1992 Ford Sierra GT - the zero-fox-daily-

[colintempest]

Hello all!

Have been a long time lurker on here, after spending many hours reading your wonderful builds i decided to register and share my own retro's since I purchased another project very recently. I've also got my ''precious'' project, which I'll give a sneak peak of, I need to copy/paste a ton of photo's from another forum for that. 

First off, Hi, I'm Colin, 25 and live in Holland. Not big of a back ground story on cars, no one in the family that has much with them. Kinda evolved with me after an automotive education and basic interest in a Ford Mustang from a certain movie that ended up haunting me for quite some time. With a big preference for Ford, it was inevitable my first car could be anything less and in 2009 i bought my first Ford. Few cars, different era's and have to say i do like the retro's best! After the first, I had a 2001 Fiesta Zetec-s, after that a 2003 Focus ST170 as a daily and now I went back in time for the latest daily. 

This 1992 Ford Sierra GT is going to be something to tinker with for the time being, untill I've sold the Focus and will be used as a daily.












The Sierra (especially a GT!) has become a very rare sight here in Holland. Old Fords in particular have a small fan base (in comparison to the Uk for example) Most of the Sierra's end up on scrapyars or worse, the dreaded ''auto rodeo'' dutch for banger races which i despise. Fairly lucky with finding this one, it has been a native of my city, even as an old dealer sticker and license plate holder! But as with any old Ford, it has its marks...










Other than that, it is filty!! Like, really really , mossy filty




It has not seen a wash or vacuum cleaner in a 100 years!







First plans are a very good clean, as far as the weather is going to allow it i'll be spending time every weekend. Then its a decent lookover the rust issue's and the engine, which is running very good, not sure on the cooling fluid, wont be surprised if the head gasket is gone to be honoust but we'll find out sooner or later.

The engine itself:









Did some pressure washing yesterday, If the weather is gonna allow it i'll start some degreasing today. And then 50 hours or so of vacuuming. 

And I'll round up some pictures of this:  (and start its own thread, offcourse) Edit, can be found here : retrorides.proboards.com/thread/174323/1990-ford-xr3i-first-stay



As for now, thanks for watching and till next time!

Cheers, Colin

[Granadaman72]

Looks good The Sierra goes quite well with the dohc engine and they sound nice when the air filter is replaced with a cone type too.

[Speedle]

Two awesome cars here chap, That Xr3i looks the business!!!

[Robinxr4i]

Awesome stuff love both of those, thanks for sharing

[colintempest]

Thanks for your replies! The XR3i thread is taking some more time because of re-arranging 600 photo's and my weekends are to damn short. Did manage some more cleaning on the Sierra!

Took out the front seats to clean the carpet better. Looking pretty decent now.








Went on with the dashboard and bits


Found some weird connecters, extra 12v supply and miles of wiring loom for the radio that doesnt work any more. Also found a mystery switch!







Have no idea what it does. It doesn't respond or anything, maybe I'll take the lower dash out, waiting on a used Haynes manual before i'll start on that one.

After the first wash it is starting to look decent, paintwork still needs a buff




It was to dark to picture the engine bay, looking much better now, some more cleaning, put on some alloys (or a rattlecan on the steelies), check the coolant, wire up a radio and we are good to go:)

Thanks for watching, till next time! (and then the XR3i thread, i'll promise;)

[colintempest]

Well that was that.

I've been running around with the Sierra last couple of weeks, other then the brakes and vibrations I noticed in the car everything seemed fine. After the first few days the heater wasn't doing much so I thought the matrix was full of debris or something, so I flushed it a couple of times together with a coolant change. Still wasn't giving any heat, so I went on dismanteling the lower dash to get the whole unit out.






Real pain in the *** to get there, and because of the inlet manifold, i couldn't reach the retaining screws at the bulkhead! So another flush and I gave up on that for now, the weather wasn't really helping.

Car wasn't heating up at all, the temperature gauge wasn't even climbing. Maybe it was the thermostat? Bought a new one, and off course....



That.... :S

Put in the new one, still didn't help at all. Still cold as fook.

Needed the car for those last days of work between christmas and new year, took it to friend of mine with electric skills, turned out the temperature sensor and thermo fan switch where not working...



But on a new thermo switch but the fan still wasn't working.

So all those times I thought the car was not heating up properly, it was OVER-heating!!

