Alez
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| posted on 27/1/05 at 08:32 AM |
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Increasing Escort TD 90 bhp engine performance?
Hi All!
This car simply does not go!  It's a '95+ Escort with a 90 bhp turbo diesel engine. Are there any safe mods I could attempt for a
maximum of say 800 pounds?? My target would be say 110 bhp or less, but I have no clue at all if diesels can be chipped and stuff like that.
I've also heard that a good exhaust makes quite a lot of difference performance-wise.
Note this is a daily driver which covers quite a lot of miles per year, so it MUST be reliable 
Thoughts please! As I'm totally lost.
Thank you!
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DarrenW
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| posted on 27/1/05 at 08:47 AM |
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Alez,
I had a Mondeo with a 1.9 TD, probably similar BHP as your Escort and it too would not go - almost to the point where i suspected the turbo was
faulty.I tried cleaning out breather pipes, major service, replacing any hoses that looked perished etc. It made it slightly better (afterwards i
could hear the turbo kick in) but nothing great. I was told that there are no mods that make much difference and the main problem was that it was not
a TDi version.
I did find during investigation that a vacuum hose in the turbo area had persished. I believe this had something to do with the waste gate but im no
expert.
I would suggest that spending £800 on a '95 Ford that will do a lot of miles may not be the best place to spend the cash. Have you thought about
selling the Escort and put the £800 with whatever you get for it towards something with more power as standard?
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MikeRJ
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| posted on 27/1/05 at 09:48 AM |
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Simply put, the Ford TD is one of the very worst pre-common rail diesel engines. They are famous for being guttless in the extreme (and for snapping
cambelts). It's a fundamentaly bad engine design, so throwing money at it is pointless. On the other hand Fords new TDCi engine is
excellent.
That £800 should be put to one side, the Escort sold/scrapped and something like a Pug 306 XRDT or DTurbo bought (or Citroen ZX if you don't
mind the looks). They use the XUD engine, one of the best pre-common rail engines. On paper they develop only slightly more power than the Ford
rubbish, but the difference will be huge. You can also tune these engines by upping boost and fueling, larger intercooler etc. to make a pretty good
"warm" hatch. You also have the benefit for the Pugs/Citroens excellent handling, unlike the barge-like Escort.
[Edited on 27/1/05 by MikeRJ]
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colibriman
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| posted on 27/1/05 at 09:55 AM |
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can I hijack this thread then and ask exactly what (and how) I can do with my Citroen Xantia Turbo diesel to get a bit more out of it.....
need a bike engine? - www.colibriman.com
SVA ready Mk Indyblade possibly for sale.....if the offers good...!
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NOTE:This user is registered as a LocostBuilders trader and may offer commercial services to other users
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ChrisW
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| posted on 27/1/05 at 10:11 AM |
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If the Xantia is the same engine as the old Peugeot 'DTurbo' lump, the mechanical one rather than the newer 'HDi' type, plenty
of fun can be had tweaking that.
Google has a few links if you type in 'dturbo tuning'. This was the first that came up and seems to have some good info.
http://www.johns306.com/guides/dt_tuning.htm
I did find one a while back with a step by step procedure, but I can't find the link any more. An hour spent surfing would probably turn up the
info you need.
Chris
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Alez
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| posted on 27/1/05 at 10:30 AM |
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Thank you all !!! 
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colibriman
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| posted on 27/1/05 at 11:15 AM |
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Thanks for the info link Chris.....
had a look at that link and there's a lot of info there...
need a bike engine? - www.colibriman.com
SVA ready Mk Indyblade possibly for sale.....if the offers good...!
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NOTE:This user is registered as a LocostBuilders trader and may offer commercial services to other users
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ned
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| posted on 27/1/05 at 01:23 PM |
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yeah, i looked into it months ago, but never bothered in the end. the lucas pump is a nightmare to sort as you just can't get very good access.
the fact thta my driveway is on a slope meant i never got very far with the pump, beware, the plastic cover on the front of the pug pump mashes up
easily too..
Ned.
beware, I've got yellow skin
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andyps
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| posted on 27/1/05 at 01:23 PM |
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Not sure about either the Ford or Citroen engines but the common trick with turbo engines is to bleed off some of the air which goes to the wastegate
actuator.
Put simply, the wastegate will be set to open at a certain pressure of boost to limit the performance/reduce the likelihood of engine failure. If you
reduce the amount of pressure which goes to the actuator it will think the boost is lower than it is and not open until a higher boost is reached
giving an instant increase in performance.
