So here are some picts of my $450 dollar wonder. The radiator was trashed, fuel pump doesn't work, and it had a rodent issue in the trunk, but hey...........it was cheap! It does run though, we use a can of starting fluid to get it up on the trailor, so that is a plus and it is relatively straight, just really dirty! Luckily I have some old parts laying around from my '89 Mustang after it was upgraded so hopefully this will be a cheap runner. :D
Right now I have to get the Mustang ready to race, so I won't get to start on this till sometime next month. Should be fun though!
Looks like a good base.
On second thought, its not worth it. Ill come pick it up from you. Ill even do you a favor and do it for free.
That looks pretty good, I think it will clean up and look real nice.
good luck.
Looks alot like mine did when I got it. Your rodent problem couldnt have been as bad as my 86 though it had PILES of rat 2-4" high!
It was bad, but not quite that bad. I was fortunate that most the and damage is in the trunk. When I get some time I plan to pull all the interior and steam cleaning it, it appears to be in descent enough shape besides a couple small stains and the smell! I will have to track down where the rodents got in and seal it up.
I had a '86 turbocoupe and loved it, so am am looking forward to getting this back on the road.
Quick question; anyone here use nitrous on these turbocoupes? I have a couple 75 shot jets just lying around...........:D
Sweet find, I hope to one day get a turbo bird/cougar for my own. Good luck.
Peace,
Dan
Well seeing as you have another car thats a v8 You seem to be wanting this to stay turbo. I'd get it running and start working up the boost. Form what i've learned these cars have pretty tough little motors.
Yeah I do want to keep this a turbo 4cyl, I will take your advice and start looking at the tech forum for some ideas. So far I have seen cold air, boost controller and better downpipe and exhaust. I think for the first step I will look into the boost control. I also have a spare set of 4:10's lying around, but I am not sure I want to change the gearing yet.
Is it automatic or manual. I've read they have a smaller turbo setup on the automatics, I don't know that it makes much of a difference here. I'm not much of a 4 cyl. guy and not one to ask theres loads of guys on here using both setups. I'm planning on getting mine running for a short time and then going V8 so I don't know how much i can help. Your car looks about exactly like mine did when I got it last year.
It's a manual car. I am not sure about the turbo sizes being different, but i might look for something a little larger (turbo wise) anyway. For now this is project "Dirt Cheap", whatever I can do to get it running and as fast as possible with the least new parts and what ever good used parts I come across. If the engine comes part, It might become the recipient of a 460 thats been sitting in the back of my garage for the last 8 years. I will do to the bird what I originally had planned to do to my '89 mustang.......I might even through a turbo on it......ya know, to make it sound authentic! :D
alot of info and parts here
stinger-performance.com
Ive used alot of his stuff in the past, with good results.
Here is a couple update pictures of the T-Bird. I have it cleaned up, and the mice got into EVERYTHING! I ended up pulling the dash and all the interior out and completely hosing the car out. Some how there was even a mouse nest in the heater box! The car still has a bit of a pinsol smell to it at the moment, but is way better then the alternative.
I am still having an issue with the electric fan. I replaced the relay, but it still isn't kicking on the fan. The wiring looks good, so I need to check the temperature sending unit. I might just switch over to the Jeg's adjustable temperature relay and be done with it.
Wow, sure did clean up good.
Also, good to see yet another Missourian on here...we gotta stay even with all them eastern fellas ;)
Can't wait to read about some mods:D
wow, did that ever clean up nicely. good work!
Thanks guys, I went through an entire bottle of rubbing compound to get it like that. I think I am going to invest in a buffer, doing that by hand was a joke. :hick:
Haha, I'll bet you spent alot of time polishing by hand, but it turned out good. Im over in Topeka, KS if you ever need help or anything give me a shout out. Im bringing my Cougar up here to finally throw all my parts on.
Good job on the cleaning man!
Nice job!! I bet you're feeling pretty proud of the job you did on that one, so far. If you're not, you sure should be. Congrats!!
Looks nice. What did you do to clean up the outside? I'm impressed.
Thanks, I am proud of it! I knew it would clean up to look alright, but it did surpass what I thought it would look like. For right now I'm not doing any upgrades, just a few more little things to fix and it should be road worthy.
As for cleaning up the paint I use the new turtle wax rubbing compound for heavy oxidization, and a whole lot of rags. I have at least 20 red rags now from rubbing it out, trying not to stay in one area very long as not to rub through the paint. Then I used clean rags to wipe the car down then applied a good coat of liquid "wet" wax.
Now I just need to find some matching paint and touch-up a couple rust spots and it should be good as new! :D
A couple of thoughts -
1) do what the ricers do with the Nitrous, get a bigger turbo and use the laughing gas to spool the turbo, in other words, at the lower end of the rpm range
2) your fan may not be working because the A/C isn't charged.
Hmmm..... So if the AC isn't charged it could prevent the fan relay from kicking the fan on? If that's the case then this is a stupid design. Your right, the AC isn't charged.
I am just going to order the Jeg's adjustable temperature relay and bypass that other . I can do that at half the price of the one ford relay.
Thanks for the info.
Nope, t3skidoo is wrong...
Fan should work automatically weather the A/C is charged or not... A/C only activates the fan when on, so there is air flow across the condenser... There is a fan temp switch(sensor) on the TC's prior to '87, same as was used on the 4 cyl Stangs... Seems they often are lazy about turning on the fan, may have to try several to get one that activates at a reasonable temp...
