My slightly ropey 80's sheds
Discussion
For the last 6 months or so I've been running a cheap 320d as a shed, £600 and bulletproof. I recently started a new job with only a few miles to commute once a week so I really had no use for the 320d anymore, I really wanted another Orion and found a decent enough red one for £3k. After doing a deal for £2k without the wheels I picked it up and started to daily it, then I sold the 320d. The Orion has been solid for 2 weeks until the ignition timing started causing issues and I really wanted to get a good few jobs ticked off before running it properly, so I started hunting for another shed. I wanted a cheap ML270 and had my eyes on a few, so inevitably I ended up viewing a 1990 Sierra 1.8LX that was converted to the powerhouse 2.3D engine at some point. The old boy selling it owned it 20 years, garaged it throughout that time and did the engine job so he could tow with it. It's done "49k" so either been round the clock or had a haircut in the 90's, it has PAS, electric windows, sunroof, a solid shell no cracked dash and only cost me £1300. I plan on selling them both in October time so I thought it'd be interesting to run a thread on them until then. Not sure if anyone is even interested in a thread about an Orion and a shed budget diesel Sierra but I'll put a couple of proper posts about each of them in the next day or so. For now here's a couple of pics:
Nice pair of old Fords...
I remember being driven home from work in a Sierra 2.3d many years ago,it seemed very underpowered but the owner used it for pulling banger racers on his trailer and loved it.
I saw a rather nice Sierra p100 just the other day and thought how nice it looked.
Not a Ford fan but interested to follow your journey with them..
I remember being driven home from work in a Sierra 2.3d many years ago,it seemed very underpowered but the owner used it for pulling banger racers on his trailer and loved it.
I saw a rather nice Sierra p100 just the other day and thought how nice it looked.
Not a Ford fan but interested to follow your journey with them..
Yeah the Sierra is far from fast, it's clearly geared to tow. You're doing less than 20 by the time you're in third and you'd really be pushing it to go over 85. It really isn't all that rough or clattery inside the cabin though and it cruises quiet enough. Even today it feels a big old thing to drive and park, it's very narrow though and has PAS which makes parking it ridiculously easy.
Lovely cars both.
A friend had an Orion Ghia automatic, lovely car.
I used to work for a taxi company which ran a fleet of Sierra diesels - an old school lump and not that durable - the cars used to require recon engines every 12 months or 100,000 miles. Contrast that with the Mondeo tdci a friend has just bought, ex taxi with 360,000 miles and still powerful and good to drive.
When you look back now you realise what awful quality cars were then!
A friend had an Orion Ghia automatic, lovely car.
I used to work for a taxi company which ran a fleet of Sierra diesels - an old school lump and not that durable - the cars used to require recon engines every 12 months or 100,000 miles. Contrast that with the Mondeo tdci a friend has just bought, ex taxi with 360,000 miles and still powerful and good to drive.
When you look back now you realise what awful quality cars were then!
SirGriffin said:
Lovely cars both.
A friend had an Orion Ghia automatic, lovely car.
I used to work for a taxi company which ran a fleet of Sierra diesels - an old school lump and not that durable - the cars used to require recon engines every 12 months or 100,000 miles. Contrast that with the Mondeo tdci a friend has just bought, ex taxi with 360,000 miles and still powerful and good to drive.
When you look back now you realise what awful quality cars were then!
Were they the 1.8TD or the 2.3D Peugeot lump?A friend had an Orion Ghia automatic, lovely car.
I used to work for a taxi company which ran a fleet of Sierra diesels - an old school lump and not that durable - the cars used to require recon engines every 12 months or 100,000 miles. Contrast that with the Mondeo tdci a friend has just bought, ex taxi with 360,000 miles and still powerful and good to drive.
When you look back now you realise what awful quality cars were then!
BoRED S2upid said:
Love that Sierra not sure about a £3k Orion crikey.
The Orion was £2k, I got him down from £3k. I wouldn't really spend more than that on one unless it was an immaculate magenta 1.6ibangerhoarder said:
Getting hold of any parts to do it may be challenging, but if you could custom fabricate a manifold (as buying one from a 505 would be difficult now) will turbocharging the 2.3 be feasible? They’re not exactly a high compression design, and they do mega miles if looked after.
I wanted the 2.3 because I wanted the slowest possible car I could, I've lost enjoyment in driving quickly so I figured I'd take the option away. I'd probably go down the 1.8TD route or revert it back to a 1.8 if I was doing something engine related, the engine isn't half bad though in all honestylittlebasher said:
I had a Diesel Orion of a similar age
Slow, but no matter how you drove it - 65MPG. Very cheap car to run !
As for the Sierra, the only approved engine swap was the V6 Cosworth, no matter what the base car!
Fuel gauge on the Sierra doesn't work so there's a lot of guess work involved, first thing i plan on eventually fixing Slow, but no matter how you drove it - 65MPG. Very cheap car to run !
As for the Sierra, the only approved engine swap was the V6 Cosworth, no matter what the base car!
aaron_2000 said:
Fuel gauge on the Sierra doesn't work so there's a lot of guess work involved, first thing i plan on eventually fixing
Funny that, every Sierra i had (and a P100) had a failed gauge at some point. The dealers used to keep them on the shelf, so i assume i wasn't alone.Decided to try the Sierra on veg oil today. Bought 6 litres of it paired with a few litres of diesel plus the few litres or so thsat was left, so give or take a 50/50 split. The original mechanical pump is apparently garbage but mine has had an electric pump fitted, so the plan is the use the 6 litres around town and see how it behaves on it. I'll pull the pump at some point for a part number in case I need to replace it at any point. I need to fix the fuel gauge to work out the MPG, someone told me his 2.3D got mid 20's in the 90's. If that's the case then it's going straight on eBay, I somehow doubt it though. I'd be shocked if it's averaging less than 40's minimum.
Covered just over 600 miles in the Sierra since Saturday without any hassle, I have however decided that whilst the Orion is staying until October, the Sierra is now on FB marketplace. I'm not really out to sell it, it's more a case of if someone wanted it they can have it. I know of a 2.9i Granada coming up for sale soon with the 5 speed manual and I'd potentially like to have that. The Orion is off the road until mid May so I'll run the Sierra and leave it on marketplace until then, after that I'm going to do a few mods to it and keep it until October. A few pics taken today
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