My X1/9 is gone, XR4ti is here

Picked up a clean and rust free 88 XR4ti. The guy was wanting $1000 because it had a bad "exhaust leak"

I couldn't feel a leak anywhere, so I asked to drive it to my house and do a compression check:

35 60 150 155

Ouch. I walked back to his house (couple of blocks away) and offered $200. He said no, I told him if decided to let it go for $300, I'd buy it. I walked back to my house, drove the car over. As soon as got back to his house, he said he'd take $300.

So I'm ordering gasket set/head studs/timing kit/water pump today.

getting a 1035 gasket?

good score btw.

I was under the impression if the head and block aren't going to be trued (assuming they aren't warped) the standard felpro would seal better.

very nice.. I always wanted one of those, but all the ones around here are badly beat

So where are you getting your rebuilt cylinder head to replace your cracked one?

Damnit John, its just the head gasket.

Don't go cursing me.

You forget the fact that I exhausted most of North Americas supply of heads between 2002 and 2007 trying to find a good one

Don't forget to check for broken piston rings, broken piston skirts, burnt valves, destroyed valve seats, and the cracked head.

I guess that just means Volvo head swap...darn.

I wish.

Have you seen the numbers on Colins cars? I say make it so!

I've got a head if you need one.

I wish I had the time/money for a B234 swap.

Hopefully the head and block are OK.

If everything's stock your bottom end is likely okay. It really is worth the money to get your head worked over(decked/ported/valvejob)

As long as the rings still seal, leave the bottom end alone. If it's trashed you're better off with a swap (I've seen SHO V6's, 5.0's, 351's, and Volvo motors (not just heads, the whole thing) in these). Do a leakdown check. In bad gas areas (like up here) they bust piston skirts and rings, down south hasn't been a problem.

But if the bottom end does check out OK spend the money on the head, it's worth it.

Half the borked heads come from porting jobs or running too much boost lean. Here in the south 2.3Ts are still plentiful enough...

I'd go 1035 + either stock 12 point bolts (reusable torque) or Felpro 6 point bolts (single use torque to angle), as you can replace the bolts 3-4 times before you pay for a set of ARP studs, and everyone says you need to retorque ARP studs 3-5 times!!!

EDIT: You didn't say, when you did your compression test did you do a full leakdown? Was the car blowing coolant? If the head's bad yeah that'll bite...

www.merkurdesktop.com

There was an XR with a TT 300ZX engine floating around the net somewhere....

Good score , I loved our 86. Boost upped to 18 Psi , it was a hoot onthe cottage roads.

Watch the electrical gremlins!

Actually, I didn't do a leakdown.

Hopefully I will not be in for a nasty suprize when I remove the head.

18 psi. Wow. That's a stout motor. Miata guys are proud if we see 14 psi.

Xceler8x wrote: 18 psi. Wow. That's a stout motor. Miata guys are proud if we see 14 psi.

depending on intake and exhaust that is relatively tame on an XR. With a stock throttle valve, intake and open long 2.5" exhaust we ran 18psi without issue. Once we went to a 65mm tb, gutted ported intake and 3" exhaust the same setup only made 13.5psi. We were running against the end of the turbos flow abilities at that point. A T3/T4 hybrid or a Holset would have resolved that issue but that would have needed much more fuel as well.

Stock Merkurs run at 15psi , Auto's at 11 then I think they jump to 15 in 2nd gear.

We owned it 13 years, Only work ever done to it outstide regular maintenance was rebuilding the turbo, the last straw was the headgasket. It was never winter driven , we sold it with 100,000 miles , and 0 rust for $1500. The car is still around today and very well cared for.

Headgasket went wen the wastegate stuck closed and I just kept driving it. I can remember coming off the highway when I was 18 and the turbo and manifold were glowing red. I pushed the car to 220/kmh (looonng time ago)

wasn't fun when my friend opened the crank sunroof@ that speed.

I will always remember the tape holers too under the radio.. purrreee 80's!

Nice score. Those '87 rims are my favorite.

I'm assuming T-9. Almost all of them around here seem to have sun roofs.
I've had 2 with out the sun roof and trees have fallen on both. I guess I should have taken photos.

Nice buy, those are sweet cars, nice colour too. I have seen worse hacked grills, that one is not too bad. Is it a manual or auto?

Also it has the less obscene wing too, i haven't seen that before, all in all it looks like a wicked find.

It has a T9, I wish it did have the obscene wing.

The grill isn't terribly bad. I can live with it.

Just find a pull-a-part with a bi-wing hatch and swap th whole hatch, that'll get you a more obscene wing, if you want crazy go with the whale-tail

btw, 18psi is nothing on these engines, I just blew the PO's craptastic 8993 ($9) gasket job a month ago at 24psi with our Holset but we have alot more fuel and MegaSquirt. It didn't detonate, just blew it out, which wasn't surprising after tearing it down and finding one head bolt loose (as in no break-a-way torque, just barely tight) and 3 others terribly corroded due to what looked like improperly torqued, uncleaned reused rusty headbolts! I spent neary a day digging out rusty goop from all the head bolt holes and opted for new bolts instead of trying to be a cheapa$$ and reusing the oem 12-pointers...