Sacré Bleu! Merkur XR4Ti Project

[GingerBeef]

Hello again, welcome to the documented journey of yet another poor life choice of mine, a 1987 Merkur XR4Ti! Those of you unfamiliar with this car may be asking yourself "What the hell is a Merkur? And why does it have a Ford badge? More importantly what is a Ford doing on Eurodrivers?!?!"

So, a little history lesson on the Merkur XR4Ti should answer those questions. This car is known internationally as the Ford Sierra Mk1, a product of Ford Werk AG of Europe. Ford Motor Company (USA) had nothing to do with this vehicle besides importing them and throwing in a 2.3 Turbo and slapping on a silly badge that nobody could pronounce. (Well, there were a few more differences, but I fear I may be boring the general audience by now).

The point is, its a car designed in Europe, and hand built by Karmann Coachworks in Germany (the guys who built the Corrado, Scirocco, Cabrios and Ghias). About 42,000 of them were made, and Im super stoked to own one of them!





I first saw this specific XR4Ti and fell in love with it around 4 or 5 years ago when my friend Devlin owned it, he later sold it that summer for a steal but unfortunately I couldnt afford it at the time as I was still in highschool. Fast forward to about a month ago and I finally brought it home. It feels so good finally acquiring the exact car that I've spent the last few years actively searching for.









This ones been dressed up to look like the European Ford Sierra RS Cosworth, with an RS500 front bumper, lights and hood vents. Its also had quite a bit of work done under the hood.... BUT.. Its been disassembled alot since the last time I saw it... but I dont care. I can fix that. It actually worked out quite nicely for me, the previous owner tore it apart to part it out as its worth alot more in parts than as a whole, but luckily he didnt have the chance to actually sell anything! So I picked up the whole lot for a great price and got this pile hauled to my already overcrowded driveway and begun digging through the parts!









After a bit of digging I discovered that the cam bearings were completely fubared. So I ordered a bunch of parts and got to work.







Got some upgraded cam bearings, and lifters/rocker arms from a later model 2.3 head to upgrade the solid slider lifters to a roller rocker design. Then I threw in a Boport Stage 1.5 camshaft into the Ford Motorsports Big Valve head.











Thats all the progress I got done today, as I discovered the hole where timing belt tensioner bolts into is stripped so I need to helicoil the head.

[96vwVR6]

Re: Sacré Bleu! Merkur XR4Ti Project

love these cars!!! I had a buddy in college in Kamloops that installed the 2.3 turbo into a 2wd ranger, that thing hauled ass!!

[GINCH]

Re: Sacré Bleu! Merkur XR4Ti Project

Great cars! A friend of mine in High school had one of these! Super fun to drive. Remember it being a little finicky though! Look forward to seeing your progress with it!

[Shoreboy]

Re: Sacré Bleu! Merkur XR4Ti Project

The last time I saw one of those was in a flaming heap on the shoulder on the climb to the top of the Coquihalla! I guess the incline was a bit too much for it. Ill be interested to see the progress on this one!

[jacktown]

Re: Sacré Bleu! Merkur XR4Ti Project

Respect! Would love to see what seats are in here? Presumably a sweet pair of
Vintage Recaros.

[witchcraftz]

Re: Sacré Bleu! Merkur XR4Ti Project

Very cool. I've learned something new and interesting today!

Some info I found online:
https://www.roadandtrack.com/car-cul...r4ti-for-sale/

[GingerBeef]

Re: Sacré Bleu! Merkur XR4Ti Project

Respect! Would love to see what seats are in here? Presumably a sweet pair of
Vintage Recaros.

No Recaros unfortunately, its got a set of Ractive bucket seats. They arnt the prettiest, but definitely do the job for now.

Onto todays progress!
Here is the mangled thread for the timing belt tensioner... its definitely seen better days. I drilled it out bigger, tapped it, and inserted the right size helicoil for the original bolt! Thank the lord for helicoils, theres about 7 of them holding various pieces of my mk3 together. With that problem resolved I could finally torque down the head and time the engine!











Next up was swapping a few grey trim pieces on my door panels for black ones. This car originally came with a light grey interior, but when I purchased it, it also came with (most of) a black interior which looks much better in my opinion.








Finally, I had to put this pile of parts where they belonged as they were taking up way too much space as a pile. So the black interiors almost complete, except for some reason the dashboard, trunk area, and the A/B/C/D pillar trims are missing. Now, the grey dash is cracked anyways (and from what ive read pretty much all Merkur dashes are) so I was planning on taking it out, repairing it and dying it black along with all the carpet/ plastic in the trunk area. While im at it I was planning on doing the pillar trims too, but now that I have it in for some reason really dig the panda thing going on. I like how the light grey trim accents the windows, it makes the car feel alot more spacious on the inside.













