Making the Cologne 2.9 Distributor-less using 4L OHV parts - TFI/SD to EDIS/MAF Conversion

[brokencase]

"Power-band is much wider - I don't even need to downshift. "

I guess you could expect a little more performance. When you say "power band is wider" is it more at the low end or at the high end?

I believe earlier you said you were running a smaller airbox from a Contour. Is that still the case?

Is the impression of more power just psychological? Was it perhaps not running optimal with the original equipment?

It will be interesting to see if fuel economy improves or degrades.

[Ed Lijewski]

Spot on timing makes that happen...easily.

Years ago I checked and adjusted timing on my '88. Accelerator response in every gear improved noticeably.

One ad for the Scorpio has a scene as the car is about to pull away after being parked following a test drive and at least one rear wheel chirped.

I need to check/adjust timing on my '89 but have put it off because the Scorpio timing mark is so hard to ser clearly.

YMMV

[DPDISXR4Ti]

I guess you could expect a little more performance. When you say "power band is wider" is it more at the low end or at the high end?

Both? On the low-end, previously it would "lug" if I stepped into it at 1800 RPM - you HAD to down-shift. Now I can just ease into the throttle and it goes. Obviously, if I need to really go, I downshift. Up top, it feels much more fluid all the way up to whatever red-line is. I only banged it off the rev-limiter once.

I believe earlier you said you were running a smaller airbox from a Contour. Is that still the case?

Yep, it's pictured above. The bottom side of the box is cut up a bit. Eventually I'll do something a little cleaner, but for now it's totally fine.

Is the impression of more power just psychological? Was it perhaps not running optimal with the original equipment?

I'm sure it was not optimal before. There's too much of an improvement to give all the credit to the solid-state ignition stuff. It is the same engine, after all. I'm not really sure where all the credit goes, I just know it goes.

It will be interesting to see if fuel economy improves or degrades.

I'm interested to see that as well. In hindsight, I probably didn't need to go with the slightly larger injectors, but there's no issue going closed-loop with these, that are about 5% over spec size.

[andyofcolumbusmerkur]

I let my wife drive the "new" car for the first time yesterday. It is her car after all, but I've been reluctant to throw her the keys with all the challenges I had during this project. But I had enough test drives in at this point to feel confident that it was good to go. I watched from the front porch as she went out the driveway and took the left onto the road ...where she promptly did an unintended "one-wheel-peel" burn out.

I received a text 10 minutes later... "Holy $#!*, that was insane!"

You will have to get her a limited slip for Christmas.

[brokencase]

It was mentioned on the old IMON list, and I believe Andy mentioned it previously on this forum that the inlet to the Scorpio Air filter box is a bit restrictive. In other words the area of the entry duct appears to be less than the area of the two pipes exiting the box

I'm wondering if your new filter housing is a contributing factor to better performance.

On my old Scorpio I drilled extra holes in the box. It felt a little zippier with this mod but it did add quite a bit of annoying "intake noise" when accelerating.

I was thinking a better approach would be to 3d print a well designed snorkel with more area to replace the existing duct that presently enters into the box.

I wonder if the restriction may have been intentional in the original design for emissions reasons, or perhaps to produce a bit of vacuum in the box for the PCV system.

[DPDISXR4Ti]

It was mentioned on the old IMON list, and I believe Andy mentioned it previously on this forum that the inlet to the Scorpio Air filter box is a bit restrictive. In other words the area of the entry duct appears to be less than the area of the two pipes exiting the box

I'm wondering if your new filter housing is a contributing factor to better performance.

The stock airbox is very large but indeed the inlet is very small. My Contour airbox is about half the surface area, but about double the inlet area. Yes, I'm drawing in some engine bay air, but I think that's of minimal consequence.

I doubt it's much of a factor either way, but who knows!?

I wonder if they just better figured out transitionary timing/fueling strategy between 1987 and 1991. That's where I most notice the improvements - it feels like a more modern car to drive.

[Bob Weir]

I've noticed the air intake on the Euro models of 2.9 is different. Has anybody asked them if the air box hole to outside air are larger?

[brokencase]

I think the Euro Scorpios had dual vane meters. But the air filter box looks sort of like the US Scorpio's.

ford-granada-ghia-4x4.jpg (660.48 KiB) Viewed 2491 times

[brokencase]

Ahh... Here we go. Inlet to Euro airbox is similar to US Scorpio.
It's the constriction of part 8 (squashed duct) in the diagram below that is the problem.
That is the part that I think could be enlarged and then 3d printed, even enlarging the opening in the airbox as well.
.
.

euroscorpioairbox.jpg (146.52 KiB) Viewed 2491 times

[Bob Weir]

"Ahh... Here we go. Inlet to Euro airbox is similar to US Scorpio.
It's the constriction of part 8 (squashed duct) in the diagram below that is the problem.
That is the part that I think could be enlarged and then 3d printed, even enlarging the opening in the airbox as well."

Or just cut a larger hole in our existing airbox and use a hose that fits and experiment with different air filters.

A simple test would be to not connect the inlet tubes to the box to determine if there's any performance change.