The Nelson clan is not far from Chris.
The Nelson clan is not far from Chris.
In reply to Indy-Guy :
I'm in Ann Arbor, MI.
Where are you located? (Insert face-palm if you are in Indy)
ESPR is coming up at the end of October, but I don't know anyone headed that way unless I can make it out there.
paranoid_android74 said:In reply to Indy-Guy :
I'm in Ann Arbor, MI.
Where are you located? (Insert face-palm if you are in Indy)
ESPR is coming up at the end of October, but I don't know anyone headed that way unless I can make it out there.
Far East side of Indy...
Insert face palm.
Chris and I have communicated off line. He's heading to St. Louis this weekend, so he's going to stop by on his way back and collect all the remnants of the Merkur I've been storing for FAR too long.
A little while ago, Josh posted a glorious badge which he had found, and I expressed just how much my tow rig needed it. Today, when I got home, this was waiting for me:
I wasted no time drilling holes in my vehicle:
Thanks Josh! 
Nice!
Rally Santa? I like it. And the badge is very fitting.
Chris, It was good to meeting you and Sarah today. The kids really enjoyed the visit. Although they were so shy while you guys were here, they keep talking about how it was cool to meet a "real race car driver" in person.
Way cool!
In reply to Indy-Guy :
I just figured that they were completely underwhelmed at the "race car driver" being just some dude in a crappy hatchback- they did seem excited to meet "race car driver's dog" though 
Thanks again for the parts, I wish we could have stayed to hang out longer but on a 900 mile trip keeping the momentum going is key. If the kids want to come up with a logo to denote their (your) sponsorship of our car we'd be happy to run it!
For anyone wondering, it is possible to fit two people, a dog, all of said dog's stuff including crate, wedding attire for two, photography gear, 4 wheels (3 with tires), two trailing arms, and two front knuckles into a 318ti, although not with much room to spare!
Since I won't get back to this until I'm done with the garage/house stuff I'm doing right now, I think I should get the plans for repairs typed out before I forget things.
Need to fix:
Ideal plan:
The plan for reinforcing the rear suspension bits is to cut up and use the parts we bent at BRS to "double skin" critical areas, then add gussets where possible. Reinforcements to the front subframe would just be gussets and seam welding. I'm also on the fence about switching to compression struts up front so that I can ditch the front swaybar and make it easier to work on.
The point of all this? I'm hoping to get to the point where stuff only breaks when we berkeley up, rather than just because we're on a rally stage and the road is rough or choppy or we got air. One could argue that yumping too far is berkeleying up, but that's no fun, so it's time to beef up some suspension bits
Hey, do you have the bean reinforcement kit?
http://forum.merkurclub.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=19111
In reply to GPz11 :
No, I was planning on making my own and possibly adding to it a bit.
Looks pretty good up on the wall, Thank you Gents!
I have been neglecting both this and my house thread. Update time! Chief got some suspension work which I failed to photograph, new shocks/bushings/bumpstops/endlinks and I lowered it two inches because shackles cost the same either way and torsion bar adjustment is free.
The NX250 got fresh knobbly tires and a new clutch:
The 318ti got a new driver's floor pan:
And I extracted the Megasquirt, wideband, relay board, EDIS stuff, and wiring harness from the parts car:
It looks like somebody did a halfway decent job wiring everything, although there are a few connections I'll want to redo. This weekend we'll be at ESPR volunteering, but hopefully next weekend the parts car can get up on the lift so that I can relieve it of its' remaining suspension and drivetrain components.
This past weekend things really started to get messy. Parts car went on lift:
Engine was hoisted:
Car was hoisted:
Subframes were removed:
Then scooted out of the way:
I found a new friend sitting on the fence outside:
Suspensions were disassembled:
Bushings were removed with much difficulty:
And the bits which need to be 3D scanned for reinforcements/adaptations were cleaned up:
Not photographed, the other suspension pieces were filed away on the shelves or into the spare parts bins- we now have a "heavy spares" bin as well since I found an old Pelican case in a dumpster. I need to figure out how to move the parts car now that it has no wheels, and start tearing into the engine to see what (other than the oil pump drive) it needs before it can go into the rally car.
