Another turbo car!?!?!?....project rice killer

[SLWB16hatch]

I picked up a really nice, clean 88 merkur xr4ti about a week ago. The car is factory crystal white, and has grey leather interior. The car was 100% stock when I bought it, and all I have done to it so far is a cone filter, up'd the boost a bit, and an open air vent. The car has been super babied its entire life, and its condition shows it. The car has a crazy 216k miles on it, but it looks like it has 60k. The car has no rust, factory paint on every panel. It has a few little door dings but nothing bad, and the previous owner installed a bi-plane wing on it. The car has perfect compression in every cylinder, and makes no noise other than the flywheel and starter from 200k+ miles and 22 years of starting. Lol

My plans for the car are mostly just restoration back to perfect factory condition and a few tasteful mods. The mods planned so far are:

Stinger 3" turbo back exhaust
Custom cosworth style FMIC and hard piping
BAT polyurethane bushings
KYB front struts
Wilson custom megaquirt
Custom grind cam
Arp head studs and a mls gasket

We will see how the project turns out...:). Pics coming soon...

[adragon72]

Sounds cool

[SLWB16hatch]

Yea its nice...for what I have in the car I can't beat it. The only problem with it is the front seats. The seams have kinda came unsewn...its not split....it just looks flat...

[adragon72]

Maybe you can get it re stitched

[SLWB16hatch]

That or just re-covered....the interior is in too good of shape to mess up...lol

[adragon72]

Cool my buddy has been looking for one of these for a long time

[cobra429boss]

nice car seen it up town

[SLWB16hatch]

Yea these are hard to come by in good shape...

Thanks shaun...its not bad. I def like it tho! Haha. Car doesn't pull bad for a stock 4cyl turbo car. Lol.

[clueless_racing]

Yea these are hard to come by in good shape...

Thanks shaun...its not bad. I def like it tho! Haha. Car doesn't pull bad for a stock 4cyl turbo car. Lol.

lol i didnt know putting a cone filter on it and turning the boost up was stock.you must have meant middletown stock right ? :lol:.now i see why you keep bugging me to race so badly.....being serious though this is a very nice car.hold on to it for a while and have fun with it man.

[Metcalf Racing]

You know once you start "fixing" the "little things" it will never run again and won't be worth $5

[9cobra4]

Uhhh, so fixing things on a car makes it not run anymore? Dang, everyone let their cars stay broken, fixing them hurts them!! Haha jfwy Craig.

[Metcalf Racing]

This guy lives around the corner from me. Everything he buys runs and drive then he "fixes" them until they will never be road worthy again then he offs them

[WHYTRY]

This guy lives around the corner from me. Everything he buys runs and drive then he "fixes" them until they will never be road worthy again then he offs them

LMAO! it should be ok as long as he dont beat the cam in with a hammer!

[SLWB16hatch]

Lol thanks craig....even tho I've had one car come apart while I owned it, but I was also 19 when I bought it and was too stupid to leave well enough alone. Lol. But no it is not coming that far apart...

[clueless_racing]

LMAO! it should be ok as long as he dont beat the cam in with a hammer!

lmao now now

[SLWB16hatch]

Lol. Well the car is gonna need tires soon, it got a screw in one tire, so I patched it for now...maybe I can find a good looking set of cobra Rs or something

[WHYTRY]

Lol. Well the car is gonna need tires soon, it got a screw in one tire, so I patched it for now...maybe I can find a good looking set of cobra Rs or something

yea, your gonna need some drag radials.

[SLWB16hatch]

Hahaha I hear ya. Definitely not....I need to redo the evac setup and get a different overflow...mine has a small leak. But my vent setup isn't working cause its building up enough pressure to blow a little oil out from under the cap

[1grnstang]

Or u could let it sit in your supposed buddies garage for two years rent free. Then have him work on it and spend his own money on it to get it running.

[clueless_racing]

Or u could let it sit in your supposed buddies garage for two years rent free. Then have him work on it and spend his own money on it to get it running.

oh boy....lol.

[Stolly113]

LMAO! it should be ok as long as he dont beat the cam in with a hammer!


Or u could let it sit in your supposed buddies garage for two years rent free. Then have him work on it and spend his own money on it to get it running.

