Ecoscort - 98 Ford Escort ZX2 ecomodding thread
 

Hello y'all :D

This will be my first modding thread for any vehicle, and I'm excited to show how far I have come!

The car is a 1998 Ford Escort ZX2 Cool Coupe. It has the 2.0 Zetec motor, automatic transmission and 3.74 gears. Bought the car two years ago with 200,000 miles for only $800 :)

As it was -

http://s26.postimg.org/76lfrmrkp/image.jpg

As it is today -

http://s26.postimg.org/iitfvoavt/1023141728a.jpg

From 2012 till the middle of August this year, it was my reliable DD. It gave very few problems, surprisingly (for a Ford) :rolleyes: I lost my job crop scouting and that catapulted me into needed to save every penny possible. Into the Ecomodding world I went :D

Since August 18th, here have been my mods -
-Scangauge
-Keman intake w/ Spectre high-flow air filter
-Warm Air Intake
-Tire air pressure set at 60f/55r
-5/6 grill block
-Wal-mart lawn-edging air dam
-Double SV mirror deletion
-Air line disconnect thingy
-Weight removal (Rear seat, etc.)
-5.6K resistor in the IAT (for timing advance)
-Spark plugs gapped @ 0.070 (stock is 0.050)
-5w20 Pennzoil Ultra Platinum oil
-Lighter weight Mazda Miata Aluminum rims
-Upsized tires (185/70R14 BlackLion BH15)
from bald 185/65s to these, I gained ~1.5" in diameter
-Mufflerless exhaust :D

Here is my fuel log. The red at the beginning was my usual pre-eco average. Still pretty good for the ZX2.

http://ecomodder.com/forum/fe-graphs/graph8623.gif

My progress has been good. All this has been with an ATX, btw :thumbup:

Very impressive fuel mileage, especially for an automatic! Nicely done.

What is your typical commute like?

...An Eco-Administrator tells me "Very impressive." Now that is a mark of success! Thank you Daox! :thumbup:

A typical commute for me is country roads, both primary and seconodary state roads. U.S. 701, U.S. 70, N.C. 50/55, N.C. 117 are my typical roads. Though I do have backways with less traffic. One in particular is Devil's Racetrack Road.

Here is my usual routes -

Devil's Racetrack/55

701/55

117/70

96/95/70

I try to avoid I-95 & I-40 at all cost. FE goes down bad when I get above 55 mph

Here is an elevation change chart that I mapped out for the 701/55 route to school. The units are in feet (y-axis) and miles (x-axis). At times there are 6% grades :eek: and that long climb to start off with really dampens my efforts to reach 50 mpg

http://s26.postimg.org/lm49ta2hl/elevation_graph.png

Btw, I never said my goals...

The short term goal is to have 50+mpg tank. I have already had a 54 mpg trip and a few in the 46-49 range. I am going to have to replicate that continuously while refining my techniques... might have to wait till next year though. The cooler weather is already having a negative effect :(

The long term goal is to achieve a 75 mpg tank. With the automatic transmission. Yep, my eyes are set on reaching 200% above the EPA compined FE figures for this vehicle. Likely? Nope. But I'll never know the true limits of my set up unless I try! :thumbup:

Adding another elevation route chart, this time of Devil's Racetrack/55. It seems to have better fluctuations, though the lack of hills means less Engine-On coasting.

http://s26.postimg.org/5hr1rjdw9/elevation_graph_1.png

The ZX2's 83.33333% grill block :D It is made out of cardboard, painted with 2 coats of rustoleum spray paint, and black duct tape. Works well and holds up in the rain better than plain cardboard. Also pictured is the lawn edging air-dam from Wal-Mart

http://s26.postimg.org/7phc9f47t/1018141131a.jpg

http://s26.postimg.org/3o4uhi1ax/1018141131.jpg

http://s26.postimg.org/z412bc1zt/1023141730.jpg

http://s26.postimg.org/t0jhrfbq1/1023141730a.jpg

http://s26.postimg.org/gn6nkim1l/1023141730b.jpg

Some of the mods I currently have. The top photo is my warm air intake, made out of 5" dryer duct routed to hover just over the exhaust manifold. Would it be worth it to downsize the duct diameter to increase velocity?

Second photo is part of my Keman intake. Top resonator has been removed and replaced with high heat resistant pvc pipe. Not pictutred is the bottom resonator delete and the cut open air box to allow more air in... the stock intake was sipping air from 2 1" ports :o

Last is a vacuum leak for timing advance. This mod seems to be special to just the ZX2s... It has been tried and test true by Tygen1 to cause all benefits and no harm. Gained 1-2* of timing and ~1.5 mpg's from this mod alone.

Been busy busy lately... but not too much with the ZX2 :( college life...

