Originally Posted By: artificialist
Since you live in Canada, are you worried that it might be difficult to start when cold? I have heard that is one big reason why diesel cars were not so popular in North America.
I've heard tempo diesels used an advanced glow plug system that also heated up the manifold really quickly, and that the wait to start time is only 3 seconds because of that.
People say if you are working under the hood, never have the ignition on, because if you accidentally put your hand on the manifold, you will burn yourself.
It will also never get colder then -5 C (23 F) here in the winter, we have 30 C (86 F) summers.
Originally Posted By: Silk
The RF Mazda was a bit of a grenade - I once got 3 used engines from a dismantler before I found one that finally ran on 4 cyls after awhile. Very prone to cyl head cracking,like most small Japanese diesels. The RF was also used with the comprex supercharger ...just another thing to go wrong.
This one doesn't have the supercharger. I have heard about the head issues, definitely don't want this one to overheat. It's a hobby car for me to DD, if it breaks down, I got my Jeep and Mustang
Originally Posted By: FXjohn
how about some pics of it. at least it's a 5 speed
Don't own the car or have been out to see it yet. It's a couple hours away all snowed in a little town that the plow hasn't gotten to yet.
Originally Posted By: JohnnyO
The main problem with Ford diesels in the Tempo, Escort, and Ranger is that these days parts are difficult to impossible to find. I know that the Ranger diesel used a different transmission than gas Rangers and if you have a tranny problem with one you're SOL.
Thats fine, rockauto has it all, or in other warehouses, if it has a couple weeks of downtime, I got my Jeep and Mustang to drive.
This one has a MTX transmission, seems like its not a rare transmission:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_MTX_transmission