Author Topic: The Escort  (Read 53270 times)

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Offline SlyOneJr

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Re: The Escort
« Reply #75 on: July 20, 2010, 07:09:49 PM »
Summit does sell grit, it just has been sprayed onto a piece of paper...  :evil:

Looking great Walt, anytime you ever need any help with anything, just let me know. I still owe you for a short ride there at Maxton anyways! LOL!

Jeff
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Ninja 250 powered Lakester for ECTA meets

Offline 116ciHemi

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Re: The Escort
« Reply #76 on: September 17, 2010, 12:27:49 AM »
Well, I am up here working hard (or hardly working) at Michigan Tech, and hating every time I have to get in my soulless toaster of a Focus and drive. The lack of automotive outlet has made me decide that over winter break I am going to go bat-subaru crazy on the Escort for the three weeks I have at home. First order of business is fixing the floorpans. Then it's new shocks, cut springs, and some aero work. With any luck, I will have enough scratch to insure it again once I get off school so that I don't have to drive the Focus all summer.

My goal is simple: 104 mph. For now. Maybe the salt in 2013. 

Offline Milwaukee Midget

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Re: The Escort
« Reply #77 on: September 17, 2010, 09:50:03 AM »
I know the feeling, brother.  I'm in Wendover as I write, and despite being out-run by the racing bar stools, I can't picture myself anywhere else.

Concentrate on the studies, but don't loses site of the goal.

I'll see you on the salt, Walt.

Chris
"Problems are almost always a sign of progress."  Harold Bettes
Well, I guess we're making a LOT of progress . . .  :roll:

Offline 116ciHemi

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Re: The Escort
« Reply #78 on: November 07, 2010, 01:06:50 PM »
OK, plan be. I was getting ready to pull the trigger on $800 worth of go fast parts, and I happened to look on an Escort forum's for sale section. Bad, bad thing to do with money in your hand. So I found this:

It is a 1987 Escort GT. Which in and of itself wouldn't be that attractive to me, except that this one has been a racecar since day 1. As soon as it was purchased, it was racing SCCA showroom stock. From 1987 to 2000 it raced SCCA events, and from 2000-till now it has changed hands repeatedly, until it found its way to me. It has a roll cage, it has two racing seats in it now, thought the drivers seat will be replaced by the kirkey. At least the intake and carbed setup from mine will find it's way onto this one for a awhile. I feel that I should learn how to properly set up a carb before I switch to EFI. When I do switch to EFI I will go megasquirt to learn to do that. This one will race pretty much as is this year, but next year I will repaint it, most likely the same red and white that I already have, or in the scheme that it raced SCCA showroom stock. The bad news is that I will end up having to part out and get rid of the '82. Dad cannot be expected to store my junk, so I can only have one project car at a time. This one will be a better deal since the floorpans are solid on it and it lacks all of the structural rust that the '82 has. Though I truly hate having to get rid of the '82, especially since it will be hard to find someone to buy the shell, so it will likely get scrapped.


Offline Milwaukee Midget

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Re: The Escort
« Reply #79 on: November 07, 2010, 02:11:39 PM »
Anytime you can avoid having to deal with rust, you're miles ahead, and you couldn't build a cage for what you have in the GT.  A rust free, 23 year old Escort with a cage is a definite step in the right direction.

This one will probably put you where you want to be in less time than the '82 - you're not starting from as deep a mechanical and structural deficit.

Think of it in these terms - if the $800.00 had been put into the '82, would it be in the same shape as this one is in?  And it probably freed up some repair time on the old one to concentrate on moving this one forward. 

I think you made a wise purchase - that is, if purchasing race cars has anything to do with wisdom. :-) 
"Problems are almost always a sign of progress."  Harold Bettes
Well, I guess we're making a LOT of progress . . .  :roll:

Offline maguromic

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Re: The Escort
« Reply #80 on: November 07, 2010, 02:34:48 PM »
Make sure you check the cage requirements.  The early SCCA cages were thinner wall than whats required by the SCTA.  Since this was a showroom stock racer you can bet they didn't go with heavy wall tubing.  When I was working on a SCCA and Firehawk showroom racer  we tried to cut weight anywhere we could and even had GM making us special body parts and wiring looms.  Tony
“If you haven’t seen the future, you are not going fast enough”

Offline Seldom Seen Slim

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Re: The Escort
« Reply #81 on: November 07, 2010, 02:43:53 PM »
So, Walt -- where was this car when you found it?  Did it have to go far to get to you (is it going to Hoton or Cacillac?)?  It doesn't look rusty enough to have lived in the Copper Country for 23 years.  Whatever -- nice find.  You probably (assuming all turns out good on the inside) to be one of the lucky ones that scores a good barn find.
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Offline 116ciHemi

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Re: The Escort
« Reply #82 on: November 07, 2010, 06:51:54 PM »
The car is in Evansville, WI, just south of Madison. I drove down to see it yesterday, made a deposit on it, and I will pick it up over thanksgiving break. She's more than solid enough for my purposes. And did I mention that it has less than 30k miles on it? I will check out exactly what the cage is made of, but I was mainly happy with the fact that it was a solid cage that would be better than what I have for my sub-135 speeds at Maxton. I will end up adding at least a crossbar for the seatbelts to mount to, I am not a big fan of what it has right now for the belts, and I doubt Joe Timney will be either. The salt is the target in 2013, so I have plenty of time to get that part worked out beforehand. Right now I want to get it sorted out, running on the carb, and semi-streetable.

