WEll i am a noob at everything car related (but i know more than my dad, which in the father son situation is annoying because he is supposed to help me -_-) so i have looked to the internet and all those friendly car modders out there that know what tehy are doin (i would hope )

SO last year i got her for free, a red ford escort with a huge bump in the back (knocked that out) and she drives fine, however its not fast enough for me, as a teenage petrol head . So i want to learn how to tune up my engine and get some cheap parts that will give me some good performance.

So far all i have done is clean my air filter and up the air intake to my Weber Carb (stock) which has made it more fuel effeciant and louder :P. and i sprayed my air filter silver (becuase i could)

But i want to do as much as i can, liek totaly clean the engine, make it all shiney again, make it run faster and cleaner, make it louder so it sounds liek a proper car. and eventually i want to modify the outside of the car.

So what im asking is for some help, i want to know what i can and cant do, where to buy things from and and helpful guides specificly for my car.

any help will do i just need a project... I have allready filled it with 21 speakers :P (i was really bored and had lots of old speakers in my loft from CD palyers, Computer speakers, radios ect...)

So yeh, help if you can, pictures of engine, car and speakers after the break ttu later.

Edit1* i have also had an idea, can i use a Plenum like these (http://www.knfilters.com/Racing/plenum.htm) to add a air filter, perhaps one of those performance ones with the vacuum fans in them. will this give my car more power or just 'splode it??

 

pictures for your interest

oh and my car is an K reg, 3 door, 1300cc, ford escort mark V (i think) with a HCS (high compression Swirl) carb engine (manual choke)

 

its not a cvh mate in the pics

 

yuh just realized its HCS (high compression swirl) better change that

 

i also wanted to know

when it comes down to carburetors i know mines a 28/32 but i dont know what that actually means, and can i get a different carb or does it have to be another 28/32 carb?

 

your best bet engine wise (i would think, and this is what id do)

completely clean the engine bay - you can get a scrub on cleaner for this, just make sure the electrics are covered up

then you can get a thing from powercross (i think its called) that is said to clean the engine, you put it on the airfilter and it helps clean the carbon build up out

then id change all the fluids in it and replace anything that needs doing

should be easy enough to do and not tooooo expensive

should gain you some reliablity if not power increases

 

btw that install is quite cool actually i proper love it

maybe you could take some weight out of the car to make it faster, and try getting a back box from a turbo car or something as a simple exhaust upgrade, focus rs for example

and for the carbs, i think 28 is the internal mm size and 32 the external.
maybe a sierra or something with a bigger 32/36 would fit!?

 

ive been reading up on some engine tuning sites and they say i could add an additional Weber 28/32 TLDM carb and run both at the same time, i actually have a old carb that is off a fiesta, its exactly the same (i got it for free because i thought mine was broken) so i was wondering how i would go about adding another carb??

link to where i saw the engine tuning http://www.specialisedengines.co.uk/hcs/dir6.html

 

i have so far concluded that i could use lots of additives and cleaners on my engine (which i think i will do this week) then try some sort of twin carb conversion if i can find the right parts, i know its possible but i guess i will need a new inlet manifold or something, either that or get a larger carb and hope that it fits :S.

I can also get a new air cleaner for my carb, possibly a plenum so i can add a cold air induction kit from k and n or piper-cross.

Then i could add some engine bay styling and make sure all my engine parts are cleaned and shiny using some chrome spray paint i have. (you spray it on and then stick it in the oven for an hour, works like a charm )

anyone else got any new ideas, possibly cheaper ones.

also in about a year i will be selling this car with all speakers in it. and obviously a upgraded engine. so ill be back here then to sell it, but im just seeing if theirs any interest in it at all.

get back to me asap guys, Cheers
Loz

 

I would not spend time increasing engine performance as the performance to pound ratio is pretty poor unfortunatley. If you got rid of all the ice in the boot you will feel the benefit due to less weight I woul dhave thought. I would look into a cvh conversion at some point perhaps if you are going to keep the car. It look clean though and is a good starting point for a great project.

 

at the end of your black intake thingy (i assume thats what it is) maybe you could put a funnel type thing on to try and get a little bit more air in?

twin carbs sounds a lot of work to me mate, difficult to get a manifold and possibly hard to fabricate and get them to run.

maybe you could polish the inside of the manifold so the gases flow better

and the head if your feeling adventurous, or if you cant drive the car (got the car before you passed your test!?)

then some form of heat wrap on the manifold and other hot areas (the rest of the exhaust for example.

then id look at lowering kits (or chop your springs) not dangerous before anyone says, my dads done it on his motorbike and handles better now

good tyres and good brakes also

i realy love projects like this, cant wait to get my car

 

i think yo ucould take some ideas off of the website and do a simular job yourself, such as the cleaning and a few other bits they mention

 

yeh i might try that, clean the manifold and heads, so ill look around for some guides.

and i cant afford an engine swap and as im close to my gap year i need all my money for my wanderings abroad.

