My XR4Ti - 8 years in a coma
13-02-2009, 08:21 AM
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My XR4Ti - 8 years in a coma
I've compiled this build from a couple posts I have in another forum. Sorry if it seems out of place timeline wise but I've seen more Merkurs get in the mags over there and thought you'd like to see what we do over here in Canada.
I've owned this car for 16 years. Half of which it has been in my old garage or at a friend's shop getting some stuff done to it.
Basically it was a daily driver that I took autocrossing and to the occasional car show. I was in the hospital for back surgery and some thievin' bastards broke in and messed it up (badly). Then it was to be towed to my mate's shop for an insurance claim. Tow truck driver busted the RS wing off and wrecked the hatch. Nightmare.
Fast forward 8 years. Ugh. I've removed the suspension and lent to it a racer and can't get my suspension back. I also lent him 2 of my 17 inch compomotives for "wets" and they are on their way back to me. I'm planning on fitting Godfrey's front roll bar a strut setup but I'll have to modify the picture front bar mounts to fit them. the supplier of my suspension in the UK wont sell to US or CDN buyers due to possible litigation. Whatever.
Car has a rear beam, diff and brakes from a WRC recce Escort Cosworth. Nothing fancy. AVO coil overs all 'round. Front TCAs and uprights are from the same Escort. Brake calipers are as well but there are some mystery bell and discs that were fitted.
Engine has a lot of action going on, still only %90 assembled. Relocated alternator with new pulley setup. Would like to find a serpentine that would work with this getup though.
Interior is Sparco stuff. Wheel, pedals, seats, harnesses. Dash is going to get some gauges, servo operated brake bias on steering wheel, and some other toys - budget permitting.
Interior off to get painted/dyed black with a grey matching carpet/headliner/abcd pillars. That will make me happy.
So all this got moved to my new garage this week. Garage isn't fully setup. The lathe, welder, drill press, vises, polisher/grinder are all there now but not buttoned down. Storage is not sorted yet either.
The build is mostly done but I thought I'd add a build page here so document some of the finds/do and don't so that I can maybe help someone else out here. I'll try to update and include tutorials if I can. Or at least shots of what stuff looks like apart etc.
Why 3.0? 1.0 was stock plus my mods were a 500 wing, some urethane, springs, a boost knob, some other bits. Version 2.0 was the paint scheme you see here with no motor or suspension mods.
Version 3.0 is same paint (it will need some paint) plus all the suspension and motor mods. Rear brace etc. Needed a new front bumper as the old 500 one was getting long in the tooth. I'm not going to use the cage now and it is for sale.
Work from yesterday. Here is what a fender liner removed looks like with a bunch of goop in its place:
I've owned this car for 16 years. Half of which it has been in my old garage or at a friend's shop getting some stuff done to it.
Basically it was a daily driver that I took autocrossing and to the occasional car show. I was in the hospital for back surgery and some thievin' bastards broke in and messed it up (badly). Then it was to be towed to my mate's shop for an insurance claim. Tow truck driver busted the RS wing off and wrecked the hatch. Nightmare.
Fast forward 8 years. Ugh. I've removed the suspension and lent to it a racer and can't get my suspension back. I also lent him 2 of my 17 inch compomotives for "wets" and they are on their way back to me. I'm planning on fitting Godfrey's front roll bar a strut setup but I'll have to modify the picture front bar mounts to fit them. the supplier of my suspension in the UK wont sell to US or CDN buyers due to possible litigation. Whatever.
Car has a rear beam, diff and brakes from a WRC recce Escort Cosworth. Nothing fancy. AVO coil overs all 'round. Front TCAs and uprights are from the same Escort. Brake calipers are as well but there are some mystery bell and discs that were fitted.
Engine has a lot of action going on, still only %90 assembled. Relocated alternator with new pulley setup. Would like to find a serpentine that would work with this getup though.
Interior is Sparco stuff. Wheel, pedals, seats, harnesses. Dash is going to get some gauges, servo operated brake bias on steering wheel, and some other toys - budget permitting.
Interior off to get painted/dyed black with a grey matching carpet/headliner/abcd pillars. That will make me happy.
