Project Green Lightning Killed, You might ask yourself, "why the fuck did he stop this project??!" Actually i had several reasons to kill this project car, first off was time.  I just did not have the time to do this project any longer.  I know that shoulds like Bullshit, but after getting Married (yea yea yea i know...) buying a house, and having 2 other cars to work on and maintain, just oil changed became a scheduling nightmare, let alone engine swaps. Another reason Y i killed this project is the magnitude and detail of this swap, it turns out that a pair of Escort owners tryed the swap and they ran into a problem with fuel delivery, turns out that the 1997 is the only fuel rail that can be used with the 2.0L engine and the 1.9L ECU.  I know that does not sound like a big problem, just buy a 97' rail...but it was a very large problem with these 2 particular owners............................... bottom line, WILL IT WORK ??? answer... YES ! but it will take work, FUCK its a mother fucking engine swap we are talking about, its not like changing tire. what U will need for the swap... 1) Time, an average of a solid weekend (8hour days) has been seen 2) A 1997 fuel rail 3) a 2.0L engine 4) throttle body from the 1.9L 5) Idle Contriol Module from the 1.9L 6) wiring harness from the 1.9L 7) porting the butterflies in the SPI engine 8) oh yea, and Time... Sorry guys out there that were following the swap... trust me when i say i feel like shit droping this project, it would have been a nice little sleeper..

Stock Performance: 1.9L SOHC 8-Valve CVH 4 Cyl SAE Net HP 88 @ 4400 Rpm SAE Net TQ 104 @ 3700 Rpm Test Run 1 Atco Raceway, Atco NJ Ambient Temp 88 Degrees Reaction Time: .822 60 Ft Time: 2.99 Sec 1/4 Mile Time 19.5 Sec Trap Speed : 71 Mph Mods: None

This car is your typical Escort/Tracer.  Auto Tranny, PS, PB, all the things that make up your average compact car. Tired of having people laugh and joke around that an Escort, or in this case a Tracer, will never be anything but a fuel efficient, grocery getter, I decided to develop "Project Green Lightning". Over the next few months, I will be updating the site with the "Phases" of the project. You might ask why do work on a LX, SOHC engine?  Well lets just say Stay tuned ! As with any build up, proper engine tune is essential.  With this in mind the Tracer went into the shop for a new Fuel Filter, Plugs, Wires, PCV Valve, ect.  With the car in good tune, the foundation is set for the Phase 1.

One of the first modifications to change the way your Escort / Tracer will respond to speed is to upgrade the stock suspension.  Since this project will not be a "drag car" I made sure this car will handle great.  The stock suspension was old and was showing signs of failing.  The stock front struts were unable to handle bumps, and the rear suspension had almost zero dampening.  The stock struts were obviously dead.  Im not surprised because the car has almost 120,000 miles on the odometer. Instead of going for a radical springs / strut setup, i opted for a ZX2 S/R suspension setup.  I went with the SR setup for a few reasons, 1 being the quality of parts (Eibach and Tokico).  Another reason why i went for the S/R setup is ride quality.  The setup gives me a 1" progressive rate spring that is matched to the Tokico Strut.  The install went without a hitch.  All the parts are OEM quality, and mount exactly to where they are supposed to.  No modifications were needed, and the install took just under 2 hours from start to finish.

The springs and struts make this car feel completely different.  There is a quick steering response, almost zero "Float" on the highway, and superior turning ability (even on all season tires)  The ride is stiff when over slow transitions like speed bumps and road surface changes.  Quick transitions are dampened incredibly well, with a fast rebound. Total price for the parts were just over $400.  This price did vary from dealer to dealer, with the best price at Downs Ford, in Toms River NJ.

My biggest gripe with the Escort / Tracer was the poor visibility caused by the inferior headlights.  The headlights seem to create a scattered, yellow light on the road surface.  Many times I ran over road debris, and one time ran off the road because of a complete lack of visibility.  That all changed when i installed a set of PIAA Drivinglights.  The lights, 004x, were the single biggest change done to increase the visibility of this car. Since stock Tracers have no provisions for foglights, this install was a bit harder than average.  I used a air powered grinder to cut out 5 "Slats" from the bumper area.  The kit was complete with wiring harness, relay and switch.  Great Product. To assist the new Drivinglights, I installed a pair or "Ultra White" head light bulbs. The bulbs have a blue colored glass, not like other models that have a coating on the bulb surface. To complete the new look, I installed a set of clear corners.  The clears are from a place in California that actually has them in stock!

