Getting to lean burn faster on Escort 1.9?

[93tracerwagon]

Now that I've found out that the 93 Escort 1.9 engine has lean burn, I'd like to see how to take better advantage of it. According to escorgo, IIRC, it takes about 10 to 15 minutes of highway driving before the factory computer allows the engine to go open loop into lean burn. It would be nice if I could get into lean burn sooner, as most of my driving is in the city, but often on city interstates.

Iv'e gotten about 47 MPG highway for long trips at 65mph, but can only get about 27 to 28 in my city/ city highway driving. I've read that lean burn immediately changes the MPG readout from 35 mpg to 45 mpg on those that have the equipment.
I spoke to a 94 2dr owner and he regularly gets 41 mpg from his trip from the western burbs of Chicago into Michigan with no modifications at 60mph speed.

Anyone have any ideas?

[BabyDiesel]

Could it be engine temperature related? It would not be very difficult to put a grill block (amount determined by user's insanity) and see if there was a change in time needed.

[93tracerwagon]

When out on the interstate for long stretches, the engine runs much cooler than in the stop and go or crawling along traffic in the city. It takes a little while for the engine to cool down to the low end of the normal range. Unfortunately its hard to do much testing because its at least 1/2 hour drive before reaching open freeway. I guess I need to get an MPGuino if I am going to find out easily.
My upper grill is completely blocked, all seams are sealed ( this equals the area of the upper grill, BTW) and about 2/3 of the lower grill is blocked. I also installed some metal to nearly seal the space between the bumper and the radiator so all the air is directed to the radiator and two additional ports to cool the alternator and battery. I found and reinstalled the factory air cooling box for the battery. The big gaps around the radiator have also been closed off with foam weather stripping to make sure what air gets through the grill goes through and not around the radiator.
BTW I am also running with auto trans and so is the 94 escort 2 dr I mentioned that regularly gets 41 mpg without any mods.
I've been watching your posts with interest, even if I have a 1.9 instead of a 2 liter. Its funny that the front end shape looks so much more aero for your year, but the cd are nearly the same as older models. Not everything is as it appears with aero.