[Pro-sc]

So I bought this car from the original owner about ten years ago. Low mileage, garage kept and rust free.
I drove it with the original 2.3 T5 combo for a summer and it drove well, no rattles and quite tight.
Although you do see some guys building some pretty crazy power with that little mill, I am not into 4 cylinders and a V8 was in the plan.

 

[Pro-sc]

So no LS for me, hell it is no different now than when I was in high school, everybody had a sbc or a big block in my school and I drove a 69 Javelin 390 4 speed. I had Keith Craft performance engines build me a nice stroker windsor. 395 cubes built on a Ford Racing B58 sportsman block. It has Brodix 210 cc heads that are cnc machined and flow about the same as high ports.
Forged crank, rods and pistons and a CR of 9 to 1. They broke the engine in on their dyno and ran it with a carb. It made 485hp and 520 ft lbs if I remember correctly. The power was a bit below 500 and the torque a bit above that figure. I do have the dyno charts here somewhere but it is close to that. They shipped me the engine with an edelbrock victor efi for a 5.8 and it sat that way in my garage for quite some time.
When Holley came out with the high ram for the 351w I had to get one. Unfortunately the Brodix heads have valve cover rails that get in the way of the lower manifold and it is a no fit situation.

 

[Pro-sc]

So then I picked up a G Force G101A transmission with the long v gate shifter, a McLeod rxt clutch and quick time bell. I had planned on a turbo blow through deal at first as I spent more than I wanted on the engine and trans. That changed pretty quickly and decided to save up and get an efi system. Picked up a Holley Dominator, all related harnesses and went with coil on plug, boost control, ect.
I have a Borg S480 for it to be installed on a CG fab hot side. Treadstone intercooler for the cold side.
I have almost everything needed to put this together minus a built rear end and roll cage.
I am no fab guy just a back yard mechanic/ gear head who loves cars way more than my ex wife!

 

[Pro-sc]

So I just started working on it and hope to get a fair bit done on it this winter.
I started with installing a Cobra brake booster and a nos master cylinder from Ford to use with rear discs.
Maximum Motorsports quadrant, adjuster and cable and took out the K. I have a MM tubular k member to install and unfortunately I had to order a set of spacers to work with a t bird. They should be here today and will get that puppy bolted up. The original owner had the car rust proofed when it was new and while I am glad it was done as the metal is pristine, it sure is a pia to get it off the engine compartment and frame rails.
I used purple power and goo gone with a lot of elbow grease to get it reasonable. I do have smooth inner fender liners and shock tower covers but won’t bother with that until after the cold side is built and I have the car running.

 

[Pro-sc]

The pics are not in order sorry!

 

[cheapbastard]

Beautiful car! I always loved the t-birds. It would be great if you could keep the stock wheels and appearance with the added power.

 

[Mi.5.0Fred]

Love those Birds. Have 3 (no TC’s now) right now. Had a 84 V6 and a 86 TC.

 

[VSAdmin]

Four-Eyed Fords FTW!!!!

My first car was and 86 Mustang GT

 

[Pro-sc]

Cool!
So today I started installing the k member, you have to use a spacer as the chassis is slightly different than the stang and I had to cut a small piece of the lower mount from the frame, it was causing slight interference and the k would not seat properly with out doing so, that and those two holes are about a 1/4” farther apart than the k member holes so I had to open those up a bit. Once I did that it fit great and now I can start on the suspension and brakes.
Oh and as far as the stock wheels go I thought about getting the rears widened and the fronts narrowed a bit but they still are four lug wheels so by the time you did all that to them you could buy a pretty nice set of new ones. LMR has the replica 10 hole wheels staggered but I think you can only get those in 4 lug also.

 

[BLUEOVALRACER]

Very Nice Clean Turbo Coupe keep the progress pictures coming when you take them!!

 

[Bigswede]

Looks amazingly clean. Nice to see something different.

 

[Pro-sc]

Okay so in between holiday get together I got a bit more done. I hate metric bolts, I tried to find a m16x 120 mm local but that is not an easy chore here. I dug out the old k which was buried and put away and got the bolts I needed. Once I got the bolts it started going together quite well. I have to go back to work on Tuesday so the updates will get slower.

 

[doglover44]

Looks like its coming together nicely !

 

[Pro-sc]

Okay so I had this set of pbr calipers that I powder coated many moons ago. I bolted them up with Amazon rotors and pads. I put a kit in the calipers before I bolted them up but they were fine didn’t need anything.
I am just going with these for now as I have them but will update to Baer deep stage ss4 that work with 15” wheels.

 

[Pro-sc]

I dug out my front runners and made sure they cleared the brakes, tons of room.
The control arms are not offset so that puts them 3/4” forward compared to stock.
The front coils are 14” 150lb units.

 

[Bigswede]

Sweet project dude. I'm not sure why I have always liked those because I have never been in one but this is a cool build.

 

[738drvr]

My ‘83 is the same color. 1985 Code 1F. Smoke.Really nice color

 

[Pro-sc]

Close, this one is 1Z, medium charcoal metallic

 

[EcoBoostDave]

Love the ThunderBird! I've owned a couple TurboCoupes. I've also owned a few SuperCoupes. I still have a pristine 89 SC. I want a nice black 88 TC like my dad had back in the day.
Here's an old pic I took a few months after I bought it.

http://imgur.com/9Rs1YDR

 

[Pro-sc]

The MN12’s are nice. They have a very rigid unibody and are a nice car. I had a 94 that I dropped a 5.0 into a while back. I have another one a 88 sport that only has 46k original, I bought it this past summer on bat.
That one is going to be a highway cruiser and with a mild 5.0 it will suit me fine when I am not driving my truck.