So all this got moved to my new garage this week. Garage isn't fully setup. The lathe, welder, drill press, vises, polisher/grinder are all there now but not buttoned down. Storage is not sorted yet either.
The build is mostly done but I thought I'd add a build page here so document some of the finds/do and don't so that I can maybe help someone else out here. I'll try to update and include tutorials if I can. Or at least shots of what stuff looks like apart etc.
Why 3.0? 1.0 was stock plus my mods were a 500 wing, some urethane, springs, a boost knob, some other bits. Version 2.0 was the paint scheme you see here with no motor or suspension mods.
Version 3.0 is same paint (it will need some paint) plus all the suspension and motor mods. Rear brace etc. Needed a new front bumper as the old 500 one was getting long in the tooth. I'm not going to use the cage now and it is for sale.
Work from yesterday. Here is what a fender liner removed looks like with a bunch of goop in its place:
13-02-2009, 08:23 AM
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Gas tank was assembled. Jeez Louise putting the sock on the walbro was a pain in the butt. Got the pump in, painted up the tank. Cut a new hole in the filter housing to allow deletion of the main pump. Binned. Cutting the resistor out of the harness now is the only electrical step left. Mount the tank next. I may delay installing the tank until my mc2 diff mount comes in.
Rear brakes are full painted, assembled, rebuilt and bled. Pumped 2 litres of crap DOT3 fluid through the car for a good flush. I'll let that settle then will flush it out with the 500f Ford fluid as soon as it's ready for sea trials.
Polished and painted the filler neck and I'll dig out my bullitt cap next and mate that up. Not sure if I need a backing plate or if it will just install. Fun.
My interior is finished! I went from the gray staid 80's look to full black interior. Every panel will have been colour matched and repaired. They were to deliver it today but the rain was so intense and I had to give Larry one last piece so he said he'll deliver full interior Monday morning. Can't wait! With an interior the car will look %90 finished and will get me motivated to get cracking on the rest. With a place to sit, brakes and fuel it will be time to start it up and work out the bugs.
The puzzle pieces come together now. I need my dash to start installing the new gauges coming from England. Got an alloy rad coming as well.
Ok back on track with the build. I welded up the holes in the floor and urethaned them. Painted them white to match and tried my best to replicate the original tool marks of the German urethane scraper.
Now that my black interior has been delivered, I can go ahead with some gauge placement. I'm really fussy about gauges. Being a watch buff I am a bit anal about clock faces. If it's digital it better look like avionics. If it's analogue, it better not look like it should be in a 69 camaro. That puts me in a tough spot for finding what I like. I bought these from the UK and they showed up in 3 days. I dig that. Simple analogue face with a "digital" look by being backlit blue LED lighting. The bezel is silver but I'll paint black if it looks tacky in my old clock/warning module center. I'll spend tomorrow playing with them in my install plate mock up before I commit to a full dash install for them. I want to have the blue LED idiot light for oil pressure right beside the oil temp gauge and oil pressure gauge. the oil temp is in C and the oil pressure is in bar. I also have a turbo boost gauge in -1 bar to 2 bar. Not %100 sold on these but I don't see me running a stack ST8100 anytime soon.
Crappy phone pics, but hey. This is what showed up today. Just need some coolant (and install it) and I can start getting underway on the engine.
The rad is quite nice. Welds are all hot and it fits perfect. It doesn't have a fan switch bung but that is of no matter. the rad fill from teh header tank is threaded so I can use proper fittings now. I run my switch from the head anyway. Matt (got_xr) had some nice little bits for me yesterday and I wanted to spend some money when we went down and saw JohnV in Seattle yesterday but he didn't have what I wanted in stock. All the Cossie turbine housings were spoken for! Matthew got some very nice looking Supra diff to Cosworth/Scorpio shaft adapters.
Rear brakes are full painted, assembled, rebuilt and bled. Pumped 2 litres of crap DOT3 fluid through the car for a good flush. I'll let that settle then will flush it out with the 500f Ford fluid as soon as it's ready for sea trials.
Polished and painted the filler neck and I'll dig out my bullitt cap next and mate that up. Not sure if I need a backing plate or if it will just install. Fun.
