Ecoscort - 98 Ford Escort ZX2 ecomodding thread

[BabyDiesel]

Glad to see you on Ecomodder, Tygen Sir, I must say that you have been a pivotal piece of inspiration for my project. I was fully satisfied topping out my FE @ 37-38 mpg before I read of your success and decided that I could do that. I thank you for all you have done in regards to showing what is capable with an ATX Call me a Tygen1 fanboy lol!

But... I fully expect to exceed you by a long shot

You can tell from the log that it look me a month to top 45. Success has come rather quickly, but I have the goal of competing with Echo-Troll and Basjoos! My routes are great, mostly country roads and secondary state roads. No heavy traffic, minimal stop lights and signs and some hills to allow Engine-On-Coasting. And yes, I have read your work... very extensive! It is saved in my bookmarks.

Wheel skirts and wheel covers should be going on this weekend, along with a partial front belly pan

Boat-tail will come over Christmas break

[dirtydave]

you need a manual trans swap bro!

[BabyDiesel]

dirtydave - Lol, it would make this project so much easier! But I'm deciding against a MTX swap for a few reasons...

1. My car would not be an ATX! - I really want to see what the limits of an automatic are. There is not one auto in the Top 10... I want to be the one of the few

2. It would be easier!... exactly that. I'm in for a challenge either way. I desire the road less traveled.

3. There has got to be a midpoint between Tygen1 and COZX2 - Tygen reported today that his best tank was 56 mpg (Auto). COZX2's best was in excess of 100mpg (Manual). Reaching the point between these two should be theoretically possible with an ATX.

4. I am a broke college senior who is out of job and money Swaps take time and money, of which I'm depleted in. Besides, I have no second vehicle... my 88 K5 Blazer is in the shop still. Can't decide if it wants to be a gas truck or a diesel truck

[Tygen1]

Do you plan on maxing out aero-mods or have you considered lean burn? Running lean was the real keystone to my success. Btw, I made it as high as #4 on the % over list
I laid out my plan pretty clearly in my worklog and I believe I had some references to what I thought the theoretical limit for mpg was for the ZX2 if you were to do no eoc.
I've recently purchased tuning software and hope to spend some time this winter learning it so I can go for a 60+ tank next summer.

[BabyDiesel]

Do you plan on maxing out aero-mods or have you considered lean burn?

I am considering both of them, the maxed-out aero AND lean burn So I will have a Ford Escort VX

Btw, I made it as high as #4 on the % over list :-)

That is swweeetttttt!!! Giving me some hope!

Engine-on-coasting has been a huge contributor to my increases in FE. I am looking into several things right now... such as a resistor in the IACV so that the amount of fuel injected in idle will decrease substantially. Right now, I idle while coasting at 0.25 gal/hr. So 150-225 mpg is the norm. I'd love to see 300-500 mpg

Also, have you ever heard of deleting two valves (1I, 1E) per cylinder? I read about it somewhere on a 16v Honda motor... and it helped FE! Probably hurt power... but that's overrated

[Xist]

Originally Posted by BabyDiesel

Also, have you ever heard of deleting two valves (1I, 1E) per cylinder? I read about it somewhere on a 16v Honda motor... and it helped FE! Probably hurt power... but that's overrated

I have heard about people trying that and it sounds nearly impossible to implement. Your engine balance will be off and it is extremely difficult to seal off everything. I guess that if you delete matched valves they will balance...

Referring to deleting one cylinder:

Originally Posted by Frank Lee

The bad vibes will drive you nuts within minutes.

http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...tml#post243784

Originally Posted by Diesel_Dave

the cylinder delete is a REALLY bad idea. For one thing, that would be an extremely involved process

http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...tml#post244043

Originally Posted by Frank Lee

Deactivating cylinders reduces pumping losses two ways: 1) there are fewer working cylinders moving air around, and 2) the remaining cylinders- each now working harder to produce the same total output- require the throttle plate(s) to be open more. The more open a throttle plate is, the less the engine is working to overcome the vacuum behind it.

The reduced pumping losses from fewer working cylinders are but one component of why deactivation works; because the remaining cylinders are each working more at their capacity- getting a fuller air/fuel charge- the combustion pressures and tumble/swirl velocities are much higher and thus more efficient, in the same way we know that any ICE is more efficient at near wide open throttle than at near idle.

Originally Posted by Frank Lee

As an experiment I deactivated two on my four cylinder and it wouldn't start

http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...tml#post404239

Originally Posted by ChazInMT

Only 4% of the engine loss is due to pumping loss (See This) so it isn't like you'll double your mileage by eliminating it.

[...]

I'm 99% certain no one has ever done a homemade cylinder deactivation and gotten outstanding results from it, power decreases immensely, the engine management system would hate it and need to be modified to the point of causing madness, and you may not see any gain in fuel efficiency.

http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...tml#post404240

Originally Posted by Old Mechanic

I think deactivation will be a tough sell in a 4 cylinder engine, taller tires or lower overall gearing is a better tactic.

http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...tml#post404348

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

Ironically, Honda just settled a class action lawsuit related to their 6 cylinder engines equipped with cylinder deactivation:
http://www.autonews.com/article/2013...-burning-claim

http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...tml#post405393

I need to be somewhere, but that should be a start. You can also read http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...ion-14526.html, those were just the first few threads that came out of the search box.

[Tygen1]

I tried leaning out the idle and did not like the results, it would not idle good at all. I'd focus more on using DFCO as much as possible, I've improved my results by learning to drive in a way to max that out.

[BabyDiesel]

Xist - Thanks for the amount of information you provided! From reading, it appears that cylinder deactivation and valve deletes are not the route to go. There are more and better gains to be had elsewhere.

Tygen - If I do lean out idle, it'll be just to get it down to a 14.7:1 AFR. I know that the ZX2 has an idle ratio of 13.5:1. What did you lean it out too? What problems did you encounter?

The IACV is a finicky thing on my motor. It will vary the GPH from 0.16 - 0.29 depending on conditions (all values are with the motor warmed up). If I can figure out how the computer sees the info from the valve, I am thinking a resistor could "trick" the computer to decreasing the amount of fuel injected when coasting around in neutral. Thoughts?

Also Tygen, I do use DFCO, but not immensely. It slows the car down too quickly in most circumstances... I have tried to DFCO down a 4-5% grade and the car lost speed! However, I have figured out how to keep it going down to 35 mph through downshifting

[MetroMPG]

Congrats on your improvements thus far.

Question!

Originally Posted by BabyDiesel

-Mufflerless exhaust

Joke or not-joke? Intentional mod or just nature taking its course?

You'll often see it said around here that at low RPM where we tend to cruise for best MPG, an open exhaust may actually be working against you.

[BabyDiesel]

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

Congrats on your improvements thus far.

Question!



Joke or not-joke? Intentional mod or just nature taking its course?

You'll often see it said around here that at low RPM where we tend to cruise for best MPG, an open exhaust may actually be working against you.

Metro - Thanks! No joke! This was an intentional mod to lose some weight and get some more power out of it. I wanted some sound too. The stock muffler seemed restrictive. As far as I have been able to tell, there has not been any effect one way or another... though I do feel like torque is lacking below 1700 rpm.

The exhaust actually have the stock resonator on it.. so it is not completely mufflerless. I plan on adding a Jones Turbo-tube muffler and high-flow catalytic converter when I put on the 4-2-1 longtube header this spring. The pipe size is 1.875" all the way out to the back, which I have heard is almost too small for the motor but those people are wanting more power, not FE.