96' escort

[gjm4l]

Soooo. Not quite a tech question yet but a couple questions anyway. My mom just locked up her 96 escort. I know the trans was a bit caddywhompus and now it wont turn over. Shes 3hrs away so i have no clue why the car actually locked but i believe the trans was misinstalled and it galled out the bearing on the crank causing it to lock up? Regardless she wants to get rid of it and il get it for$300 if i want. Its a solid little car. 115k No rust clean inside has ac etc. My question is. Worst case i gotta find a new 4cyl and auto trans. How hard would a junkyard swap be? Escorts are everywhere but how much do their drivetrains go for? Any reason i wouldnt wanna mess with an escort? I figure itd be like a ranger engine swap but i have no idea. I just dont wanna dump $2000 into it and come out with a headache/ extra money pit lol. Anybody care to weigh in? Heck anybody got an escort engine/ auto tranny combo for cheap?

 

[kunar]

Soooo. Not quite a tech question yet but a couple questions anyway. My mom just locked up her 96 escort. I know the trans was a bit caddywhompus and now it wont turn over. Shes 3hrs away so i have no clue why the car actually locked but i believe the trans was misinstalled and it galled out the bearing on the crank causing it to lock up? Regardless she wants to get rid of it and il get it for$300 if i want. Its a solid little car. 115k No rust clean inside has ac etc. My question is. Worst case i gotta find a new 4cyl and auto trans. How hard would a junkyard swap be? Escorts are everywhere but how much do their drivetrains go for? Any reason i wouldnt wanna mess with an escort? I figure itd be like a ranger engine swap but i have no idea. I just dont wanna dump $2000 into it and come out with a headache/ extra money pit lol. Anybody care to weigh in? Heck anybody got an escort engine/ auto tranny combo for cheap?

if it's a 1.9, it probably just dropped a valve seat. worst case, motor is toast. if its a 5 speed, they are good little cars. if its a 1.8 and a 5 speed, its a great little car. check the rear strut towers for rot (under the rear deck speakers) other than that the only real problem is the 1.9's like to self destruct without warning. if you can get it for cheap, it would be worth swapping in and engine and trans if needed. perfect car if you need a good mpg daily driver. drive train is pretty straight forward for a fwd car. trans will come out without dropping the subframe, engine will come out through the top. lemme know if you need anything specific, i know my way around them okay.

 

[gjm4l]

Thanks for the heads up. Heres what i know about it. She only had it a couple months. Someone had the trans out before and misinstalled it so it was making noise. She took it in to my buddies shop and he told her that and tried to straighten the trans cause it was misaligned. He said bring it back because they need to take the trans out to make sure its ok. The noise went away so natually mom said she didnt need to take it back....... a couple weeks later she went out to crank it and it wouldnt turn over. She had it towed back to the shop and they tried everything. Then he stuck a big bar on the crank and discovered its locked up tight. Like i said I'm not there so no first hand knowledge. My moms a pain in the butt so i doubt they have spent much time in diag with it so no telling what broke. As proof of moms specialness she even called the guy she bought it from after it broke????? But yeah thats where i am. I will be goin up there in a few weeks so maybe il know more then. Maybe il get lucky and when they stuck the trans in crookes they shimmed the starter to line up so when the shop straightened it the starter got jambed into the flywheel locking it up. Is a dropped valve fix equal to a new valve, a new head or a new engine?

 

[dhinch279]

All I know is, I have never heard of putting a tranny in crooked. Also, You haven't yet specified if it's a manual or auto. If it's locked up I have a feeling it is the engine not the trans. If the trans was making noise then it probably isn't any good either. I know on craigslist or a junkyard I can find an escort drivetrain for $300-400... all... day... long (assuming it's the 1.9, not the escort GT 1.8)

PS- as long as everything else is ok, I would buy it for $300

 

[gjm4l]

Yeah i mentioned replacing engine/auto trans twice in the first post but i guess i never said it specifically sorry about that. Yes it has an automatic I'm not trying to swap to an auto lol(4cyl autos are annoying but cheap is cheap) Yep you can if you dont take the time to line up the pins or bend a pin and dont realize it. It wont be aligned or flush so it'll be crooked and if you dont know, dont care or get too mad at it you'll force the bolts in and be done but it wont be right. The car will even move til it eats the pilot bearing or the shaft apart id imagine. Like i said i dont know for sure cause i havent been under the car myself yet. I do know the trans noisewas caused by the flexplate rattling cause the auto trany wasnt sitting flush for whatever reason. Yep its not a gt so i guess that means 1.9 300-400 aint bad at all. There arent any currently on craigslist around here so good to know it wouldnt be bad when i found one! Thanks for posting guys I knew there would be guys who know escorts. Anything else to know or look out for that make 1.9's lock up? I think itl be worth fooling with so far

