My 1988 Thunderbird Turbo Coupe "Michelle" (new pics 8/14)

  • Thread starter kingcars
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In the year and a half I've had the car, I have not taken any real good pictures of it, mainly because the headlights were disgusting. So today I gave the car a good wash and took it out for a quick, impromptu photo shoot. I'm quite happy with how the pictures came out, but dang my camera sucks!

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Hardly see turbo T-Birds around anymore. 👍

Have you gotten down by the turbo/downpipe at all yet? Do the turbo T-Birds use the T31 4-Bolt outlet? Do you happen to know what the stock turbo is? Like who it's made by, wheel specs or .A/R's?
 
Yeah, the 83-88 Tbirds are oddballs in general these days, and the turbo ones even moreso.

As for the turbo, I know it's an IHI but it's quite small. The 87 model used a T3 turbo which could handle more boost at high RPM, but spooled slow. So in '88, they put in a smaller turbo by IHI which spools quickly. It's hard to hunt down definitive specifications on it though. It runs around 15-18lbs of boost. A common mod is to swap out the IHI for a Garret T3, so I may do that down the road, but for now, the car is a blast to drive and I don't have any plans as far as go-fast parts. It's my DD so I'm trying to practice some self restraint (it's not easy). I've taken it apart down to the turbo itself so I could check for shaft play and any sort of wall gouging (the turbo is still in great shape actually) but that's been it so far.
 
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