Not exactly a dime rocket but close.
 

As some of you may know I bought Ken Robinson's 88 turbocoupe stocker,I made it out to the track once before it closed for the season, it only went 14.80 @just a weak 88 mph! not very impressive but it has tons of potential,im changing a bunch of stuff over the winter and hopfully i can get it to run the R/S index of 13.95, so far I took the head off and had a stocker valve job done along with some new valve springs and retainers.,a new 3" down pipe and a header, I think it will a fun project for now im going try and run the index on the cheap and see what happens.

Re: Not exactly a dime rocket but close.
 

Good Luck with the new ride, Fred! Looks like you're going to be having some fun this year!!

Re: Not exactly a dime rocket but close.
 

Looks like fun, love the pic of the driveway and all the fords! LOL!

Re: Not exactly a dime rocket but close.
 

Fred,
Running under the index shouldn't be much of a problem for a turbo car.
What are you using for a transmission?

Re: Not exactly a dime rocket but close.
 

T5 for now mark,but I had my eye on some of that 2.3 C4 stuff on your page ! :) maybe next year.

Re: Not exactly a dime rocket but close.
 

The T 5 will work if you're not running that combo hard.
I started with a T 5 out of T/C (3.95 low), in the Mustang.
First problem was the syncros wouldn't let me power shift it over 6 grand.
So I bought a Harbor Freight Dremel copy and slick shifted 2,3,4. Then took 5th gear completely out of it.
I had to make a shifter blocking plate so I couldn't go from 2nd to 5th. The 3rd gear slot was a little narrow and hard to find while pushing away from you.
After that, I never had a shifting problem for the two years that I ran the stick shift.

Re: Not exactly a dime rocket but close.
 

Mark the plan is to run the T5 til it breaks,thats when I buy an automatic setup,for now I just want to get it flowing a little better with the header and downpipe,it had a stock exhaust manifold and stock 2.5 downpipe,it also had some ignition issues when I got it where you could not turn up the boost over 12 psi, after a good tune up it cleared that up but it still lays down over 3500 rpm that's why I pulled the head and checked the springs and valve job, (springs were shot) 80lbs on the seat.

Re: Not exactly a dime rocket but close.
 

A little update on the tbird,I ran it a couple of weeks ago it went a best of 13.73 @95.55 still not right but its getting there.

https://www.facebook.com/fred.goodwi...type=2&theater

Re: Not exactly a dime rocket but close.
 

Fred, good to see you getting the T-bird out!

Re: Not exactly a dime rocket but close.
 

Congratulations on your progress!
Keep thrashing on it and you'll be rewarded.
Have fun and good luck too.

Re: Not exactly a dime rocket but close.
 

Thanks guys,I made some changes and ran it last Sunday ,it picked up another 2 mph (97.50) best so far! And it also went the best 60' 1.70 so it keeps going in the right direction just a slow process.

Re: Not exactly a dime rocket but close.
 

Fred is it maintaining boost during shifts? It sounds like you are making progress in the right direction.

Sean

Re: Not exactly a dime rocket but close.
 

Sean it does,but it still has some issues,it miss's/studders and lays down after I shift,then it clears up and starts pulling again, it was in the low 90*s and humid when I ran it so I think it was too rich,10.2 at full throttle on the wideband AFR gauge, im gonna go back out next week or two and play with fuel pressure and some other injectors, im guessing I lost 3 to 4 tenths in that miss because it really lays down and to get that little motor in that big car going again takes some time! :)

Re: Not exactly a dime rocket but close.
 

well kinda bringing back an old thread with some changes to the program! after doing some research on this combo I realized it was way over factored and looked to make a big change! I found a real clean 35,000 mile 1984 tbird on craigslist and put most of the stuff from the 88 in the 84 car along with a C4 automatic I bought from IHRA stock racer Mike Ismay! ( thanks Mike)

Re: Not exactly a dime rocket but close.
 

here are some pictures of the car now that its together! along with a time slip from the first time I ran the car.

Re: Not exactly a dime rocket but close.
 

Nice job!

Re: Not exactly a dime rocket but close.
 

That was my first new car 1985 Thunderbird Turbo Coupe.. I guess that's why I wanted to build a 2.3 stocker.. Beautiful Car fred ,,,

Re: Not exactly a dime rocket but close.
 

thanks guys! still have some tuning issues to sort out but so far I'm pretty happy,I believe this car will go 6 to 7 tenths under with the basic combo I'm running now but I just need to make some passes!
hey Hutt how are you guys making out with the Mustang?

Re: Not exactly a dime rocket but close.
 

Now that's a great looking Stocker!!

Re: Not exactly a dime rocket but close.
 

Congratulations!

Re: Not exactly a dime rocket but close.
 

