Ebay Yank shite is home! Ford Tempo

[DaveAspley]

In between fixing boat exhausts and a leaky focus, I've had a play. Gone is the miles of heavily restrictive intake tubing, resonance boxes, some oddball exhaust recirc system dumping unregulated crap into the air box, dizzy cleaned, side marker lights reinstated and a Union 76 tax disc holder. No pics yet as I'm on 3G (too far away from the wifi/too pissed to move) hopefully I will now be able to achieve 0-60 and better than 22 mpg!

[DaveAspley]

Right, an update. I've now covered 3000 km in this little beauty, shorn it with "new yoik" licence plates, poured £40 a week in it, finally replaced the shot (24 year old) rear brakes, waxoyled the cavities before rust trys to take hold and generally just run the Tempoooo around. It needs new tyres desperately, 2 are from 1989 and the other 2 are very very slippery. Tempted just to go get 4 13" steels from the scrappy with half decent tyres for the winter and use them. Or, sell it and buy a v8 whilst the agency are paying me 43p a mile to go to work at LTI?

 

mmmmm, horrible ex-minicab Crown Vic.....

 

Would suit me quite well, considering I do Quality Engineering at LTI taxis, work on the local mini-cab firms Skoda's at night and ever since New York 2005 feckin love Crown vics!! 

[dollywobbler]

Has it proved any quicker/more economical since you ditched the eco gubbins?

[Junkman]

Or, sell it and buy a v8 whilst the agency are paying me 43p a mile to go to work at LTI?

 

That's by far the best damn idea you had all life. Ditch it and get yourself a P6 V8. I can vouch for it.

[Split_Pin]

Tempo sounds glorious. I am actually envious, I lover American cars of this ilk.

[DaveAspley]

Has it proved any quicker/more economical since you ditched the eco gubbins?

Very much so, nice and nippy around town. Still woefully underpowered for a 2.3 though. Economy went from 22 mpg to 26/27.

[DaveAspley]

Right, several months later and now at 43000km. Just about to service the Tempooo this weekend, it's been a good few months motoring and (touch wood) no problems. Sacked off the cruise control gubbins from under the hood as it was rotten and leaking. Blanked off and removed the egr system, changed an internally collapsed rear silencer for one I had in the garage with the Tempo tailpipe welded on, filled the doors and chassis with waxoyl, new rear shoes and cylinders, upgraded the stereo to a CD player (being changed asap to one of those sd card ones), replacement plugs and leads from a local yank spares place, ordered 2 Mk3 escort front arms to sort those crusty bushes, and somehow managed to carry 220kg of scrap to the 'yard. Goes well, looks shite, blue velour interior. *now rolling on black steels as the original tyres provided zero grip and began to craze.

[AnthonyG]

Excellent stuff.