88' T-Bird Turbo Coupe, "Patches" gets a new Hair dryer

[SVO]

Well here is our 1988 Thunder Turd Turbo Coupe, actually that really not nice to say, poor thing seems to had a bit of a rough life, but belive it or not it's not in that bad of shape, in fact it's not even molested with a bunch of hilljack mods or anything, still has the stock AM/FM/Cass w/7 band EQ premium sound system in it, and EVERYTHING works, pwr locks/windows, keyless entry, ALL OF IT!

There's 131k miles on the clock, the fiberglass nose was broken, and the lower part of the bumper cover was ripped, so I opted to go out and find a 4 eye'd frontend, since the 1987-88 stuff was also not available any more, plus I'm kinda partial to the 4 eye stuff.

Anyways, the main thing is the turbo was hosed, yeah you could knock out a whole fleet of Texas sized mosquito's just by starting this bad boy up so today I chose to take the replacement turbo I had originally bought for the Turbocharged Navajo LX project and stuff it into Patches so I can look at driving this car daily, with some paint of course, more on that later.

So here we go lets dive into this pressurized four banging slush box shifted land barge....................

Note the oil coming out of the tailpipe in the picture above!!!


So after removing the intercooler (air to air heat exchanger) this is what we're left with:

Note all the oil on the outbound side of the compressor housing, not to mention I hosed this thing down with PB Blaster to make removal easier, THANK GAWD I DID TOO:

After going bananna's getting this thing out, with corroded/heat soaked nuts and bolts it came out, note all the oil that went down the exhaust pipe:

Now that we have the old one out, it's time to switch everything over (are you watching Dannyboy??) which means removing the fitting for the water cooling, oil feed, and the down spout off the back of the turbo, note that there is so much end play on the shaft that not only did it damage the compressor wheel fins, but look at the oil that was getting by the cartridge seals:

Note also that the stub on one corner came out too, along with another one, but this one is jammed so it can't be freed from the housing, YET!!! (Still watching Danny?)

And here is our so-called new unit, slightly used $100 fixer

Ok so everything here your getting ready to see took about 5min to do, there is NO WAY! these would have come out without snapping if you don't use heat, I used a hand torch and a yellow bottle of MAP gas, which will reach temps up to 2800deg F

Now about that stud that came out and trapped itself along with the turbo support bracket, I carefully used a pair of vise grips and grabbed the stud as not to damage the threads, and then heated the hell out of it and.............WHOLA!!

Ok well tomorrow I'll put this little turbo back together and re-install it back in Patches and see how it does.
This is the smallest turbo that Ford put in any of the 2.3 turbo cars, it spools up really really quick to get this huge 3400lbs bird to take flight, along with factory 3.73 gears, although this turbo doesn't last very long when pushed to 20lbs of boost it does a pretty good job for what it is.

Till tomorrow, I think I hear a beer calling my name :wavey:

Jeff - :navajo:

 

[vroomzoomboom]

want to watch this one to! its too bad that you had to give the 82 up tho......

 

[SVO]

want to watch this one to! its too bad that you had to give the 82 up tho......

Yeah that's ok, it's only 4 miles down the road, and I could get it back for little to nothing, and as you notice I still have the 85' LX so it's not all that bad, but we have Junior's 79' Giha coupe also.




Jeff - :navajo:

 

[Dannyboy]

speechless. what are you saying? I didn't point the flaming torch in the right direction?

 

[SVO]

speechless. what are you saying? I didn't point the flaming torch in the right direction?

OH GAWD I HOPE YOU DIDN'T DO THAT!!!

But, I would NEVER assume that you being the professional, that you are, would ever do a thing like that.


Jamest on the other hand................................................





:





BTW, you know how much of a PITA it is to use a torch and try and photograph at the same time?

 

[cybergasm]

hmmm Talented.

 

[vroomzoomboom]

BTW, you know how much of a PITA it is to use a torch and try and photograph at the same time?

not as hard as texting, and being on the lap top at the same time! :

 

[SVO]

Well starting to make some forward motion here, tapped all the holes, installed the cooling and oil fittings.

Getting the down spout put back on.

Now the hair drier is ready to go back in "Patches", if I feel good enough tomorrow, maybe I'll get it put in there.

 

[htrdlncn]

You should body color the front bumper like the 86 Tcoupe.
I had both an 86 and later an 87 .
The T3/T4 makes the later ones come alive, the small IHI just didnt cut it for me.
I also scrapped the puny intercooler and put a large one up front.
They also love the gear, I went with 4.10s in one and then 4.30 in the other.
Really woke them up and still pulled 25mpg on the highway if you stayed out of the boost.
Great cars and they share a lot with the MK7 LSC inclduing the electric braking system
so I could cross use a lot of my spare LSC parts.
(of course with your experience this is probably all old news to you )
Good luck with Patches!

 

[SVO]

HAHAHA! yeah Frank I thought about making another 300+hp monster but I think I'll keep it pretty much stock, one because it will be my new daily driver, to get out of my BELOVED Flareside that eats waaaay too much fuel.

I will however do a few things to it, such as the conical filter, 3" exhaust, all the free mods, and the auto T-Bird's already come with 3.73's, I do have some cornering goodies for it also such as an MM Pan Hard bar, springs and dampeners.

As for the paint, if your referring to the two tone, yes, to account for the body moulding not matching/lining up, I was going to paint the lower half black, and return the upper half back to the Maroon/red color, and still retain the 10 hole wheels since I seem to have a few set of them floating around here.

omg, Jeff is gonna attempt to paint after 20 years!