Actually I almost forgot For the 2017 season I received a very pleasant surprise! the 13.40 that was 4 tenths under the Q/SA index is actually 65 under the R/SA index, NHRA removed a little HP so my car now runs R/SA! :) Sad thing about this build is I took lots of pictures with my phone every step of the way,unfortunately I crushed my phone with all the pictures! :( well not all of them,I still have some saved to facebook.
first picture is when I just took out the old factory motor with the power rack and pinion, I have seen guys just loop the steering lines but that looks terrible and this is a budget build so a Rock auto manual rack was not bad and a flaming river is WAY out of the budget, so being a cheap skate went with the Depower option (free),then I bought some scott rod customs AC/heat,wiper motor and AC box drain block off plates (very nice stuff actually), I got a used trans and converter from the IHRA J/FI turbo tbird record holder Mike Ismay,I bought a used quarter stick shifter from a friend, another friend had a rotted to death mustang with a dealer installed FMS 4.11 8.8 with almost no miles on it! bought that car for $1000 stripped it and sold most of the parts for $1500 so the rear and sway bar were FREE! then back to craigslist! and found a very nice set if centerline warriors? I think that's what there called,the 4 rims with some decent race front tires for $250, stripped the tach and gauges out of my red tbird along with the 255 walbro fuel pump and fuel regulator! next I needed to buy a big 3" down pipe! hmmmm $150 not in the budget, so I made one out of some pipe scrap I had laying around!

Re: Not exactly a dime rocket but close.
 

People have asked me why I changed from the red 88 to the blue 84? well the picture of the turbos will tell the story! the one left is the 88 turbo and the right is from the 84! and here is a picture of my home made down pipe!

Re: Not exactly a dime rocket but close.
 

65 Under is Great Fred, a bit more tweaking & you could get it to 1.00 under.
Bring the car to the assoc. races this season.

Re: Not exactly a dime rocket but close.
 

I was hoping to to attend most of the local races this season pete but it all depends on how work goes its been pretty slow lately , but hopefully I will hit a couple.

Re: Not exactly a dime rocket but close.
 

Looks good Fred !

Re: Not exactly a dime rocket but close.
 

Thanks Alan!

Re: Not exactly a dime rocket but close.
 

We are doing good with it.. We have our new turbo back from Charlie after his wreck and long hospital stay.. The turbo we ran last year was a high mile mile turbo out of a junkyard. So I'm interested to see the difference. Hoping to spend a day on the chassis dyno this spring also...once its back together. I did a lot of the same stuff you did like manual rack, bump steer, adjustable struts, caster camber plates and so on..Keep us informed on your progress.

Scott

Re: Not exactly a dime rocket but close.
 

[QUOTE=hutt1;526100]We are doing good with it.. We have our new turbo back from Charlie after his wreck and long hospital stay.. The turbo we ran last year was a high mile mile turbo out of a junkyard. So I'm interested to see the difference. Hoping to spend a day on the chassis dyno this spring also...once its back together. I did a lot of the same stuff you did like manual rack, bump steer, adjustable struts, caster camber plates and so on..Keep us informed on your progress.

Will do scott! as soon as I make any changes I will update this page, I too am interested in seeing the gains if any in one of charlies turbos,i am also using a JY turbo that seems to be fine for now,keep me posted on your dyno dat! thanks......fred

Re: Not exactly a dime rocket but close.
 

well after a break in the racing program because I moved to Kentucky! I finally got to run the tbird again,this time with a stick and it didn't run to bad! 13.05 @ 102 in Q/S !
still lots of little things I want to try over the winter and im looking forward to next season!
here is a video thanks to alan mackin!

https://youtu.be/tl5Qu48mgQY

Re: Not exactly a dime rocket but close.
 

This is a older post by I have a chance to pick up a 87 T-Bird Turbo coupe. Was thinking of slow build to stocker by starting as bracket car and remove as much weight as possible. The car has 100K with auto trans. What would be first few things to do, ie tires/ wheels (what sizes). Does the rearend need to be swapped if so to what, gearing, ect. I'm thinking of dime rocket budget with junk yard and swap meet finds. Just looking to run little under index and having fun.

Re: Not exactly a dime rocket but close.
 

Check this out.
https://bringatrailer.com/listing/19...ountry-squire/

Re: Not exactly a dime rocket but close.
 

Dwight what class would this beast run?
I wouldn't even paint it!

Re: Not exactly a dime rocket but close.
 

G/H/I Frank, I'm sure that you're kidding. That car is way too rare to make into a Stocker! Cool car though!

Re: Not exactly a dime rocket but close.
 

LOL No "patina-ed" cars in Stock, please

Re: Not exactly a dime rocket but close.
 

OH FINE, put that rule in the book and I'm outta racing! Next you'll be telling me that I've got to fill up the rot holes with pieces of cardboard.

Re: Not exactly a dime rocket but close.
 

I wonder why somebody modified a car that is so rare? I hope they kept the original stuff.

Re: Not exactly a dime rocket but close.
 

As long as it's headed in the right direction, with a bit of effort LOL
I should have said no street burner / BJ auction fads, please ;-)

Re: Not exactly a dime rocket but close.
 

It's no Dime Rocket as the bid is up to $25,500 with five days to go.

Re: Not exactly a dime rocket but close.
 

Ahh the wagon from the Barn Find Hunter show that Hagerty has on YouTube. I believe the host of the show said this is a one of one.