What's the good, bad, and ugly with one of these cars. I have an opportunity to pick one up cheap, 84 model, with decently low miles, especially for the year. What type of motors were in them, and how bad is it to come by parts?

 

Hi, these cars were available with the diesel engine option from 1983-1987 in the Ford Escort/Mercury Lynx and from 1984-1986 in the Ford Tempo/Mercury Topaz. The engine is a 2.0 liter OHC design that has a timing belt driven system. It is a Mazda engine that was also available in one of their models, the 626 from 1984-1985. They have a VE distributor type injection pump and move the cars around faily well for the 55-60 HP they make stock. The ultimate enemy of the car and mainly the engine is that it has a cast aluminum cylinder head that can and has given many other owners of these cars problems. If overheated it will at least give you a blown head gasket or quite possibly a cracked head. My dad first owned an 85 Mercury Lynx diesel that he had the cylinder head or head gasket blow on him and just recently he owned an 86 Mercury Topaz diesel that may have done the same thing at just under 198,000 miles on the car. You want to make sure you keep up on cooling system maintenence, so that you can avoid that problem the best you can. Other then that they are great in terms of fuel mileage and you can expect to see 45-50 mpg easily (especially if it truly has low miles). For parts you can still probably buy some new parts from Mazda and Ford dealers, but major stuff is probably no longer available. And a lot of everyday parts can be had at your local auto parts store. Good luck and if you pick it up it should be a good choice for a vehicle, given it's fuel efficient and a lot of new cars today can't get that if you think about. Hope the info has helped you out.

Salvy

 

I can tell ya much more than what Ram3500 already has but I can tell ya the 84 model I had went threw haties and back,,,,4 or 5 times. When I finaly managed to kill it there was just a few miles short of 500,000 miles on it,, and it looked like it. It burnt roughly a 50/50 blend of oil/ fuel but it never would just give up and die. I bought it from a small local repair shop that I worked for in high school and we used to go get parts and deliver Snapper lawn mowers that we sold with it. At times we had more weight on the trailer than what the car weighd and it towed it like a dream(well till the rear struts blew threw the unibody). A little welding and fabing to hold the rear of the car up and it was all good. After I moved to collage no one else would drive it so it got parked off to the side of the shop and forgot abought. A few years latter I called to see if it was still sitting around and they said it was mine if I wanted it. It was a 160 mile drive home with it and it took 3 gallons of fuel and 3 quarts of oil. I drove it around for a year or 2 and finaly overheated it while out on a mud road stuck. The fan dident work and I cracked the head or head gasket. That shoulda been the end of it but I just let it blow all the watter out it wanted and drove it anoughter couple months before it completly died. Great little car I dotn remember exactly but I remember it getting over 50MPG down the highway. Always would start rite up no matter how cold. As amatter of fact when I got it from the shop we had to dig it out of a snow drift with a scid loader and put a battery in it and it fired rite up like it had been running all the time I had been away.

 

These were sadly underated cars. My sister's husband was given one by his family they bought from a mechainc. 1984 Lynx, if I remember right. They really felt more powerful than 60hp - and handled reves nicely with the 5-speed. They were MUCH more relaible than the old carberatued gas escorts. It was sadly totaled in an accident, although it was bought back and re-sold to someone who dropped the engine & trans into another escort. Guess it was sort of the little car that refused to die...

 

Do you guys have any idea where to find these motors? I just ran mine hot and need another one. I don't think a rebuild is really practical. It got 53 mpg the last tank I ran through it...great little car!!