Either way, dyeing this stuff black will be a down the road thing, as my #1 priority is getting this car assembled and running for Driven this year. But id like your guys' opinion on leaving the A/B/C/D pillar trims grey? Obviously it'd look more uniform all black... but again, something about that band of grey catches my eye in a good way for some reason... am I insane?

[syncrovan]

Re: Sacré Bleu! Merkur XR4Ti Project

No Recaros unfortunately, its got a set of Ractive bucket seats. They arnt the prettiest, but definitely do the job for now.



Either way, dyeing this stuff black will be a down the road thing, as my #1 priority is getting this car assembled and running for Driven this year. But id like your guys' opinion on leaving the A/B/C/D pillar trims grey? Obviously itd look more uniform all black... but again, something about that band of grey catches my eye in a good way for some reason... am I insane?

No your not insane, I like that idea as well. I have a little of that in the Passat (lower black and upper tan) and I like it that way.

Too bad for the seat as bucket looks strange in that type of car (unless it was totally stripped....). I didn't remember they had leather interior in those in Europe.

Anyway, looks good!

[stefan]

Re: Sacré Bleu! Merkur XR4Ti Project

I have seen one or two of these driving around and very the past couple years. I guess I never really knew what they were. Sounds like a cool project!

[Tuna]

Re: Sacré Bleu! Merkur XR4Ti Project

Always loved these. I had a soft spot for them because I had a mustang with the 2.3 Turbo and it was awesome.

[GingerBeef]

Re: Sacré Bleu! Merkur XR4Ti Project

I have seen one or two of these driving around and very the past couple years. I guess I never really knew what they were. Sounds like a cool project!

Man, ive never actually seen one of these on the road hahaha. I saw one or two at Pick N Pull last year... Im currently kicking myself for not grabbing some parts, but who knew that I'd actually end up buying this thing.

Always loved these. I had a soft spot for them because I had a mustang with the 2.3 Turbo and it was awesome.

Thats sweet, I considered buying a 2.3T Mustang more than once while I was searching for this car.. but could never pull the trigger cause the Mustangs were just missing that weird factor that these things have.

So I took a closer look at the stock turbo that came with the car.. there was no shaft play but there were a few other problems I noticed... Firstly, all the coolant lines are incomplete (not a big deal), a few bolts from the 02 housing were snapped and stuck inside the turbo (also not a huge deal) but the main problem I have is that the stock 02 housing which houses the internal wastegate was missing. I didnt think this would be a big deal either but ive spent the last few days in search for an OEM 02 housing with no luck. Not even a lead.





Because of the combination of the above, I decided to bite the bullet and go big turbo. I figured that since my engine already has the supporting mods for it that I may as well! So, picked up a Holset HX35W, some raw materials to make a downpipe, and the biggest FMIC ive ever seen in person.







Here is the Holset compared to the factory Garret AiResearch T3. The factory turbo is actually alot bigger than I expected, im so used to seeing the tiny K03s on 1.8Ts. So far im very happy I decided to go this route. The Holset uses the same T3 flange as the Garrett, so it bolts onto my ported factory manifold. The factory oil return line also bolts onto the Holset, and the oil feed line requires only an adapter. Additionally, the Holset is only oil cooled, so that saves me the hassle of tracking down the factory coolant lines, and I can clean the bay up slightly at the same time.







Finally, I had to mock it up in the bay to see what this beast looked like under the hood... I am quite pleased with the presentation haha.







I just need to reclock the compressor housing a bit so the cold side outlet is pointing straight up. Then I need to modify the Holset slightly to help optimize it better for the setup im running, and then get started on making a downpipe for it! I think the cars coming together at a decent rate... hopefully I can get this thing running and driving for Driven.

[Ben]

Re: Sacré Bleu! Merkur XR4Ti Project

Love it! I've owned 2 Merkur's in the past, both 2 of the worst automotive decisions of my life, but I still love these cars!

[witchcraftz]

Re: Sacré Bleu! Merkur XR4Ti Project

I actually saw one drive by yesterday. I would have just been meh before but now I saw it with different eyes.

If you'e doing big turbo, how about an oil cooler - something like this?
https://www.wellerracing.com/WR-Edit...t-_p_3661.html

[Ur0Drivr]

Re: Sacré Bleu! Merkur XR4Ti Project

Approved! Love these cars Mr. McWang!

[Feens]

Re: Sacré Bleu! Merkur XR4Ti Project

Back home in Ireland these things have Cult Status... its a Ford Sierra XR4i back home, but the Daddy was the Sierra Cosworth, With a 2.0 Cosworth Turbo under the Hood, i really didnt like the look of the XR4i due to the split rear Quarter windows but this car with the RS500 front bumper and hood vents will look the part, Im not huge into cosworths but have buddys who are and they would kill for a rust free 3 door shell like this 1