I have took the WAI's dryer duct off of the intake. Turns out it was restricting airflow due to the bulging front of my air filter. Has a lil' mo' power now, lil' better economy, and lower IATs.

With election day over, me and my brother went on a tear yesterday morning and swipped up a lot of election signs. You know what that means.... AERO MODZZ FTW!!! Soon! :D

Had a P0446 code pop up this evening. Either a vent control valve or gas cap is to blame. So I re-tightened my gas cap and it has backed off... hoping it'll stay that way.

Btw, last tank was 41.77 :thumbup:

Good Job! I noticed your fuel log the other day. Although I don't log fuel mileage anymore, I'm still in the ecomodding game. I topped out with a 56mpg tank average and have not been able to better that. It took me two years to top 50mpg, it's quite a lot of trial an error and more difficult with an ATX. You'll learn that the commute route is very important when you are not able to EOC. You need rear fender skirts BAD. They were quite effective for me. You need to check out my worklog on TeamZX2, in there I detail all that I have done :-)

Glad to see you on Ecomodder, Tygen :thumbup: 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 :D

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 :turtle:

Boat-tail will come over Christmas break :cool:

you need a manual trans swap bro!

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 :cool:

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 :D

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.

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

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 :cool:

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 :turtle:

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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 :D

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 :cool: 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 :confused: but those people are wanting more power, not FE.

I've learned that in almost all cases, stock is best for FE. The header I have helps torque in too high of an rpm range, however it is lighter and more durable than the original cast iron manifold which cracks easily. It's a compromise I was willing to take for the one or two times a month I go WOT. A light weight header option could be a stock Focus Zetec header, it's small and light and you can affix a nice small light cat to it (at some point this is the route I will most likely take). The stock pipe size will not hurt FE, in fact it will be lighter than any 2.25 or 2.5" cat back exhaust you put on. (I will probably go to a lighter exhaust in the future as well)
You can pretty much leave airflow through the engine alone and focus on parasitic losses, weight reduction, rolling resistance and aero resistance. There is a lot of low hanging fruit here that is much easier and cheaper to get than a full performance exhaust.
I have a wideband and with no MAF fooling happing, it idles at a perfect 14.7:1, I'm not sure where you got 13.5 from, not even in open loop in cold weather does it idle below 14.7, doesn't seem like it has a cold start up enrichment. When I leaned it out to just above 15:1 I started to have problems with idle fluctuation and surging, it was really annoying, after many trials I found it just didn't give the results I was hoping for in fuel savings. At one point I got the idle gph down to 0.08, then I did the math on the actual distance I was coasting (about 3.4 miles each way) and realized the savings was so minimal it was not worth all the hassle trying to get it work right. When I did the math on DFCO or EOC, I found a much better pay off for the work. Doing the homework there really helped me refine my driving and my commute route
If your serious about lean burn, you need to start with a wideband and I'd suggest jumping right into some tuning software, don't go the route I did, it's quite a headache. You'll pay back the software in a year.
Watch your Keman Intake (PVC Pipe), it will warp from heat in about a year an start throwing lean codes.

Focus on parasitic losses, weight reduction, rolling resistance and aero resistance. They all work together and start to add up quickly, get after the aero and you will find your opportunities to DFCO will improve and lengthen, you could even wire up an engine kill switch so you can open the throttle 100% and stop the pumping losses that are slowing you down so much. Alternator kill switches are good for helping reduce parasitic losses as well as underdrive pulley's and P/S & A/C deletes. You gotta get some RE92's to really understand what they can do for your FE, they are almost magic. Sell what you have and get some as soon as possible. Super light wheels help also. Lean burn is a more advanced technique and I'd recommend you build a good foundation with a focus on parasitic losses, weight reduction, rolling resistance and aero resistance and when you go lean it will work a loooot better.
:-)

Another Tygen disortation!
 

Your writing style amuses me. Digging the detail and the amount of explanation you provide :D

Being truthful, I know that the exhaust is not the best place to pick up FE and probably the best place to screw up FE! However, I do know that headers work on V8s and with this motor being half of that... :rolleyes: My thoughts are that it can't hurt, especially changing out the 16 year old cat!

Would this be it?? ->

I... must... focus! Lol. These are all in the works, thanks for the clarity!

Second paragraph of post #14 of Little Blue Project Log on TeamZX2.com. You said it first, not I :thumbup:

Good to know that somebody else has wasted their time before me! I'll put this off till later... when I go for the 70's, I'll need every lil' trick to save fuel.

Some questions here Tygen, and anyone else who wants to chime in! I thought we could not do EOC and/or kill switchs since they would cut off power to the engine and cause transmission problems? Or did you mean E-On-C? What kind of homework did you do? If the kill switch is possible, I will definitely install it soon!

