Not PT, but progress on my XR4Ti project

[ProTouring442]

Very cool little ride you have! What sort of mileage do you get with all of the mods? I think once we move I will be picking up a Thunderbird Turbo Coupe, the little turbo motor is just too cool!



Keep the improvements and pics coming!

Shiny Side Up!
Bill

[DarkBuddha]

Mileage is mediocre with my heavy foot and the kind of driving I do (85% in town, lots of sitting it traffic, lots of sitting at lights, lots of quick stop and go action)... between 15-17mpg typically. In fact, because of the kind of driving and the generally short distances I drive (under 6 miles at a time), the car just doesn't get into closed loop operation and the O2 sensor never gets properly warmed up, which means the ECU is always running richer than really necessary (which they are tuned to anyway). To help, I'm going to be switching to a heated O2 sensor. And I think the kind of driving I will be doing in Florida will be more balanced between highway and city, so I'm hoping to see mileage in the low-20s.

I have a friend with one of these motors in a '70s Volvo wagon and it gets a solid 23-26mpg in balanced driving, but it also has different gearing, an automatic tranny, and a heated O2 sensor. But you can see why I'm hopeful.

[ProTouring442]

Mileage is mediocre with my heavy foot and the kind of driving I do (85% in town, lots of sitting it traffic, lots of sitting at lights, lots of quick stop and go action)... between 15-17mpg typically. In fact, because of the kind of driving and the generally short distances I drive (under 6 miles at a time), the car just doesn't get into closed loop operation and the O2 sensor never gets properly warmed up, which means the ECU is always running richer than really necessary (which they are tuned to anyway). To help, I'm going to be switching to a heated O2 sensor. And I think the kind of driving I will be doing in Florida will be more balanced between highway and city, so I'm hoping to see mileage in the low-20s.

I have a friend with one of these motors in a '70s Volvo wagon and it gets a solid 23-26mpg in balanced driving, but it also has different gearing, an automatic tranny, and a heated O2 sensor. But you can see why I'm hopeful.

So how is this project going? I ask as I have just purchased a 1988 Thunderbird TurboCoupe.

Shiny Side Up!
Bill

[DarkBuddha]

Sorry I haven't posted an update recently... mainly because I haven't done a damn thing. We moved from Seattle WA to Sarasota FL in mid June and then spent the next 6 weeks living with family while buying and waiting to close on a house. We got in the house in early August and still aren't settled in. 75% of our stuff is still in boxes and my new garage is stacked deep and tall with all the boxes.

The one thing I did do on the XR is fix the a/c hoses so that I now have a/c while driving around (even if I did have to jury-rig the de-icing switch so it would work). So at least now the kids aren't just cooking away when I drive them to school and stuff. Oh, and I also bought another set of wheels: vintage Enkei RE92s, 16x8 with nice deep offsets. I can't run them for auto-x or daily driving, but they look killer for just cruising and preening.

I do have some short and long term plans for the car. I'm looking forward to getting involved in more track and auto-x, and some rallycross, so I think the car is headed towards being a track car even though I'll keep it street legal. In the short term I'd just like to tidy it up a bunch since it's basically a mess from the thrash to get all the work done on it before I left Seattle. And when I get some room in my garage and the weather cools a bit I'll install the black interior and Recaros I've got stashed. I'd also like to get it tinted at some point, touch up some paint, fix some trim, etc., etc., etc. The list seems to go on forever... typical project car, right?

[70Nova4dr]

I have a Ford racing camshaft and adjustable sprocket for 2.3 turbo if your interested. the part number is m-6250-a237 if you want to look up specs on it. I will sell the cam, roller followers and sprocket as a kit, that's how it came. Let me know if interested. Brandon

[DarkBuddha]

PM sent.

[mountainboy]

Here are some photos of Merkur's cousin

[DarkBuddha]

Awesome pics! Please tell me it is yours! That thing is wicked for sure. There have been a few RS200s for sale in the last year and the prices have just been going up and up... $100k+ easy. Considering the cost difference, I think I'm stuck with my XR.

[DarkBuddha]

I haven't done crap all weekend because of a flu/cold but last night I was so stir-crazy that I decided to just take some pictures of the car since I hadn't in a while. I really haven't done much to the car since moving to Florida other than fix up some nagging issues and repair some of the body work that I'd done in a rush before moving. I finally fixed the fit of the fiberglass Cosworth rear arches and tried to fit the front bumper a bit better. I also got some plugs to fill the bolt holes where the original cladding installed and installed a bump strip along the sides of the cars. And I finally got around to repairing and repainting the Cosworth RS upper rear spoiler and got it reinstalled. And more recently (as in last week), I got a nifty Ford Motorsports A237 cam/followers/cam gear shipped to me from 70Nova4dr (thanks a ton!). Anyway, just because I could, here are some pics:





And the cam and stuff:

[DarkBuddha]

Just a quick update... I've had some axle issues of late. I frag'd a rear CV joint (the XR has an IRS) and had to replace the entire axle assembly. Then I've been having problems where the stub axle on the other side kept popping out because of a worn retaining clip. Oh, well, it just gave me a reason to pick up another E36 BMW limited slip differential, this time with 3.91 gears instead of the cruise-tastic 3.15s my current diff has. I'm looking forward to the improved off-line performance and quicker boost.

