  From a Chandra survey of nine interacting galaxy systems the evolution of
X-ray emission during the merger process has been investigated. From comparing
Lx/Lk and Lfir/Lb it is found that the X-ray luminosity peaks around 300 Myr
before nuclear coalescence, even though we know that rapid and increasing star
formation is still taking place at this time. It is likely that this drop in
X-ray luminosity is a consequence of outflows breaking out of the galactic
discs of these systems. At a time around 1 Gyr after coalescence, the
merger-remnants in our sample are X-ray dim when compared to typical X-ray
luminosities of mature elliptical galaxies. However, we do see evidence that
these systems will start to resemble typical elliptical galaxies at a greater
dynamical age, given the properties of the 3 Gyr system within our sample,
indicating that halo regeneration will take place within low Lx
merger-remnants.
