Project: 2001 Focus Wagon 5 speed
 

Picked up a car to mess with for my first ever project focusing on 'economy'.

I've had I think 9 Escort ZX2s with the Zetec engine (modding, parting out, etc) and figured I'd give the Focus a try a few years later.

Just purchased it Jan 4th from a service center. It was the owners sons car and had a 3/4" thick folder of maintenance records since 2007. It now has 140k miles.

My first recorded drive of 107 miles after filling up got me 29.34mpg as a base number about 50/50 back road/highway driving. This was with the front brakes dragging and driver side dragging enough that it pulled left. Tires were also at 30psi front and 28.5 rear. There was also oil on spark plug tops from leaking valve cover.

Could hear the brakes dragging as well and would slow between shifts.

Now coasts amazing and will roll on the slightest grade.


'Maintenance' & MPG Mods:
40psi F, 35psi R
Windshield wipers
Rear wiper
Hatch Shocks
Motorcraft Dbl Platinum Plugs gapped to .060 (up from .050)
Foam under hood to fill gap to fenders
Removed roof rack cross bars
Pulled front calipers and polished the pins, cleaned pin seals, and greased.


Ordered:
Timing belt
Coolant hoses
2.25" 45* mandrel bends
Vibrant res to replace 'lunchbox' rear muffler
2.25" in to 2.5" outlet tip


Coming Soon:
Fix slight steering leak near rack
New steering fluid
Check toe settings and adjust if needed to 0 rear and only slight toe-in front.
Belly pan(s)
Push out and brace front bumper to match wheels on the bottom
Side skirts
Front air damn/extension on bottom of bumper
Front lower grill blocked on outer thirds with ABS
Upper grill blocked with Lexan
Wiper cowl/hood extension?
Remove intake snorkel that pulls air at hood front so it pulls air from engine bay?
Foam front of hood to grill gap.
Remove roof rack main rails and cap off roof holes

http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/c...pshu4xdzoo.jpg

http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/c...pscdhtgylr.jpg

http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/c...ps2in9zkxm.jpg

http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/c...psdjggkxiv.jpg

Installed some mirrors I purchased like 2 years ago for my brother. He was to put them on his old fenders on an old BMW his has before we replaced the fenders for body/paint work as a joke...

Dug them out and pulled the inner trim and self tapped them on. I'll be driving the next week or 2 with both factory and these on till I get use to them, then I have to get my car inspected. After inspection I'll be removing the factory ones and double siding some ABS plastic on the outside to cover the factory mount holes.

http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/c...pshxojccyz.jpg

http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/c...psh139kjuh.jpg

http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/c...ps6ryes7oq.jpg

Looks way too clean for a 15 year old PA car.

Any rot underneath? The rear suspension on those things has a habit of rotting out.

Suprisingly clean underneath. The rear suspension parts do have some surface rust but nothing crazy, mostly underside and trailing sides. The rear coils are still black except for right on bottom where they sit on arm they're peeling

The pinch/weld seams on the res/mufflers are rusting/seperating but not leaking yet.

I plan on jacking it up in a week or so and wire brushing it all and spraying a converter/sealant on it then monotoring it for years to come.

Rockers are solid.

Looks familiar, I'll be interested to see how your Zetec performance compares to my and AK-focus' Duratecs. These cars just seem to be geared horribly low, limiting MPG potential in opinion. The gap under the front of the hood is HUGE on the mk1.5, I put foam tape down and it didn't seal out anything, need to get bigger stuff eventually. I hope your mk1 has a better gap there that will seal easier. Your front bumper cover is more "lip friendly" than mine with a more straight, square design compared to my "wrap under" look of the mk1.5 bumper.

I miss my 2000 Focus because it was fun to drive. The best I ever did was 38 mpg doing as many hypermile tricks as I could (but no mods). The only significant maintenance I ever did was replacing a motor mount because it vibrated quite a bit (which was easy). GL

Last tank 32.8 mpg cruise at 70.

Added a lower blockoff from 1/8" ABS and a Mach 1 lip. Also removed muffler and added a 2.25" straight through.

Still need the factory radiator shrouds as mine are busted. Also picked up spare mirrors for the bases to make ABS delete panels. Then a near full belly pan.

http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/c...psdchzxtt9.jpg

Just did an A-B-A trip to a junkyard, 173 indicated miles, actual was 177 so my odometer/spedo is on somewhat close (2.3%).

Indicated mpg: 34.16
Actual mpg: 34.95

Not to far off.

That's a nice looking grill block. Do you have pics of the build process?

I took the factory grill out and laid it on the back side and traced out with a sharpie. Then I cut it out leaving the line and 1/16" or so. Then just used a red scotch roloc and kept shaving down to fit. Zip ties are throgh grill supports that also line up with vertival reinforcements in bumper openings.

Similar process to interiors I've done in street rods so it was quick/easy haha.

where'd ya get the 1/8" abs?