BTW you did a outstanding job on that clean up, wanna do mine???? It'd be easy...
That's what I thought. I have a good relay, but for some reason the fan still doesn't work. There are two temp sensors on the engine, one for the gauge and one for the fan, I just need to figure out which is for what.
I am still leaning towards the Jeg's adjustable relay, just for the facts of ease to install and it is adjustable, so I don't have to worry about a lazy sensor.
And thanks, but I'll pass on cleaning for a while.:D I think I have done my quota for the year!
Negative.
Happened on mine. A/C was charged, fan ran fine. Went straight from the garage to get an inspection, the fan wouldn't work. Why? The freon leaked out, fan wouldn't kick on, even though the engine temp was pegged hot.
Now, is that the way it is
supposed to work? I don't know. Is that the way it
does work? Yes.
That's why I think I should just add the adjustable fan relay and bypass all the factory monkey business. I really have no plans to recharge the AC, but I have all the gauges and vaccuum pump so I might change it over to 134a later.
If that fixes it later....great! But for now I am going to bypass it with a system I know will work.
Thanks for the information, it has made this decision a lot easier.
You can jump the relay as a quick fix and/or add some kind of control. I'll try to get a pic if you're interested.
For a temporary fix I went back to the relay and found the power lead and the fan power wire, then tapped both of them and added a switch to manually control the fan. I already ordered the controller so I will wire it in when it gets here.
On a side note, it actually passed the Missouri state inspection! :D
Watch out, here I come! :burnout:
I tell ya with the way gas prices are going this could be good timing.
Nice to see one brought back from the dead. Great job on the cleanup, and congrats on passing the state inspecton.
There are tons of mods you can do to wake these motors up. I just recieved a head that I sent to be ported and polished. I'll be puting it on tomorrow, and it should compliment the host of other mods I've already done. Some of the next mods after that will be converting the VAM to a MAF, a BoPort cam, then T3/T4 turbo. Hopefully at that point I'll be somewhere near the 450rwhp range.
Let me know how things are progressing, I'll offer up all the help I can.
There is also other sites dedicated to the turbo 4 motor, and these guys have tons of useful info. The one I found helpful is turboford.net
Keep up the good work.
The "fan switch" is actually your engine coolant temp sensor, if that is not working properly, not only will it not allow your fans to run, but it will also make your car not run up to its potential. You may want to fix that.
SVO Capri, thanks, I have been driving the t-bird around the last few months without any real problems and has been a blast. It does smoke a little on startup, I think the valve seals are shot and could probably use the head gone through. I'll keep an eye out on you build, I would like to see what kind of power you get out of that 2.3 with those upgrades. I have been to fordturbo.net and there is a lot of good info on there.
Tbird232ci, I have not replaced the temperature sensor but the gauge has always worked fine. I use the jegs adjustable fan relay to control the fan now, but I might replace that sensor just to see if it works.
The ported and polished head swap is almost done. My ARP headstuds were late making it to Jacksonville so they didn't make it on the FedEx truck today. I should have it on the road tomorrow afternoon. Just in time to work out a few bugs and then it goes to the dyno Sat morning. Will post an update then.
On another note...yesterday afternoon (before head swap was started) a 2002 Mustang GT pulled up to me at a light and asked what I had in it. I was honest and told him a "2.3 litre, mid 12 second car", to which he said "cool". He tried me off of the light, and let's just say he was thoroughly embarrassed.
I don't really enjoy beating up on my Blue Oval Brothers, but this guy was the epitomy of DUMB ASS. lol
I have a '92 F-150 waiting on your magic touch. You sir, did an OUTSTANDING job on that car. But, if you get a buffer, you can't use it. I've seen your best work here, I think. , that looks sharp.
Thank you much sir! I think there are benifets to rubbing a car out by hand, but I can tell you now my shoulders didn't appriciate it! lol
I think a buffer on the large areas would have help and hand rubbed the tight areas. I am getting better at my body work and product selection, and that's what I was trying to learn.
SVO Capri,
Some of the Blue Oval Brothers just don't get it, then again I would have a hard time believing it was a 12 second 2.3 also. I know I killed a lot of factory 5.0's in my old turbo coupe, but it was no 12 second car. The 2.3 turbo deserves respect, especially from the people that know how to work them over. Keep up the good work!
I couldn't stand it any more. Seeing what you did to that red bird made me get after my truck.
Without further adieu, here's before ....
(http://i269.photobucket.com/albums/jj72/Old_Paint/F-150/100_7507.jpg)
And this is at the end of the day today, after I did the chrome.
(http://i269.photobucket.com/albums/jj72/Old_Paint/F-150/100_7521.jpg)
Can ya tell what that reflection is on the fender?
The kit I used was Turtle Wax Black Box. Made special for black vehicles, and so far, after step 1, I like the results. I still have Steps 2 and 3 to go. By the time I get to Step 3, if a fly tries to land on this thing, he's going wipe out. Step 1 is a polishing wax, and did it ever do some serious polishing. I haven't see this truck shine like this in AGES.
And a fine job you have done! That looks like the reflection of a T-Bird tail light in the fender! :D If that is just step 1, that truck is going to look as good as (if not better than) new by step 3. It is a lot of work, but well worth it. Your going to get compliments everywhere you take that truck, I love that black and silver paint scemes, and I haven't see an older ford f150 like that in that good of shape in a long time.