:popcorn:

[SLWB16hatch]

Hey keep this civil you flaming fruit cakes! Lol

[Kevin1989]

what this the one in middle town last friday night? i was inlove with it

[chris91]

No pics yet? Booooooooo!!!! :D

[SLWB16hatch]

Yes this is the one....sorry I been working a lot....I will have pics up today....

[WHYTRY]

Or u could let it sit in your supposed buddies garage for two years rent free. Then have him work on it and spend his own money on it to get it running.

Or you could spend 6k on a salvage title mustang that's bone stock an put parts on it that didn't belong to you an then take a runing an driving car an completely destroy it. I was talking about josh so there is no need in your conscious trying to take up for ignorance.

[WHYTRY]

:popcorn:

Were was the popcorn when I was yelling at your ass a couple weeks ago when you were about to cry like a bitch??? You can keep your comments to your self. Unless you wanna come say the shit to my face. I'm not scared of you BIG guys lmao

[1grnstang]

Actually it was 5000. But what your retarded ass didn't know was what else i got for that price. Long tube headers, trick flow upper and lower intake, tweecer tuner, gt40p heads, f cam, and the help putting it together and tuning it. Also a good friend, that i didnt stab in the back. Then the reason i took it apart is that when my dad cosigned the loan, since I had no credit at 20, i agreed to have the loan paid off in a year. So i had to sell things i bought to do that. Also if you think i destroyed my car by mini tubbing it then you just ridiculed your own cause from what i seen and was told you have the same thing done to yours. Finally, i never said your name in anything i said, i was simply giving advice to someone. So my conscious is just fine your the one who should be considering what you are talking about, since you was the one crying at white castle last time anything was brought up and the person was nice enough to walk you away. As for this thread, josh im sorry i interrupted your post please carry on with your car. It is very nice.

[WHYTRY]

Actually it was 5000. But what your retarded ass didn't know was what else i got for that price. Long tube headers, trick flow upper and lower intake, tweecer tuner, gt40p heads, f cam, and the help putting it together and tuning it. Also a good friend, that i didnt stab in the back. Then the reason i took it apart is that when my dad cosigned the loan, since I had no credit at 20, i agreed to have the loan paid off in a year. So i had to sell things i bought to do that. Also if you think i destroyed my car by mini tubbing it then you just ridiculed your own cause from what i seen and was told you have the same thing done to yours. Finally, i never said your name in anything i said, i was simply giving advice to someone. So my conscious is just fine your the one who should be considering what you are talking about, since you was the one crying at white castle last time anything was brought up and the person was nice enough to walk you away. As for this thread, josh im sorry i interrupted your post please carry on with your car. It is very nice.

Yea I'd say these things too to save face. I didn't kno you lied to your friends. Just saying. Josh btw the merkur can get sum of the 6.0 its ready

[SLWB16hatch]

All I gotta say is both of you need to grow the hell up! Stop bringing this drama ass bullshit into a thread that didn't have anything to do with either of you. Seriously....grow the fuck up or start a thread just to scream back and forth!

[Jake]

didnt you say something about pictures? lol. just trying to help get this thread back on track.

[tdm309]

Yeah lets see some pics and how has the progress been coming along on this project

[SLWB16hatch]

lol sorry. yea i went to take pictures yesterday evening, and there had been a few deposits by the local birds and i had to wash it. i'm actually in the middle of taking pics right now.

[SLWB16hatch]

Hopefully I will get these pics up, my camera is being a pain and I just found out I have to work 10-10 tonight on I75....lol

[clueless_racing]

Hopefully I will get these pics up, my camera is being a pain and I just found out I have to work 10-10 tonight on I75....lol

lol damn i bet thats good money though.dont get killed....

[Stolly113]

Were was the popcorn when I was yelling at your ass a couple weeks ago when you were about to cry like a bitch??? You can keep your comments to your self. Unless you wanna come say the shit to my face. I'm not scared of you BIG guys lmao


:popcorn:

[Stolly113]

Hopefully I will get these pics up, my camera is being a pain and I just found out I have to work 10-10 tonight on I75....lol

:rockon::rockon:

[SLWB16hatch]

Lol sucks cause that job got cancelled. We were supposed to be working on the bridge going into kentucky. Oh well. Lol. But I finally got some pics and I'm gonna post them here soon.

