Miss Fitts

[98ciHemi]

Re: Batman's commuter car

Well, I ran into my first real issue with the car. The throttle was sticky, so I pulled the TB to try and fix it. The return springs are shot, and the throttle shaft seals are so swollen that the throttle shaft sticks. I haven't been able to find either the seals or the springs locally, so right now I am somewhat at a loss on how to fix the problem. If I needed to drive it, I could swap over the carb if I needed to drive it, but I at least want to find out how it runs and drives now. I should at least have the thing back together tomorrow, and I will try and get the exhaust set up so I can let it run for awhile. I can also swap over my double throttle return springs, but I really would like the factory setup to work correctly. The cylinder head is a 1.6 casting, which was probably added because it flow better, but unless you know the casting numbers, you wouldn't be able to tell which it had without actually measuring the ports, hence allowing it to slip into the IT class. The engine doesn't sound like any other Escort engine I have heard, which calls into question the cam and ECU tune the car has. I have been trying to get in touch with the PO that did most of the racing in the car, unfortunately, the name is highly generic and I don't know where he was from, except that he did most of his racing at road atlanta.

[TheSilverBuick]

Re: Batman's commuter car

Yup, that looks like the engine.

Can you out a couple "extra" throttle return springs on it to "unstick" the throttle shaft temporarily until you get another TB?

[Weldangrind]

Re: Batman's commuter car

Plus, a quick shot of silicone spray lube might relax the shaft seals.

[88 Dippy]

Re: Batman's commuter car

i know with my old Grand Prix GT it liked stiff rear springs to reduce weight transfer i also ran skinnies on the back to take wieght off the rear. put the adjustable struts to a softer setting in the front and ran 22PSI air in the front with 40PSI in the rear

but i was never hard core with it. it did carck off a 12.9 @107mph though

main thing to rember you want the wieght to stay over the drive tires so revers thinking of what you would do to a RWD

[CTX-SLPR]

Re: Batman's commuter car

Some of the guys on clubgp used what are called GTO Spring Blockers (they were the plastic pieces that kept the GTO's springs as they were imported locked down) to give them a near infinite rear spring rate. I never dragged my Regal GS so I've got no tips of my own.

[BangShift McT]

Re: Batman's commuter car

I've dragged both my Regal GS and the Monte...you want the back end to keep from sinking at launch.

[98ciHemi]

Re: Batman's commuter car

OK, my search for replacement seals has been bust. Does anyone on here have an old 3.8 Mustang or Thunderbird throttle body that is in good shape?

[98ciHemi]

Re: Batman's commuter car

Got her running again. The throttle shaft is a little better, but I still need to do some work to get it squared away. I cleaned all the plugs and out some good gas in it, and after I let it run for awhile it sounded quite good.

Quite clean under the valve cover:

Someone went through the trouble of setting up a ram air intake:

The '82 will give up some of it's roof to fix this:

A little restrictive:

[98ciHemi]

Re: Batman's commuter car

I am still trying to decide what to paint it when the time comes. I am either leaning toward a nicer version of the red and white paint that the '82 wore, or trying to recreate the scheme that appeared on the car in 1992:

[98ciHemi]

Re: Batman's commuter car

This car gets better every time I wrench on it. I popped the front wheels off last night for a close up inspection. Tires look to have very low miles, but the wheels and tires must have come off of another Escort, since the rubber is definitely not something that you would find on a track, and the wheels don't match the black ones that appear in the logbook photos. I think I will end up putting the salad shooters that came with it on, mainly because I believe that they will be lighter than the OEM wheels. But what was better was behind the wheels. In the '90s Koni offered an adjustable strut for Escorts. These are hens teeth anymore, and I only know of two other cars with them. You can see the carrera camber plates, but someone also replaced the springs and perches with an adjustable coilovers. Huge heavy duty brake pads and stainless steel braided lines sweeten the deal even more.



I was hoping to get more done this week, but time got away from me. I will probably go back up North tomorrow, so the car will be on hold for another three weeks.

[Huskinhano]

Re: Batman's commuter car

Looks like Xmas came early Walt! Great score, what are your plans? You've got a ton of great parts there. Back in '84 I really wanted to get a turbo version.

[kyhunter89]

Re: Batman's commuter car

you really going to cut up the 82 t fix that rust?

sweet score with all the parts and research done...

[98ciHemi]

Re: Batman's commuter car

you really going to cut up the 82 t fix that rust?

sweet score with all the parts and research done...

Right, why have one good escort when you could have two?

If it were my yard, I would be working on both of them, but since Dad is providing storage and space for the time being, one has to go.

Yesterday I took the black car for a test drive. Kind of a disappoint experience, but it could have been the fact that I had to lift the gas pedal to get it to let up, and I was flirting with waking up the dead through the open header. I wasn't really feeling like attracting to much attention. It seemed pretty gutless, so I plan on just putting some gas in it and letting it run awhile to see if that helps clean it up at all. Then I plan on taking over to the high school autoshop and throwing it up on the hoist to see if I can figure out why it's so hard to push. My money is on the rear brakes or a goofy alignment issue. I will probably also swap over the other wheels that came with the car.

[98ciHemi]

Re: Batman's commuter car

Score! I went to a few forums trying to find some information on this car's roadracing days. I finally ran across the previous owner of the car at roadraceautox.com. This is the owner that did most of the racing, and eventually smacked it into a 944 at Road Atlanta. Hopefully he will be able to answer some more questions about the car.

[STINEY]

Re: Batman's commuter car

Sweet! The saga is growing by leaps & bounds!

Linked for you....

http://roadraceautox.com/showthread.php?t=32305