In a Rover 800 Vitesse I had, it was possible to increase power from 180 to approx 220bhp with this method, for basically no, or very low, cost.
Andy
An expert is someone who knows more and more about less and less
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ned
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| posted on 27/1/05 at 01:56 PM |
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this is true to a point, but i've read on the pug/citroen engines that 13-15psi is standard and much over 17psi and the extra heat that
can't be disapated by the intercooler from the extra pressure/air means that the gains are minimal or cancelled out by the rise i the charge
temperature.
Ned.
beware, I've got yellow skin
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Alez
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| posted on 27/1/05 at 02:00 PM |
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Thank you Andy, that's very interesting.
Mike, I see from your post that you know this engine quite well. Is Andy's method something I could consider for this engine in particular?? Or
the engine is it so crap that this would bring reliability down totally??
I guess it would be nice to get an increase of a 12% or something like that, 100 bhp out of the 90 bhp engine that is. What do you think?
(BTW the turbo is working, I can feel some small turbo-like boost in the car ).
Cheers,
Alex
[Edited on 28/1/05 by Alez]
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MikeRJ
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| posted on 27/1/05 at 04:21 PM |
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Diesels often don't have wastegates, boost being controlled soley through fueling. I *think* the 1.8TD dosen't have one, could be wrong
about that.
That said, you could up the boost by using a bleed valve or simmilar on the boost control capsule which is mounted on the injector pump, and adjusting
fueling to suit. Beware it's very easy to get a LOT of black smoke if the fuel pump isn't calibrated correctly.
The lack of an intercooler is going to hold you back however, boost pressure is already quite high on these engines, and further increases will cause
the inlet temperatures to rise considerably. A front mounted intercooler would probably give a reasonable gain even before a boost increase.
Upping fueling and boost on Turbo Diesels dosen't tend to give the big jumps in maxmum power like it does on petrols, instead it gives you huge
increases in mid range torque, which is great fun until the gearbox blows up 
As for reliability, if the engine has a lot of miles under it's belt, then it's probably not a good idea. A mild boost increase on a
healthy engine should cause probalems however.
[Edited on 27/1/05 by MikeRJ]
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Alez
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| posted on 28/1/05 at 07:34 AM |
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Thank you Mike!
> Diesels often don't have wastegates, boost being controlled soley through fueling.
I can confirm that this car has one Took a first look at the turbo yesterday with a mechanic friend of mine. He showed me the wastegate, which is a
traditional sprung one.
Also I was totally wrong that the engine doesn't have an intercooler as I saw it yesterday as well
I take your advice on reliability. I'm surely thinking mild boost, the car has covered 50 thousand miles so far, the engine looks good to me and
has been taken care of reasonably I think. What do you think about this mileage, good for the purpose?? Somebody told me yesterday about a car with
this engine that covered 240+ thousand miles (a taxi driver), although it could be a similar engine not the very same one (they guy who told this to
me is no expert on these at all).
Thanks a lot!
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Alez
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| posted on 28/1/05 at 07:43 AM |
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Also, can anyone tell me how high is it fine to rev it up? The clock has no red zone, but I'm not confident that it can be safely taken to the
clock maximum which is something like 7000 rpm
Seriously now, maximum power must somewhere near 3500, but gears are quite apart from each other. Because of this, on up shifts, if you change at
3500, the car will go down to 2000 something, where it gives crap power. A performance-wise ideal is obtained by changing when it reaches 4000, is
this too much?? Way too much?? Not too much?? Do these engines cut ignition if you take them too far??
Thank you!
PS: sorry to ask so much, I have a lot to learn, it's the first time I have girlfriend who has a diesel!!
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Peteff
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| posted on 28/1/05 at 10:01 AM |
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7000rpm and Escort diesel ?
Phrases that don't go together, I had one of the 110 versions of the same car and it wouldn't rev much over 4,000. It doesn't need a
red line as it's governed by the pump. Put your foot to the floor and you'll hear it go flat. The gearing on mine was the problem as it
was for motorway running. It wouldn't pull in 4th below 45mph.
yours, Pete
I went into the RSPCA office the other day. It was so small you could hardly swing a cat in there.
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Alez
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| posted on 28/1/05 at 11:20 AM |
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LOL Peteff, I was joking when I said 7000
Thanks for the info. Actually it went flat at something like 4200-4400 when I put it to test if I remember well.
I should be safe to rev it up to 4000 before I shift up I guess. As I said that's about optimum performance-wise as well so it's quite
good.
Cheers,
Alex
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