Oh I'm dead serious lol. What brand of wideband O2s and tuning software would y'all recommend? I like the sound of fast payback $$$

Yeah, I want to avoid the "limp mode" Tygen discovered. Kinda funny :p

I'm using high heat CPVC, so I should be in the clear. I'll keep a watch on it :thumbup:

P/S & A/C deletes are coming if I can ever find time around college!!! My P/S has been causing some problems for the entire time I've owned the ZX2. Only when it has first been crunk and I cut the wheels to turn, the car acts like it is going to cut off. It starts bucking and shaking bad for a few seconds and then foes away with time or releasing the steering wheel. This was the reason that the previous owner put new injectors in... I'm not complaining :) I don't trust the Powder U/D pulleys... I have seen that they wear out rather fast. Alt. kill switch will be saved as a later mod for when I start squeezing!

Maaaaaannnnnnn :(:(:(:(:( Don't even get me started!!! I was going to get me a set of these not too long ago! I had my tire choices narrowed down and it was in the top 3... but lo and behold, I couldn't afford any tires :o so my parents offered to help me get new tires. How Generous! Buuttt... they were against buying tires offline :confused: and I had to get what they wanted me to get... so I got stuck with Blacklion BH15's. They are not bad tires... chinese made though. Don't even want to know their RRC compared to the RE92's :o

Tygen, you said in the LBPL that your cruise mpg @ 50 with a tps of 21 was around 55... I ask, HOW?!? I nkow all cars are different... mine doing the exact same as above with a load of 50-51 to maintain speed is only 44-48 mpg. Thoughts? O2 sensors perhaps making the car run slightly rich or lean?

00 04 2000 2004 Ford Focus 2 0 Zetec Exhaust Manifold Metal 0 14 E | eBay

This was the link for the header at the top of the previous post

To update some progress, I finally had time to change the oil today and start an aero mod! I have been using 5w-30 Pennzoil Platnium synthetic for over a year with good results... 5000 mile change intervals. But seasons go, and it was time for a change. 0w-20!!! :D

http://s26.postimg.org/6aks08909/1109141140.jpg

Here is some of the additions I use when I change the oil. A good quality fuel cleaner, an oil filter with an anti-drain back valve, and STP oil treatment with ZDDP.

http://s26.postimg.org/7e4wc6tnd/1109141139.jpg
http://s26.postimg.org/mkay34jo9/1109141140a.jpg

The ZDDP additive is used to quieten down valvetrain noise and provide protection during cold starts. It is slick stuff, and seems to create a film over the cam lobes from what I can feel. It is needed at this mileage :thumbup:

http://s26.postimg.org/9qcw9s68p/1113140716a.jpg

Crossed 260K this morning!

Pic of the "aero mod" that got put on tonight... failtastic as it is! Partial front pan :)

http://s26.postimg.org/5ii4114t5/1113141742.jpg

This is from a couple days ago after a 32 mile drive to my gas pump from college. I did 45-50 mph the entire time, no stops, with some coasting and DWL, not very aggressively though.

http://s26.postimg.org/6i8ewqjyx/1111141656a.jpg

I was able to make some aero-advancements to the Ecoscort yesterday afternoon :turtle:

Pics of the carnage...

Wheel covers made
http://s26.postimg.org/sb2ymcnfd/1115141348.jpg

"Ghetto" side skirts on!!! :D:D:D
http://s26.postimg.org/4ldixnp21/1115141618.jpg
http://s26.postimg.org/p6ww3aw0p/1115141618a.jpg

There has been a colossal cold snap here (as it is everywhere in North America) so I am unsure of the benefits so far. FE is down from the cold :mad:

Funny story - I bet my brother that the exact words my mama would say when she saw the skirts were "What the hell is that?!" 10 minutes later, those exact words came from her mouth :D So apparently I am disowned in public if I am on my car... Winning. :thumbup:

Winning !
Laughed out loud looking at the side skirts.
You are of course going to flat black them ...of course.

I might suggest trimming the front edge of the skirt so that it flexes outward when you hit something low, versus tearing off. ( angle it or round it off )

Yes, of course I am Cd ;) I'll have to wait for the temps to warm up before I can paint. I had to cut off material twice before I could make it out of the driveway :o

Already done so! The corners were cut before the car could move foward lol!

Did this for you, Cd
 

You're welcome :D
http://s26.postimg.org/tn3peximx/1117142225.jpg

I admit, it looks so much better.

