greetings from the Great American Desert
 

I hail from the corner of Kansas, Oklahoma, and Colorado. Flat, sparsely populated, and d### far from any big city. Nearest WalMart is 45 miles.

Just replaced my last project with a '96 Ford Escort LX. 1.9 engine w/ manual transmission. The last second gen Escort I owned was a '91 Pony model, got 39-41 mpg highway regularly. Where I live, almost all driving is two lane 65mpg highways, so this project is meant to be an efficient, reasonably comfortable long-trip highway traveler. Which means a/c is mandatory, but p/s and electric windows are completely unnecessary.

I took a 700 mile trip this past week, one leg was 39.7mpg(!) but that was probably tailwind induced. Average mpg was 37, with nothing done but oil change, new plugs, new filter.

Looking at the following basic mods:
lowering car
front air dam
Seal front fascia (BIG gaps between headlights and bumper/grill)
Wheel discs on taller wheels/tires (175/65-14 to 185/65-15 Goodyear Assurance Fuel Max) (If I put 2" shorter springs on I'll still be 1.25" closer to the ground)
MegaSquirt engine control w/wideband O2 (this will be my third MegaSquirt, first time playing with wideband)
Advance cam timing to lower power band
de-power power steering
underdrive pulley for alternator, a/c, since almost all miles will be at 65-70mph.
I'm gonna be happy with 45mpg, and do backflips if I can approach 50mpg regularly.

I like what I see here. You guys know a lot about what I'm gonna be looking for. Happy to be here!

Pleased to meet ya. Fellow Ford driver here.

Seems like you already have some experience here (i.e. more than mine); looking forward to seeing how applying that works out for you.

Welcome to the site.

Looks like you have some plans. I look forward to seeing pics of the progress. :)