Sacré Bleu! Merkur XR4Ti Project

[Blau_RS2]

Re: Sacré Bleu! Merkur XR4Ti Project

I have never ever ever heard of a metric rim before haha. Thats ridiculous and is now on my list of "Things I hope to never have to deal with in my life"

Who can forget the famous 3 spoke TRX metric wheels from the Ford Mustang of the late 70's early 80's! 390mm diameter rims! What a pain.

[Tuna]

Re: Sacré Bleu! Merkur XR4Ti Project

Yup!! those are exactly the rims I had! swapped them out for a set of the Mustang GT Turbine wheels.

[100%VAGitarian]

Re: Sacré Bleu! Merkur XR4Ti Project

BMW had the metric TRX wheels on their e28's.

[GingerBeef]

Re: Sacré Bleu! Merkur XR4Ti Project

Finals are finally over, so ive had time to work on the car again! First I chopped apart the OEM AC compressor bracket to clear the alternator. With the alternator test fit in place I used some thin wall tubing to cut out some spacers to offset the alternator so the pulleys lined up properly.











Next up was the alternator bolt itself. For some reason I had a really hard time finding a bolt long enough... nothing I grabbed from Pick N Pull was long enough, and the longest bolt that Bolt Supply Warehouse had was still half an inch too short... so I had to bust out the welder and make a bolt. Got some threaded rod, and a nut, and went to town! (Insert more bitching about not being able to find the simplest of parts for this stupid car)








With everything mocked up and triple checked, I got a new Gates belt that was long enough for the relocated alternator, and welded together a simple tensioner with the 1/2" tubing and threaded rod ends I posted earlier. Its a very simple design, one rod end has standard threads, and the other rod end has reverse threads. So when you spin the tube one way itll shorten the overall length, and vice versa.











As much as I complain about it being a pain to find parts, ive gotta say that it keeps things very interesting. Ive been having a blast making all these one off parts to get this car assembled!

Finally, I could start bolting stuff together. I had to modify the deep 5.5mm socket because the wall thickness was too big.. so a few seconds on the belt sander solved that. With that I could finally swap my janky ignition control module with a fresh one, and bolt down the distributor. Threw in some fresh spark plugs, and then really started assembling the last few bits of the engine.














In the last picture I mocked up the turbo, and upper intake but theyll have to come off again as theres some lines and wiring that could be routed a little cleaner (also a few things under there that i wanna double check are tight). But im getting very close now... and getting very excited to finally drive this thing

[syncrovan]

Re: Sacré Bleu! Merkur XR4Ti Project

That belt tensioner looks really nice. Hope you'll be able to see it when everything is back together....

[Feens]

Re: Sacré Bleu! Merkur XR4Ti Project

Now that's a blast from the past!
You were the big man if you had a GSi, damn near king of the village if you had a laguna front splitter and a set of speedlines under it (translation required for Canadian folk).

A guy in school had a red GSi with a turbo red top in it when were were only 16-17. Nuts.

I had 4 Novas over the years, 2x 1300SR's 1 in black with 3 spoke alloys, a blue 1, 2x 1400 SRI's 1 with a set of 16' Speedline allesio's and an Early 88 Astra Redtop with the cosworth head..

I was a Big GM head back then before i got into VW's Audis and BMW's

[GingerBeef]

Re: Sacré Bleu! Merkur XR4Ti Project

Minor update on the Merk. Got almost all the under the hood wiring sorted. Some wires needed to be extended due to the rotated intake manifold. There were also a few broken wires around the bay as well that I soldered back together. Also got the exhaust manifold and intake manifold bolted down for the last time!





Next little thing was making a new bracket for the throttle cable, again, due to the rotated upper intake. I started off with this random chunk of scrap metal I had... its always more fun working with that you have haha.





Then it was a matter of alot of measuring, a bit of cutting, drilling some holes and welding some nuts to it.








Finally, a lick of paint and ive got a working throttle again!





This stupid little bracket took so much longer to make than I thought. Huge respect to all the fabricators out there. I'm getting alot quicker at making stuff from scratch the more I do it, but currently I'm measuring a million times, and (hopefully) cutting/welding once. When I build up more confidence in my measuring abilities ill be able to whip this stuff out in no time haha.

[witchcraftz]

Re: Sacré Bleu! Merkur XR4Ti Project

I really want to learn to weld, seeing people on here like you fabricate exactly what you need is simply amazing. Great work!

[BaggedGLI]

Re: Sacré Bleu! Merkur XR4Ti Project

You want to see how long things take, go watch Project Binky on YouTube.........

[GingerBeef]

Re: Sacré Bleu! Merkur XR4Ti Project

You want to see how long things take, go watch Project Binky on YouTube.........

Oh, ive been following Binky for a significant percentage of my life now haha.