So ill clean the heads and manifold, get a new air filter (possibly after christmas (with christmass money) get some of that heat wrap and then mabey a nice back box for the exhaust to give me a bit more HP. btw im not using this car for racing, i just like doing up cars for projects

 

how hard was it mate for you to wire up those speakers?

and also how is it done?

got a few old cd players and would like to know for when i get my car

 

cheapest ..... take the engine out stick a 2.0 zetec in there lol , or even a 1.8 zetec from the escort ,

 

Adding K&N goodies does little other than gain 1BHP and make some noise on the HCS engine.

To make significantly more power you'd need to go nuts porting the head, swap the cam for a race spec one and add twin carbs.... or go forced induction. All very expensive....

On a teenage budget the best way to go faster is strip the car to within an inch of it's life.
Complete interior out, sound deadedning scraped off, interior frameworks cut out of every opening panel, plastic windows etc etc....

Go the whole hog with either route and your 60BHP will be more like 100BHP, but one way will be a LOT cheaper...

 

basically run some wires from your CD player to the back of your car (buy lots of speaker wire from your local diy shop) and just use the connections in the back of your cd player to link up the speakers in the back.

What i have made is about 4 stages on from that, i started with a basic few holes cut into a parcel shelf, then i got sum more speakers so made a false floor and cut the holes in there to put them in, then i got the 2 big ones, so i added 2 more side areas for that, then i added the amp to power them (600w, got a big red computer fan behind it) that comes with its own wiring instructions so thats easy to do. and but most of it is just general knowledge. BUT before you do anything at all, get a pencil a ruler and a tape measure and measure everything out, brainstorm some ideas and then put them all together. and then buy the materials you need and get to work ) oh and as a footnote, you see the hinged trapdoor... thats for my rollerskates and beneath that is my 5th wheel (spare) make sure you can still get at that whatever you do, because if you pop a tyre you cant put a 10 inch sub on there to try and roll home, know what i mean!

 

cheers mate sounds pretty easy to do, (famous last words)

 

and in reply to all engine swap ideas, i am on the teenage budget, so i am currently raiding scrap yards and seachign ebay for stuff to stick onto my car. and i am learning as i go, this is more for the experiance than the speed of the car. So i am going to do it the hard way, im going to clean my manifolds, heads and carb, tune them all to race stock spec.

and after that i might add some air filters from k and n and whatnot, more for the look than the acctual benifit.

but when i get out of uni and hopfully in a nice good earning job, ill be back on here converting the latest cozzy to rally spec

but till then its all a steep learning curv on this 1.3 HCS escort

 

could clean the rest of the exhaust too i surpose, and any part of the engine.

i cant wait to get a project like this, realy like the lower budget builds, its all about the ideas and creativeness

 

yuh i no and lots of cleaning

 

whats the rear end damage like then?, and we deffo need more pics of it

 

lol well it was a huge hole in the boot, and there was some damage to the back light, but a new light was fitted and the boot was bashed out. but i bashed it even more so it looks okay ish now. but its too dark to get more pics atm. but ill grab some more tomorrow so i can show you the wiring and everything i would have done, and then Saturday ill show you my nice clean headers and whatnot

 

bit like mine started out this, mines got the 1.4 efi cvh engine in, 75hp
my engine was completely nakered, so i rebuild the whole thing, every bit was cleaned ect ect, new everything,

there is no point in modifying a 1.3 engine in my opinion, the gain isnt going to be noticable really, just put up with the 1.3 for a year then change the engine next year when insurance is calmer,


as i cant change the engine in mine i did all the body kit ect looks first then everything is ready and capable of taking the power of a turbo cvh one day

here some pics maybe give you some inspiration or ideas

 

ok mate they better be ready by saturday lol

and take some pics like part way through too, before and after like

 

j1mbo nice car mate come along way how much did them brakes cost tho looks good

 

Jimbo that looks sweet, wish i cud afford a kit and some rims like that, i really liked some weller ones (drift spec) wit ha red rim edge. but they are really rare . but yuh before and after pics will be coming up.

oh and where did you get the light mods and the front black grill piece (as you can see mines just an open hole atm lol)

 

yeah bloody long way lol, they were enough

front lights and grill are escort cosworth ones and are carbon fibre


also you would be soooo surprised at the cost of a body kit mine cost me no more than 100Ł for bumper sideskirts and rear bumper !!

just gotta keep an eye out on ebay, buy them already in your colour so you dont have to spray !

laguna splitter from the scrapyard and your lil escort looks sooo much better