In reply to ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ :
Hah, very true!
In reply to ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ :
Hah, very true!
¯\_(ツ)_/¯ said:This one is a lesson in scope creep.Every Merkur is.
Truth.
I've had these shocks kicking around for a bit, and decided it would be easier if the sleeves were installed.
Initially tried just an electric heat gun, but couldn't get them on. Then I boiled the sleeves, and put the shock in the freezer for a while. No dice.
Eventually I polished the bodies, and put the sleeves in the oven. Then I put a film of oil on the bodies and SHLOOP they slid right on. Only took the amount of time as a typical phonecall... with John V! I was actually on the phone with John and it was nice to catch up a bit.
There were two circlip grooves, and while longer springs are nice, by using the lower groove, the SHORTEST spring that I estimate being able to use would be 14 inches. So I used the upper groove and now 10 in springs will work, and 14in springs won't be too long either (see approximate ruler position in the next photo). For now though, I plan on running these as shocks only and using the stock spring position at the rear of the XR. Eventually though, I'll get some nice boingers and convert it to coil over.
Do it once more and you've got two nice Bilsteins ready to go in the car 
Been driving the XR around a lot lately, as it's currently the only car at the house. The alternator belt has been squeaking like crazy! Been having trouble with alternators, and had previously toasted a 3G alt. I had since returned to the stock 2G alt, and it had been working great! On my last trip home yesterday, I had a really squeaky start, and then it eventually went quiet.
My dash is a 'PiDash', a 7" touchscreen attached to a Raspberry pi computer which has a USB connection to the ECU, and runs TunerStudio as the dash for the car. Soon after my drive started, the screen stopped working, and I tried to restart it (I have it wired on a constant hot circuit), but it would immediately switch off before it could boot. At that point I just thought that the alternator wasn't charging well and was just hoping that the lights stayed on (was dark)... I did have an alternator go bad on my Miata, and that SUX at night.
When I got home, I popped the hood, and it had thrown the alternator belt. Haven't dug into it yet to see if it was the belt that cause the squeak, or the alternator not charging (on the 3G, it would squeak when it was trying to charge, but had a ton of resistance).
It makes me thankful that it's routed on its own belt, since the Crank-WP-PS belt remained intact and car was fine otherwise. No dash and no WP would have been a recipe for quickly overheating! The traditional route is all the way around the outside (in a diamond shape), which makes less than a 30% wrap on both the crank and the WP, which - to me - seems unwise.
Note: I think when I bought these, one was a Gates belt, and the other was a cheap belt. The remaining belt is Gates, so that could be a factor as well.
After a brief hiatus I have:
Winter came to Texas for once, and I had the XR out and about to get some groceries. You'd think that hooning a RWD car in the snow would be fun, right? WRONG. RE-71R tires plus open diff plus crunchy snow = not really being able to move, much less slide it around. I definitely didn't have to back up a few times in the road to get another run at things or pick a different route, nope. Not at all. Never mind the giant hole in the roof and no shift boot, it's finnneeeee! Thankfully we only had a bit of a power flicker at my house and weren't in dire straits like some folks.
I then had a wonderful opportunity to change careers a bit and sorted out a new job, which required me to move to Michigan. My brother came down to help me make the drive. On the road (And not even out of Texas!!), the freeze had taken a giant chunk out of the highway, which pinch-flatted a tire on the Golf. Thankfully I had already purchased a set of snow tires for it, so we had what would be a really slow pit stop, but relatively minor in the grand scheme of things when popping a tire on a car which doesn't have a spare from factory.
We were stopped for less than 30 min and on our way again, though with no hub centering rings, it had a pretty bad vibration approaching 65mph. We stopped again to try and center the wheels better and fixed most of the vibes.
After *sorta* getting settled and unpacking a little, it was time to hop in the silly seat again, this time for Paddy Brennan in his Fiesta "Proto", which is a nifty bit of kit. Mitsubishi Evo drivetrain in a Fiesta shell, with a bit more suspension travel. Not quite as fast or capable as an R5 at the absolute limit, but we were in the mix with the R5s, and ended up top 10 in a pretty stacked field this year!
When things settled down a bit I finally dug into the car a bit. When giving my brother a test drive, and getting it onto the trailer, the intercooler pipe had come off a few times and had let a bunch of oil out! I'm using a catch can, so there's no PCV plumbing back into the intake. So, a new rebuilt CHRA for the turbo was ordered (not ready to upgrade... yet) and the old turbo removed.
This highlighted a cracked exhaust manifold as well... Whoops. I was goaded into sending one of my spares off to be ported 
So now I'm waiting on Customs and USPS to get off their butt and get it back to me.
