Ecoscort - 98 Ford Escort ZX2 ecomodding thread

[spacemanspif]

Love the new paint and that you color matched the skirts

[Arragonis]

I'm late to the party but added a thanks for your community service. I don't have a faith and I'm not American but anyone helping those less fortunate anywhere deserve thanks IMHO.

New colour (yes I do add a 'u' to it here) is very very nice. I'd hire your brother to paint my tractor

[BabyDiesel]

Thank y'all for the support and thanks for the mission trip I do it out of love for both God and my neighbor. I'll post pics of the work when I find them.

Also, thanks for the love for the new... coloUr He may very well have a side business going soon. He quoted me $225 if it were to cost me anything I'm really enjoying the paint, and it gets looks for looking good, besides having extravagant aero mods

Funny story to tie in with that. I was cruising through town on the way to Lowes when I am passed by a man in a bone stock Geo Metro! This guy could not unglue his eyes off of my fender skirts and wheel covers He then proceeds to cut across 2 lanes of traffic and turn into the gas station beside Lowes. I parked and went to talk with him, but he zipped off before I could reach him he most definitely was not a hypermiler!

I'm working on adding a ridiculously small UDP and bypassing my P/S and A/C. It is proving to be quite the challenge as 2 pulleys have to be swapped, and there is no room to get to them. The engine is basically floating in air till morning, and hopefully this will put me over 50 mpg for good! At the very least, it will reduce parasitic load that will in turn help lean burn, which is happening in 16 days!

Stay tuned for the carnage

[Arragonis]

UDP = Under Drive Pulley ?

[BabyDiesel]

Originally Posted by Arragonis

UDP = Under Drive Pulley ?

Correct good sir! It is on and the unneeded accessories are gone as well

I got 49.3 mpg round trip (46.1 & 52.5) on my usual 65 mile trip to see my fiance's and back. This is without my grill block and rear belly pan on BTW

I can tell this much from the UDP and A/C,P/S deletes. The car does get up to speed a bit quicker with less load, per SG. Cruising mpgs are higher, the engine revs up quicker and feels... better! One negative is that the alternator does not charge well at idle anymore. I expected this, but was still taken back slightly when my lights dimmed while EOnC.

All in all, it is a worthwhile mod IMO.

[spacemanspif]

Can spinning the alternator too slow kill it? Or does it add more load to the engine while trying to create 13volts while spinning slower than designed? Just wondering if you underdrive the alternator too much...

[BabyDiesel]

Based upon other's experiences with the ZX2 over at TeamZX2.com, there does not seem to be a problem with the UDP. There is a overdrive pulley made for our alternators to get an idle charge back, but it is one of those things where if you do not spend a lot of time idling you are safe

[BabyDiesel]

50.3 mpg over 175 miles on this tank so far, says the SG. It will be interesting to see if I can keep it above 50!

I put my rear pan and air dam back on yesterday afternoon. They helped out with cruising mpgs and coasting some, but not as much as I hoped for. I need to do coastdown testing again.

I changed my route this morning to see if I could get higher mpgs. My route usually has me going through 3 stop signs within the first 7 miles. This way had only 1, but with more interstate driving. It didn't help out from my 1st and only try. I think that even with the stops, I have the coasting down on the 7 mile section to where what I am gaining is cancelling the stops out. On the interstate, I cannot coast due to traffic and I'm driving 50-55 mph. Driving this fast reduce my fuel economy by 15-20 mpg over what I get at 40-45.

[BabyDiesel]

Last night's trip home was the one of the best ever



This was pure hypermiling, no faster than 45 at any time except for a pulse to 55 at the top of my biggest hill.

I lost about a 0.5 mpg off the trip average going into the last leg of my route. I let my speed get too low (35 mph) and the TCC unlocked. I had to pulse hard to get back to 42 mph so it would lock again, and it costed me a 56.

Still happy at the mileage tank mpg is at 50.8!

[MetroMPG]

Nice! Hangin' on by your fingernails.

How well dialled in is your SG to actual numbers at fill-up time?