Offline 116ciHemi

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Re: The Escort
« Reply #83 on: November 10, 2010, 03:53:12 PM »
Some more pictures that I took while I was down there.






Offline 116ciHemi

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Re: The Escort
« Reply #84 on: November 20, 2010, 04:05:32 PM »
Got home for break last night. I went over and threw in a battery, hooked up the fuel line, cranked it over to get some fuel back into the carb, and shortly thereafter it fired right up. Right now I am in the process of deciding what is worth stripping off before it finds it way out of here. Some parts may be removed just so that I have a template to use to design better pieces.

Offline 116ciHemi

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Re: The Escort
« Reply #85 on: November 25, 2010, 01:03:45 AM »
Ok, Escort v2 is in the garage. Some study of the documentation and some educated guessing gives me kind of this timeline of the car:

It's actually a 1986 model, so between 1986 and 1989 it was probably someone's DD, where it most likely racked up most of it's 27000 miles. The Showroom stock logbook is a bit of a question mark for me, because it lists the car having a 1.6. It could be a typo since 1986 was the first full year of the 1.9, but I would expect that the owner would at least know what engine his car had, especially since he was racing it. Anyway, the SSC logbook only shows three events, all driving schools.

The ITB logbook seems to start with a different owner, but only shows record of the annual  inspection and two races. Then it was sold again, and this time it was raced pretty consistently over a season and a half. The owner appears to have let other people us the car for driving schools, and then he raced in SARRC PRO IT events up until 5-28-94, when the logbook ends. I believe that the car was involved in an accident on the track and the owner decided to get rid of the car instead of fixing it. I have several receipts from 1997 that appear to be for new parts for the left front of the car. The center section of the grille does not match the one in the logbook photo, and the graphic scheme that the car wore in the photos in no longer present.

Since then, the car has changed hands several time, with no other discernible racing or street driving. Several owner made changes, with the last working to convert it back to an ITB car, at least until he lost interest.  Now it's my turn, but I am pretty sure that I will have this on the road and on the track in May. 

The car is a nightmare to determine what it has in it. The engine is a E7EE casting, which means that it was the '87 casting design. The head is an E3EE, which means it came off of a 1.6. Most of the EFI hardware does appear to '86, but the intake tube came out of an '89 mold. There are dozens more examples of mismatched part numbers, which makes me guess that this is definitely not the engine that the car was born with.

Anyway, here is what the car looked like in 1992:



Here is today:




It's clean under the valve cover:

It came with a few extra parts:




Offline SPARKY

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Re: The Escort
« Reply #86 on: November 25, 2010, 09:56:39 AM »
How happy and excited you make a lot of us old geezers feel recounting the day---I would love to talk 442s with your pop---I had a 65 4 spd with 3.90s that I street raced with 67 factory ram air internalls--- great memories
Miss LIBERTY,  changing T.K.I.  to noise, dust, rust, BLUE HATS & hopefully not scrap!!

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Offline Milwaukee Midget

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Re: The Escort
« Reply #87 on: November 25, 2010, 10:44:20 AM »
So, was Dad aware that he was going to be losing this much garage space? :-D

Dual pattern wheels - well, that answers THAT question!

And speaking of parts, save space for a carb - it just showed up yesterday.  PM me your addy.  It will require a rebuild - and I'd start with a good soaking - it ain't pretty, but it looks functional.

Congrats on a safe trip home, and happy Thanksgiving!

Chris
"Problems are almost always a sign of progress."  Harold Bettes
Well, I guess we're making a LOT of progress . . .  :roll:

Offline 116ciHemi

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Re: The Escort
« Reply #88 on: November 25, 2010, 04:12:00 PM »
How happy and excited you make a lot of us old geezers feel recounting the day---I would love to talk 442s with your pop---I had a 65 4 spd with 3.90s that I street raced with 67 factory ram air internals--- great memories

I am sure Dad would love to talk 442s with you. From what he says, his 442 tore the street up a lot more than the track. I think that is why he tolerates my antics with land speed racing- it's better than me street racing. He's much less of a gearhead now, about 25 years ago he dropped cars and took up planes. When I got the Escort he started to regain some interest in cars, and now he pretty much always gets to my copy of Muscle Car Review before I do.

MM, I will PM you my school address. It will probably look a little odd in my dorm room, as I will probably be assembling a megasquirt 2 box and rebuilding a carb at the same time. Thanks again and please extend my thanks to your friend.

-Walt

Offline Seldom Seen Slim

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Re: The Escort
« Reply #89 on: November 25, 2010, 04:43:40 PM »
Walt, don't forget to leave yourself a few minutes to stop by for a visit on your way back to Hoton after the Thanksgiving break.  My phone number will be the same as it was before the holiday.  Call -- maybe we can find a sub sandwich or something to keep you properly nourished for the two more hours to Tech.
Jon E. Wennerberg
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