Update:

Sorry about the lack of pictures, but I'll get some more, BUT I did succeed in getting the turbo back in the car, and get it up and running, luckly I back it outside the shop to let it run and burn off all the oil that was on it/in it, and promptly found a weak heater hose, so I'll get that replaced today.

Some other thing that need attention are the dampeners, the adjustment of the ignition switch push rod on the column, wiring up the headlamps, turn signals, and parking lamps to the new bumper cover with the four eye front end as opposed to the aero front end, install a battery tray, take the alternator out of the Turbo Navajo and use it to fix the charging issue, and change the oil plus coolant.

Once all that is done run it down to get it registered/inspected and then see about adding some colors to her, and window tint.

I have several pieces of a Shaker1000 system laying around, so I'll see about adding the sub and amp to it to give it a little kick.



So that's about where we stand on this.............




Jeff - :navajo:

 

[vroomzoomboom]

I will however do a few things to it, such as the conical filter, 3" exhaust, all the free mods, and the auto T-Bird's already come with 3.73's, I do have some cornering goodies for it also such as an MM Pan Hard bar, springs and dampeners.

OMG! your molesting a very rare car with all those "mods" and with the different front bumper, that didn't come on that year! and stereo, and tinted windows, and faded paint! thats not the way it came from fac........ oh, sorry, i thought this was a different site. continue on! looks great jeff

 

[htrdlncn]

I may have a good LSC alternator floating around, should be same as 87 Tbird,
let me know if you want me to look for it.
I also have some Tcoupe/LSC seats (grey vinyl,used to be leather,decent shape only one tear) and
beige cloth but those are missing headrests. ,couple of the Tcoupe hood scoops and who knows what else left over from long ago times.

 

[Lacky01]

oh, sorry, i thought this was a different site. continue on! looks great jeff

Lol!

 

[SVO]

I may have a good LSC alternator floating around, should be same as 87 Tbird,
let me know if you want me to look for it.
I also have some Tcoupe/LSC seats (grey vinyl,used to be leather,decent shape only one tear) and
beige cloth but those are missing headrests. ,couple of the Tcoupe hood scoops and who knows what else left over from long ago times.

The alternator has the "D" shaped plug for the regulator in it, NOT the long rectangular plug, if yours looks like that, I could use it.

Really don't need the seats these are in really good shape, just everything needs a good cleaning, and it's all maroon inside also, as for the scoops sure, I can use those on the Turbo Navajo, then I just have to run over to the salvage yard there on HWY71 and get the duct work for the intercooler.




And for Tim.................

Jeff - :navajo:

 

[vroomzoomboom]

You can't tell me with a strait face you didn't laugh at that when you saw that!

 

[SVO]

You can't tell me with a strait face you didn't laugh at that when you saw that!

Your right! I did laugh

 

[SVO]

And here's the paint scheme for Patches:

here's the two tone with the wrong red........

And here is the correct red color............

 

[Carguy3J]

Personally, I'm not a big fan of red (except for a Ferrari maybe?). Probably has something to do with that color car getting pulled over more often (They've done studies. It's true.)
I think that Black/Grey 2-tone on the bottom pic is nice, and it would work well with a Maroon interior. However, if you are going to do the red, I think the "wrong" color paint scheme in that Mustang is a much nicer red than the "correct" one on the T-bird.
It just "pops" more. That T-bird red just seems kinda dull. Just my opinion, for what it's worth.

Also, just curious: What should one expect to pay for a good used T-Bird turbo? Are some years better? What about a rebuilt? The reason I ask is that eventually I'm thinking about putting a pair on the 350ci small block in my pickup. A couple of guys I know from the parts store are into turbo imports,etc... and seem to know all those calculations (A/R ratio,etc...) One of them did some quick "napkin" numbers, and concluded that a pair of T-Bird turbos would be spooled just above idle, and run out of air just above 5k. Both of these stats would be perfect for my truck/motor Do you agree with these calculations?

Sorry, don't mean to hijack; you just seem to know a lot about the T-Birds, and turbos, so I was hoping to pick your brain real quick.

 

[SVO]

Well, as for the being pulled over, I wold probably be the worlds slowest driver, so red being the equation for being pulled over the most, is kind of mute.

Like earlier stated the back at the bottom, is to make up for the early four eyed bumper cover not matching the molding on the later style, and the reason for going back the maroon/red color is so I don't have to paint the engine, trunk and door jambs which would be a lot of work for a daily driver/just transportation.

It will never be a show car, and that's not the intention here.


Now, your set-up:

There are a lot of variables, cam, heads, over bore or not, stroked or not, intercooled or not, automatic trans (stall or no stall) or manual, rear gears, carbed or injected, power levels.

The IHI turbo shown, is a very tiny turbo and spools very quickly, but will not move large amounts of air very effectively, a T3 is better suited for moving more air, but will have a certain amount of lag to it, a good turbo shop with the proper engine build and the known amount of HP gain wanted will be able to build you a properly trimmed turbo for your application, if you want to home build a set-up you could start with the IHI's and later switch to T3's for an idea, but don't forget there are other turbos that came on other vehicles that are out there too, Mitzu, Nissan, Toyota, and so forth, if you wanting to do it the right way, consult your turbo shop.

As for price, well that can get outta control really quick, I had a T34E for my 85.5' SVO that was $1200 and effortlessly made 32lbs of boost which netted me 306hp at the rear wheels, but didn't spool till 4200rpms, but I spun the motor to 8k, so you really had to be "IN" the rev's to get it going, other wise it was a 4 cylinder turd for any normal driving.

Hope this give you a little insight.



Jeff - :navajo:

 

[SVO]

BTW, I just spent some time on the phone with JTSmith about a bunch of different things, but he suggested that I leave the paint like it is