Hey guys.
Not whole lot of progress on the XR this weekend, but I did go to Northern Tool and buy an engine stand. I also got a compression tester on sale at Sears.
Here's the pics that I promised a week ago:
The badge:
This is how it came home:
This is it all tucked away in the shop:
And this is the tip of an iceburg of sins:
oh dear I hope they didnt molest to bad... 
You poor poor bastard... 
That looks like fun to me. The bigger the train wreck, the better the payoff when the pig works.
What am i looking at in the last picture?
You're looking at my fancy aftermarket trans cooler, which is convieniently twist-tied to the back side of my radiator.
I can understand why some people like these but I just can't get past the truck load of fugly.
LordTurbonia wrote:You're looking at my fancy aftermarket trans cooler, which is convieniently twist-tied to the back side of my radiator.
bah, if you saw how many zip ties, safety wire and other fun 'fasteners' were on our XR4 you'd wonder if we built our car out of Home Depot parts
LordTurbonia wrote:You're looking at my fancy aftermarket trans cooler, which is convieniently twist-tied to the back side of my radiator.
and that was something easy to get at.. imagine the hidden horrors
Raze, the difference is that you probabaly used non -traditional materials in a thoughtful manner that may actaully stand a snowball's chance in hell of passing tech at an event. This is just horrifying for the sake of horrifying, and it's not just skin deep. Coolant routing problems, coolant that looks like a hangover poo, the hand grenade C3 . . . the list goes on.
Frankly, I'm finding it harder and harder to tell my 4x4 inclined buddy (he's the shadowy figure in the shop pic) that a V8 swap is a bad idea. I found a set of Jim Deberry 5.0 HO mounts for less than I'm finding clean Holsets, and I'll admit that a certian XR8 article on MerkurTech has me intrigued as to the possibilities. I'll admit that a big, dumb, natually aspirated V8 is anathema to my nature (I have yet to own a V8 powered vehicle, my favorite engine is the 1.8T, and I signed up to comment with the name "LordTurbonia") but as a road beast with the occasional Street Modified auto-x to show up to, I can hardly argure with the low end torque, easy maintenance, and reduced need for in-car fire suppression that the 5.0 provides.
Opinions? I'm busting out the compression tester on the 2.3 turbo engine at some point soon, and I'm afraid of the numbers I'm going to see . . . If it was a question of a serviceable, well maintained 2.3, the "XR8" wouldn't even be on the table, but if I have to take anything to the machine shop at this point the $ and work involved is a toss up.
LordTurbonia wrote:Opinions? I'm busting out the compression tester on the 2.3 turbo engine at some point soon, and I'm afraid of the numbers I'm going to see . . . If it was a question of a serviceable, well maintained 2.3, the "XR8" wouldn't even be on the table, but if I have to take anything to the machine shop at this point the $ and work involved is a toss up.
There's a fella on Merkur Car Club of America Forums rocking an LS, There are actually quite a few V8s running around, and quite frankly pretty badass. If you like tinkering a 2.3T is fun, if you don't like tinkering, ditch it, the car won't mind...
You've made Jim Rome proud.
My XR had compression of 35 60 150 155 when I bought it.
Are you sure the coolant routing isn't stock? I can't imagine worse!
You know, now that I busted out the diagram again it looks pretty close to the stock routing, but it is most definitely not the stock parts and it looks like there was an additional hardline added at some point. I'll have to look at the lines in the car again to be sure, but there was a lot of "WTF" as I traced it, and one of the hard lines next to the head looked so rusted that I am amazed it held coolant. Chunks are flaking off of it.
There are two identical XRs in my local pick a part. Someone else must have given up on the dream of turbo power. Both in pretty nice shape too.
LordTurbonia wrote: one of the hard lines next to the head looked so rusted that I am amazed it held coolant. Chunks are flaking off of it.
Mine is the same.
m4ff3w wrote:LordTurbonia wrote: one of the hard lines next to the head looked so rusted that I am amazed it held coolant. Chunks are flaking off of it.Mine is the same.
bah, wait till your hoses start splitting while you drive 
