We bought our first xr. Autox/street machine in the making.

[DSPXR4ti]

Just be careful and that you look at the rules before you start cutting up your XR, CP is ok with chopping off the strut tops but In the SM class I'm not sure because my set up works great for me now, in SP you can not touch the upper strut mounts.

Ben

[catapultkid]

That is very true. Time for some research. Planning a day or so to go over the car. I'll also get underneath and snap a few photos of the Diff for those who are asking about it, as well as pull the valve cover.

[catapultkid]

Took the car out again. This time with a small but noticeable change. Morgan mentioned disconnecting the Knock Sensor. Car is faster and pulls much more smoothly. Good tip, looks like its up from 15 psi to around 17 psi or so as well.

[Ray]

Make sure you listen for detonation with that setup - especially under peak load (3000-3500 rpm or so).

[catapultkid]

Long weekend. Saturday started with sorting through a car load of spares the PO gave me. Inside I found a bunch of useful items.

David Godfrey brake PBR caliper setup I believe. Brand new, still in postage
New brake pads for the stockers
Several gauges, oil pressure and temp. boost and EGT
MSD set up, used
Old VAM
Left hand drive crystal lenses brand new
boxes of spare everythings
bunch of interior spares
Another diff, old one I believe but mighty big to be OEM
original block wrapped up
half shafts for the rear
Brand new A/c compressor, Evap, and belts. (Someone can have)
Tons more but I'm forgetting.

From there the afternoon was spend starting the weekends to do list.

Brakes: bleed and change pads
Proper Alignment and fix wheel placement
temp gauge fix
catch can install
relocate wideband gauge
tighten ebrake cable
Adjust and test all the shocks
check the rear end for loose connections
New clutch cable

From there things snowballed into, fixed that but now this doesnt work. Like to the way home the first night the exhaust came loose and dropped. No idea why either. Its like someone took in apart. Then filled the cat full of rocks when driving back down the road to the shop. Of course I didn't think of that at 1030pm, in the dark, grabbing some bolts from the farm bolt bin. Then I wondered why it wouldn't boost over 5 psi. Even now the cat seems to be partially blocked with little pebbles... Then when trying to fix the wideband there where issues that seems to never end with the wiring. Stuff like that, old car stuff. I look over at the VW and see a nice clean engine bay with no crazy wiring or crappy vacuum lines to worry about. Maybe it has spoiled me.

Here some uninformative pics:



Quick catch can. Took an hour and 16 dollars to go to the store, buy the part and install. It looks like it too... but should be reliable and is hidden. Cause its ugly!



Easy way to mount it. Put about a quart of fluid back in the diff as well.



Diff shots, so clean still.





Relocated the XD-16



Purple ring temp sender. Still not making the gauge read correctly. But at least it moves a bit now...





Dirty car.

[merkurdriver]

Make sure to clean out the passage in the lower intake really well to ensure good flow of coolant pass the temp sender. Also looks like the "T" junction there is slightly different from stock (but that shouldn't matter too much.)

[monti75]

very good deal!! and with the euro lights already installed!!! wonderful upgrade!
my 1st XR was a good deal too but i made a mistake and sold it not knowing what i had.. now with the new XR i have i have spend around $2000 just to get it going..smh..... anyways dont make that same mistake..

your XR is wash and go... congrats!!!

[catapultkid]

Ray: Thanks for the various tips. I will definitely look/hear out for detonation. Seems ok now, but its not summer time either. Seriously considering switching to MS and solving so many of the issues I have right now with the thing.

merkurdriver: I'll run a pipe cleaner in there next time to see if there is any trash in the sensor location. The coolant flush out easily and was clean. It may have a lack of low, but could be because of the line or something up/down stream of the sensor. Or it may not have a termo-stat in it. Kinda acts like that. As you move, it gets a little cooler.

monti75: Knowing what I know now I'm glad we bought the car. The biggest issue with it is the wiring, coolant and vacuum placement/lines. I really dont like the method that was used to route things. More caution was needed to make connections last. As soon as I can get that valve cover off the better. The lifter ticking is still there. Other than that it is a fun little (well 3k lbs of little) car.

Also, I know 91+ 2.3 mustangs have issues with the screens on the oil pumps getting clogged with some gasket or something. Is it the same way with these cars? Also the ticking seems to get better as I added oil above the full mark. Thoughts on this? Also thinking of adding a thickener/stabilizer.

[catapultkid]

Last autox of the season this last weekend. So Friday and Saturday I decided to do a little work on the car.

I noticed a small amount of hop/jiggle on the passenger side. Here is what I found.



The LCA bolt had worn the mounting hole into a oval and was walking around a little. Not only that but the bushing was seized so I had to cut and destroy the bushing to get all apart. I didnt have spares so I had to make my own for some UHMW and tubing stock I had laying around.



Pressed them in slightly.



Then decided that while I was under there I might as well drill new holes to add some camber. Welded a plate over them, realigned then called it a day.



Also decided to remove the cat since its clogged. Here is the jig.



Here is the pipe





Y'ed into a quick cut out. Heat wrapped and painted.



Also tried adding a oil pressure sender the turbo feed line. Used a part from the vw. Screwed right in.



Day 2 coming....

[catapultkid]

Autox day. I'll start with pics. The course this time was pretty fast with about 2 braking zones and 2-3 areas to lift. The tires are some winter/heavy all season so lateral grip was way way down of course, but had a big fun factor.











Corner entry



Corner exit



Nose at the cone



Glide by

Got to keep it behind you. Oddly enough I only hit one cone all day.



The worse part of the day was on the last run the motor acted up. Oil was being pushing out of the oil cap, out of the breather which not only filled the turbo and piping but also the MAF got soaked. The top end made all kinds of noise and the car had a bunch of blow by. For some reason I dont think it is the bottom end, as in rings. I'm thinking failed lifter which makes possibly the exhaust valve not open? I also dont think the car has a lot of oil pressure which could contribute to both. I'm not sure. Any thoughts? Going to pull the motor later this week in hopes to find out what happened and order what needs to be ordered. I had to have it towed home. That is never fun.

[catapultkid]

Did a compression test. Here are the numbers. Tearing it down tomorrow if I get a moment hopefully, thinking headgasket plus some...





I've been told. Too lean under WOT, plugs are too white on 3 and 4. Thinking I'll most likely get the injectors cleaned while I'm at it.

[catapultkid]

Well head gasket went. Now on the hunt for a motor.









Oh joys of joys.





Top end looks clean though.

[catapultkid]

Picked up a complete head for 100 bucks. This is it after started the disassembly.



I decided to do a few quick things in the porting area. I was expecting a lot bigger job. However with the bur I got from mcmaster it made very quick work of the cast iron head.





I ended up jamming the bur tool into too tight of an area and it snapped. I ordered two more but they may not make it back in time with weekend to take care of any work. Didn't get as far as I have hoped.



Turned my attention to other areas of the car. Getting the condenser and sort out some of the wiring.





Its a mess. I hope to clean it up a bit without too much effort.

[DSPXR4ti]

As soon as you take it apart a time or 2 it gets easier.

Ben

[MercMike]

I'm glad you scored a new head.
I hope the die grinder learning curve goes well.
That's a super ride ... and a big thank you for the A/C items !