4g63-t into an 89 Merkur XR4TI

1rst Gear · Post by **1rst Gear** » Tue Feb 20, 2007 11:04 pm

Hi everybody, new to the list and figured I would drop in to say hello and let everyone in on my current project.
I hope to be the first person to complete a 4g63-t into an 89 Merkur XR4TI.
Sounds nuts enough I'm sure, swapping a Mitsubishi engine into a German born, English bred Ford but hey when you can't afford the 3 g's it takes to import a YBD Cosworth turbo twin cam and it's tranny and management you start looking for more affordable alternatives that can still get you where you wanna be.....besides I think the 4g63 is every bit as capable as any Cossie engine and pretty damn reliable at the same time.
I'll post pics as soon as I figure out how to until then anyone who wants to know what my Merkur XR4TI looks like can click on my profile and then go to my cardomain link. It'll take you straight to the page. I still need to update it for the engine swap but it's a start.

I also have an 88' Starion ESI-R that I'm currently working on as well but I think I'll try sticking with the G54B-T in that car. more on that another time though. From time to time I'll update everthing I do for the swap section just to make sure that anyone else who may be a Merkur fan wants to try thier hand at insanity I may be able to give them a hand.

L8TR
William
93' Cadillac Eldorado Touring Coupe
90' VW Corrado G-60 (red)
90' VW Corrado G-60 (blue)
89' Merkur XR4TI
88' Starion ESI-R

jeffball610 · Post by **jeffball610** » Wed Feb 21, 2007 12:32 pm

I don't know much about Merkurs, but that kinda looks like a Ford 2.3L engine. The Mustang SVO and Cougar Turbo Coupe had it. Not sure if there's any interchangable parts there. I know they run the T5 tranny and one guy on last years Power Tour ran an SVO into the 9s I believe. I'll have to do some searching on the Merkur and see what's up.

screemin eagle · Post by **screemin eagle** » Wed Feb 21, 2007 1:39 pm

WHY NOT DO THE 16V TWIN CAM VOLVO HEAD OR AN ELSINGER ALUMINUM PIECE?

GRNDSM · Post by **GRNDSM** » Wed Feb 21, 2007 3:53 pm

XR4TIs and Starions were my favorite cars in the 80s! I still have an article from 88 Car Craft (or was it Hot Rod ?) magazine when they tested modified versions of both of those cars! So I definitely dig the idea of the project.

However, 2.3 is a pretty potent engine as is. 4G63 is better, but I am not sure that it is THAT much better to justify such a large project. My rule of engine swaps: whatever is going in, must be able to make at least 2-3 times the power of the original engine

.

In ether case, best of luck and keep us updated!

Post by **DJpowerHaus** » Wed Feb 21, 2007 5:46 pm

I remember this was on my top 5 list when I was searching for cars 5 years ago. Starion won out though... gotta love these Mitsubishi Flares.

4g63mightymax · Post by **4g63mightymax** » Wed Feb 21, 2007 9:28 pm

That is definitely a unique swap, no doubt about it. There must be something in the Austin Texas water that makes people build weird stuff. The last time I was in Austin Texas, I saw a giant home-built metal hydraulic spider walking down the street at a car-art show, then some crazy-lady-dude-character named Leslie on 6th street!

YIKES!
Austin is 1 wacky place!
-Jeremy

1rst Gear · Post by **1rst Gear** » Thu Feb 22, 2007 9:32 am

DUDE YOU HEARD OF LESLIE?!? Man and all this time I thought he was just a local freak. I guess he/she is breakin out international, coast to coast LOL!
Well yeah the Thunderbird Turbo Coupe and Merkur XR4TI do have the exact same engine however the SVO (Special Vehicle Operations) Mustang had whats refered to as the "competition block" which had even more matierial than the standard 2.3turbo offerings in the Turbo coupe and XR4TI and could handle a boat load more boost. Yeah you can make some generous power out of all of them it's just the drivability goes striaght down the tubes for a daily beaten machine Over the 350hp mark. My goal is simply to make 400 to 450rwhp and still have a reliable enough car that I can drive 1000 miles to my brothers house in Columbia, Missouri beat on it and drive it back without being parinoid of break downs and still have a more streetable attitude than my current set-up. we'll see.
I love those fender flares too thats one why I have a Starion. In fact my aunt loaned me her Conquest TSI on a Friday night when I was 16 years old and I got my first taste of forced induction. I had never driven a turbo car before let alone rode in one so from then on I was hooked!
My reason for going 4g63 in my Merkur is actually because of a few engineering down falls that left me stranded after I modded my 2.3 single cam. One is intermediate shaft carnage. These little guys drive the oil pump and distributor at the same time and when they croak the engine dies (a good thing) But up to about 400hp you can expect that this will become more common place (a bad thing indeed)
Plus the cylinder head (though I have 2 that are fully ported and polished)
are limited and Esslinger wants a ba-jillion dollars for bare aluminum units.
And then there is just the cooling system alone.