My interior is finished! I went from the gray staid 80's look to full black interior. Every panel will have been colour matched and repaired. They were to deliver it today but the rain was so intense and I had to give Larry one last piece so he said he'll deliver full interior Monday morning. Can't wait! With an interior the car will look %90 finished and will get me motivated to get cracking on the rest. With a place to sit, brakes and fuel it will be time to start it up and work out the bugs.
The puzzle pieces come together now. I need my dash to start installing the new gauges coming from England. Got an alloy rad coming as well.
Ok back on track with the build. I welded up the holes in the floor and urethaned them. Painted them white to match and tried my best to replicate the original tool marks of the German urethane scraper.
Now that my black interior has been delivered, I can go ahead with some gauge placement. I'm really fussy about gauges. Being a watch buff I am a bit anal about clock faces. If it's digital it better look like avionics. If it's analogue, it better not look like it should be in a 69 camaro. That puts me in a tough spot for finding what I like. I bought these from the UK and they showed up in 3 days. I dig that. Simple analogue face with a "digital" look by being backlit blue LED lighting. The bezel is silver but I'll paint black if it looks tacky in my old clock/warning module center. I'll spend tomorrow playing with them in my install plate mock up before I commit to a full dash install for them. I want to have the blue LED idiot light for oil pressure right beside the oil temp gauge and oil pressure gauge. the oil temp is in C and the oil pressure is in bar. I also have a turbo boost gauge in -1 bar to 2 bar. Not %100 sold on these but I don't see me running a stack ST8100 anytime soon.
Crappy phone pics, but hey. This is what showed up today. Just need some coolant (and install it) and I can start getting underway on the engine.
The rad is quite nice. Welds are all hot and it fits perfect. It doesn't have a fan switch bung but that is of no matter. the rad fill from teh header tank is threaded so I can use proper fittings now. I run my switch from the head anyway. Matt (got_xr) had some nice little bits for me yesterday and I wanted to spend some money when we went down and saw JohnV in Seattle yesterday but he didn't have what I wanted in stock. All the Cossie turbine housings were spoken for! Matthew got some very nice looking Supra diff to Cosworth/Scorpio shaft adapters.
13-02-2009, 08:23 AM
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Took my Compomotives to the refinisher today to get them stripped and repainted. Bought replacement stickers from ebay.co.uk as well. Today I installed my Bullitt Mustang fuel door. Made a nice polished aluminum backing plate for it to mount to inside the fuel pod, but as I was polishing it it got sucked out of my hands and smoked me in the head. Any sharper and I'd need stitches. Luckily I just got a big goose egg and a bad cut. Funny shaped aluminum is hard to polish safely.... wears those safety goggles. Thankfully I was.
Drilled my dash's defrost vent to mount the LED for the new alarm. My Jag has the alarm LED there and I like it. Looks more modern. Wired some of it up and mocked up some wiring/pipes for preparation of the dash install. I dug up the HKS boost knob and mapped its placement out on my clock blank plate template. Won't be sad to see the clock and warning modules go. 3 gauges, brake bias knob and boost know go in there. Should look good. I took out the oil sender unit and the turbo feed line and will get more fittings to mount the new oil temp and pressure senders for the gauges. Spent about 10 hours on the car today....
Picked up my Yokohama A032r tires today. Soft compound 235/40/17. Treadwear 60!!!
My car has fuel pressure for the first time in 2875 days. The tank went in today with a new walbro pump. A little fussy to get it in but it powered up right away and makes full pressure. I had the tank fully redone and did a lot under there. The hold up was putting the mc2racing diff mount in.
Not a big deal to most but this is a milestone for me in the whole rebuild/mod process. i still have to drop the tailhousing and install a 6 tooth speedo gear, so it's not like it can come down off the stands just yet. Front suspension needs to go in as well.
But it was a big deal for me. I'll be celebrating this evening.
Excellent. [/burns]
Drilled my dash's defrost vent to mount the LED for the new alarm. My Jag has the alarm LED there and I like it. Looks more modern. Wired some of it up and mocked up some wiring/pipes for preparation of the dash install. I dug up the HKS boost knob and mapped its placement out on my clock blank plate template. Won't be sad to see the clock and warning modules go. 3 gauges, brake bias knob and boost know go in there. Should look good. I took out the oil sender unit and the turbo feed line and will get more fittings to mount the new oil temp and pressure senders for the gauges. Spent about 10 hours on the car today....
