I had to get a new company car. Because of the company plan requirments, I had limited choices. I selected a front wheel drive 2005 Mercury Mariner ( Basically a tarted up Ford Escape ). The little thing handles and rides better than most cars. It feel like driving a go-kart. It has a little 3.0L V6 with a 4 speed auto. Stock rating is 200hp, but it is a little light on torque down low.

The little SUV can accelerate OK ( I'm being generous here ), but it is a dog off the line. The engne make it's hp in the upper RPM range and it pulls fairly strong from say 4000-6000. The throttle responce down low is very weak and the shifting is, well, lets just say slooooooow.... The 2-3 up shift is a preformance sucking black hole. This is not due to the gearing, but the fact that FORD decided that pulling back about 2K on rpm would be a good idea? I never owned a front wheel drve before and this might be normal... ( Although the wife's Avalon will make mince meat out of it... )

I doubt that anyone has done a performance tune profile for this little SUV, so there it most likely not even a good starting point for it. I did find one CAI for a 2004 Escape, but it does not look like it would fit the 2005.

Now the question. Is it possible to improve the preformance on this little toy?

I figure it would require a lot of data logging and or dyno work, but did not know how hard it would be due to the general lack of interest in hopping up this type of vehicle...

Any Ideas? If you think it is worth a chat, let me know and I will give you a call....

Hope thing are going great for you guys....

 

Hi.

From this link, one could deduce that SCT products/tuning is available for the Ford Escape. If a Mariner is the same platform as this, and the processor codes are known, it's likely someone can tune it.

It is, after all a FoMoCo SUV

http://www.sctflash.com/truck_chart.php

Cheers
Grog

 

Hi Sranger,

Just get me the computer code & we should be able to take care of that for you - we've tuned Escapes, and they respond well.

that little 3,0 200 Hp V6 is an amazing little engine, big HP output with very small displacement and not 8000+ rpm like a Honda (shudder) motor - so I actually happen to like 'em.

So just give us a call with your computer code, & we'll see if we can't get this taken care of for you so you can enjoy that vehicle a bit more!

 

Very Cool...

I'll see if I can find the code. It was not on the passenger's door frame like it is on the F150...

Do you Know were it is located?

 

Hi Sranger,

Yeah, it's pretty easy - it's a PowerPC-based PCM, which will be mounted at the top of the firewall (cowl) - usually left of center - and will be recessed back into the firewall usually, so all you see is usually 3 separate connectors on it (latch-style) - it should have a code sticker usually on the front or on the right side of the PCM - but in some cases you may need to slide the PCM out of it's "cubbyhole" on the firewall to get it's code.

If you have to do that, it's easy - just disconnect the battery, then disconnect the 3 latch-style connectors (just pull the latch down from the top of each connector and then you can disconnect each connector - then once all 3 are detached, you can slide the PCM right out - once in a while there will be another latch up at the top of the PCM to hold it to the firewall, but not always - and sometimes we'll find that there are a couple of retaining nuts to hold it to the firewall - but it will be obvious once you get to that point, and once dealt with you can easily just slide the PCM right out, it's pretty simple.

If you have to pull the PCM, usually there is a big sticker on top with several lines of writing on it - the tear-tag code that we need is 3 letters followed by 1 number, 4 digits total - but if it looks confusing to you, then just write down everything *EXACTLY* as it appears on the sticker and call us with that info & we can tell the code from that, no problem.

 

Mike, I know this is an old thread, but I am wondering just what kind of results you have gotten from the Escape/Tribute 3.0 V6?
Any HP/Torque figures with the 87 or 93 Octane tunes?

I have found a dyno chart from another tuning site that shows a 6 RWHP increase over the powerband (XCAL 2). It was annotated that it was with premium fuel, but that's about it no mention of what level of tune.
Some would consider that disappointing.

I THOUGHT I had seen a 93 octane tune Escape dyno, with just a CAI (AF 1?) that showed 12 RWHP, on this Forum, but I can't find it.

 

Hey robowang Welcome to the forum
The best and the fastest way to get the info you want is to give Mike a call at 540-965-7126 and talk with him personally. He’s done me right and I highly recommend