Combine the overheating with being stuck on ice for a 20 minutes or so, having to drive 30 minutes, twice a day for three days in a row for work and the old b*st*rd died on me the 31th

The head gasket is shot, I'm not sure on fixing it myself, at least not outside on the parking. Don't really want to give up on the unit because the XR3i is nicely tucked away now..

Considering a few options, scrapping it (but they are so rare and hard to find!), just selling it, take the loss, or try to fix it myself but thats a big challenge.

What do you guys think?

[HmmDK]

I would say fix it with a new engine 8)

(easier said than done ofc..)

That weather really don't look like its any fun being out working on cars in...


Did you ever figure out which part of the cooling system made the fans stop working, mine is not working either... i think the radiator fan switch is the cause of my trouble though... since the fans seem to work just fine if i start them meself 8)

[Swisstini]

I´d say try to fix it. As you say, they are getting rare now (especially the GT) so it´s worth saving this one from the Auto Rodeo.
Not an easy repair but there´s always good advice on here and you´ll feel great when it´s all fixed up and working well !

[colintempest]

Jan 4, 2015 15:30:00 GMT HmmDK said:

I would say fix it with a new engine 8)

(easier said than done ofc..)

That weather really don't look like its any fun being out working on cars in...


Did you ever figure out which part of the cooling system made the fans stop working, mine is not working either... i think the radiator fan switch is the cause of my trouble though... since the fans seem to work just fine if i start them meself 8)

Yeah new engine would be nice, not really easy though.

Not sure about the fans, I put in a new thermoswith but i only heard the fan once, and not while it was overheating as it should! So not sure it was working after the new switch

[colintempest]

Jan 4, 2015 15:44:52 GMT Swisstini said:

I´d say try to fix it. As you say, they are getting rare now (especially the GT) so it´s worth saving this one from the Auto Rodeo.
Not an easy repair but there´s always good advice on here and you´ll feel great when it´s all fixed up and working well !

I kinda despise Auto Rodeo, whole reason I bought this car ASAP after the listing came online.

Gathering info about the gasket now, contacting a few car people i know off that might be able to help.

Someone offered buying it, offering to buy his 83 Sierra Hatch with a DOHC swap, some lowering and not much else. Sounds interesting, but I'm not a fan of the early interior and grey bumpers.

Cost of a head gasket set, bolts and bits are not that bad, the work is what's killing me and not that confident to do it myself.

[HmmDK]

Jan 4, 2015 15:58:14 GMT colintempest said:

Yeah new engine would be nice, not really easy though.

Not sure about the fans, I put in a new thermoswith but i only heard the fan once, and not while it was overheating as it should! So not sure it was working after the new switch

I decided my fans worked after i tried turning them on manually, quite easy to try out. just "connect" 2 of the 4 connectors in the plug shown i the last picture with the thermoswith/radiator fan switch on it.

theres 2 connections pr. fan and all the switch does is complete the electrical connection for 1 or 2 fans depending on how hot the switch is.

heh that took me a while to figure out so hopefully its some usefull information xD

[swampy76]

I see miss my best old gt !

Wish I still had it!

I'd say change the head gasket , at the same time you will get access to the screws you need

I have a Haynes manual here for one of those

[colintempest]

Well then, been driving around for a week. Have been working on the Sierra since the gasket went every saturday, mate of mine has a nice working space and was kind enough to lend a hand with the repairs.

At first, wasn't really sure if the car was worth it, took my time to find some parts and found a complete gasket set, had to order new head bolts and with fluids it shouldn't cost me to much to get it back together... yeah right....

I have never hated a car, until now. I love it, and hate it so much. What a utter piece of curse word. No I understand why so little are left and they all end up on scrapyards.





The entire cooling system was clogged up!







Stupid curse word



So I found a head online, supposedly stored in a Ford workshop for ages, took a gamble but saved me a week. I hoped at least, 2 second hand radiators and (after biting the bullet) newly ordered one, the DID NOT FIT because of the stupid listed 2.0i (ohc, V6 and DOHC) al the hose connections where off!!





Lovely heater matrix



That goes in there somewhere...


Then another week went by because of the radiator and four stupid plastic plugs for the injectors that were rotten..



Finally found a radiator with the right hose connections, but still it didn fit for f*ck s*ke






Little bit persuasion made it fit.

