Hey folks,
I was loafing around in my local boneyard today when I spotted an '88 XR4Ti. The windshield said it had a good engine and tranny.
I pulled off the VAM hose and checked for shaft play. It seemed to have very little. It looks like a T3?
Anyway, they said I could have the turbo for $75. Is this a decent price? The T3 on my '86 seems to be going south, so I'm kind of interested in it.
Thanks!
Yup, it's the same T3 as your Cougar's.
Brent
Here's an update on my situation:
My car smokes a lot on start-up, and farts a little smoke when I'm driving it. It's definately oil smoke. I've spent all this time trying to figure out if it was the valve stem seals, or the turbo was going bad.
After feeling some "play" in the turbo shaft on that XR4Ti (which I thought was normal), I tried wiggling the shaft on my T3 and there was hardly any play at all! I mean, it's as solid as it gets. Does this mean my turbo is still good? It spools up and sounds great.
I'm hoping this rules out my smoking problem to the valve stem seals.
If anybody has any ideas on this, I would greatly appreciate hearing about them. I'm tired of feeling embarassed when I drive this car.
Under what conditions does it smoke when driving? When does it not smoke?
Here is my take on it and it's an opinion only. Little or no shaft play is a good sign as far as turbo seals go but not a 100% guarentee. On the other side, Fords valve seals in those days were less than spectacular, but mileage alone is not a determinent. I've seen (owned) cars with under 20K that had dried out seals and smoked sometimes on startup. On the other side there are some real high mile cars working on original seals. Valve seals are a lot cheaper than turbo rebuilds and, with the right equipipment, can be replaced with the head in the car.
That's a good question.
Let's say I'm sitting at a red light for a minute or two. The engine idles at about 800 RPM. The light turns green, so I start goosing the throttle before I let out the clutch. I will see the oil smoke behind me as I pull away.
Most of the time, I can be driving the car very hard and I won't see any smoke behind me at all. I can go WOT between shifts and it seems to not smoke at all. I've also performed tests with engine braking and tromping on the throttle to see if it's the rings. No smoke at all.
The car has almost 140k miles and the engine/tranny are original.
What you describe sounds like classic valve seals.
Well, now I know what to look for.
Thanks for the help!