On another note, I think we're going to stick with the factory ECU for now- too many horror stories of Megasquirts gone wrong for me to want to deal with it, the Ford ECU seems indestructible, and we don't really need more power anyway. The new engine should be more powerful simply by virtue of better airflow and fresher components, and maybe the big giant intercooler will let us crank the boost up a little more on the factory ECU. This means I need to rebuild at least one of the 5(!) T3s I have laying around.
In reply to ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ :
Sounds like it's time to add a forklift to your collection of "shop tools".
In reply to Pete Gossett :
I'm not sure I'm responsible enough to own a forklift.
"Our rally budget for next year has arrived!"
"Where did this ATM come from?"
Any details on the custom exhaust manifold? Also, any interest in selling the megasquirt and harness?
I plan to do megasquirt on my Challenge build and this would make life a little easier than building one.
In reply to hobiercr :
The header is a Stinger center mount, and I'll probably use it since it looks to be in pretty good shape. I do have another aftermarket header which puts the turbo in the stock location that I would sell cheap, and could probably throw in a turbocharger in need of a rebuild as well. I would consider selling the Megasquirt, harness, relay board, and EDIS module all together, but don't really want to split them up- to me the value is in having a complete solution that would fit the car and run if I hook it up, so I'm not interested in splitting it up to just sell the MS3 by itself right now. If you want to talk price you can email me and maybe we can come up with a package deal that works with your challenge budget.
In reply to ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ :
Thanks for the info. Because of the engine bay we may have to flip the stock exhaust manifold to put the turbo to the front. Stock location is no beuno. I'll send you an email about the MS3, harness, etc.
This weekend started out with the question "how do we get a car with no wheels off the lift?"
The answer? Some cheap wheel dollies and scrap lumber:
For some reason I only took a picture through the engine bay of this not-sketchy-at-all solution:
A bunch of swearing and pinballing the car off various objects, and it's back in place:
Next, engine disassembly. The oil was a little bit sparkly, but nothing too alarming:
Upper intake removed, looks like a fancy ported lower:
PO's primary complaint? Wouldn't build boost, couldn't figure it out. I wonder if this easily removable intake piece might have been the problem?
Turbocharger removed, it had 3 spacers and 4 gaskets!
With the header off the engine starts to look a lot smaller:
Pulled the valve cover, everything looks OK and nothing moves in any way it shouldn't:
Pulled the oil pan, same deal, everything looks good and none of the bearings feel loose. I did find some pieces of the old oil pump drive gear, though.
Speaking of which, the oil pump is indeed a high volume unit, which explains why it ate the factory drive components. I'll get upgraded ones to replace them, but I needed to get the aux shaft out. It was held in with berkeleying locking phillips head screws, what the berkeleying berkeley Ford? Lots of swearing, a dremel, and like 19 drill bits gave their lives to remove those.
Stripped gears:
Before moving on to the rally car, I decided that I had had enough of no music in the garage. Garage sound system 2.0 is planned but I haven't gotten around to it, so 1.0 is a little E36 M3ty but should get the job done:
The rally car fired up and moved like I had parked it a few days ago rather than two months, although it did mark its' territory:
I used to have to find a yump to get this view:
Aaand a couple hours later, two crappy old Ford engines are sitting on the floor:
Adjustable cam pulley, mmmmm.
What are your tall jack stands?
And I somehow didn't know you had an NX 250. That was my dream bike when I was about 14.
In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :
The big screw jack is a Sunex 3/4 ton stand from Amazon, and it is fantastic for the full height lift but might be a little tall for something like the MaxJax. I think I probably used it on 10 different components this weekend alone.
The NX250 is surprisingly capable, especially since I've put spacers in the forks and swapped to an SV650 shock on the rear. It gets like 85 mpg and is just as awesome as your 14 year old self thought it would be- I just wish I still had my CB-1 to really round out my stable of obscure late 80s Hondas.
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