is this a good deal?

turbofan · Post by **turbofan** » Tue Nov 01, 2005 12:33 pm

every single time i look at that car, i melt. i love it.

yeah we'll be putting the lifters and springs in within the next couple weeks. subs are going in today, and i'm gonna get it all washed and cleaned up. I've got the boost adjusted down to only 10 psi and will leave it somewhere between there and 15 (boost controller will allow up to 18) until i get a 'cooler on it. anyone know how much is too much without a cooler? the high mileage worries me too... figure it's a good idea to keep it as cool as possible. oh, gonna put a thermostat in it today too. i dont think it has one.

Texranger · Post by **Texranger** » Tue Nov 01, 2005 1:52 pm

Hey Turbofan, congratulations man .... take good care of her and you will see what a great car is the XR. Enjoy!!!

Nick.

Post by **Ed Lijewski** » Tue Nov 01, 2005 6:49 pm

Jon Welsh used to post to IMON; IIRC he was kind of fanatical about his XR (and maybe a Scorpio as well), but aren't we all. Haven't seen a post from him in some time; his posts were always/ALWAYS like short-stories and I don't mean single paragraphs.

YMMV

turbofan · Post by **turbofan** » Wed Nov 02, 2005 2:39 am

yeah i got the subs in today and they sound great. the car is amazing acoustically thanks to the hatch. tonight when i was playing around town i finally got to experience that valve float issue. scary. i'm gonna put those new springs in by the end of the week. don't want to be dealing with that now do we

. car needs lots of little things. also going to do a coolant flush tomorrow. the fans don't have the stock switches and it's rigged on a toggle so i'm going to extend the wires and mount it on the dashboard so i can control it from there. i don't see much point in trying to hunt down the stock auto switches.

as far as coolant temp goes, i'll pull it apart and see if there's a thermostat since i have to flush the system anyway. that's all i can think of for now!

grve66 · Post by **grve66** » Wed Nov 02, 2005 3:07 pm

fix it right.

you either need a fan switch or fan relay. not some rigged toggle on the dash.

Post by **Ed Lijewski** » Wed Nov 02, 2005 3:19 pm

I agree; the stock coolant fan switch is available from many sources, e.g. Autozone for ~$20-$25. Finding the identical relays (one for each fan; the radiator and a/c fan) is harder (someone, Brad I think, pointed out that some other car, possibly a Mustang, used those same relays) but I think you can substitute any relay of equal amperage capacity without a problem.

YMMV

turbofan · Post by **turbofan** » Wed Nov 02, 2005 3:42 pm

ed, that electrical stuff totally went over my head. i'll fix it right, but not right now. i do not have the money for it cuz i REALLY stretched it just to buy the car.

so i took the thermostat housing off and there was indeed a thermostat, a 195. it looked a little old so i put a new 192 in along with a new gasket... the old one looked like it was, well, 16 years old. now i think i need a lower radiator hose, but checker auto doesn't even pull one up. don't know about auto zone yet, but i found a lower hose for an '87 T-bird turbocoupe so i'm gonna go see if it's at all similar (which it probably isn't.). anyway, she's comin along nicely, i'll keep it up. needs lots of little things and they'll all get attention soon!

EDIT: forgot something. as i've been driving this car around it's really spooky how much it reminds me of my saab. terrible turbo lag, nice burble out the back, obviously an older car, and the whole car's character is very similar.... UNTIL you throw it into a corner or hit a bump. this merkur rails the turns like freakin sweet and is absolutely terrible over the bumps, pretty much opposite my saab

xr4tiguy · Post by **xr4tiguy** » Wed Nov 02, 2005 7:35 pm

I thought I told you not to get it!!

(J/K)

I know what it's like to fall in love with a car and not worry about how good a deal you're getting. have fun with it but don't kill yourself. and more importantly don't ruin a perfectly good merkur! lol

Merkur's are really easy to overheat so be sure to fix your fan problem asap.

welcome to the wonderful world of merkurs. Read up on this forum and turboford and learn all you can. These guys here are great and know their $#!*. So inform yourself and have fun.

turbofan · Post by **turbofan** » Thu Nov 03, 2005 11:45 am

xr4tiguy wrote:I thought I told you not to get it!! (J/K)

I know what it's like to fall in love with a car and not worry about how good a deal you're getting. have fun with it but don't kill yourself. and more importantly don't ruin a perfectly good merkur! lol

Merkur's are really easy to overheat so be sure to fix your fan problem asap.

welcome to the wonderful world of merkurs. Read up on this forum and turboford and learn all you can. These guys here are great and know their $#!*. So inform yourself and have fun.

the fan problem right now is just that it's not efficient. right now i just leave the toggle on so the fans are always running. i'll fix it when i can. as for the temp gauge, my dad has a mechanical temp gauge that we're gonna install so we can get an accurate reading.

and don't worry. if it gets ruined, chances are it won't be my fault. i'm gonna take care of this one