Uncertain: Merkur Xr4ti

[cmanreinhart]

Hello, Stance Works! A little introduction to my build and myself.
My name is Conner, I'm senior in high school and long time viewer on Stance Works but haven't really posted since I've kinda been uncertain on the direction I want to head with my build.

So anyways on with the car:
Its a 1987 Merkur Xr4ti (also known as Ford Sierra in Europe)
I bought the car the 2 years ago when I was 15 with the original intent of heading in a
different direction that I am right now.
Which is now just to have a fun, reliable car that I can take out occasionally to a few local drift events.

Anyways here's some photos of the car:
(Sorry for the bad quality pictures, quality should get better since I just picked up a Cannon
T5).

[cmanreinhart]

Now to get this thread up to speed. Originally when I bought the car it was in non-running condition. Little did I know it actually had a cracked cylinder head along multiple valve seats.
So out came the engine and the automatic trans. While I had everything out I ended up tearing the engine down, decking the head and block since they where warped quite a few thou and replacing all the original bearings, gaskets, piston rings etc.





Major things still left to install/do at this point during the build:
-Mount rebuilt Garrett T3 .48 (Stock size turbo)
- Hook the T9 Manual Trans (with new clutch and flywheel)
-Route new fuel lines
-Mount/Locate fuel cell (since the original gas tank was beyond gone)
-Paint Engine Bay

[cmanreinhart]

Alright so..... on to the finished product: installed 4/24/15
There's still a lot more to include, but for right now this all I had time for.

[delvin]

Sweet! Have you thought about picking up a junkyard intercooler? Looking forward to your project here man.

[philohlean]

I wanted one of these very badly as my first car, I'm jealous you found one that's so nice! I couldn't find one for sale anywhere, and ended up with my Volvo instead haha. Really excited to see where this goes man, hopefully you can keep it clean and tasteful, there aren't many left on the road

[cmanreinhart]

Sweet! Have you thought about picking up a junkyard intercooler? Looking forward to your project here man.

Thanks man! And yeah I do probably one out of an older Volvo since I heard they fit nice

I wanted one of these very badly as my first car, I'm jealous you found one that's so nice! I couldn't find one for sale anywhere, and ended up with my Volvo instead haha. Really excited to see where this goes man, hopefully you can keep it clean and tasteful, there aren't many left on the road

Thanks man! Haha yeah there hard to come by and definitely a fun first car. Don't worry I plan to keep it clean so I can have her for a long time, a lot of work has already been done to get it where its at. By the way nice Volvo 240! I heard they have almost perfect 50/50 weight distribution??

[alantw-15]

Looks great and really clean. That is called the Lima engine, yeah?
How much power do you reckon you have?

If you are going drifting, the first and single most effective mod to do would be a group A/solid diff mount. You would not believe how far up and down the shitty standard diff mount travels, especially with the on/off power of sliding, and stiffening it up makes the back end on them quiet good.

Looking forward to progress

[superturbodiesel.com]

My dream car! Tell me if you want to sell it someday

Don't drift it! Take care of it, and just lower and add som nice wheels to it to cruise like a boss.

I have a Ford Sierra Xr4i (v6 2.8 injection) myself. Great cars!

[jalenda9]

Mi representing

[cmanreinhart]

Thanks for all the positive feed back guys! I really appreciate it... It keeps me motivated.

Looks great and really clean. That is called the Lima engine, yeah?
How much power do you reckon you have?

If you are going drifting, the first and single most effective mod to do would be a group A/solid diff mount. You would not believe how far up and down the shitty standard diff mount travels, especially with the on/off power of sliding, and stiffening it up makes the back end on them quiet good.

Looking forward to progress

Yeah its a 2.3L Lima. And probably after I finish installing my La3 (ECU from a ThunderBird Turbo Coupe), Large Vam and intercooler probably about
300hp on 19psi. With all the mild porting and other odds and ends I did to the car.

And for Diff situation I'm actually swapping in a Mk3 Supra LSD diff with a 4.30 gear so will see how it goes... I'm still trying to fab up some brackets to mount it.

My dream car! Tell me if you want to sell it someday

Don't drift it! Take care of it, and just lower and add som nice wheels to it to cruise like a boss.

I have a Ford Sierra Xr4i (v6 2.8 injection) myself. Great cars!

Mi representing

Haha will do! Yeah will see idk how much I really want to beat on it since I want to have it for awhile. V6 2.8?? I think they put those in another car Merkur made the Scorpio. Is it a manual?

Mi representing

AYEEEE

[cmanreinhart]

Alright so... Onto some stuff that I have been working more of recently.
Either you'll **** this or you'll like it but, since my goal is to attend some local drift events by this summer. I needed to figure out what I was going to do with the diff...

I'd been reading on a couple rally forums and figured out that a lot of guys go with a Mk3 Supra LSD Diff to swap into there Xr4ti since there relatively cheap, plentiful in terms of gear ratio options and pretty durable (center housing is the same as ones put in Tundras, and 4 Runners).

Now there is a guy that sells a kit to swap the Mk3 diff into your Xr4ti but, me being too cheap and wanting to learn some fabricating skills. I decided I'd make them my self...

I ended up finding a Diff on FaceBook that was already dis-assembled (Another thing I'd have to learn; How to assemble a Diff)



Ended up getting it back together and using the 4.30 ratio that came with it, as well as installing a crush sleeve eliminator:

[cmanreinhart]

Now onto some more interesting stuff… A while back I ended up fabbing up some half shaft adapters. Out of the cheapness of myself i ended up just cutting off the old stub shafts from the original diff and having a buddy weld on some ¼” plate steel (since the the original diff was about ½ “wider). Next up I just fabbed up some mounting brackets and kind of just took dimensions as I went (which can hopefully get some pictures of soon). Now the next hardest part should be making a spacer/adapter for the diff to mount to the drive shaft.



CV Stub-Shafts freshly cut off the original Diff:











As of more recently I ended up purchasing a higher quality Fuel Cell; A 12- Gallon Fuel Safe. Off of a local Craigslist ad for a pretty decent price.

[Matt]

Holy moly this thing is immaculate.

Hammer it on tiny wheels.