Merkurs

[PDenbigh]

not to jack his thread, but yeah, merkurs use basically the same 2.3 I4 as the stang and ranger pickup, although only the merk and stang had turbo variants of the engine. also the same engine as that used in the old euro ford sierras and cosworth escorts. take it from there Pete.....

**Takes a big breath**

The Merkur XR4ti, SVO Mustang, and Turbocoupe T-bird all shared the 2.3 Turbo. The Rangers and other 2.3 NA powered cars had the same block, but different pistons and a different head. The valves in teh turbo head are slightly larger, and it had hardened valve seats, not to mention a turbo specific cam. The 2.3T's compression is also 8:1 (before B00st). The ECU in the XR, SVO, and TC are all different, and the SVO's is the most sought after. The SVO and TC had small intercoolers from the factory, the XR did not. As far as HP? The 1985 Comparisons are: XR: 195HP, 210Torque. SVO: 210HP, 220 Torque. TC: 205HP, 215ish torque, if my memory serves me right.


So why a Merkur?

It's heavy, but weighs less then the others (3060lbs)
It's stiff, quite stiff, for a 1985 car
IRS
Drag Coef of .32 (same as the Farrarri at the time)
It had all sorts of creature comforts, like heated seats, heated mirrors, lots of dummy lights, sunroof, leather interior
It handles tons better then the other two

As for the Euros? I WISH I had their engine. They had a 16V DOHC T-4 powered I-4 with all sorts of neat race prep stuff (that you will soon see on my engine :-). The RS500 Cossies did what their name implys, 500 HP in RS500 form prep. The "regular" cossies had the same engine with a smaller turbo, different cams, and a different ECU, and only put down around 250 at the wheels. To find a cossy with only 250hp these days is rare though becasue they were so easy to hop up. Serrias are in huge demand and extremenly difficult to get in the USA (14 are in the US. Count em if you don't believe me)

Merkurs are testy beasts though. Nearly all have been driven hard and neglected. They have weaker (but smoother) euro transmission that give in at anythong over 200 RWHP. Driven hard, they dye around 140k miles on a stock engine. Taken care of, and treated well, they have quite a bit of poential, espically for a 1985 car. Parts simply don't exist in the US. Anything you need can sometimes be sourced from europe. Some of the engine parts are around thanks to the SVO's and TC's. Also, this was the first engine to employ Ford's ECC-IV ECM system, so there were lots of sensors and poor documentation. Makes for a fun project though - mine's been off the road for 1 year, and was only drivin a couple times for the 3 years before that becasue it never ran properly. One of the only reasons I have one is because I'm lucky enough to have a garage that I can take absolutely every mechanical part of the car apart and rebuild.

You asked, and there ya go!

Peter

**breath**