And... I added a new car to the fleet! 2001 BMW 330CI, which a rally friend had. The condition and price were too good to pass up, so I flew to Georgia and drove it home. It then got some attention while I'm waiting on the manifold; I'll detail those in another thread.
The current fleet and my loooonnnggg driveway:
USPS finally gave me an update after a week of silence, no tracking data, no location and the manifold should be arriving today! Woo!
Welcome to MI from a metro Detroit native and current resident as well as a former XR4Ti owner!
wawazat said:Welcome to MI from a metro Detroit native and current resident as well as a former XR4Ti owner!
Thanks! I'm in Metro Detroit now, so there's that. Probably would have had the XR out at MIS for the autocross last weekend if I wasn't already signed up for a track day in the BMW and still waiting on the manifold to show up.
Yay ported manifold is here!! A la Steve Schlodes. I threw some spray paint on the cracked one after I checked them all, so I'd know which one not to use.
It's been a while!
While the turbo and manifold were off, I went ahead with a couple upgrades, upgrading the Wastegate actuator from the fairly weak (though not stock) version for an uprated (1.15Bar/16.7psi) version. I was looking for a reasonable price but not incredibly expensive, and went with what seemed like a reasonable eBay part.
It all went together better than it was before, but the drain tube was leaking on the turbo once I started it up again. After getting a new drain tube, in taking off the old one, I realized that I had stripped the threads on one side. After going round and round about which thread repair, I went with a Time Cert.
That seemed to do the trick!
I then went about fixing the intake tube which kept popping off, it was misaligned and the clamps would slip off the pipe and the boost would push it out. I got some straight aluminum pipe, and cut the center out of the old one, to retain the bead rolls.
I asked around at work since I don't have a TIG machine, and a coworker worked on it, but had a couple of issues whole welding (material? Contamination? Idk), and then was busy for a while. Work kind of stopped on the car while he had the pipe, but he eventually finished it, though it had a bunch of pinholes. I then took it to one of the welders at work who ran a new bead over it on his lunch hour and pressure tested it. Good to go now.
I was originally planning on being at Gridlife Midwest Festival, and was on a big push to update some things on the car that I've been meaning to do, with the addition my entry to the Empire Hillclimb being accepted!
I went about trying to mount the bucket seatv that I have, stolen from the BMW and attempted to be bottom mounted. But after coming up with some janky ways of doing it, I abandoned that and ordered some side brackets.
Hillclimb rules mandate a 4 point roll bar minimum, so I was good to go there, but needed the fixed back seat, harnesses, and a fire extinguisher. A 1A 10BC 2.5lb fire extinguisher with mount (rules specify quick release) was ordered up from Jegs and installed through the floor with bolts and some locktite. I then used a cutoff wheel and cut the bolts as short as the nuts. It's offset to the right because of where the transmission tunnel starts and that's as far to the middle as I could get it.
Harnesses are another animal, and some backing nutplates in the international seatbelt/safety size of 7/16-20 were ordered. Enough for both sides but I'm only doing the driver's seat at the moment. Pictured is planning for the sub belt attachment; cutting a hole to clearance the nut on the backside and welding the seam around in the frame rail so the bottom isn't exposed to the elements.
I also bit the bullet and ordered parts for an external oil cooler which I've been planning for years.
Aluminum Ebay RX7 oil cooler and the bits for -10AN lines, adapters, and the sandwich plate with a thermostat. My plan is to just use L brackets to the bottom of the metal bumper bar, should be sturdy! People have used the RX7 cooler in the past for the XR, so I know it's been made to fit before.
I was out on a test drive ( and picking up some slicks for the hillclimb) and on the way home, the Wastegate actuator arm broke!! Suddenly no boost to speak of, but otherwise functional so I just drove it home.
I switched it back to the old, weaker WGA and reverted to the old tune and drove around. It'll need a slight retune to up the boost again, and the lighter gate has a big spike in boost and settle (what i was trying to solve with the higher pressure gate), but it would have been ok.
Unfortunately on Monday, I threw out my back so bad that I can't even stand up straight still (Thursday), and made the decision to punt on going to Gridlife. A huge bummer but there will be more opportunities! Touch and go as to whether I will go to Empire, we'll see how I'm feeling this weekend. Would need to have someone do the fab work to get the harness attach points in, because I DEFINITELY can't lean over the floor and do that.
If anyone is in the Detroit metro area and can help, I've got a mig welder, flap disks, etc to do the job, I just am not able to at the moment.
Long time no see GRM. Slow progress has been made on the XR, but I was able to run it at Empire Hillclimb!
I wasn't fast, but I wasn't dead last so I'll count that as a job *decently* done for my first solo competition event as a driver. 14th/18 in Class 3 (because, turbo). Build updates incoming shortly.
As seems to be the case... Long time no see!
