87-88 T-Bird 4 Turbo

[Benjamin T-Bird]

I see you guys were talking T-Bird language a couple of days ago... I have owned a 87 and now own an 88... it's a car that is very capable of beating a lot of Mustangs on the streets from experience with my 87 but I decided to sell it 13 years ago and bought another 88 about 10 years ago... go figure. I did not drive the car for about 9 years, now that I am driving it again I want to make it as fast as my 87 which I bought super fast but back then I did not know what made the car so fast... now I am trying to build this one to moderate performance without over doing it... I have one problem I can't seem to put me finger on and that's a HORRIBLE hesitation through 1,2,3... the PSI is hitting 5 and running sparatically... anyone ever experienced this problem before... I thought it was gas but after running some 93 Octane don't think that's the problem... could the TURBO be bad at this stage of it's life 212K miles all records and I am the second owner???

Any advice would be much appreciated!

Ben

[jlewis]

I doubt the turbo is bad, it seems that it is hard to kill the IHI turbo on that car. I have an 88 BTW. First of all, has the car ever had a good tuneup? If you don't know when it was last done then put in motorcraft wires, motorcraft or autolite spark plugs(764) and a new cap and rotor. If that doesn't fix it then start looking at things like the Wastegate arm, it must be tight or boost will be erratic. It honestly sounds like it just needs a good tuneup. Don't go blaming the poor turbo, if the car misses or sputters due to ignition then the boost will go all over the place. Check the timing also. This is just a start and a good tuneup is required before you go working on a turbo car. Later stuff like exhaust, cam, more boost, intercooler can come in but for now just get it running right and check out www.turboford.org, read the FAQ there and then go to the tech board and search if you want more info. I can give you my AOL screenname if you ever need to chat with me.
HTH,
John