CODY004's 95 Escort GT-S

[Kris]

looking good those 7 spokes finish her off.

[CODY004WD]

I love that it's different! How is the auto tranny holding up. Keep an eye on AFRs and an ear to knock and it should be golden

So far so good, only been boosted for 10 days. I haven't heard a peep as far as knock goes, and AFRs are for new-school peeps... I have spark plugs for that. LOL I really need a wideband before I up the boost.

Damn. My name is turning into a verb lol. Nice setup

LOL thanks, I'll try not to pull too many turpro's along the way.

I was about to lol at the 1/4 mi time until I noticed it was an auto... street tires suck with boost, if you plan on being at the track a decent amount, just spring for some DRs.

What the hell are you doing running 51 psi in your tires, anyway?

You can LOL @ the ET's, they're not too impressive, I don't mind. But considering how long I've been runing the setup, the altitude, the ATX and the crap tires, I'm not unhappy either... All in due time...

51 psi = stiff sidewalls, sharper turn-in and better MPG's. so far it looks like I'm still getting 24 highway mpg, even on E85! =8.3333 cents per mile!

when you coming down to heartland park?

Maybe next summer, the future in-laws are in K.C, MO so it's on the way IF we ever visit again. My dad ran there a few years back and almost picked up a whole second... like 8.3 tenths. He can't run there anymore cause it would put him in the 10's, (unless he de-tunes) and the car will never have a cage.

[CODY004WD]

nice! i know the kit you bought, glad its working for ya! definitely love the car with the 7 spokes....mmmmm....haha

looking good those 7 spokes finish her off.

Yeah, both my 95's had a full set w/ caps. I have been trying to get a set with no luck for 6 years. Now that I have 2 full sets, my little brother snatched up a set for 100 bones at the junkyard a few weeks ago... figures. His miata will look nice with them, or his 95 Escort LX... whichever he puts them on.

I now have a set for the GT-S and a set for the 4wd so I am happy!

[bomdoutscort]

running 51 psi in the tires when your dragging is killing your times and traction.

[CODY004WD]

Yeah, I only ran them once. I'll be getting some stickier rubber before the next time out, and they wont be at 51psi. The point is that I saw some impressive gains, even with some small bugs still going on. Also I have learned the car likes to be cold. Everything gets heatsoaked easily, especially uphill under load while boosting. After a 9 hour shift at work the car is still warm, but a bag of ice on the blower, and a water mister to spray the radiator should keep it cool between runs.

It's been fun so far, and I'm sure I'll learn a lot more about supercharged 4 cyl performance in the process of this car. I know the gains are not as substantial as a turbo because of parasitic loss, but the way the car performs is also very linear. It's a whole lot different than a turbo car, it's weird to explain. Almost more like an NA V6 that has good low end torque, but pulls clean to 7300. It reminds me in a way of my v6 probe, and is about the same ETs, but with a slower 60' and like 5mph higher trap speed.

[tireboy]

just out sheer morbid curiosity .. whats the name of the sc kit???? im guessing the blower came out of a pontiac boneville ssei ???

[CODY004WD]

It's home made... and yes the SC is from a 3.8 pontiac.

[CODY004WD]

Well something broke! Cyl 3 isn't happy. I dont know If I blew the head gasket, or broke a ring land, but something is screwed up. The crank case is pressurized to the point that oil is seeping out of the valve cover gasket, oil cap, and distributor area. If it was just the gasket I wouldn't be worried. When I pulled the plugs, they all looked okay, but 3 had completely closed it's gap. I re-gapped it, and took it for a quick spin. The car died, and would only start after like 10 mins of sitting. The gap on 3 is closed fully again... WTF. My guess is ring land, but all 4 pistons looked okay when I shined my flashlight in the plug holes. No pitting, dimpling, metal chunks, or anything else suspicious... I am stumped. Ideas?

[CODY004WD]

Well, just an update... I pulled the motor, and swapped in my spare bottom end a few weeks ago. The motor that was in the car melted the ring-lands on cyl 1-4. (#3 broke in one place, and melted in another, explains that plug gap getting effed. All damage was on intake side of the pistons) I think I found the culprit... The vac. line going from the intake mani to the FMU wasn't plugged into the manifold. I don't know if I forgot to plug it in when I installed everything, or if it popped off under boost, but anyway, I think I went lean, or was always lean, and melted the pistons. (I clamped the vac line on this time)

When I finished swapping the motor, the atx started to slip badly, and progressively got to the point that it took roughly 5800RPM to go 60MPH. That in turn overheated the car on the way home from work the other night, and it vapor-locked. Still haven't gotten it running, but I've been busy...

