I upgraded the old factory speakers since the fronts were shot. The rear speakers were still good but I changed them out so I would be ready for the new stereo when I put it in. Here is the picture of the door speaker. I put Sony Xplode 6 1/2" triaxial speakers in the front doors behind the stock grill. Not shown but in the back I have 6 X 8 " Pioneer triaxial speakers. I still currently have the stock AM / FM cassette deck but am looking at an after market CD player to put in. I really like the Sony with the color changing display.
I also started to mount gauges that would help me get the most in terms of mileage and performance from the car. I mounted the small Tachometer since the car did not come with one. The next gauge was the Air / Fuel ratio gauge which shows the computer on the car adjusting the Air / Fuel while I am driving. The Sun intake manifold Vacuum Gauge is from the 70,s and lets me watch the intake vacuum for best fuel economy. The LED lamps on each side of the tachometer indicate when in accel or deccelleration mode. I plan to tie the outputs from these to a laptop computer to calculate hp ETC like the commercial timers do. The lowest gauge is my inside stick on thermometer to see how hot the inside of the car gets during the day.
Just under the dash left of the ashtray I just mounted and hooked up my voltmeter to monitor the battery voltage and charging voltage when running.
Under dash space is hard to come by in the Escort so mounting a radio like a mobile CB or Ham Radio can be a challenge. I finally decided on a drivers side seat mount setup between the drivers seat and the door. It is out of the way and nearly invisible when the door is closed.
I know most folks just put an after market breather on the valve cover but it was a little tight for my engine with the coil pack being in the way and costs 10 to 20 dollars. I wanted to disconnect the hose from the valve cover to the air box so it would not get any hot gases from the engine into the intake. I left the hose hooked up to the valve cover and routed it down under the front of the car. I clamped on a scrap piece of conduit I painted blue with some holes drilled in it and this problem was solved. If you look close in the picture you can see it hanging down beside the air scoop below the front bumper.
Just got my new Baldwin air filter monitor gauge in to install in the Escort. This gauge is made to read the low vacuum created by the air filter to calculate how dirty it is and tell you when it needs to be changed. These gauges are normally only used on big diesel rigs. I bought mine from a Peterbuilt parts dealer. It is made by Switchgauge and is called the AFG-30 .
Here is a picture of the Gauge mounted in the mount before I installed it.
I needed a place to put it so I could easily keep an eye on the readings. Since dash space is low on the Escort I made a homemade mount to go over on the passenger side to mount the gauge on top of the dash. The gauge sits so it faces the driver seat to make viewing easy. Here is the picture of the completed installation.