While I was under the car, I took some pics of the BMW diff conversion:






Still need to pull the head, replace the valve stem seals, and install the cool A237 cam and adjustable cam gear, but I really need to get the interior in my Mach first. It's tough to do a head job when I need to be driving the car everyday.

[DarkBuddha]

I'm pretty psych'd how these turned out, so I wanted to share. I found I needed tires, which gave me the opportunity to fit the 17" Team Dynamics Pro Race 2 wheels I've had sitting in boxes for 18 months. Shoed 'em with 215/40/17 Continental ContiExtremeContacts, which is about as big a tire you can fit on these cars without coilovers or cutting/rolling the fenders (which I couldn't do with the Cosworth arches). In any case, a couple pics:

[DarkBuddha]

Not much to update... replaced yet another axle after the CV joint frag'd (again). I can't figure out if it's the crap quality rebuilds I'm getting or some issue with the rear suspension setup. I've got a pretty severe rear camber issue related to lowering the car, so that may be part of it, but everything else looks pretty good.

On an up note, in spite of the camber issues, I took the car out to auto-x with the local Porsche Club. The car did awesome... it's quick, it handles great, it's flat, minimal dive on braking, etc... truly, it's a better car than I am a driver. I ended up late mid-pack, a good 7 seconds off from FTD. My last run would've been 3-4 seconds faster (if I hadn't done a couple seriously stupid moves), which would've put me towards the front of the pack. I know the car has serious potential with a good driver and a set of good auto-x friendly tires (instead of the not-so-sticky Contis on the car now).

Anyway, here are a couple pics from one of my runs:

[67goatman455]

wow, the new wheels made a huge improvement! now you just need to ditch the spoiler

[DarkBuddha]

wow, the new wheels made a huge improvement! now you just need to ditch the spoiler

Not digging the Cosworth RS upper, huh? Actually, I've been debating removing it again... maybe just run the Cosworth lower spoiler or go back to the original OEM bi-level wing. Or I might replace it with a roof spoiler.

BTW, that giant Cosworth RS upper actually weighs less than the stock bi-level wing.

[406 Q-ship]

I have always had a soft spot for the XRTi4 after working on one at the Firestone dealers I worked at. The car had an engine fire that only took out the upper injector harness but the other mechanics at the store could not do wiring to save there souls (like most mechanics). The shop had gotten the car to run for like 2 seconds at a time. If I remember correctly there was a change in the wiring during their model run and it required me to rework the salavge harness they got for it to make it run right. Once I had it up and running I had a blast test driving that little rocket around.

I gotta say I am not a fan of the big spoiler too.

[DarkBuddha]

Not much to update in terms of build progress other than some minor touches here and there. Because the front fascia has pretty low ground clearance (under 4") which makes it tough to get a jack under the front crossmember (which makes tire changes and servicing much easier), I decided to make the front bumper cover "quick release". Basically I installed retention pin in the middle and hood pin type pins on the sides. It still requires removing the grille (4 screws) to remove the bumper cover right now, but I will soon add two more hood pins in the front so I don't have to remove the grille. Pics:




The only other thing I've really done is take it to a couple events... an auto-x last weekend, and a rally-x today. Both were disasters but not because of the car per se. During the auto-x, I adjusted the dampers too firm which created a snap oversteer situation that I was not able to resolve until my final run. The result was that I spun the car on 5 out of 6 runs and posted embarrassingly miserable times. That said, the car was dynamite otherwise... took the abuse without complaint, including the 160 mile roundtrip drive to the event. For today's rally-x, I DNF'd because one of the front tires (my street tires) got sliced and gouged by the fiberglass Cosworth replica wheelwell arch. I've done a few auto-x on these tires and put a couple thousand street miles on 'em and had absolutely no problem. But today's outing in the dirt apparently was severe enough to create the contact. Bummer, but I'm just glad it wasn't something more significant that frag'd.

In any case, here are a couple pics from the two events:




Once I get a replacement tire, I think the XR is going on hold for a bit so I can my Mach done. But then again, I can't ever seem to let things be...

[DarkBuddha]

I got bored waiting for the stupid replacement tire and fitted my old set of Yokohamas on ARE 5 stars (painted gold now):

[showa]

You truely have the "Pro-Touring" mentality.... Run what you got and have fun... Looking great and I enjoy your updates....

[DarkBuddha]

Thanks... I'm definitely building and using this with the same mentality as I would (and do) with a pro-touring car. One of the things I think really drives it is the process of "build it, bang on it, break it, build it better", so that's what I keep doing. After my recent rallycross experience, I'm actually thinking of going a bit more in that direction, but I don't see that as a departure from the pro-touring thing at all... more like an extension. In fact, I'm looking forward to getting my Mach 1 done so I can take it rally-x'ing, like Dukes of Hazzard style. Just seems a natural part of the cultural and racing heritage vibe we all seem to dig.

[showa]

I enjoy seeing the rallyX coverage in GRM.... Seems to be alot of that action in FL...... Being an X-dirt roundy round guy, I look forward to getting my car running and try it out this way too...