so I drive on the interstate quite a bit, which is why I'm interested in the aeromods that have been done. I do however have a ScanGauge II on the way to see what RPM's and shifting points will work the best with the Z.

As for Basjoos and PaleMalnsian, I've read what I can find from those guys, but I keep running across your posts as well which are informative.

Scan Gauge will help a lot!
Shift right around 2250rpm :) with a high throttle position.
Keep your top speed under 55.
With just a few aero mods you should be able to get into the high 30's easy. You can look at the progression of my fuel log and track mods that were done and how long it took me to get over 40mpg. On a pure highway trip, I should be able to get over 60mpg, yet I my fuel log shows 45mpg 90day avg. I'm trying to get a 50mpg summer avg. and it's not going to be easy. Your goal of 45mpg avg. will be tough unless you EOC. EOC makes everything easier. You'll need to delete you Power Steering to do it safely though. I recently did this and it is barely tolerable, my wife won't drive the car anymore.
Take a progressive approach when moding. Sure you can copy mods, like I did, that have proven to work on your car, but it helps to understand their interaction so you can make good decisions going forward. For instance. My grill is completely blocked. My radiator fan comes on every couple minutes...this hurts the mpg by a noticeable amount. The question I have is: "How little can I open my grill block to allow enough air to cool the engine and not cause the fans to come on while minimally impacting the aero benefit?"
You should consider things like this before jumping off the deep end like I have :)

I fully agree. I'm taking a slow approach to the whole thing so I can document how every mod influences the car. I was thinking about EOCing to stop signs/lights while in a straight line, however doing that while exiting from the interstate just seems like a bad idea with a power steering rack.

I'm really waiting for the scangauge to come in before I do any true aero mods.

I did have a question for you. Have you even though about having the coolant temp readout on the SG and having the fan on a switch? This way you can manually control the temperature when needed, or would that just be a PITA?

Lots of guys wire up their E-fans in just that way. I honestly considered it, but figured the first time I borrowed my truck out somebody would fry it. The fan doesn't kick on for no reason (its hot!), so I left well enough alone. I wired mine in myself, and I'm pretty happy with the results. Am still considering a speed cut out for it where if I get above 20 it shuts off, but it hardly seems worth the effort.

My S-10 has way more cooling capacity then it could ever use with the fan running all the time (a common approach taken on s10forum.com).

My ex-wifes zx3 hatchback focus kept blowing fan relays, so we did wire that 1 up direct with a switch. She overheated the car during that summer (2005 no grill block). Car was never the same after that, and we ended up trading it for the zx2.

I would recomend just blocking the grill enough so that fan kicks on with the same frequency it did before. Warm up times will still be quicker and drag will still be reduced, but you won't have to worry if you borrow the car out. Good luck man.

LmidgitD -

Welcome to EM! The ZX2 is a great platform for MPG, so I am sure that your efforts will be rewarded.

CarloSW2

I sometimes watch my coolant temp on the ScanGauge. I wouldn't bother with a switch, the PCM does a good job. It kicks the fan on around 225 and off again around 210...or something like that.

Glad to know we have a few zx2's on this forum that I can borrow ideas from. My scangauge should be here today or tomorrow. Once it comes I'll be able to monitor how often the fan comes on via the coolant sensor, but I'm more excited to start altering my driving habits. So far it looks like I'm on the way to 35-36mpg using (albeit) subpar driving techniques and the 5.6k resistor. After I get a baseline for the car, I'll block the grill and put the front lip on and see the changes in coolant and mpg. From there I'll decide what the next mod on the list will be.

I know a few of the zx2 guys run a 195 thermostat, do you find that the fan runs a lot more using that temperature? I only ask because when I bought the car the lady had a 165(!) thermostat in the car. I could never wonder why the heater didn't work as well as I thought it should. lol