Click on the link on my profile go to my cardomain page and look at under the hood shots and you will be amazed at just how much cooling system hose is run through out the engine bay. It's absurd.

Parts availability for the engines at auto parts stores and other places are getting harder to come by without ordering from somewhere that caters to these cars. I won't have that issue with the 4G63.
And lastly the engine management system is not that good which I won't have to deal with restrictive vane air flow meter's or expensive mass air flow conversions because of the management.

The Volvo head swap is more trouble to me then it's worth because of the cars that I've seen they're not making much more power then what some modded 2.3 single cam cars I've driven/ been in. Not to mention the amount of re-engineering that must go into the swap for it to work and will you ever really trust it on a long trip beating the hell out of it? Meh
I don't know. I might go there if I get another Merkur for cheap short drive thrills but not for this car. I want this one to have all engine components at least belong together for just relaibility's sake.
My biggest hurdles will be getting the T-5 tranny I swapped in the car a bell housing adapter made to bolt up to the 4G63. Once that done the rest will be down hill.

We'll see

William
89' Merkur XR4TI

1rst Gear · Post by **1rst Gear** » Thu Feb 22, 2007 9:33 am

Sorry about that long assed post!

Bill Hincher · Post by **Bill Hincher** » Thu Feb 22, 2007 10:07 am

1rst Gear wrote:

My biggest hurdles will be getting the T-5 tranny I swapped in the car a bell housing adapter made to bolt up to the 4G63. Once that done the rest will be down hill.
We'll see
William
89' Merkur XR4TI

we spoke once on E-mail a long time ago, donno where you went , but you are about the 5th guy who wanted that trans adapted to the 4G63, lets pool our efforts in this group and build one

Bill

jeffball610 · Post by **jeffball610** » Thu Feb 22, 2007 3:28 pm

After seeing what my brother's Camero did to a T5 in nearly stock trim, I don't trust those things. Maybe a Nash or TKO, but not the standard T5. Maybe I'm wrong. And you want a reliable 4G63? Good luck. They don't have major issues, and after you've been around them a little while, they're easy to work on. Most of the DSM related problems are due to the tranny, so we'll see what happens with RWD fun. You were complaining about the cooling system on the Merkur, but look what you need to do to run a 4G63. Not that bad, but it'll take some work. Keep us posted.

screemin eagle · Post by **screemin eagle** » Thu Feb 22, 2007 7:55 pm

jeffball610 wrote:After seeing what my brother's Camero did to a T5 in nearly stock trim, I don't trust those things. Maybe a Nash or TKO, but not the standard T5. Maybe I'm wrong. And you want a reliable 4G63? Good luck. They don't have major issues, and after you've been around them a little while, they're easy to work on. Most of the DSM related problems are due to the tranny, so we'll see what happens with RWD fun. You were complaining about the cooling system on the Merkur, but look what you need to do to run a 4G63. Not that bad, but it'll take some work. Keep us posted.

i know a couplke of camaro guys who had them in their cars with no luck either i dunno i dont think its the same unit. a T5 in a fox body is not bad ive had a few and never broke them and i shifted it like that bitch was a pro 5 0 tranny only hurt the sycros. so long as you werent dead hookin you were ok. also fox body T5's are a dime a dozen and if you outgrow it just unbolt it and bolt up a tremec 3550 or TKO and your golden. T5's can be bought from $100 - $500 for a low mile almost new unit

screemin eagle · Post by **screemin eagle** » Thu Feb 22, 2007 8:04 pm

oh yes if i remember correctly the 2.3 turbo cars came with a smaller T5 than the v8 cars. i know you could drill some holes or something and make it work but the turbo 4 unit was smaller and had a different input shaft