Picked up my Yokohama A032r tires today. Soft compound 235/40/17. Treadwear 60!!!
My car has fuel pressure for the first time in 2875 days. The tank went in today with a new walbro pump. A little fussy to get it in but it powered up right away and makes full pressure. I had the tank fully redone and did a lot under there. The hold up was putting the mc2racing diff mount in.
Not a big deal to most but this is a milestone for me in the whole rebuild/mod process. i still have to drop the tailhousing and install a 6 tooth speedo gear, so it's not like it can come down off the stands just yet. Front suspension needs to go in as well.
But it was a big deal for me. I'll be celebrating this evening.
Excellent. [/burns]
13-02-2009, 08:24 AM
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Took out my brake bias valve and hammered the knob off the top and installed a summit racing balance bar knob on it. Had to turn it on the lath and reseal it. So yes, I have an in dash brake bias knob now.
Dummy mounted a 92 tempo trans cooler in place of the stock PAS cooler since the stock cooler now won't fit with my new rad and the Aeroquip fitting coming off it. Not that cooling power steering fluid is a big deal, but it was a good junkyard find. Dummy fit will turn into fitted when I get two 90deg fittings for it to hug the chassis rails out of the way and looking clean. Ran out of aluminum flat bar today so I couldn't mount it proper. Friday!
Been getting lots done lately. Car runs, fuel pressure, engine is almost back and tidied. Very excited.
Remove the silly rear anti lock brake valve. Install a brake bias knob. Punch out the top knob and install a wilwood brake balance bar cable. 3/8 fine thread screw on. You can tap and die the mating pieces and then loctite them as I did. I was going to pin them but this is on so tight now. I need to install the know in the dash next. I have an aluminum plate that goes where the clock etc was, but my dash is out getting a touch up on it from the upholstery guy. Maybe next week I'll mount the knob.
Mounted my 92 Tempo trans cooler as a power steering cooler. Made the bracket, polished it etc. Didn't bother with overbraid this time. I might upgrade it down the road.
Dummy mounted a 92 tempo trans cooler in place of the stock PAS cooler since the stock cooler now won't fit with my new rad and the Aeroquip fitting coming off it. Not that cooling power steering fluid is a big deal, but it was a good junkyard find. Dummy fit will turn into fitted when I get two 90deg fittings for it to hug the chassis rails out of the way and looking clean. Ran out of aluminum flat bar today so I couldn't mount it proper. Friday!
Been getting lots done lately. Car runs, fuel pressure, engine is almost back and tidied. Very excited.
Originally Posted by demonfire
I want more details on brake bias please.
Mounted my 92 Tempo trans cooler as a power steering cooler. Made the bracket, polished it etc. Didn't bother with overbraid this time. I might upgrade it down the road.
13-02-2009, 08:24 AM
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Some recent additions. Hard lined my heater pipes on the head/thermostat. Added my 2 step/launch control buttons to my steering wheel. Added some silly little aircraft switch. I hate that if I stall it I have to turn the computer off and on. I'll add the switch to the starter circuit tomorrow. Mounted the dash earlier this week and the lower dash can go in now that my brake bias knob and boost valve are mounted. I put gauges in the dash but didn't take a pic. Boost, oil pressure and oil temp in bar and Celsius.
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13-02-2009, 03:27 PM
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You can see that I fully respect what the Cosworth design can afford. Dropped the alternator down, cut, turned and welded my intake to face forward, moved the header tank etc.
15-02-2009, 06:42 AM
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Just a couple shots from tonight as I wound up the evening's work.
Bear in mind this started out as a grey 85 "checker" cloth interior.
Bear in mind this started out as a grey 85 "checker" cloth interior.
16-02-2009, 02:55 AM
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My mobile gear consists of a Canon 1Ds Mk.II, a 17-40mm, 70-200 2.8, 15mm fishy, 50 1.4, 85 1.8 and a TSE 45. A couple of 580EX IIs and an ST-E2 round it out.
17-02-2009, 07:05 AM
#23
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Welded up the drop links for my suspension today. Got the bolts for the compression strut and made little brass spacers for avoiding binding and a couple delrin spacers to clear the TCA.
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