Next up on the list of things to do: needed to mount a wastegate actuator on the holset. First off I had to cut off the flapper arm thingy off the stock Holset WGA, drill a hole in it, and tap it so it threaded onto this random Volvo WGA I had laying around.








Then I got some steel and made up a bracket. Razvan also came by to say hi and lend a hand
This also took way longer than I expected (what a surprise) as I had very little space to work with so that the WGA arm didnt foul on the turbo oil return line, or the turbo support bracket.


















Im not too proud of this bracket. Its bulkier and heavier than it really needs to be, but it works and is mostly unseen in the bay. Definitely not my finest work... im not too upset though as I plan to convert the system to run an external wastegate down the line.
Finally, I got my front mount and radiator mounted. Just need a downpipe, a few hoses, and little bit more wiring and I should be ready to try and start this thing soon!








I love how all you can see behind all of the openings in the front end is just intercooler haha. I think im going to tackle making the downpipe next. I most likely wont have time to make an exhaust system before Driven, so if this thing does make it ill probably be running an open downpipe... #hatersgonnahate

[GingerBeef]

Re: Sacré Bleu! Merkur XR4Ti Project

More progress! Using a combination of random aluminum and silicone elbows/ straight sections I put together a set of rad hoses for the car. This rad is for an 89 Merkur (mines an 87) so the outlets are on opposite sides, meaning I had to get a little creative with the hoses.








Also spent the last two days making a downpipe for the car. This is my first time making a downpipe, but how hard could it be? I started out with some waterjetted flanges and some 3" pipe and realized I had the wrong flange for my application. A bit of time with the grinder and file fixed that though!











I measured how much space I had to the firewall and cut the 180° bend, then tacked it on to the flange.





Speaking of Project Binky, I took a page out of their book and made a template using CAD (cardboard aided design), in this case, a pizza box. I traced the CAD template onto some metal and cut it out and then beat it to shape. Note to self, metal is ALOT harder to bend than a pizza box.











After about two hours of beating my pipe, one side fit really well! But I must have screwed up somewhere along the line as the other side of the downpipe was quite tragic. So, another CAD template, a bit of welding and I had a piece of metal that fit pretty well on the downpipe!











After breaking the tack welds from earlier I was able to seperate the pipe from the flange so I could carefully cope it to accept the added on bit.





Finally, I could TIG weld this thing together. This is probably the most complicated thing ive TIG welded so far. It didnt look too bad sitting on the work bench, but once I actually started working on it I had quite a bit of trouble getting at all the angles. Theyre not the prettiest welds ive ever made, but it works, and I must say that I am pretty stoked on how it turned out.











That was (I think) the last major component I needed to fabricate for the car. Now ive just gotta figure out the last few intercooler pipes, double check the wiring/ vacuum lines, fill up the fluids and I think I can try to crank it over! Fingers crossed for a running car by the end of next week!

[GingerBeef]

Re: Sacré Bleu! Merkur XR4Ti Project

If anyones still following, I got the last few bits bolted onto the car. I realized that I forgot to weld a bung for the O2 sensor so, took care of that quickly.








Then the Merkur Facebook page roasted me for putting a gasket on my exhaust manifold. Apparently theyre made of the weakest material ever and always blow out in a couple hundred miles. So I took the hotside apart and binned the gasket, then threw it back together.





The last intercooler pipe I needed was a little short, and it needed a fitting for a BOV. Now, my aluminum welding is horrific at best, so I handed these off to Larry, the UofC fabricator. Lets take a moment to appreciate these gorgeous welds... they seriously look like they were done by a machine...














Bolted together the last few bits, put in fresh fluids and hooked up power. Its come a long way since I picked this up as essentially a rolling chassis a few months ago.. but I turned the key, diddled the ditributor timing and bit and she fired up!!














I took it for its maiden voyage and it drove... well, terribly. The ignition timing may be very off, or the camshaft may be off by a tooth... or maybe both! Either way it idles very rough, has what feels like literally 15 HP, and sounds like a jet taking off at the same time as a tractor ripping through a field. Loving the sound of the turbo spool though. Ill try to get a video of the car once its running a little better, but for now im super stoked!

Sent from my SM-G930W8 using Tapatalk

[syncrovan]

Re: Sacré Bleu! Merkur XR4Ti Project

Definitely following, nice fabrication job!

[Circuits]

Re: Sacré Bleu! Merkur XR4Ti Project

Awesome Jason! Congrats on getting it....running?

Always amazed by your builds. Keep up the hard work. Excited to see this thing in person someday.

[Blau_RS2]

Re: Sacré Bleu! Merkur XR4Ti Project

And this is why my RS2 looks pretty much like it did the day it came off the assembly line... I seriously admire your ability to do what it takes to make things work but at the same time it crushes my dreams of picking up a real project car. There is so much I don't know how to do.