Time for a 5-speed swap... Only parts I need are g-series axles, an upgraded clutch, and a clutch line (probably braided since It will be the best time to do so...) I also have a spare head if I warped mine when it overheated...

Oh and I drove the car to my Dad's shop, where I swapped out the motor... with 4 broken pistons, and it still pulled pretty hard. I wonder how many were melted when I was at the track?

And finally, I wont have time to fix this car for a few weeks, because I snapped a rod in my Tracer wagon (I have terrible luck lately, the first motor I blew in 7 years was the supercharged car, within a month I blew my second, in a stock car at 65mph cruising on the highway, psh) Anyway, I am going to swap a 2.0 liter SPI into the Tracer, before I fix the Escort. My little brother and I swapped one into his 95 Escort LX a few months ago and it was super simple.

[Lex]

Make sure you have a wideband in there this time around.

[atomicEGT]

How noticeable is the blower whine on this thing? I picked up a series II this morning at the junkyard to put in something with a BP (I have no idea what yet) and I want it to be as obnoxious as possible :D

Also, if you don't mind my asking, how is the tensioner set up?

[psiturbo]

Isnt 16's the trap speed of stock Scorts?

What are your wideband readings? Nevermind...

[ryan1]

post more info about the S/C set-up, and pics if possable, is this your set-up or that one that was for sale on here a while back?

[atomicEGT]

It's turbo239 or whatever's old setup, IIRC.

[CODY004WD]

Sorry for the delay in response. Didn't notice that anyone had revived this.

How noticeable is the blower whine on this thing? I picked up a series II this morning at the junkyard to put in something with a BP (I have no idea what yet) and I want it to be as obnoxious as possible :D

Also, if you don't mind my asking, how is the tensioner set up?

Okay, the whine is present, but not what I had hoped for. I found an informative article for modifying the M62 for maximum performance a while back, I'll have to find it again. But basically, you can do some portwork on the inlet side, and it will help a little if you have a throttle body large enough to make it worthwhile. This supposedly increases the whine a bit, as the factory design of the stock blower was compromised to limit noise. But the main work you can do is some knife edging on the outlet side to smooth out the flow, along with very minor porting in certain sections of the outlet, too much is very bad though. This will also increase whine, but the main reason for the lack of whine is two small kidney bean shaped ports on the outlet side. Their sole purpose is to quiet the supercharger significantly, which hurts performance as well. I guess you are supposed to tig-weld some aluminum in those ports, which will smooth out the outlet path, reduce turbulence, and mostly... just let it scream. I heard sound clips of an m62 with all these modifications done, and it is crazy, the before and after difference. When I get ready to swap this setup into my protege (with MS and a wideband this time) I will be using a 5.0 cobra throttle body, doing the port work, as well as tig'n the kidneys!

Isnt 16's the trap speed of stock Scorts?

What are your wideband readings? Nevermind...

Oh my trap speed was actually in the mid to high 80's IIRC, I could trap higher than 16mph on a bmx bike.

16 was actually the Elapsed time, I guess you mis-read.

This car actually ran a 19.something stock. It's Automatic. And it was the middle of summer, during the day. And mostly, mile high altitude really hurts performance. The day I ran the 19's, the corrected altitude was something like 9300'. That's 1.7613 miles above sea-level, air density is pretty much **** on days like that. I ran a 17.something in my stock 5-speed GT, which is about right at this altitude. My Automatic GT ran faster than a 5-speed would, so it may seem like a funny number for a boosted car, but in all honesty, I wasn't disappointed. I picked up 3+ full seconds for less than $700, so to answer your question... No, Escorts don't trap at 16mph, and mine doesn't either.

Oh and I think I maybe wrote somewhere in this thread like maybe 2 or 3 times, I didn't use a wideband, and I payed the price... I've melted 4 pistons thus far... luckily they were all in the same block.

post more info about the S/C set-up, and pics if possable, is this your set-up or that one that was for sale on here a while back?

It's turbo239 or whatever's old setup, IIRC.

Yeah, it's turbo239's old setup... I had to modify it a bit to work, but he gets the credit for the hard parts.

I'll take some pics of it (and the tensioners for you atomic) when I start pulling the car apart. I've decided to take this car back to stock and do a 5-speed swap since the auto is busted. I am then going to sell it to my brother for a couple hundred bucks.

I am keeping the Protege, because I couldn't live to not see it finished. I'd much rather keep it than this turd.

I really love my wagon, and I cant afford to keep 3 project cars. After evaluating the situation, the green GT has to go, and I'll do supercharged BP v2.0 in the Protege. I have learned quite a bit about this setup in my trial and error, and now I am going to do it the right way.