1rst Gear · Post by **1rst Gear** » Thu Feb 22, 2007 10:39 pm

Bill, I ended up getting rediculously busy at the shop and things haven't let up yet. I'm currently in process of trying to get a transmission case from a D-50 to use as a template for making a bell housing that will adapt from T-5 to 4G63. Hopefully I can get it soon. I'll post it as soon as I do.
Not all 2.3turbo cars were equipped with the World Class T-5 only the SVO and the Thunderbird Turbo Coupe. The Merkur was offered with a weaker T-9 5 speed which had smaller width gears. The T-9 transmission found in the Sierra RS Cosworth and RS 500 has better ratios and were made to withstand the 220hp twin cam Cosworth engine which Ford knew people would use for racing. The trannys we got here were actually geared and set up for the normally asperated 2.8liter V-6's the Sierra XR4i used as standard equipment. The car didn't become the XR4-T-I untill Ford North America decided to dump the V-6 (for emissions reasons) and use the Turbo 2.3. We actually made out decent on that one as the 2.3 made more power and torque than the V-6 but our cars gained about 300lbs over the European Sierra's due to bumper and chassis reinforcements for North American crash test standards.
The 4G can be made very reliable with enough attention to detail. I've seen plenty of examples roaming the streets of Houston and Austin with more trans failures than engine failures so that doesn't bother me at all.
I'm also no stranger to picking up a wrench so should disaster strike I can handle it, I just want to make sure that I set it up so I don't have to worry about it for a while.
Oh btw Bill, when I get my hands on the transmission case would you need my bare block to set up a bell housing Jig?
Wiliiam
89' Merkur XR4TI

1rst Gear · Post by **1rst Gear** » Thu Feb 22, 2007 10:45 pm

Screaming Eagle, the T-5 transmissions are actually the same sans the bell housing and gear ratios from a fox body V-8 to the Turbo Coupe and SVO turbo 4. My buddy just installed an 88' fox body gear box into his XR4TI.
His ratios are just a touch taller than mine are.
William
89' Merkur XR4TI

carguyf545 · Post by **carguyf545** » Thu Feb 22, 2007 11:49 pm

sorry off topic, but my escort on nos coming out of third into 4th will throw a huge fire ball. like your pic 1rst gear. it is so big i can see it at night. it will light up the sky. my question is, WHY???????

1rst Gear · Post by **1rst Gear** » Fri Feb 23, 2007 12:23 am

Have you ever seen a car rev'd up high with out an exhaust on it?
Alot of times you'll see some of the flame thrown out of the exhaust manifold when the engine is at it's highest speed as your releasing throttle.This never makes it past the catalytic converter. If you run no catalytic converter then that flame from the combustion chamber freely mixes with unburned hydrocarbons (fuel) and then ignites into a magnificent light show between shifts. I think it's partialy due to the ignition timings tendancy to retard when you let off the throttle making the spark ignite the unburned hydrocarbon on cars with large fuel systems, and because the valve train is going so fast and the timing is changed so abruptly on lift off the effect is as you see it.
Wasted spark ignition systems on cars with large fuel systems make really cool light shows. Same goes for cars equipped with batch fire fuel injections systems because the always dump fuel on the exhaust stroke and there is usually enough fuel in the exhaust durring lift off of the throttle to cause this effect even though most injection systems kill the injectors on deceleration.....Make since? And I won't even get into rotaries. They come from the factory with two seperate ignition systems firing in two seperate sequences.....
William
89' Merkur XR4TI

Merkd-ya · Post by **Merkd-ya** » Thu Oct 15, 2009 12:28 am

does anyone know what happened with this project?

1rst Gear · Post by **1rst Gear** » Thu Oct 15, 2009 10:53 pm

Actually the project has been delayed due to finances, but I'm still gathering parts for it. I currently have two different 4g63 projects going, and it's partially due to the car I was driving going down while I was in the middle of getting things together for this project. So now my Starion ESI-R which I was driving at the time, is in need of some tlc and I decided to go ahead and start getting parts to 4g swap it as well, but with a twist......I plan to twin charge the Starion so I'm looking forward to the complettion of this one and then I'm jumping back onto the XR4TI swap.I have nearly all the Starion swap parts I need so I'm close in that respect. The XR will need more parts before I get to the point I'm at with the Starion.

William
Da Ridez....
97' Volvo 850-R (just gave it to my bro for a while!)
97' Mitsubishi Eclipse GS (What ? no turbo?!?)
95' Volkswagen Jetta GLX (just got it-needs a motor)
90' Volkswagen Corrado G-60 (so mis-understood)
89' Merkur XR4TI (never gettin rid of it!)
88' Mitsubishi Starion ESI-R (try prying it from my cold,dead fingers)

77amc · Post by **77amc** » Mon Nov 02, 2009 2:23 pm

Man, I wish I woulda known.. There was a XR here (memphis) in a pull a part not too long ago.
Turbo didn't last long but the rest of it was still there I think.

E

sammis · Post by **sammis** » Sat Nov 14, 2009 12:16 pm

hey this has already been done. i still have parts like drive shaft oil pan with pick up, manifold,supra trans. i was planning on putting to getter another car but i have no room for it. i,m sure this will save you a lot of time with tracking down parts hit me up lets talk

Djchunter · Post by **Djchunter** » Sun Nov 15, 2009 1:33 am

I currently have a T5 bolted to a 4g63 with common parts.. If you want more info PM me.. Also note the T5 wont shift behind the 4g at high RPM's.. I had mine pro-shifted through liberty gear.
Dave