I just recently finished (for now anyway) the creation of my 88 Thunderbird Super Coupe. Several years ago I had a really nice 86 Mustang GT. I did an H/C/I upgrade on it and the car really liked to boogie. Shortly after the motor upgrade but before I could upgrade the brakes and suspension I was driving it too hard one night I swerved to avoid a deer, hit a wall, and ended up going down the road on the roof. Fortunately I was (and always do) wearing my seatbelt. My wife did not want me to get another Mustang, so I convinced her a Fox Body Thunderbird was a good choice to swap in the motor from the Mustang.
I found an 88 T/C that had a really nice body and interior and the swap commenced.
I always wanted a power adder car and when I did the H/C/I, I built the motor accordingly: ARP head studs, o-ringed heads and head gaskets, a blower grind cam, etc.
I drove the 5.0 T/C in N/A form for about 5 years looking into differant superchargers and turbos. I know turbos can make some serious power, but I decided a blower would be easier and probably less costly for me. I also feel a blower is more eye-appealing (no flaming please) than a turbo.
I finally put up the scratch for a Vortech V-2. The install went rather easily. I scheduled an appointment at the speed shop I do business with for a dyno tune. Finally the moment of truth!!!
About 3 hours after dropping off my car, the shop owner calls me to tell me that something went wrong and the car started to belch white smoke part way into the second pull, so he shut it down and pushed the car outside.
I trailered the car home and started tearing into it. After getting the heads off I found that I blew out both head gaskets. Fortunately, the heads and deck were OK. In goes the new gaskets, torque the heads, put everything back together, run the car through a heat cycle, tear the motor down part way and re-torque the heads per Fel-Pro's instructions. Re-schedule the dyno tune and success!!!
400 Horse and 384 lb/ft at the rear wheels!!!!!!
Check out the anti-freeze in the cylinders:
(http://www.davidjames.smugmug.com/photos/181814268-L.jpg)
New head gaskets:
(http://www.davidjames.smugmug.com/photos/181814321-L.jpg)
Here's Fred Flinstone (my wife said that's what I looked like standing in the engine bay) torqueing the heads:
(http://www.davidjames.smugmug.com/photos/181814275-L.jpg)
A couple of pictures after the install:
(http://www.davidjames.smugmug.com/photos/181814324-L.jpg)
(http://www.davidjames.smugmug.com/photos/181814296-L.jpg)
I created a solid model CAD file and had a friend machine some new door badges for my creation (SUPER COUPE vs TURBO COUPE):
(http://www.davidjames.smugmug.com/photos/181814245-L.jpg)
Here's a side shot with the new door badges installed:
(http://www.davidjames.smugmug.com/photos/181814340-L.jpg)
And I replaced the TurboCoupe badge on the trunk lid with a "302 HIGH PERFORMANCE" badge:
(http://www.davidjames.smugmug.com/photos/181814231-L.jpg)
After all said and done, the speed shop owner feels that the original head gaskets probably were compressed over the five years of N/A driving and the heads should have been re-torqued before adding boost.
Just thought I'd show off what I've been doing lately.
Rick
Man, i havnt seen your here in ages. That looks great man.
wow nice car, the only complaintis that with those badges you are not helping the fact that people always call my tc a SUPERCOUPE! lol
what kind of wing is that? actualy looks pretty good!
I love your car's stance. What kind of springs are you running front and back? Very nice job on the car by the way...very sweet.
*grabs paper towel*
Now that is a nice clean car..
I like it! I got the same rear spoiler you do. So now I am sure it looks good.
:birdsmily:
i'm not the only person with a red block. sweet ride.
Hi Rick, she's lookin good...
I like the door badges. I was thinking about doing the same thing. Bird looks awesome BTW!
Hey! me either.
Nice bird. I love the stance.
NICE!! Very clean engine bay and install.
Now how about making some Turbo Coupe badges and selling them to the rest of us, I'd be willing to pay $$. ;)
Wow excellent under the hood looks awesome
Sweet Bird.
Thanks for the compliments everybody. I'm not sure what make the wing is. It's an aluminum extrusion with molded plastic ends that slip fit and are screwed into the aluminum. I'm trying to find another set of ends to have for spares.
Rick
The springs are KONI sports. I found them as NOS here (old board) several years ago. I saw a pair on ebay not too long ago. KONI stopped making springs several years ago.
Rick
NICE!! Very impressive.
that is one slick car. I love it! Good work.
Great looking car !!!I can only hope ine ends up as nice when it's done (minus the supercharger),we're going 5.8 next year).Great work.
..
Here's some pics of the 86 GT I "unfortunately" wrecked.
(http://www.davidjames.smugmug.com/photos/182425385-L.jpg)
(http://www.davidjames.smugmug.com/photos/182425388-L.jpg)
(http://www.davidjames.smugmug.com/photos/182425391-L.jpg)
Here's some after I was done picking the car clean for my "new" car. Shortly after I took this pic, it went to the crusher.
(http://www.davidjames.smugmug.com/photos/182425378-L.jpg)
(http://www.davidjames.smugmug.com/photos/182429051-L.jpg)
(http://www.davidjames.smugmug.com/photos/182429061-L.jpg)
ALWAYS WEAR YOUR SEATBELT!!!!!!!!
It saved my life!!!
Rick
Wow. Ya know, it never would of happened if you kept those four round thingies on the ground. But that's just my opinion :D
Kidding aside, what exactly happened?
Poor 4eye.
Im partial to 85-86 GT's.
Having fun driving fast through an "S" curve, just after darkness set in I come out of the corner to have a deer standing in the road! I cut the wheel to the right and the ass end of the car starts to drift, I let off, the rears started to grab again and shot me forward in that direction right into a 3 foot high stone wall. The right front wheel climbed the wall and flipped over and the next thing I know I'm sliding down the road upside down right on the driver's "A" pillar, my head just a couple inches away! Everything went dark until the sparks started to fly by my head. Next thing that happens is me getting showered with gravel and the car rolls over and lands on all fours. I had slid about 300 feet on the "A" pillar and roof before skidding onto the shoulder where the opening where my sunroof used to be acted as scoop or shovel in the gravel and the added friction caused the car to roll back onto the wheels.
What a scary experience. The seatbelt kept my head from getting ground down to a stub on that asphalt.
I'm really mad at myself for wrecking that car! I bought it in '88 with 30k well cared for miles. I NEVER drove that car in the rain! When I crashed it in October of 2000 it had just over 70k on the clock. There wasn't a single ding in that car. I"m the guy you see parking his car a half mile away from the next nearest car.
Man that is too bad i would be mad at myself too i love 5.0 stangs it sucks to many get wrecked
Im curious to know, where is the hood stripe? Was the car repainted?
The hood was repainted when I bought it. Not sure why, but the car had not been in any accidents.