'85 Merkur XR4Ti Rally Car

Everytime I see this thread, I go to craigslist to find a Merkur with the dual post wing.

I'm reading this thinking I have never bought or needed snow tires.

In reply to Fladiver64 :

I think I've purchased at least one set of snow tires per year I've had a driver's license.  Even then, I've still been caught without them when I needed them.

So, a while back during some night "testing" we had the light bar, high beams, defroster, and both cooling fans running and the voltage dropped below 12v.  I had a spare alternator from the parts car which charged well but made a rattling sound, so I took it apart, found a loose screw, tightened it, and promptly broke the berkeleying voltage regulator when I put it back together 

Blue is the good one:  

I swapped it anyway, after moving the only remaining voltage regulator between the two, and it certainly charges better than the old one but I ordered a new regulator anyway just to be safe.  

The light connector also took a dump and nearly disintegrated when I unplugged it, so I replaced it with a weatherpack one:  

Then pulled the valve cover for the 500 mile head stud retorque:  

Got it buttoned up and drove it and all seems good except... the valve cover leaked oil everywhere.  Most engines, you replace with a new gasket and are good to go- but not this one, because the Ford 2.3 SOHC wasn't so much "designed" as it was "shat out by Henry Ford's corpse some time in the late 60s."  Regular gaskets leak, aftermarket gaskets leak, and even the NLA Ranger gasket that Merkur people will do unspeakable things to get their hands on is junk.  It's because of this stupid area right here- I have four heads and four valve covers and none of them match up in this spot:  

I put a bunch of the good 24hr cure oil resistant RTV on it and am hoping that will do it.  I'll clean up the oil that went everywhere later.

Weird I used a generic rubber felpro on all my 2.3s and have no leak. Oil leaks drive me nuts. Mine is rtv'd at the front corners pretty heavily though.

In reply to dropstep :

I have been through several Fel-Pros, they were fine until I got the engine bay nice and hot (think 5 mile special stage or similar), then they dumped oil all over the exhaust.  They would probably survive if this thing didn't see WOT for minutes at a time.

In reply to ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ :

How closely related are the Lima and the Pinto? My recollection of the Pinto (we didn’t call them that here, generally just "two litres" as opposed to "thirteen hundred" etc) was that they had a couple of horizontal bolts into the cam tower just above the vertical ones in the two front corners and you did up the downward ones first.

cheers R

The very idea of a gasket that does more than a flat planar shape is wrong when anyone does it. Ford seemed to be especially fond of the idea.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ said:

In reply to dropstep :

I have been through several Fel-Pros, they were fine until I got the engine bay nice and hot (think 5 mile special stage or similar), then they dumped oil all over the exhaust.  They would probably survive if this thing didn't see WOT for minutes at a time.

Ah yeah my turbo 2.3 was just drag raced or burnout comped. I did notice even on my na ranger if the heat shield on the manifold isn't on it melts the side of the felpro gasket were it is visible.

As you already know, the Ford OEM gasket works the best, didn’t know they were NLA. I know one of the guys on Merkur club will snag them from Rangers out of the junkyards. Pretty sure he sells them for like $30 shipped. Last one I bought new was like $60 from Ford.

Unlike the Pinto engine described by Richard, the 2.3 only has valve cover bolts going straight down.  Not sure if that's better or worse, honestly.

The Ranger gasket might actually still be available, I assumed they were out of production on the basis that Merkur dudes buy used ones... which is insane.  I did have one of those and it leaked at the front from the start, but maybe I could try another.

Right now I'm hoping the RTV seals it, since that's what I had on there before and it wasn't leaking until I took it apart to retorque the studs again.

I've had the upper part of the gasket not stay in place while putting the valve cover back on and it leaks like a sieve.

