Just picked up an 84 turbo coupe my first thunderbird and was wanting to know the availability of parts for this car.Is it worth it to rebuild the turbo 2.3or just swap in a v8,I"ve been told that these cars interchange all the running gear with mustangs witch I have tons of acsess to because I have raced them for 10+ years but wanted something different to go with my mustang I have and be a sleeper? The car I bought is complete but the turbo is bad and the car will need a few interior peices and some molding so can anyone tell me if I half to rebuild what I have or is there any after market parts out there,carpet.wheather stripping,taillights,etc.Thanks
Welcome....as far as availability, there is a market, but it is very tiny and exclusive. If you want to make any serious power you have to spend some serious cash with a 2.3. With the 5.0 parts are more plentiful and prices accomidate the availability. Expect to fabricate some pieces if you want a sleeper. A bottle neck in the 2.3 system is the exhaust. That stock turbo elbow has a 2" hole! It is such a restriction that even if you disconnect the exhaust, as I have, you won't notice a ton of improvement with your spool. That comes with a full 3" elbow and downpipe. The turbo on the 84 is the desired T3. It makes more reliable power and doesn't have a slow spool but it isn't anything to brag about either. As far as sleepers go, a TC could be a nice sleeper, but again, to make it a sleeper will require the restrictive exhaust and intake which rob power.
The aftermarket on these cars consist primarily of Mustang parts. Weather stripping is in the works I hear. NOS parts for Tbirds are starting to surface now but still are rare. Your best bet would be to find a good condition donor in a local junkyard and pull parts from that. Same with the interior. Tbirds and Cougars have 2 routes in these areas.....Junkyard/Parts cars or total Custom work. Good luck with the car.
Forgot to mention if I do the swap then I already have an injected 351 with svo heads and a t-5,disk brake rear,13in front rotors and spindel setup out of a wrecked 94 Cobra I bought from a freind and thinking about a turbo with it.
Thanks for the info Billyf17
Hey another turbo guy! Welcome!
Well, as far as parts go, there are quite a few things available for the 2.3 Turbo. Have you been to turboford.net? If not, check it out. If the turbo is bad, you shouldn't need to rebuild the engine, you can probably get a used turbo for $200 or so (turboford is a good place to find one).
As far as performance, I guess it depends on what you want out of the car? I like my 2.3 Turbo, it's a stout little engine and I still get 25 mpg with it. I personally would rather see an '84 Turbo Coupe keep its turbo engine because those ones are not near as common as the '87-88 cars.
For your body & interior stuff I'd say you'll have to find some used stuff from someone. Not much of a market for Thunderbird interior parts.
Another Turbo Guy! Killer!
I would have to say listen To Red LX . I also a have a 84 T/C. I tell you man this thing rips. There Are many options when it comes to what you can do to these cars. I'd tell you to keep it a 2.3 Turbo. You can build it up to 400HP if you got the cash. I'd say get the 2.3t running right then work on building up the bottom end and head work. I still get 25+ MPG in mine runnin the 87-88 setup with inter-cooler, hood ,and injectors. With and 86 PC1 processor. Nothing like pullin up next to a newer stang and givin him a good run when you've got half the eninge we does. And that is just Stock expect for runnin 12PSI boost. Just go over to http://www.turboford.net/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=forum;f=2;hardset=0;start_point=0;DaysPrune=0
then decide on what you want out of it then build it and It will RIP.
I say keep the turbo, if you want to build up a v8 'bird/cougar, then you can find a v8 or v6 bodied car to take the donation. the turbo's are getting rarer as ppl swap in 8's and they get torn apart so the stang guys can have to rears and engines for their cars.
The '83-86 TC's did not have the disc brake 8.8 rearend, they actually just had a regular old drum brake 7.5 although it did have a trak-lok in it. But yes the early cars are significantly harder to find these days. A couple years back I was looking for a spare 2.3L engine to rebuild, a guy called me from a little salvage yard he ran and told me he had an '88 Turbo Coupe. I go out, turns out it was actually an '84. I wish I coulda kept it, but in reality there was not much I could do with the car. It had been an abandoned car recovery so there was no title & no keys. Someone had busted up the steering column to get the car running and pried their way into the trunk with a crowbar. Aside from that the car was pretty rough- it had been jumped at some point in it's life and was sed up all over. So I just pulled the engine, stripped out the interior (which was almost immaculate) and sold it (would you believe the dash pad was PERFECT?) and had someone haul away the shell. Ah well, whatcha gonna do.
Sorry for rambling, but CMQuickcoupe- you can make 300 hp on a turbo 2.3 for a very small investment.You can "upgrade" with parts from '87-88 Turbo Coupes (like 35 lb injectors, ecu, all that good stuff) that will get you there with 18-20 psi of boost.
Welcome, I say go with a V8 but then again i have seen some impressive turbo's at the strip
keep the turbo, if you want a v8 find a sport model or at least a v8 car so its a direct swap. the turbo to v8 swap is alot harder than v8 to v8 swap, no messy wireing.
Thanks everyone for the info and keep it comin if you have anymore.
keep the 2300
keep the 2300