Ecomodding a 2.3L fox body mustang. Project "show me the carfox"

[R.W.Dale]

I just realized I don't have a pic of the ugly lil thing. Every thread needs pictures.



Anyway the EGR cleaning was a success, no more CEL and the engine feels much torquer at part throttle. I even managed to fix the cruise control today so in the future I may be looking to switch it over to being vacuum sensitive instead of speed.

[darcane]

Doesn't look too ugly to me, though I always preferred the hatchbacks over the notch.

Looks like someone really wanted a V8 instead of the 2.3L and put dual exhaust on it to make it look the part...

[RobertISaar]

Originally Posted by R.W.Dale

Re worked coil firing order on the wasted spark plugs to fire on the power stroke

i've been piloting a 92 ranger 2.3/5 speed around for a while and have read someone's half-baked theory on how to do this.

how do you plan to accomplish it?

[R.W.Dale]

Originally Posted by RobertISaar

i've been piloting a 92 ranger 2.3/5 speed around for a while and have read someone's half-baked theory on how to do this.

how do you plan to accomplish it?

From what I understand you're just rearranging the drivers side firing order to being "180*" out.

I'm really curious about this one and wanted to get some bugs worked out before I did it. I'm thinking that using my timing light on the "wasted spark" no1 before and after shuffling around the firing order should tell the story on this being legit or fiction

[mcrews]

Originally Posted by R.W.Dale

. This little car was purchased because of its cold cold AC and slush box trans.

My goal isn't to get the best MPG possible, I would have just kept my 3/5 metro if that we're the case. No this project is to get the most MPG from this car-powertrain combination.

Dale,
Welcome!!!
Great goals!!!
I drove a 2002 Infiniti Q45 and NEVER turned off the A/C!
Still did all the little thing to get 30 mpg (ON THE ROAD)
Some here are about stripping down everything, other's just trying to get a couple more mpg over epa....but it's all good!

[RobertISaar]

Originally Posted by R.W.Dale

From what I understand you're just rearranging the drivers side firing order to being "180*" out.

I'm really curious about this one and wanted to get some bugs worked out before I did it. I'm thinking that using my timing light on the "wasted spark" no1 before and after shuffling around the firing order should tell the story on this being legit or fiction

i could be thinking about this wrong, but when you do that, you're just making the other half of the plugs fire when the original set would have.... no change. i have an alternate, really complex thought that also seems kind of pointless, but i'll draw it out first to see if it makes sense.


that's assuming that whole theory about them firing on the exhaust stroke instead of at the same time as the other plugs on the end of the compression stroke is correct.... and according to the factory documentation i've been reading, it's not. if there were an advantage to doing such changes, i would think the factory would have done them.

[R.W.Dale]

The factory is concerned with things I'm not. Such as emissions.

This particular engine has two separate coils each running one bank of plugs. One coil is enough to run the engine, so I suppose the question is what is the other coil doing?

[elhigh]

Originally Posted by R.W.Dale

That's not a mod I'm willing to do.
<snip>This little car was purchased because of its cold cold AC and slush box trans.

Dude, I feel ya. While AC is almost never a necessity for human life, it can get awfully close even in the temperate regions. An extremely high priority want, if you will.

Ecomodding isn't strictly about getting the best possible mileage - if that were the case, we'd all be walking or riding mopeds. So I'm subscribing to this thread with interest. I've always liked the FoMoCo 2.3 and how flexible an engine it could be.

[R.W.Dale]

I just an a couple tests.

No1 on the rear coil (run side) is firing on the mark with about 20 degrees of advance dialed in

On the wasted spark coil number 1 or 4 is also on the mark with the same advance dialed in

Now what I need to determine next is are the two #1's firing together or are they firing 180* out of phase

[RobertISaar]

here we go, pulled these for the 92 ranger, but they would be the same as your mustang.

http://i.imgur.com/PjeLyih.png
http://i.imgur.com/0Y9xkgc.png

Ford was nice enough to give us scope patterns as to what normal looks like. you'll probably want to switch back and forth between the diagrams a few times.

anyways, on the first sheet, we see that there are 4 circuits that the ICM will ground to trigger the coils, pins 8, 9, 10 and 11. the coils are connected to +12V(as is the ICM on pin 1), so there is the basic circuit.

anyways, so now let's switch to the scope patterns. we see that in 720* of rotation(2 full revolutions, which is one 4-stroke cycle), 4 ignition events happen. this makes sense, as 4 power strokes would have happened.

we look at coil current and see that pins 8 and 11 are toggled at the same time. pins 8 and 11 control 1 and 4 on both sets of coilpacks. we also see pins 9 and 10 toggled at the same time, controlling cylinders 2 and 3 on both coilpacks.

so, it would appear that both plugs in every cylinder are already firing on both the end of the compression stroke and at the end of the exhaust stroke.

i imagine that they're paired the way they are due specifically to the fact that with waste-spark, the cylinder that fires on the exhaust stroked uses very little of the energy that is generated by the coil, while the cylinder on the compression stroke uses the rest.

otherwise, you'll have two plugs trying to fire on the same coil during the compression stroke, which means they'll be weaker there and then on the exhaust stroke, overpowered there. you'll not only strain the entire ignition system, you'll eat through plugs faster as well.



sometimes, the OEMs know what they're doing.