Here's a good price for the OEM Ford gasket on the off chance you need it.

https://www.fordpartsgiant.com/parts/ford-gasket-valve-rocker-arm-cover_f57z-6584-a.html

I think I remember someone on this thread saying they were sort of looking for a dual-wing Merkur.... NMNA. Looks pretty tidy and only 118K miles (per the ad) but is in Colorado.

https://denver.craigslist.org/cto/d/1986-merkur-xr4ti/6770665549.html

I replaced the voltage regulator and ran the car- it was still at 12.7v after idling for 20mins with both fans, the high beams, the defroster, and interior lights on so hopefully that's good enough now.  Valve cover appears to have stopped leaking as well.

Replaced the battery because it was a decade old and that would be a stupid reason to keep chasing charging issues.  Didn't take pictures because boring.  More driving has been happening, so I put the car up in the air to check on things.  All seems well, although the CV axles seem to be developing some slop.  They're rebuilt stock units, which are supposed to be pretty strong, so I'll just keep an eye on them:  

The new struts are doing well too:  

The one issue at the moment is the throttle cable- it's beginning to fray and I don't actually know what it is since it came with the parts car:

I think it's off a Mustang, I'll probably remove it and take measurements.

I got my snow tires (went with the tried and true Altimax Arctic) mounted and am eagerly awaiting snow:  

Also started trying to tidy up the interior of the car- I've been getting E36 M3 at tech for not tying down my impact gun well enough so I mounted it to one of the old rear seatbelt bolts with a quickfist clamp and some rubber pads to keep it from rattling:  

Also took my "kludge kit" out of its' mostly destroyed old bag and added a few more spares before putting it in a new one (which is actually the case for a Harbor Freight drill).  It includes a spare timing belt, fuel pump, ignition coil, distributor w/ drive gear, a bunch of stuff for splicing wiring and hoses, zip ties, bungie cords, various types of tape, WD-40, 1 min gasket maker, and of course, a towel:  

It all gets packed away with the more sensitive parts wrapped in plastic to avoid damage- this is what it looks like before I stuff more towels on top in the bag:  

It then gets bungied into the corner behind the spare tire.  Also visible here is the toolkit, which lives in what used to be the spare tire well:  

Elsewhere in the car we also have spare fluids and all the required boring stuff, which I can elaborate on if anyone wants.  We need to do some tire change practice to make sure our current system is good, so that should be fun.

Also, if anybody can think of stuff that we should carry as spares but is missing let me know- my goal is to make it so that anything we can realistically fix on the side of the road is in the car so we can repair it and get moving again.  I should probably add a u-joint to the kit, I've even considered carrying a spare axle but that seems like it might be excessive.

After you ID the throttle cable, get two. Then string the spare through the firewall alongside the one in service. A tip from trials motorcycles.

In reply to TurnerX19 :

That is an excellent idea, thanks!

LOVE the towel.

Hey guess what?  Yes, it is yet again "berkeley this car o'clock" which is my favorite time of the day.  I noticed the brakes felt spongy so I tried to bleed them... and now the rear lines have a mystery air source.  I think it's the handbrake master cylinder sucking air since it makes a weird noise under pressure, although it doesn't leak.  I'm out of both brake fluid and patience at the moment.  

Haven’t been able to come up with too many more ideas for the kludge kit.  A few hose clamps?

In reply to paranoid_android :

There are a few small ones in one of the plastic bins, I should throw a few bigger ones in the bag though for radiator/intercooler hoses.

As someone who used to carry a spare rear derailleur on mtn bike rides, I'm probably not the best person to ask about spares. However, doing long distance drives in cranky old LBC's has taught me I need to start thinking about spares to carry as well. Standard stuff: Belts, hoses, fuses, wire, fluids. From an experience with my ex's 1800ES, we added a spare flex-joint and extension to that car's spare kit as otherwise it was near-on impossible to tighten the bolts holding the down-pipe to the exhaust manifold.  Fun idling through downtown Watkins Glen with nearly an open header... 

Some spare nuts/bolts probably isnt a bad idea, in case you lose hardware holding an important part in or on.

In reply to Gaunt596 :

I can definitely chuck some control arm, trailing arm, and lug hardware in there.