Since the hillclimb in '21, the car has seen a few changes:
Custom valved suspension meant for MkIV VW Golf, and mounts adapted.
Compbrake camber plates for front struts.
Front uprights machined out to match VW strut diameter
Rear bump stop tower cut out, and adjustable sprint perch installed.
König 18x8 225/45r17 square setup with Falken RT660 tires.
Rear LSD (Eaton Truetrac) finally installed.
All of these were on the car prior to the Empire Hillclimb in 2022, which went well! Other than being a little bouncy (shock damping problem found after), it felt a ton better than the year before.
Various suspension photos.
I also got to run at a DRSCCA Rallycross at Milan, on Tarmac. Was a hoot but so so slippery in the morning. I wasn't last, but damn I was close in the morning! Was able to put some power down in the afternoon, and clawed back some places thankfully.
Upcoming:
Wastegate upgrade (current one was a stopgap after a failure) - TurboSmart
Camshaft upgrade (+ valve springs, roller rockers)- BoPort 1.5
Retune for new changes - Jeff Esteban
Finally closing the open sunroof hole after 2 years!
Finally installing an oil cooler
Garage and tool organization
Where did you find those front struts? I'm currently running VW struts with my Scorpio uprights.
Thanks
In reply to GPz11 (Forum Supporter) :
Custom valved from Dennis at HGB Motorsports in Ohio, but any VW coilovers would work. I was able to get the VW rears to work as well (added a rod end to the top and cut some spacers for the top, off the shelf spacers for the bottom).
So cool! glad to see you checking in.
In reply to Shavarsh :
Thanks! I always struggle with too much detail in my posts, so the super summary is new to me.
More to come, as I blew the head gasket less than a week before the hillclimb last year and had to scramble to get the car back together.
Stolen from Darrell Anderson on the MCA Facebook group:
Someday... This is what's called the "thundersaloon" body kit. Currently the car is tire size limited by the fenders, can only fit those 225s up front, probably could go up to a 245 in the rear without doing more than the roll/pull I've already done on the fenders.
Loose the cladding, roll the fenders and you can run 235's up front.
In reply to GPz11 (Forum Supporter) :
I know I've seen pictures of your car before, but damn that's a great color. What offset wheels? I'm kinda between a rock and a hard place with the strut on one side (I even had to move the spring perch and go to a shorter spring to get the spring seat out of the tire), and the fender on the other. I ditched the cladding over the fenders and rolled/ pulled A LOT to make even my 225s work (17x8 et40 konig) and they still rub at large turning angles. I could raise the car more I suppose but have been trying to get it lower for a lot of reasons.
In reply to GPz11 (Forum Supporter) :
Found a picture of the top of the shock in the rear with the rod end + the spacers for the mount adapter. Can also see the adjuster for the rebound. Easy to reach, but have to jack the car up to have enough space to get your hand in.
And the lower, with a single spacer just to fill the clevis.
For the rears, I'm running some QA1 shocks for a Dodge Dakota IIRC.
My wheel offset is 35mm as they are Mustang rims.
GPz11 (Forum Supporter) said:My wheel offset is 35mm as they are Mustang rims.
Makes sense, I believe these are Fiesta fitment, and required a good 10mm spacer to clear the strut as well as the brake caliper on the front.
Leading up to the hillclimb last year, I got the car back together and completed the swap to a PIMPx system (Megasquirt MS3) upgrade from the previous MS2 based PIMP, with a converted tune from the old system. I had some weird power failures when trying to load everything but soldiered on.
So, with an unknown tune and barely back together, I went for a drive around the block. I told myself I was just going to putt around and knew the tune wasn't up to snuff yet, and I got a little heavy with the right foot...
Just around the corner, I got a Vroom, BANG and lots of smoke and coolant smell, coasted to a stop. Oil from one place, coolant from another.
From the initial inspection, could see part of the gasket sticking out the side between the head and the block! 5 days until loading up for the hillclimb at this point.
Sorry to whoever's house in my neighborhood this was.. :/
I pulled the car home and went to work right away and had the head off that night. Not too much in the way with the way I have it set up with the front mount intercooler.
Ahh, the carnage! I started to worry about bottom end problems, and went about measuring the height of each piston relative to the deck of the block at TDC. 1-3 measured the same within reason but .. cyl 4 measures .036-.048" low. Whoops.
Not much I could do about it at this point. Despite the risk, I decided reassemble everything and attend the Hillclimb anyway. Insert 'If he dies, he dies' meme here.
Reassembly was similarly speedy, just a cleanup, grab a new gasket off the shelf, slap the head back on. Blown up on Sunday, back on the road Tuesday night, working full days in-between.
On the ground, with the new suspension setup and head gasket fixes, ready to go for the hillclimb.
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