1991 Ford Escort
October 28, 2009, fuel adjusted to 40/60, because gasoline was in the tank. Check Engine warning light went on at the 4th mile, with no converter on the engine:
1991 Ford Escort VIN 3FAPP15J5MR139425 DOHC 16v, iron
block, alloy cylinder head. Bore and stroke 86,00 x 86,00 mm ,
1998 cc, compression ratio 10.3:1 Electronic fuel injection,
Ford EEC IV engine management system. Max power 150 hp at 6000
rpm, max torque 190 Nm at 4500 rpm.
We thought that the engine has throttle-body fuel injection--a simple carburetor-like device that injects fuel into the intake manifold, not into each cylinder. Willie Mundy saw in 5 seconds that the engine has fuel injection to each cylinder, not throttle-body injection. The connectors are EV1:
Alex Conger (October 30, 2009) is sending a Fuel Flex converter for this engine. Check here for later information.
Received the 4-cylinder Fuel Flex converter November 2. Installation requires connecting the converter between the engine computer and the injectors. We disconnect the injector plug, then put one plug of the converter in the female and the other plug of the converter into the male connector. We did this for each injector.
We chose to replace the spark plugs. The spark plug wires broke as we disconnected them. We found the gap was .030 and not the .052 to .054 of the vehicle. New plugs set at .o58. We replaced the spark plugs and wires.
The injectors for this Ford Escort are under the air intake and three of them are difficult to connect. Only the injector on the right side of the engine is accessible so that with ordinary care, we were able to plug the converter. The other three injectors were more difficult. Jason was the only one able to connect these three other injectors. Because we had trouble, Jason connected the most difficult injector (on the left of the engine) four times.
We had to call Gary and Alex (208-870-4332) because the converter did not work. They explained that one injector gets the voltage from the battery and that the connector with two red wires had to be on the injector getting the voltage and the other connectors could be on any injector. The converter diagram does not show that.
We connected the converter as Gary said and now the green light on the converter is on when the engine is running. The amber, red, and green lights are on when the ignition is on, but the engine is not running.
Check here later, We will report mileage and any other information here. Right now the engine runs correctly, with 40/60 ethanol/gasoline. We will increase ethanol to 100/0 eventually.
November 19, 2009, the Ford Escort started at 24 degrees Fahrenheit. It was reluctant, but it started using E98. We will put a heater on the intake manifold to see if that helps.
Frosty Ford Escort started at 24 degrees F
Installed this heater on November 19, 2009.
Heater is the Orange Square in the Middle of the Picture, held with two white wire-wraps and the adhesive on the heating pad.
May 2010: Put an ether injector on the Fore Escort to start in cold weather (less than 60 degrees Fahrenheit). All the heaters (tank, fuel line, engine) we tried can start the engine, or we can just push the ether-injector button.
Because we are in this business, we want to test ethanol-gasoline mixtures. Here are some tests.
