This is my 96lx 2 door 5 speed. I've had it for about 4 years now. First Escort I've ever owned. It's been a good reliable car.
I did the 3rd gen 2.0 SPI motor swap about 4 year's ago (I reused the 1.9 SEFI valve cover to fool people). Now the car is running a T25 Turbo at 6-7psi. Also has a modified pace setters 2-1/4" cat back, 2.5" down pipe, Black Diamond UDP and has a couple of lbs taken off the flywheel.
Here you can see my VDO Boost gauge, it reads both PSI and Bar. I also removed the stock rubber shift boost for a home made leather one with a matching knob.
140whp/188wtq @ 7psi
15% Drive train loss thats 161 hp and 216 ftlbs @ crank.
South Bend Rally (stage one). Nice clutch kit for only $175.
Page 2 show's the turbo build.
Page 3 show's how to modify a internal waste gate.
Updates: 7-9-06
Just put 3000 miles on the turbo set up, so far I have been very pleased, it has not let me stranded or caused any damage. It's reliable and at 6psi it has a nice strong pull.
I did get about 280 miles to a tank, that's with using A/C a lot and a mixture of city and highway. Thats about the same I was getting N/A with just the 2.0 swap. Keep in mind I'm running 2.0 19lb injectors but the ECU/MAF is still programmed for the 1.9 15lb injectors.
Update: June 08
Car now has 187,000 miles. The turbo, engine, South Bend Clutch, China BOV and tranny is still the same, and are still working great! The car has been trouble free.
I have been using a heavy mixture of e85 with regular 87 octane to give me a fair octane leval with out having to pay the high price of 92 octane.
