Need to downsize my life and reduce costs. I lost the garage I kept this in and I'm ready to let her go to a new owner. Pictures are in the Craigslist ad but I'll copy and paste the general info. This car runs flawless and pulls HARD. Healthy motor, trans and rest of Driveline.
302 H.O. Conversion from a 1992 Mustang Coupe with approx 160,000 kms on engine 230,000 on body of TBird November 2015 New Custom built engine wiring harness, wire tucking was done at the time so nice CLEAN engine bay November 2015 5 Speed Tremec 3550 Transmission (Stronger than a World Class T5) serviced and sealed NO LEAKS February 2019 Custom Aluminum Driveshaft with new U Joints and Slip Yokes Electric Fan Conversion 3G Alternator Conversion Underdrive Pullies Typhoon Upper & Lower Intake C&L Cold Air Intake C&L Air Meter Autometer Monster 5" Tachometer Pillar Gauges (Oil Pressure and Battery Volts I use to monitor Electric Fan) 4.10 Gear Ratio (Hauls the mail) Rear Disc Brake 8.8 Axle rebuilt with new LSD slip discs (AKA the car does proper two wheel burnouts) Firewall Adjuster and new Clutch Cable New rear upper and adjustable ride height lower control arms (Just received, haven't installed yet) Redone headliner and interior trim bits LED in dash and much work done on electrical to fix what was broken Grant Steering wheel with custom hardware and TBird sticker on horn button (Still have factory original) Sequential tail light modification. You'll see in the video what I mean. Custom dual Flowmaster exhaust with H pipe Subframe Connectors
And on and on and on.. I will disclose the full list and history to serious inquiries. I have dospoogeented the whole history of this car with receipts for over $20,000. I also have a trunk FULL of valuable obsolete spare parts for this car that I'm happy to send with it.
The BAD
Cracked windshield Cracked Dash Couple dings in the paint from rocks and one scratch on passenger fender Driver Seat has tear in vinyl Power seats (both) stopped working Passenger front rim I began the process of polishing and didn't finish so it's got some swirls if you look closely at it. The radio and equalizer is original and intact but not working (I don't listen to the radio when I drive this, I listen to the 5.0)
$8500
Car is located in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Been putting in a lot of work to the bird over the last year. Had a really solid winter attacking the to-do's I had been putting off. Redid headliner, new visors, completely stripped and re-did gauge cluster repairing printed circuit board shorts, modified housings for better light spread and put LED's in, also did the tach resistor mod so my converted 302 now reads accurately on the oem tach :) new steering wheel, a little bit of wire re-routing, fixed glass that fell off track and unglued from tabs all repaired now.. Still lots more.
Just acquired what I need to re-adjust the stance for this car. I have wanted to have a meatier tire in the back for a very very long time, grew tired of the non-functional "flush" look that is such a nuisance for speedbumps, ride quality, and since moving into the new house I can barely get it out of the driveway (builder deficiency, that is another topic I could vent for days about... maybe I'll make a post about it just because.)
So I finally bought some larger tires. I had been debating and still do about the wheel choice, I go back and forth between a lot of looks/options out there. 4 Lug will stay, so my options are limited. But I think having the larger tire on the rear will change the look quite a lot of the wheel so I'd like to see. I'm a super budget guy anyways, these tires are by far the best value for what you get (I rarely drive this car, only sunny days so I feel safe with a "budget" tire choice) and the springs were dirt cheap. I researched what I could about having a drop in the rear, but most of what I looked for is obsolete now. The 8599 is listed as a stock spring, but reading the specs on it kind of seems to be very similar to the obsolete M-5300-D. I think these are just taller. I figured for the price totally worth trying out.
The specs of the Moog 8599 springs taken directly from the Moog website: Free Height 13.33" Installed Height 9.5" Inner Diameter 4.01" Bar Diameter 0.59" Spring Rate 249(lbs/inch) Load 926 (lbs)
Moog 8599 Rear Springs $60 shipped
Energy Suspension 4.6101G (Black) rear spring isolators $30 shipped
Achilles ATR Sport 2 $154 shipped for the PAIR 275/40R18
Going in the car on Wednesday! I'm excited to have some tire sidewall give, and actual suspension travel again.. And be able to drive out of the garage fairly worry-free.. So many pro's.
