My new project, the Merkur/Turbo Coupe powered e30

NYSpeed Automotive
1

It’s a fun little project so far. I bought it running, but it was so rough, so I started tearing it apart to fix everything that need it, and then ended up doing a wire tuck (well, most of one at least). In a nutshell, the car is an '87 325es, with a shortblock out of a Merkur XR4Ti with 86,000 miles on it, and then a Ford Turbo Coupe head, mated to a T5 transmission with an Ram HD clutch, and then a 59mm Holset turbo bolted up to that running Megasquirt.

The chassis has almost no rot. The hood has a 4" spot on the front, and then the passenger fender has a little bubble at the bottom, that you can only see what bending down far, or the car is up in the air. Besides that, she’s in great shape!

Here are a few pictures:

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7041/7042143661_686b79ccc0_b.jpg

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7083/7042158801_84254ee7a2_b.jpg

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7051/6896038904_269d5b871a_b.jpg

Here is what the engine bay looked like when I first got it:

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7053/7042218425_904f521498_b.jpg

During the tuck:

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7120/7072227335_9284e127bb_b.jpg

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7037/7072234601_aae3278fe3_b.jpg

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7269/6937878094_bcd915be3e_b.jpg

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7077/7083957765_271e2c09d8_c.jpg

And what it’s looking like now, almost back together:

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7092/7096091107_ce32463b29_b.jpg

I am also going through and fixing any safety equipment on the car. I inspected bushings, wheel bearings, and tie rods, and only found the passenger tie rod to be bad, the rest of the car was tight.

Most recently, I mounted the coolant overflow can and the catch can behind the grill, and infront of the intercooler end caps, to hide them from the bay, but still have access to them with just 2 screws:

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7179/7103994367_ec52c7e13f_b.jpg

I am still a few weeks away from being complete, but I am hoping that the car is pretty fun when I am all done, and since I am fixing almost everything completely hack on the car, it should be relatively reliable!

-Mark

2

wow that bay cleaned up nice. What kind of numbers are you expecting with that setup?

3

I have no clue. The previous owner went a 13.9 @ 100 with it, but that is only a baseline. I have no clue how much boost it’s running, how much power it’s making, how well it’s tuned, or anything else about it. I do know, that people with this similar setup in other cars are going 11’s, so if I can even do 12’s, I’d be stoked! It’s really just a cheap, fun project car though, so even if it stays at 13.9, I’ll be happy with it :tup:

4

Hell even with those numbers it should be plenty of fun on the street.

5

And yeah, it’s hard to tell what all I did in the engine bay, but I:

  • relocated the new catch can and old coolant overflow to behind the grill
  • removed the remote oil filter and put it directly on the block
  • removed the heater lines going to the heater that doesn’t work anyways
  • removed tons of unnecessary fittings and lines
  • removed the half of the A/C system still hooked up
  • extended the wires and ran them along the fender, through the grill, and then up the other fender, instead of across the exhaust
  • etc…
6

I’m super excited on this.
Awesome awesome swap.
Good job cleaning it up

7

pretty cool swap you wouldnt expect to see.

:tup:

8

I had an '84 Turbocoupe with a 5-speed as my 2nd car, drove the piss out of it for almost 5 years and ~ 140k miles later sold it. (Odometer stopped when I had put 130k on myself, I bought it with 104k, sold it with 235k on the clock, but was closer to 250k). That motor would take anything, had the exhaust manifold/turbo glowing red more times that I care to remember. Only issue I really ran into was a coolant line that was near the turbo that I kept melting every year or so.

Looks like a fun project/toy.

9

Def a cool swap! Looks like a ton of fun

10

Different, I like it :tup:

11

This is awesome

12

Wanna wire tuck my X? Lol

13

lulz. interesting.

e30m3’s had covers on the firewall, we (not my idea, e30 community) use them in swap cars to tuck wires along the firewall

14

damn this is sweet…I am jealous because that’s the drivetrain I want to use in my locost/caterham replica build… :frowning:

:tup:

15

Awesome purchase!!!

16

Very neat,great job on the tuck, when its done it will def look great

17

Whoa this awesome and it looks so much better now

18

Car is 90% complete. I have the harness all done, and ready to go back into the car. All that’s left is reinstalling the harness, install the new vacuum lines, torque the wheels, profit?

19

Good progress.

20

I would have put a 350 in it like this guy did in his e36 ;)…
http://buffalo.craigslist.org/cto/2984380630.html

It is in East Aurora, anyone know him?