4x8 sheets from Total Plastics Inc in Harrisburg PA. A buddy owns a sign shop and gets his chloroplast from there. I'll probably be buying some black chloroplast or the aluminum foam core in the future for a belly pan.

I use the 1/8" for front door panels in vehicles.

Gonna need to see some hot rods pics now that you mention them.

Welcome to the site! Good luck with your project! :)

You will soon have as many modifications as I have in three years!

Which of us needs to do something about that? :D

Edit: Power steering deletion? That is one of the few modifications that I have made, that and an all-in-one grill block and air dam. It is supposed to give a minor economy improvement, as well as fitness. Win-win, right? :)

It might be easier than fixing your power steering leak. My first car leaked power steering fluid. It ate through the alternator belt, the rack and pinion, and who knows what else, but it obviously was not slight! :)

Edit2: What about smooth wheel covers? Many members just zip tie circles of coroplast or screw on pizza pans. I wanted to be different, so I mounted aluminum pizza separators, but I did not like my mounting method. Here is a good one: http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...orn-14306.html

Or if you have hubcaps: http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...vex-14958.html

Any updates?

Is that the factory air dam?

I only see one fuel log entry!

Next pay I'm going to get my tires rebalanced with sticy weights to remove the clamp style weights, then install pizza pan wheel covers

Also going to look into a scan gauge or something similar to monitor coolant temp and stuff.

Just updated fuel log. Missed a week tho.

Just oredered an UltraGauge. Thinking about installing a orange LED into low fan side and red LED in high fan side on the cluster surround. I know that I can set an alarm on the UltraGauge for temp and stuff tho. I know low fan will come on after I get off the highway when it's over 55° out with the full lower grill block (I do have 2 2" holes in the center now).

I'm off this Sunday through Thursday so maintenance is planned. Timing belt, new factory radiator ducting from bumper to rad so the air that does make it theough blockoff holes goes through the rad, and an oil/filter change.

If you do this, please document the project. I've thought of doing the same, but (surprise, surprise) haven't gotten around to it.

Removed the complete roof rack yesterday. It was attached to the roof skin with rivnuts. I drilled them out then drilled the hexagon roof holes slightly larger to 1/2". Then I got 1/2" plastic caps from the hardware store and siliconed under the cap and snapped them in.

http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/c...psnjaba0qm.jpg

Picked up a self tap screw in my front left tire. Had it internally plugged/patched 2 weeks ago.

Was browsing DiscountTireDirect yesterday and noticed they have nice rebates right now. I ordered 4 Bridgestone Ecopia EP422 Plus in 185/65r15 size. Factory size is 195/60r15 so they're .3" taller then stock and narrower for less frontal dimension. $60 rebate for using their credit card and $100 prepaid Visa rebate for purchasing 4. End total should be $204 after rebates.


2 weeks ago I ordered adjustable rear upper control arm to fix the camber issue the early Wagons have and I also ordered H&R Sport springs for it to lower it also and they finally came Friday. I'll be fully replacing rear drumbs/shoes/spring kit along with putting the control arms and springs on in the next 2 weeks or so.

Hoping my current tires last till sometime in fall because they have plenty of tread left, just decided with the rebates DTD currently has, it'd be best to have replacements ready if the plug/patch is to fail.

Some maintenance and mods. Need to do an alignment and then the pizzapans can finally go on. Still need to buy material to make the smooth bellypan.


New drums, shoes, and brake spring kits.

http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/c...pskcsfh3hf.jpg


H&R springs installed. Also have 'eBay' adjustable camber arms for the rear. Need to align the rear as there is toe from lowering and the camber is even worse.

http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/c...psphzrb0ve.jpg

http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/c...psqsz5uv4f.jpg

Finally put the camber arms on a few nights ago and dialed out a lot of the camber. I'm still waiting on front strut camber/caster plates to dial out some of the camber, then going to adjust the toe to 1/8" total in on the front and .1/4" total in on the rear per specs. That's towards the low side for the rear.

Also going over to a buddies place that does signs/graphics to print out some wheel decals that I'm going to apply to the bottom of the pizza pans I have. I don't want just plain looking aluminum pizza pans over my wheels.

http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/c...psbadgxhja.jpg


Pic of the wheels I used as a guide and sample for the pattern. My 'decals' are 20 spoke instead of the below which are 19... 20 divides into 360 a lot easier for patterning in Photoshop.

http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/c...psz6tqytrw.jpg

Went to my buddies shop (Baked Goods Creative in Elizabethtown Pa) and had the decals made for my pizza pan hub caps.

http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/c...ps12i56zlk.jpg


http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/c...pst2ih5lqj.jpg

Brilliant! We could revive lots of patterns that way. You could even reproduce an OEM wheel "look" to put over the pans. Pans are good too, because flat and no compound curves for the sticker.