1988 Lebaron

[krcl852]

My friend is taking out his 5.0 L enigne from his late 80s mustang. He is willingly to let me have it but I have a 2.5 L Lebaron. I was hoping the 5.0 engine would work however I am really doubting it. If anyone can help please respond. If that doesnt work how can I improve the performance of it because it only has 100 hp. I don't have too much money to spend on parts. But i do have a friend that would be able to install them cheap for me. Any help would definitely be appreciated.

[macncheese]

well, the engine will work if you're willing to swap in the electronics for it and find a tranny and cut up your firewall and build a tranny box and find a rear end and build a suspension (maybe cut up a pinto and weld it onto your lebaron). not very practical, cheap, or easy though. best left to the experts. what IS doable, is to find a donor chrysler/dodge turbo car and swap engine/tranny/wiring harness/computer in. of course, it makes even more sense to sell your lebaron and just buy a turbo lebaron that runs. if you want to keep your lebaron, and keep it n/a, you can do a couple of things, but nothing major helpful. get an underdrive pulley, a k&n air filter, a 180 thermostat, freer flowing exhaust, and bump the timing up a few degrees. after that, it gets difficult.
tony

[krcl852]

How much to you think all that would cost me and how much would it help the performance of my car?

[macncheese]

it all depends on the condition of the car. if you can find one beat up, but with decently running motor and tranny, you could get a better deal, but i warn you it is MAJOR complicated. best to read up at www.mini-mopar.com, www.allpar.net, www.thedodgegarage.com, and visit www.turbododge.com, especially in the vehicles for sale, where good donor vehicles sell for less than $500 all the time. also, there is a LOT of knowledge on that board, and even quite a few who have done the non turbo to turbo swap.
tony

[krcl852]

I know the 1989 LeBaron has a 2.5L turbo engine. But I have a 88 2.5L and was wondering if there is any way to upgrade the 88 without swapping out the entire engine.

[macncheese]

bigger plug wires, advanced timing, underdrive pulleys, home depot ram-air, k&n air filter, put your car on a diet, you can shave the head for a little more compression, free up the exhaust, and nitrous all come to mind. i'll try to come up with some more.
tony

[tricky8]

boy you are just looking for trouble...you will need pretty much everything...you should just put that lebaron body on the ford frame with all the components there. You will have to convert that FWD into RWD and that will take a pretty penny. So i guess my suggestion is dont bother with an older car trying to get performance when they were not made for that. get you a 2.2 chrysler and mod that if you want to keep the car