Looking for the end caps of the door pull straps and a seatbelt plastic cap that covers the pull through and Torx bolt. I am looking for the dark navy color.
Shipping will be to Blaine, WA 98230 or Vancouver BC.
Now that I finally have bought a place with a garage, and had enough time to set up the garage as a workspace/shop... Finally been able to attack some of the things I have been unable to do or avoiding to do. Having a garage is the only way to go... Huge props to the members who are outside driveway warriors... Especially this time of year..
Anywho! I took some photos, but I actually decided to make some Youtube videos of my work as I went along doing it. I thought maybe if someone could benefit from them it would be worth it. Not a whole lot of resources for these particular cars.
So take a look if you're interested! Not looking to gain any subscribers or anything like that. Just doing these videos for anyone who can benefit from them or who is like me and enjoys spending a little spare time to watch progress videos of a build. I compiled the many shorter length videos into longer ones.
I have a little bit of cursing in them (sorry guys!) I try not to use toilet talk but sometimes got frustrated and had to fire a few off. Just a heads up in case kids are around.
November update video: I had torn apart my cluster and dash to fix and replace burnt out bulbs, repair the flexible circuit board, clean all my gauges and plastics, and I did the tach resistor conversion to make my factory tach V8 worthy! Also discovered the reason I had some up-down play in my steering column, there were 2 large bolts loose tucked between the turn signal indicators. Tightened those up, and also pulled the steering wheel off and decided to go aftermarket with a Grant 415 Challenger. I also bought stainless steel hex bolts for the face of it. And yes I hooked up the hub properly so the horn works! I want to replace my y horns with something a little more manly. I like the one in my Jeep Liberty, I might look at doing that in the future. I also rid of the 1" spacers on the rears.
Dreadful Headliner restoration! This sucked. I am so happy this is over with. I used roll-on truck bed liner as my finishing product. What do you guys think?
Still more to be done but for now this is what I have accomplished in the last couple months. More than I have done in a few years combined. Still looking towards new seats (Corbeau GTS is what I'm looking at) window tint all around, new windshield, need to replace my driver door pins (have them just need to do them outside) and rear upper & lower control arms (lowers planning to get from MM and adjust them to add height to my rear wheels) before putting on the new 275's I bought.
Found a schematic that labels the pins on the Turbo Coupe gauge cluster plug/harness connector from 1-18 and gives them a color designation but they do not say what they are used as and for. I am trying to get my tachometer working again, I have an aftermarket tach that is hooked up but my stock one does not work at all. There are no cut wires that are obvious which to hook it back up. I have been using search for over an hour with no luck. Just looking for a wiring diagram that explains and labels each pin!
Looking for a Metric KM/H buttstuffog gauge cluster for my 87 Turbo Coupe. I am after both the 200kmh speedo and also a V8 tach because my car is 302 converted.
Can be reached via text as well as through here. I am also paypal and ebay friendly. I live in Vancouver BC but also have a shipping address in Blaine Washington zip code 98230.
I have a long history with this vehicle. This is my very first car when I turned 16 and bought it in 2006 and I've kept her since. Blew the first motor, put in another 2.3T and decided to go 5.0. I had also owned a 92 5.0 Coupe (black with black tweed interior, all power options except AC... Hot ride!) and missed the torque. This TBird in my opinion truly deserved a V8 and rather than send my car to the junk yard and look for an LX I decided to swap the car I had. I preferred the few TC differences anyways
A few specs of the car:
1987 TurboCoupe imported to Vancouver British Columbia from Washington state in 2006 Factory color was silver, repainted dark charcoal grey in 2007 18" 4-lug Cobra R's Running N/A stock High Output 302 block and internals from a 92 Mustang Coupe Typhoon upper & lower intake Ford Racing Polished Valve Covers Holley 70mm TB + Spacer BBK Headers H Pipe & Flowmaster 40's Custom Fitted Exhaust & Stingers Performance Stainless Tips SR Performance Cold Air Intake C&L 73mm Mass Air Housing Stock 19lb Injectors 3G Alternator Upgrade Smog Pump Delete Pulley Underdrive Pulleys Electric Fan Ford Racing 8mm Wires ABS Hydraulic Brake module delete, converted to vacuum assist 4.10 Gears Tremec 3550 5 Speed Transmission Weld-In Subframe Connectors Extensive wire tucking And a lot of polishing!