[85_SS_302_Coupe]

Man, just thinkin about it makes me miss mine. I hope to get another one someday. It's too bad, a few months ago i sold some 15 inch ARE mesh rims i had for my XR...had brand new staggered width tires and everything. They'd have looked sick on this.

[SLWB16hatch]

Yea weren't those rims for sale on here? Those would have looked wicked on it. It just has stock wheels on it, but the have a couple chips in the coating so they are about to get sandblasted and powdercoated other gunmetal or black. Lol

Yea your black one was super nice...I'm hoping to get this car all cleaned up. I found a new RS500 cosworth front bumper, sideskirts and fender lips for it, but the guy won't answer my calls....

[85_SS_302_Coupe]

Man, look into the Jetta bumper mod....IMO they look as good if not better than the Cosworth stuff and they're much cheaper and easier to replace if you fender bender it, and you won't wanna slit your wrists if you crash one like you will if you destroy a Cosworth nose. I ended up spray painting my stock rims black and they turned out awesome.

[SLWB16hatch]

Yea I seen it. Your blacked out merkur looked killer....I'm hoping mine looks half that good

[cobra429boss]

how about those pics

[Jake]

how about those pics

+1 :D

[Stolly113]

how about those pics

:dunno::dunno:

[85_SS_302_Coupe]

Yea I seen it. Your blacked out merkur looked killer....I'm hoping mine looks half that good

Let me know if you wanna spray bomb your rims... :lol:

I think i might have a set of the spatula rim center caps around here somewhere too.

[SLWB16hatch]

lol. i definitely will brother. i like the little car, and im actually very surprised how many people like them.

[SLWB16hatch]

ok ignore the bugs and stuff on the front bumper. i washed and waxed the car 2 days ago, but bugs were bad out last night.

http://i919.photobucket.com/albums/ad40/106mmcoupe/100_1176.jpg
http://i919.photobucket.com/albums/ad40/106mmcoupe/100_1175.jpg
http://i919.photobucket.com/albums/ad40/106mmcoupe/100_1177.jpg
http://i919.photobucket.com/albums/ad40/106mmcoupe/100_1178.jpg
http://i919.photobucket.com/albums/ad40/106mmcoupe/100_1179.jpg

ps and sorry about the size of the pics....

[85_SS_302_Coupe]

Damn man that's every bit as clean as mine was....looks fantastic. It looks like your knock sensor is already unplugged lol.

Oh and yeah, they're serious head turners. If you really wanna have fun, debadge it. Even with badges people break their necks just trying to figure out what kind of car it is. People who remember them will talk your ear off at gas pumps. My favorite memory was cruising through Eastgate one night, and getting flagged down by a bunch of ricer guys at Walmart. I had a straight pipe exhaust so you could hear the turbo spool up an 1/8 mile away. They were trippin out about the exhaust note and wanted to know what muffler i was running...lol. I said NONE.

My biggest complaint was crappy heat....nobody makes a replacement heater core for these cars so i'd suggest *gently* flushing yours before it gets cold out.

[zlou363lx]

car looks good. this makes me want to get my 2.3t project done.

don't know if you'd be interested, but i have an 88 turbo coupe intercooler in my garage with no use to it...

[SLWB16hatch]

yea i was surprised cause i've heard these cars have horrible heat. i turned the heat on a few nights ago when it was nice and cool and it would have smoked you out of the car....lol. yea the knock sensor is unplugged and the factory boost controller was bypassed and removed. the car is a blast to drive right now tho. i had a guy stop me at advance when i bought some fuel system cleaner, talking about how his buddy in college had one new and they used to ride around and try to pick up girls in it.....lol. then he started looking in the car and seen the original window sticker in the passengers seat, and said he couldnt believe the merkur cost 19,855.00 new lol.

[SLWB16hatch]

i thought about it but i don't want to cut the outlet extension off to get it to fit. im about to buy a shorty aluminum radiator and a cosworth fmic for it and go that route intercooling wise...

