The 'brid is decent save a bad head gasket and a bit of rust and the junkyard was a plethora of nothing interesting at all really except for a cam and some gauges from a riced&rolled Hyundai.
Pics of the parts to come soon.
It is the blunderbird btw, See everybody in October 
thats a clean lookin car and engine bay...let me know if you need any help...i got my 2.3T to over 300hp at the wheels...still got lots of parts
haas
Need any parts for that bad boy? I got a shed full of them...
YEAH 2.3T! Looks like you have A LOT of weight reduction to do, bye bye A/C, least you have an engine bay large enough to get into yourself while working. I just hope you aren't going to run a top mount IC. The headbolts are reuseable if they're the 12 pointers, just make sure to clean them up with a wire wheel, and you could hypothetically run a Felpro 8993 for $9 at Autozone, that'd be one cheap a$$ repair. Should be enough to handle stock turbo turned up to its limit around 18-20psi (if it's a T3, if it's an IHI I can't remember the limit) too...
Hey guys, I don't know much about this engine in particular, but it seems to be a good fit for my TVR. Anyone make stand alone controllers for these? Where do you get parts? Do these bolt up to a T-5 trans? Any and all info on this engine, good and bad, I would appreciate.
bravenrace wrote: Hey guys, I don't know much about this engine in particular, but it seems to be a good fit for my TVR. Anyone make stand alone controllers for these? Where do you get parts? Do these bolt up to a T-5 trans? Any and all info on this engine, good and bad, I would appreciate.
87-88 TBirds come stock with a T5, The OE computer is an easy swap into a non computer car, Parts are available everywhere.
Personally I have raced with 2.3Ts for over 10 years, like a lot of the people on this board, but I don't see them as the super shiny bright ray of sunshine that others see them as.
MY OPINIONS:
The GOOD: Easy to find. Easy to repair. Easy to maintain. Decent aftermarket support. Modifications are usually pretty well detailed and simple to perform. Great transmission choices (Turbo and NA T5). A sweet head conversion for 450 HP is available if you can weld and have your own machine shop.
The BAD: HEAVY. Cast iron head cracks often. Good cylinder heads are getting rarer by the day. HEAVY. Limit to power is really about 295 REAL HP reliably. Little torque compared to LATER similar sized turbo engines. Shockingly tall. HEAVY.
Their day has come and passed. Much better choices for swaps nowadays. I sold all of mine off 2 years ago and have been a MUCH happier person since then. They will stress you out...
How heavy are they? The Triumph engine in my TVR is a pretty good engine, but it's severely limited in power, and is about the same weight as an aluminum headed SBF. I will likely stick with it for now, since it's rebuilt and ready to go, but have a hunch that down the road I may want more power. I don't want to do the V-8 swap, as I have other V-8 powered cars. I was thinking most seriously about a turbo Miata or S2000 swap.
From what I've seen from other posts about the Turbo 2.3, about the same as a 5.0 V8, when compared to a fully dressed turbo motor and a small block with aluminum heads and intake.
Chrysler's 2.2/2.5L turbo motors have similar outputs, sizes and are almost as easy to adapt to RWD (Hint: look in the engine bay of base model Dakotas) but come with aluminum heads, intakes, etc.
Though the old 2.2/2.5's are getting long in the tooth now, so a 2.4L DOHC from a Stratus/PT Cruiser, etc with a Jeep Liberty/Patriot/Compass bellhousing will net you a newer motor with the ability to use a decent 5-speed transmission (Toyota R-series as used in the Supra's, trucks, etc) and would be much cheaper than finding an S2000 drivetrain and the difference in torque output between a 2.4 and a 1.6/1.8/2.0L will likely make you forget about the Miata/Escort parts.
John Brown wrote: The BAD: HEAVY. Cast iron head cracks often. Good cylinder heads are getting rarer by the day. HEAVY. Limit to power is really about 295 REAL HP reliably. Little torque compared to LATER similar sized turbo engines. Shockingly tall. HEAVY.
I dunno about 300ish HP reliably, I think that's understated, but be that as it may I'd say the big downside is heavy and tall for the power, and don't forget TFI, that by itself should make you run for the hills (unless you enjoy pain)...
We are going with an ebay sourced T3(I know I know) There is a lot to come out of the car yet. I didnt put the interior pics up but we took everything out. We have a volvo FMIC from my turbo dodge days and some other odds and ends.
BoneYard_Racing wrote: We are going with an ebay sourced T3(I know I know) There is a lot to come out of the car yet. I didnt put the interior pics up but we took everything out. We have a volvo FMIC from my turbo dodge days and some other odds and ends.
How much are Chinese T3 knock offs running? I ask because the bottom has dropped back out the diesel turbo market and HY/HX35s are running around $200, may be able to source one cheaper...
You know Jon Moller runs low 13's on an IHI right? In a full-weight, daily-driven TC at that.
P71 wrote: Need any parts for that bad boy? I got a shed full of them...
I could use an LA3
Nice turbo-coupe. Good to see turbo fords still kicking. I look forward to reading about it.
You'll never guess the revelation I had as we were putting his talon back together last night, about the general cheapness of truck turbos The e-bay one I found was $165.99 Im sure I can do a little junkyard diving for a nice Holset fairly cheap.
A little more info on that 13 second IHI car please. Actually any general turbo ford info would be great(I checked out NATO) I have much to learn
www.turboford.org
Moller is on GRM, his username is jmthunderbird. His car is in the Reader's Rides section. Shoot him an email, I'm sure he'll tell you all about it.
Just a slight update: The intercooler is mocked up and the interior is gone along with most of the tar mat.
Im finding the hx35 is going to spool rather late so I think we might just use a T3 and modificate(intentional misspelling) it a little 
^ Demonstrating my mad autocross skillz yo
Im too sexy for a T3
That last picture is wrong...so very wrong...
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