Well what would a project car be with some engine mods!  but here is where project green lightning becomes different.  Rather than just bolting in a few parts I have decided to go a bit over the edge.  Over the next several weeks I will be installing a new MOTOR.  YES, that's rite, we are going Hybrid! I picked up a 2.0L CVH engine out of a 1998 donor car.  Why a 2.0L SOHC you might ask, here's why: 1) Ease of Installation: Converting to a 2.0L CVH will allow me to keep the factory wiring harness, injectors, and sensors. 2) Transmission: only a CVH engine will mount to the tranny correctly, if i went to a DOHC Ztech, or a 1.8L Mazda engine, the tranny would have to be swapped too, and that's just nuts! 3) Cost: CVH engines are everywhere, their high production keeps their price low. 4) Power: considering that the Ztech engine has 127 Ft/Lbs of TQ and the CVH engine has 124 Ft/Lbs, there is almost no difference in driveablity since this car is an auto.   Stock 1.9L Power 1.9L SOHC 8-Valve CVH 4 Cyl SAE Net HP 88 @ 4400 Rpm SAE Net TQ 104 @ 3700 Rpm Stock 2.0L power 2.0L SOHC 8-Valve CVH 4Cyl SAE Net HP 110 @ 5000 RPM SAE Net Tq 124 @ 3650 PRM

Yea, Im a bit nuts but this is how I look at it, id need to put a turbo on the 1.9L and run it at about 4-5 psi to get 30 more HP.  A turbo kit must be totally custom designed and will cost at least $1,000.  After about 6 Psi on a stock 1.9L you will start getting into a dangerous area, pre ignition and fuel delivery will start to be problems, but you should be around 150 TQ and 150 hp. I considered this, and feel that the 2.0L will be a safer alternative.  But remember that you can always turn to forced induction on a 2.0L !! Ford basically increased the stroke on the 1.9L to create a 2.0L engine.  The block is exactly the same, the head is just slightly different on the intake side because of the Split Port Induction on the 2.0L (more about that later) The Exhaust manifolds are identical, down to the casting marks on the sides of the runners.  This opens up the opportunity to have a header from the 1.9L installed on the 2.0L.  Using a header with a "Under-the-car" catalyst converter will free up quite a few HP.  Ford engineers and other tuners say that a gain of 8-12 Hp is common, especially on higher revving engines.  Since the max HP on the 2.0L is at 5000 RPM, I will estimate about 8 Hp.

I was looking at getting a cam regrind from Crower Cams.  They advertise custom cam regrinds for just $70!!!  After I called the tech. guy and talked to him for 1/2 hour about cam profiles and specs I went over to the garage to unbolt the cam.  Once i took off the rocker arms i pulled out the lifters.  Well after i grabbed just one lifter I noticed that the 2.0L engine uses roller lifters! You can only have a cam regrind if you have solid lifters.  A roller cam does not have the necessary lobe size to regrind.  Unfortunately you can NOT get a regrind with this setup.  This actually is a blessing in disguise thought.  A roller cam usually has a BIG lift.  A large lift will allow much more air to fill the combustion chamber. More air = more power.  The cam profile that the 2.0L is good until 5000 RPM, after that power slowly drops off until the fuel cut off at 5800 rpm. After this discovery I decided to look elsewhere for power since the cam was not a problem

Well here we are at Phase 3.  The project has been coming along quite well so far.  I managed to clean up the engine quite well since the last update.  I got a few cans of 2+2 Gum Cutter and sprayed down the carbon coated areas of the head, intake manifold and split ports.  Eliminating the carbon will make the engine more efficient and run a bit cleaner, but that's about it.  While cleaning the engine i stumbled upon the split port section of the intake manifold.  I noticed that ford is using a "Tumbler Butterfly" system.  This system is supposed to help out emissions and low end TQ.  I saw it as a great opportunity to free up some HP! The top picture is the stock split port system.  It consists of a small opening which houses the fuel injector, and a butterfly attached to an axle.  Reading through the Chilton manual for the 2.0L, I discovered that these butterflies will remained closed until 1/2 throttle!  After 1/2 throttle a servo gradually opens the butterflies according to throttle position.  I imagine that this is only here to help out fuel economy and emissions.  Since I really don't care about both of these issues, I decided to take out a grinding wheel and start cutting.

The process of grinding out the butterflies is a lot easier in theory than in real life.  I took a grinding wheel attachment on my Dremel tool and ground off the screws that hold in the butterfly.  The entire process took about 30 minutes for each port.  I had to pause several times because the tool would get very hot, adding to the job's time. Once I had all 4 ports clear of the butterflies I noticed that the axle was another restriction.  Rather than remove the axle, which would cause vacuume leaks in the head, I modified the position of the axle to create as little restriction to incoming air as possible.

After about 6 hours of work I was finally done.  The head effectively has more than double the airflow per cylinder.  I would estimate that the midrange power will be most increased from this mod.  Driveablity will have the biggest improvement because the intake ports are now unrestricted and slightly larger than the FOT (Full Open Throttle) position.  I would estimate about a 2-3 Max HP increase, with as much as a 5-7 HP bump in the midrange or the power band. More pics are available at the bottom of the page.  With this mod being complete, the engine is now buttoned up and ready to be installed! Check back soon for the "INSTALL"