The Falcon - XR4Ti

I’ve been working on taking the interior out, started thinking half way through I should check what works and what doesn’t, only to find out that the car wouldn’t start, put my focus battery in it, cranked a couple times, nothing. Tried to jump it from my sisters accord, nothing. Not enough juice to turn the starter. I’ve got a battery on a charger and I’ll try it again with a full battery and a jump later. When the car was cranking the tachometer moved, so I might get lucky and have a working tach this time.

I think I’m going to mix and match the tan interior parts with the gray and black. I’m hoping it will match the two tone ‘80s vibe of the entire car.

Also, found two mouse nests, no mice though. Unfortunately, one of the nests was behind the drivers side vent. The heater and a/c was one of the places I hoped to avoid mice... Oh well.

Take 2

Got good news this morning. The ranger block was 6 thousands out from stock. The machine shop is going to bore out the ranger block to match the Merkur pistons as rods, and I'll run the ranger crank as well. Apparently my pistons aren't forged like they should be, but they at least have the proper d shaped dish. I'll just make sure when I start playing with the boost down the road that I have a good wideband O2 sensor.

Also found out why that ranger block was knocking...
The rod cap nuts were all less than finger tight. I don't know if my friend and I just used the wrong torque spec or what, but another few minutes and that motor might well have been toast.

Got the rack taken apart, turns out it was rebuilt before. All the parts look really nice. New seals and hoses should fix it.

In the motor department, news isn't so good. Turns out my block has been rebuilt before. It's already at .030 over with some new wear. Shout out to everyone on the turboford page for helping me come to a decision as to what to do.

My friend has a ranger block he isn't going to use. He said I can have it if I can use it. I'll get it taken apart and up to the machine shop on Monday. If it's in okay shape, I'll get it bored to .030 over and drop in the Merkur rotating assembly.

Starting to feel the time crunch. It needs to be running well enough to drive to Utah by about mid June.

Did a little research this morning before it warmed up and found out MC2Racing has new, inexpensive, stiffer factory ride height springs. That'll be one of the first things I actually spend money on, after I get the motor figured out.

Also realized that my struts and shocks have been replaced before. The fronts with KYBs. The rears are toast, the fronts probably are too, but maybe I can get away with running them a little longer.

Side note, the wire wheel I bought 2 days ago is already toast, went out and got 2 more today.