On the 1985 Merkur I was looking at buying there were a few trouble spots. Let me know if it's still worth it. I found a visible gap between the turbocharger and exhaust manifold, and there was no gasket. Hot exhaust leaked from it obviously, and it made it very noisy. But according to the boost gauge it still built over 10 lbs of boost. The car also seemed to miss and sputter really bad at 3,000 RPM. Once you got beyond about 3,500 though it ran smooth again. After a good 15 minute test drive, when I came back and parked the car, I noticed white-ish smoke started comming out of the engine bay and I could smell something burning. I have no idea what it could have been though, since the car didn't smoke at all until it got hot. The car also hasn't been driven for about 2 months. That's pretty much all thats wrong with it though, everything else is in great condition. So is this car still worth the $600?
I'd say that if it hasn't been driven in two months or more that the small amount of smoke coming from under the hood when it heated up could quite possibly just be some grunge burning off and it shouldn't be too much of a concern. Just my two cents though.
Buy it and fix the exaust manifold. More than likely the missing gasket is causing the heat to burn something. The exaust leak will also cause the stumbling. It is a PTA to get an old turbo off but once you have done it it is old hat. keep us updated so we can help where needed.
The man makes a good point about the exhaust leak that is caused by the missing gasket potentially causing the stumbling problems.
