My New Ride!!

[SloFarmTruck]

Well I finally purchased one of the cars on my wish list. Its a 1985 Merkur XR4TI with the ford 2.3 turbo motor in it. Car is mainly stock except for the 3" downpipe, 3" magnaflow exhaust with tes pipe, Adjustable FPR and Manual Boost Controller. I bought the car off of Ebay from michigan and getting it home was a Painfull experience to say the least. To sum up I decided to drive it home from Eastern Michigan...(idiot) the trip consisted of numerous holes in the oil pan, and gas tank. Breaking all 4 lug studs on the rear left tire while driving at 80mph. Lucky for me the tire just rode on the drum :wooo. Fixed the lug stud issue only to have the car suddenly blow thick blue/white smoke out of the exhaust. We were still 350 miles from home when all of this happened. so we left the car in michigan and went back the next night with a tow dolley and brought it home. the smoke was caused by too much oil in the pan since I now know that the dipstick is WAY wrong. Car runs good so far just need to fix the leaky radiator and install a new oil pan. Car is tuned for 12 lbs of boost and runs fairly well. Here are some pics for you people to laugh at and enjoy.
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b360/kingpincc/merkur4.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b360/kingpincc/merkur3.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b360/kingpincc/merkur2.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b360/kingpincc/merkur1.jpg

[Nix]

Not like you care but I had an 87' Thunderbird Turbo Coupe about 2 years ago with the 2.3 turbo, it was also a five speed, one of the funest cars I ever owned.

I sold it at Jefferson for 420 Bucks, everything in the car worked and it had 98K miles on it when I sold it. I wish I never sold it. :crying

Nice ride ya got there though, I never knew they came with the 2.3 turbo?
Either that or Iam just a dumbass. :punch:

[Prince Valiant]

Sounds like a typical ride home for a mekur :goof

Now, WHY you wanted one I have no clue...to find out, we may have to begin with questions about your childhood and your relationship with your mother :goof

[Rocket Power]

I thought about getting one , but I wasn't sure about parts avail.
I always liked them since they were new.




Must be something about buying cars from eastern MI. We went to buy a 92 Achieva SCX W-41 just outside of Ann Arbor . This guy tells me everything is great with the car. When we got there it was rusty, had one door hinge welded on by someone who shouldn't be near a welder, manual trans leaking all over itself, and the capper is the heater core was so bad it was dripping whille the car was cold and hadn't been started in days. Yeah I am gonna risk THAT driving through Chicago, I'd probably run out of coolant on the skyway.

[hrsp]

sweet

[rally_scort]

i also owned a merkur xr4ti....fun little car to play with....when i had the car i was talking to a guy in michigan who put a Holset hx35 turbo off a dodge cummins on the car...apparently its a popular swap for the 2.3 turbo ford...just an idea...

[turboZ]

let me know, I know a guy that can get a dohc head for that car. Its a volvo head made to work with the ford 2.3 block. He's done a few of the motors already and owns a cosworth :wooo

[Teufelhunden]

Cool car Chris. :) Is it an auto or 5sp?

[SloFarmTruck]

Wow well thanks for the support all, and for the info. I have heard of the turbo swap. and the dohc head swap. I want to get the car running properly before I do any kind of modifications yet. It still has a leaky oil pan and gas tank. Once all the leaks are fixed. I will begin diving into the tuning part of the car. It is currently running 15 lbs of boost, and I am does have a bung for a wideband set up. Its a 5speed car btw. Tons of fun in the gravel and around corners. First major mod will be getting rid of the stock T-9 trans and the 2 piece driveshaft for a T-5 and a solid drive shaft. The car may even make the KOTH event just for fun, since the farm truck's driveshaft is all that is holding it from being there. The truck does have a newer tranny in it now with a new converter :headbang The old tranny ended up being broken in 3 places on the bellhousing :D All the other bolts were hand tight only. Guess the trans didnt like all that nitrous!!

[UnderPSI]

Ugly Car.......thats all I got.

[SloFarmTruck]

Ugly Car.......thats all I got.

Hey thanks :loser ..but at least it runs....

[Junky Giorgio]

I like your boost gauge chris.... ;)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v617/junkgsx/Picture0382.jpg