So finally, after a month or so and more €€€'s then the car had cost me, a gasket set, head bolts, fluids, temp sensor, thermo switch, fifty radiators, a heater matrix and massive curse words later it runs.

Sort off, it now stalls after lifting off the throttle. Tried cleaning the Idle speed control valve, made it worse now, sometimes it stalls, idle is way off.


And now, for some stupid reason the DeVious B*St*rd (nickname because of the license plate DV-BS and GT badge but GL registration) started to curse word braking fluid all over the place..


I kinda hate it now...

[swampy76]

I have an idle control valve here off my old one worked fine on the car

[colintempest]

Feb 18, 2015 11:48:20 GMT swampy76 said:

I have an idle control valve here off my old one worked fine on the car

Cheers for that but i'm going on a scrap hunt this saturday and got some on standby with the local Ford boys.

[ivangt6]

could be the throttle potentiometer causing it to stall at idle

[colintempest]

As far as the weather would allow it, I've been busy with bits and pieces.

Took a trip to the local breakers, have not been there for a while, last time was looking for me and a mate's Xr3i. I was greeted a by sad sight of a scrapped Saab 900..



In the Ford section, recognized some mk4's and other Escorts, not much has happened and there was only one Sierra that was fairly empty. It did gave me some small bits, better gearknop and dashboard digital clock (didnt work because of other connector )





So I went nosing about in/other cars, spotted a Mondingo under another car, was curious about the splitter only couldn't get it off, to low, not enough tools and it was covered in gunk.



When I opened the car though, wasn't expecting this!

Maximum fugly sport seats!!!



The side bolsters where massive!



Never seen this on a Mondy, some kind of special edition? Its ugly, the driver seat's torn up but I kinda like it! Breaker asked a little too much for the whole interior so I left it there, think of going back next week. Its kinda growing on me xD

Later I went to my granddads lockup, had some wheels laying around that I wanted to bring to my own lockup, so loaded up the Sierra, when unloading I only wanted to check how one wheel would look.... And you can guess what happened then.





They work great!!


So far, still haven't fixed the brake issue, the Idle is still off but hey, at least we've got some wheels

So next week, fix the brakes, try to find a gasket for the ISCV, try give it a extra clean and then its time for the low. Car needs it desperately now!

To cut springs or not to cut springs, is the question...

Thnx and more for next week!

[rtlkyuubi]

Nice work so far mate but you should take off the front timing case as the oil pressure limiting valve bolt comes loose. When I did the head gasket on mine i found:

[colintempest]

Wow, ''next week'' turned out to be six months-ish. In short, I kinda had a sh*tty year after this piece of sh*t failed the MOT i lost interest. I had the Escort to get me to work and the garage to keep me busy. Somewhere last august I decided to put my into gear and start fixing the Sierra. It had a leaking brake cylinder and after multiple tries I managed to repair it.

Just hoping though, that would be it, just the break fluid leak, if it was anything else then I would have scrapped it, was really fed up by that time.

I had the strange urge to make fair impression for the MOT that I went full ''detailing mode'' and washed off months of dirt it had collected. Turned into a whole different car to be fair.












Took a trip to the local scrappy a few times, I wasn't lying when I said that Sierra's are getting really rare here in Holland, luckily I found a decent brake cylinder, and more



Even fixed up the interior, much better



After fitting the cylinder, checking for leaks and final things it was time for the MOT. (Please, please, please)

Insert happy moment, it passed. Brakes where good and the leaking was fixed.

Fast forward three weeks after MOT...












Stupid, ain't it?

It was my own fault, with all things that happend this year along, I'm having a hard time keeping my temper in traffic. I was running a bit late, the sun was low and I misjudged the car in front of me, it stopped before taking a right corner.

A € 10,- second hand headlight, some ducktape and tiewraps later and it has been named the '' zero-f*cks-givin-dail ''

It starts, the heater works, switched to my USB/SD-radio and it will do for this winter. The Sierra will never reach the same status as my Escort does. I'm still on lookout for a German mk2 DOHC XR4i, they where never sold in the Netherlands, we just had the GT's.

I still like Sierra's, don't get me wrong, I'm just done with this one, its not worth it anymore. Will probably be driving it till next MOT than send it off to the scrappy or the dreaded ''autocross'''

Funny though, I bought it to save it from that certain death, now i understand how they all end up that certain path.

Anyway, thanks for watching, for anyone who would like to see my XR3i, check it out here: goo.gl/zuhNO7