 

[gjm4l]

Ooo another question what year range engines will go in place of that one? 96 escort lx with auto trans

 

[kunar]

91-96 should all work just fine. 96 (and maybe 95?) would be OBD2 so you may have to reuse some of your original stuff, but the block and head should at least be the same.

if it was a valve seat that dropped, it's gonna take at least a new/rebuilt head. more likely though, the piston and cylinder wall on at least one cylinder will be damaged from the debris. i would plan on a new engine.

 

[koda6966]

40mpg ftw!

 

[gjm4l]

Cool thanks kunar. Im getting excited cause i have a pull-a-part nearby and they have a dozen escorts sitting around il be going to look at it in two weeks so we shall see. Heck yeah 40 mpg and i can tear into the ranger if i got something else to drive!

 

[gribly]

Any '91-'02 motor will work, the 2.0's will take a little tinkering (wiring, fuel rail from a '97, computer, more wiring) to make work. You can put an SPI head on a 1.9 block (bolts physically, but again, more wiring) and it drops down to like 7.5:1 compression and run 15-20psi on it safely with a properly sized turbo and megasquirt. A "stock" 1.9 SPI with a turbo will be all the power that the auto will hold if you take it easy (a very healthy 200hp), and I don't recommend it, and a manual will handle 250whp as long as you don't put slicks on it. I broke my tranny on my 1.9 auto with just a backyard port job on the motor and removing emissions, but it went like stink and I drove the crap out of it, letting it melt the tires all the way through 2nd about every time I got moving.

 

[gjm4l]

Hahahaha wow it would be gnarly and awesome to do that dude but i just want it to run and go as a dd so i can play with my ranger lol. Ideally I would find a 96 drivetrain so it'll drop right in. Which is why I'm asking you escort pros(hmm that sounds bad lol) if/which other years have everything the same so I dont have to fool with wiring it up to make it work. I'm shooting for plug n' play then drive away. I'm still hoping to find out the cars drivetrain isnt trashed. Although i expect it to be.....

 

[gjm4l]

Anybody know where i can get some wiring diagrams for it? If i get it il get a haynes or chiltons but it only goes so far. And correct me if im wrong. In 97' they changed the body style would it be fair to figure on the motor in those and up buttoning up differently(ie cant use the 96 harness) also I read somewhere that the auto was computer controlled so does that limit my trans finds?

 

[Psychopete]

Worst case i gotta find a new 4cyl and auto trans. How hard would a junkyard swap be? Escorts are everywhere but how much do their drivetrains go for? Any reason i wouldnt wanna mess with an escort? I figure itd be like a ranger engine swap but i have no idea. I just dont wanna dump $2000 into it and come out with a headache/ extra money pit lol. Anybody care to weigh in? Heck anybody got an escort engine/ auto tranny combo for cheap?

Some similarities to a RWD I guess, but mostly it's all a different ball game with FWD. I have pulled/installed engines in Tempos (my d/d), lots of little tricks to those things. Shop manual is worth it's weight in gold. Lots of things I would have spent forever figuring out that was in that book. It will take at least a day effort to get the engine out gracefully. I'd be willing to bet you are supposed to drop everything from the bottom though, but never worked too much on the Escorts. Tempo engine I took out from above, very little clearance to sneak it out. Loosen up the torque converter nuts and see if you get can get slight movement at the crank - that should tell you if it's the engine or trans locked up..

Think you could get diagrams from Helm Inc or alldatadiy

 

[gribly]

Anybody know where i can get some wiring diagrams for it? If i get it il get a haynes or chiltons but it only goes so far. And correct me if im wrong. In 97' they changed the body style would it be fair to figure on the motor in those and up buttoning up differently(ie cant use the 96 harness) also I read somewhere that the auto was computer controlled so does that limit my trans finds?

It's still the same chassis. The mounts are all the same. Go to www.feoa.net to start your research.

 

[lilgreenranger]

i had a 99 escort and i hated that thing. beat the piss out of it all the time. killed the trans got rid of it and got a ranger