Quote Originally Posted by falconvan View Post
My son in law bought an 86 Stang to build a streetcar. It's an original 4 cylinder car with no drivetrain. We're looking at a 2.3 turbo 5 speed 88 T-bird for a possible donor. I've never worked with one of these but everything I look at seems like you can make good power without a huge $$ investment. Anybody ever done much with a 2.3 turbo?
Those are super engines - forged pistons, heavy duty rods, decent camshaft. They usually need a timing belt and valve stem seals after 30-40,000 miles, but both are easy. Early versions had turbo problems if you didn't allow some cool down time after a hard run. I had a Turbo Mustang and those are the problems I had - but it would run with most of that vintage SB Chevies, Pontiacs and Fords. Speedway has a bunch of parts.