Started putting these on tonight as well. They are being ziptied through the spokes and seem to be sturdy. Only got one on, the others are going on in the morning before I make the 32 mile trip to school. Can't wait to see the result :thumbup:
http://s26.postimg.org/ed3u7qn4p/1117142225a.jpg

Were you specifically trying to get the names on your skirts? :) Your wheel covers look like buttons they hand out! :)

How did you know? :D:D:D Lol. I didn't try, it was just to way the cookie crumbled! It looked ridiculous... They made several people's day when they saw it on the road :thumbup: seeing them laugh was worth the price of being slightly ghetto :)

I be dag gone if they didn't! I shouldn't had painted them... I could have had a political theme going :p

I need a new picture a few steps back so i can get a better look at those side skirts.

Here is some picture that I took tonight of the air dam and how it is attached.

http://s26.postimg.org/fvnaczlax/1119141831.jpg
http://s26.postimg.org/4kkmomeft/1119141831a.jpg
http://s26.postimg.org/caretrgrd/1119141831b.jpg

I know they are not the best. I will take more if you need them, bud.

Both pieces are held on with just self-tapping screws. No problems so far. The way the car is made on the bottom -

----------|

This provided a great way to attach the skirts without any other doodads!

Ooohhhhhhhhh the temptation is real on this one :(:(:(

1998 Ford Escort Zx2

It has nice rims that I can resale (too big), a 5-speed and it is CHEAP! Ummm... I am kinda considering a 5-speed swap now :eek:

Now is a great time to think out loud on here, before I lose any of this awesome insanity n my head :)

So I think Ecoscort will probably max out in the low-mid 50's next summer before lean burn is installed. To reach 70-80 mpg, there is going to have to be drastic changes. I am looking into a 5-speed swap... Yeah, I know what i said a couple weeks ago about not doing a manual swap. I want do the swap after I have maxed out the auto's truest potential. If the auto decides to puke sometime soon, well then I have no choice :)

I can purchase one of several ZX2's around where I live for $500-$1000. People on Craigslist are wanting close to that for just a motor :eek: So I am planning on purchasing another car for parts down the road. I can easily make my money back on the purchase, so I do not fear that circumstance!

With the new-to-me motor and tranny, I can do some work and experiments ;) The 5-speed would receive new bearings and a freshening up before being swapped. Also, replacing the 5th gear with a higher ratio from a 97+ SPI Escort would be in order. With the motor, I want to experiment with the intake cam... I would attempt to round a cam lobe off per cylinder. This is to increase intake velocity with only one valve opening. I am thinking that with a tuner, I will be able to adjust the parameters if any drivability issues occurred.

With the cam done, I would add EV6 injectors from another Ford vehicle and an adjustable cam gear (ACG). The EV6 injectors have been shown to spray the fuel finer, resulting in a more efficient burn. The ACG would allow me to advance the cam, possibly increasing low-end torque through increased cylinder filling.

Up next would be to swap out the ring & pinion with a set of 3.21 gears from an earlier model Escort. In conjunction with the different 5th gear ratio (0.717) and smaller tires (165/65R14 Bridgestone Potenza RE92's FTW :D) my rpms at my usual cruise speeds would be -
45 - 1582
50 - 1758
55 - 1933
60 (Interstate only) - 2109

This is a small difference, even from now. I am spinning roughly 1840 @ 50 mph. 100 rpms with less rotational mass will certainly help.

Either before or after this (probably before) will be a complete belly pan, wheel well covers and boattail. All these coupled with lean burn, adjusting spark tables, UD/OD pulleys, P/S & A/C deletes and weight reduction should put me over the edge of 200%... hopefully. :turtle:

With the manual you will also be able to safely EOC. :) Taller gearing will definitely help you, especially on the highway. For me, at 70 MPH my RPMs are about 2300, and at 60 they are 1900. I know that the Manual Transmission for my car has ridiculously short gears (something like 2800 for 70, 2500 for 60, I'm not sure though) and that is why the EPA ratings are so much higher for the auto.

The A/C delete will help a ton, as well as the P/S delete. I know for me, just turning off the AC helped about 5-10% for my MPGs. When my Dad did turned off his A/C in his Accord V6 he got over 40 MPG trip. I'm not sure how much the delete will help (definitely a weight reduction and less of a temptation)

awcook - I am looking into a 5-spd swap down the road :) and my A/C has not worked since I got the car, so no temptation there!

I had this happen last night... Merry Christmas to me :thumbup:

http://s26.postimg.org/6866q5e6x/1224142049.jpg

Better watch out DirtyDave, I'm coming for you haha!

Oh really?!? your on!

You should strike now. The KIA is enduring repair / upgrades.

DirtyDave - The ZX2 is suffering right now! My trip averages have dropped into the upper 30's and cannot seem to do better. You're gonna have me beat till the weather warms up in NC

Way to call me out and then not update the thread!
Is my car getting 0 or ∞? Im dealing with broken wheel bearings and bloody knuckles.

ggnr