Here are some photos when I first brought her home.
And this was just prior to tearing it out.
Finished product..
Here's a link to the video to hear it a bit. I will upload some more when it's out of winter hibernation.
Overall I am so completely satisfied with how the car feels and acts now. What an incredible difference. Happy to say I will be keeping this car for the remainder of my life. There are still a few things to work out but I can truly enjoy it once again. I'm a little undecided on the paint color, I always wanted black which is why I chose to have it done in the charcoal grey (black too high maintenance) but I'm starting to love silver more and more these days, and wouldn't object to having the silver redone on this car as it came from the factory. I've had good help and researched a lot of info using these forums on many other things as well so thank you all.
So the brake booster has failed on my TurboCoupe, trying to brake before I decided to motor swap was like trying to move the earth with my legs
I've seen a couple different versions of brake boosters, the normal turbocoupe one which is a monster, has plugs in it and what not
and this neat little one. No plugs.
I'll assume the stock turbocoupe large one with plugs, is because of the ABS system?? I'm not keeping ABS in my swap, so would I be safe to get a neat little one? What brand/from what car could I buy one that it would bolt up and work great?
Can I just leave this the way it is for the fuel pump to work fine? My logic is telling me that if it worked fine before, then nothing will need to be changed...
The fuel pump has already been upgraded accomodate for the 5.0
Also, the cruise control/abs harness, is there anything in there that I need? I'm only running bare essentials, meaning I have removed cruise control, abs, air conditioning... So can I remove this harness completely? (and by removing completely, I mean cutting all the wires and safely capping them off at passenger kick panel) Or is there some wonkey stuff in there like power door locks, keyless entry, etc that I will screw myself over by cutting
I've got an 87 Thunderbird engine wiring harness, and a 92 mustang computer I'm trying to use. I'm reading a 5.0 tbird schematic and a 92 mustang schematic, they aren't exactly the same
Had a couple people say I could just simply plug the mustang computer into 87 tbird wiring harness and off I go, but it doesn't seem this is the case...
Can anyone confirm that this DOES or DOES NOT work simply by plug & play means? As it looks I'll have to re-pin to different locations, but I'd rather just get a 5.0 Tbird computer...
But will that be a problem? Because aren't all 5.0 tbirds automatic, I'm using a standard transmission. And to add to that, my motor is HO, will that interfere with the computers in tbirds that had SO engines?
The injectors in my 92 mustang engine are the stock 19lb/hr
Researched and found the injectors from a stock 87 thunderbird 5.0 are 14lb/hr (correct me if I'm wrong)
So my question is, would using an 87 thunderbird ECU have issues with my 19lb/hr injectors? Buying an 87 Thunderbird wiring harness for my engine swap... Should I not buy an 87 ECU with it, or can I simply plug in and use 92 ECU from the mustang?
Converting my TurboCoupe 2.3T to an efi 5.0 from a 92 mustang, I also got the wiring harness and ecu from the stang.
Will an automatic wiring harness work in my 5 speed if I get one out of a 5.0 cougar/tbird
I've read different opinions on using an auto harness with a manual trans. Most guys I've found have just re done their original wiring harnesses themselves which I wouldn't mind doing.
Ok so I want to lower my 87 Turbo Coupe.. But instead of buying a new set of springs I want to cut the ones down that are already on it. My friend did this on his 88 TC and it's just fine.. The ride is stiffer but that's about it.
I'm going to assume both would be the same process because either way you have to take the springs in the car out.
How do I go about doing this? Never done anything like this before..
