Ford Performance email mag: "RYAN LABOMBARD’S ECO-BOOSTED ’87 MERKUR RESTOMOD’S THE BOMB"

[John Brennan]

Miracles do happen. I have never seen a Merkur in this email mag sent to my email inbox once or twice a week, but here it is. I guess since it features an Ecoboost engine, and more specifically, the parts from Ford to make it work, they let one get by:

https://performance.ford.com/enthusiast ... P_FASTNEWS

[R Code]

Neat to see a beloved Merkur, and I can respect the amount of work & $ it took to do that conversion.

I have to question why though. Seems like a lot of hassle and expense for somewhat meager HP & torque gains.

[my8950]

Something I had wanted to do for a long time...I think it's more than enough engine to make the car fun to drive.
I wish there was more documentation.

[john keefe]

Really surprised to see it too. Nicely done. Now, if we could just get a Cossie look-a-like on those pages, we might have even more interest. A few years ago, someone in a Mustang asked me at a stoplight if it was a "new" Ford they were coming out with... and he was serious. Guess it was the Ford badges in place of the Merkurs. Still, says something about good visual design elements.

[thesameguy]

Maybe a small hp gain, but loads of easy tunability, probably a net weight loss, and probably a massive powerband gain.

Switching back and forth between my ancient 2.3l Saab Viggen (225hp, 258lb ft) and my ancient-er 2.3l XR4Ti (at least those numbers!) the difference is always astounding. The Viggen is in Full Go Mode by 2000rpm, whereas I'm still 1000rpm away from real power in the XR4Ti, despite a big exhaust and ball bearing turbo. Add in a direct injection and big static compression? What's not to love?

I like the XR for the sheer '80s-ness of it, but I definitely understand why someone would move to a modern engine, even if the numbers aren't bigger.

[andyofcolumbusmerkur]

Control pack is no longer available. At least not though Ford like the crate engine itself. I like the idea of a lighter engine verses a heavier one.

[brokencase]

Control pack is no longer available. At least not though Ford like the crate engine itself. I like the idea of a lighter engine verses a heavier one.

Just go with the 2.3 Ecoboost. There are folks on ebay selling motor/tranny combos with harness and ancillaries that you can start up on the shipping crate.

But you could save money and just buy a wrecked Mustang off of coparts.com and pull the items yourself.

2.3L is an awesome motor.

[timxr8]

If I wasn't elbows deep in my 3.5 EB, I would have done the 2.3L EB. I believe in 2018, Ford switched to the 2.3L support with the Control Pack. It's the Mustang tuning with 310hp/340tq. Easily retuned to way more than that through the OBD II port. Huge amounts of aftermarket support.

[thesameguy]

Yeah, the control pack is now for the 2.3l at about $2k. The other option is SCS Delta who does controls for all the inline Ecoboosts (1.0 through 2.3) at about $1800US. What I want to know is how big the MT82 is vs. the T5!

[my8950]

I’m really starting to want the 2.0, or even 2.3 to do a swap...

[andyofcolumbusmerkur]

Isn't that just the engine in a Volvo s60?

[andyofcolumbusmerkur]

I had high hopes for the Focus RS when I saw it the first time at the Cleveland auto show. But it seems to be getting a reputation for a less than reliable engine. They had it right with the Sierra/Sapphire/Escort Cosworth why couldn't then just put that engine in everything?