The Merkur Club of America Forums

Excellent video!!

Here's a possibility: when you take it out for a road test, the engine sees sustained operation at higher revs and any sludge loosened by the cleaning may break off in chunks and globs, that get stuck in the oil pump's pick-up screen, causing a drop in flow and pressure. Once the motor is shut off t...

i wonder if something has become unbalanced, such as the harmonic balancer, or maybe even the pressure plate

Mine did the same thing. I tried using pry bars, with all the other ex man. bolts slightly loose; no-go. Then i used a torch with a "rosebud" tip to heat up the #1 runner so it would flex more(toward the radiator), but i ran out of oxygen before i got enough of it red-hot. What finally cin...

I have always heard that, at a minimum, you should disconnect the battery AND the Alt. regulator. Even then there are the rare cases where vehicles that had just been welded on experience fried modules. An experienced body tech at the ford store i used to work at told me that usually happens when so...

I have installed two sets from www.batinc.net/merkur in the past and they were red powder coated.

Well that makes it tricky. If it's not too old you usually get spark knock(the noise you described), and difficult cold starts(gasoline is a blend of different petroleum distillates and the light distillates that help gasoline ignite in cold air are the first to evaporate in storage, leaving behind ...

One of the problems with old/stale gas is that it drops in octane. Getting a rattle/clatter type noise upon varying levels of acceleration is likely. You need to use up the old gas, then fill-up with the REQUIRED 91+ octane, and re-evaluate. How old is the gas?

From the pictures, looks like he has studs installed

the only gasket on the hot side of a factory 2.3l turbo is between the ex. man. and the turbo.

Sounds like a vacuum leak, and it's easy enough to check

If you have a fuel pressure test gauge, you could hook it up and verify 35~40psi while cranking and while the engine runs/dies. If it has inadequate or falling pressure, you may need a pump, or you may have inadequate electrical power/ground to the pump. Check the fuel pump relay female terminals in...

page 15-00-1 of FSM lists 33-44 lb-ft for cover-to-case bolts

Normally, the ex. man. bolts don't get red glowing hot, as the ones mounted to the turbine side do, so the bolts won't get brittle on you. However, i've had two manifolds warp from high heat, which led to very difficult time removing and installing the ex man. bolts. If your lucky, all the man bolts...

I'm thinking that if you actually have a jumped timing chain, then your compression results would be all over the map, some cylinders would be normal, a couple of others would be low, and one or two would be really low, like 15~30psi. Also, when cranking, it would have a strange sound as the normal ...