[85_SS_302_Coupe]

Yep....it was in the same league and marketed against the BMW 3 series of the same era. It really came down to 3 things that killed it...1 was the Mustang having a strangle hold on Ford performance during the '80s, 2 was misinformed and underinformed dealerships who knew nothing about the car and didn't do a good job selling them, and 3 was the odd/quirky styling that was either love it or hate it.

[zlou363lx]

i thought about it but i don't want to cut the outlet extension off to get it to fit. im about to buy a shorty aluminum radiator and a cosworth fmic for it and go that route intercooling wise...

fair enough. just thought i'd throw it out there:bigthumb

[SLWB16hatch]

Oh I def appreciate it. I would just rather do a front mount and take up as little space as possible. Lol. Yea these are definitely one of those love'em or hate'em cars. Lol. But once you drive one they are hard not to like.

[cobra429boss]

take me for a ride next time isee you up town

[SLWB16hatch]

Lol ok...I don't really beat on it too hard just cause I'm expecting the junk T9 to blow apart...lol. I have a good 4cyl T5 I'm about to have freshened up and throw it in...once the stock one pops that is...lol

[Kevin1989]

dammmnnn that interior is cleannnnn

[85_SS_302_Coupe]

Lol ok...I don't really beat on it too hard just cause I'm expecting the junk T9 to blow apart...lol. I have a good 4cyl T5 I'm about to have freshened up and throw it in...once the stock one pops that is...lol

If you can, try to find a Turbo Coupe T5...it'll have the 4 cylinder input shaft but the rest is "World Class" T5 stuff. The car i got my LA3 out of had the trans already laying on the ground under it...i just didn't have the cash to buy it. Made me sick.

[SLWB16hatch]

Got a few things on the car. I had a little problem with the coolant bottle splitting and blowing coolant everywhere. And for anyone who knows these cars, they are a pain to find in decent shape. Well I finally found a clean one and replaced it, I bought a new felpro head gasket, arp head studs, a ford ranger valve cover gasket, new plugs, and a pcv valve. Also picked up a saab radiator and a big saab front mount intercooler. The intercooler is a bit wide so I'm looking for an isuzu npr intercooler or a cosworth intercooler. But I will take pics as I start the little bit of fab that comes with installing everything

[Demented5oh]

nice XR man. I always loved those but couldn't find a nice one and settled with my old 86 TC. Too bad i didn't see this sooner but i recently gave away a bunch of my 2.3T stuff and there was a couple t-5's in there. here is my ol turbocoupe

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b295/Demented5oh/My%20old%20cars/DSCF1879.jpg

[Walter]

Nice Merc and TC guys!

[JIMS SVT]

nice XR man. I always loved those but couldn't find a nice one and settled with my old 86 TC. Too bad i didn't see this sooner but i recently gave away a bunch of my 2.3T stuff and there was a couple t-5's in there. here is my ol turbocoupe

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b295/Demented5oh/My%20old%20cars/DSCF1879.jpg

Is that my old car?

[beefcake]

nice looking and different

[SLWB16hatch]

Thanks guys....been too busy working to really mess with the car. Plus I've been busy building a turbo setup for my chevelle. So hopefully the merk will get a bit of quality time this weekend...lol

That turbocoupe is sweet by the way....most of those cars are a bit rough. But that's def one of the cleanest I've ever seen. Makes me want another one...lol

[JIMS SVT]

I tried to return your pm but your box is full.Youn can text me @ 513-410-2303

[Demented5oh]

Is that my old car?

sure is or i should say was. i got it looking and running great and then i had to sell cuz i needed a 4dr 4wd

[Galaxie]

I have a small Npr setting on the shelf I would sell Pm me if your interested in it . I also make the t5 cross members for the Xr . Yes I had a problem I have had 9 Xr's in the past and they can multiply like rabbits .

[Galaxie]

It looks like you been awful busy and at least would say you have been in Ohio lately did you forget about getting in touch with me . I had not even realized this was your post untill a few minutes ago.

[SLWB16hatch]

Well for one man you should pm me, and for two I have had a lot on my plate lately other than driving out of my way over used parts....

[WHYTRY]

Well for one man you should pm me, and for two I have had a lot on my plate lately other than driving out of my way over used parts....

who you kiddin? lol