Cheap Performance Mods for an 89 Thunderbird?

[Collin]

Im looking for some advice on ways to squeeze some extra performance out of my 89 Thunderbird Base Coup. Anything that will squeeze out even a few more horsepower. Its completely stock, and has 87000 miles on it, so it shouldn’t have lost that much from time. I’ve been told larger intake manifolds/filters (intake is tiny on the damn thing!), to racing chips. I’m open to suggestions in the $100 dollar range, and would prefer to stick to bolt ons for the time being. I understand it will really never be anything great without a supercharger or v8, but im looking for a little extra zip so the Honda Civics quite laughing at me…

edit: looked into piggyback ecu programmers, and would like peoples opinion. it would be cool to have a switchable one for economy, and then power when the rysers come a knockin haha

Topic

[Bryan Carter]

Cheap. Fast. Reliable.
Pick any 2 you want.

[dan]

[quote=”McWicked” post=110957]Cheap. Fast. Reliable.
Pick any 2 you want.[/quote]

was just going to say this, you can only choose two of the three…

to really make your car faster you have to make sacrifices, the biggest sacrifice you will make is $$$ and the next few sacrifices you will probably make is drivability in the case of extreme modifications.

[Bryan Carter]

[quote=”13aceofspades13″ post=110982]was just going to say this, you can only choose two of the three…[/quote]

I guess great minds think alike. :silly:

As to the eyespopping’s original question…
Without knowing anything about the architecture of that particular family of Ford engines, I can tell you from the stock HP and TQ figures alone, that the heads, intake manifold and cam are junk. I would doubt that bolt-on parts would yield any significant gains. Unless you classify nitrous oxide as a bolt-on.

What you can do is find out if more potent heads/cam/intake from another application can be directly swapped onto your engine. Then maybe you can do a little “junkyard tuning” on the cheap.

[Collin]

Thanks for the tips. Was planning on swapping the manifold, as that’s rather easy from what I’ve seen, and as far as donor parts, I could pull them from a caprice classic, or cougar. As for swapping the camshaft, that would take at least a weekend, and quite a bit of $$$… anyone know if the cam in the old police caprice classics were any good? That might help

[Bryan Carter]

[quote=”eyespopping” post=110996]…anyone know if the cam in the old police caprice classics were any good? That might help[/quote]
What? When did Chevy start making cams that fit in Ford engines?

[Collin]

Jeez I’ve embarrassed my self… this is the list of the cars with the same engine…
1982 Ford Granada
1982–1983 Ford F-series
1982–1997 Ford Thunderbird and Mercury Cougar
1982–1986, 1994–2004 Ford Mustang
1982–1986 Mercury Capri
1983–1986 Ford LTD and Mercury Marquis
1988–1995 Ford Taurus and Mercury Sable
1988–1994 Lincoln Continental
1995–2003 Ford Windstar
Got confused with the mercury capri…
Any suggestions as to which to take the donor parts? I’m guessing the mustangs would be a start

[dan]

just to warn you if you plan on swapping intake manifolds make sure everything is port matched, there are several factors when it comes to intake manifolds that you should consider… where are the fuel injectors located, what are the size and shape of the intake ports for the plenum and will they match the heads, yada ya… for example for a 3100 SFI lots a few people but not many have done a “top swap.” which includes heads lower and upper plenum on a 3400 bolted onto a 3100, but you aren’t bolting a lower and upper intake manifold from a 3400 on a 3100 because the intake ports are directed differently…

lots of things to consider when doing intakes swaps, just something to consider

[Collin]

You may well be correct, as I have not looked up the specifications yet, but they should be the same design. I’m looking at the Lincoln continental 3.8 litre high output engine right now. The upper manifold seems the most restriction thoigh, and that should be a 1 to 1 swap from what I can tell. Again, I may be very very wrong without looking up the exact specifications.

[Lorrin Barth]

I’d suggest you look for a builder who has hopped up this car before and if you find such a person, his/her advice would be invaluable.

[Dave]

Ford Windstar intake. Look up vids for the mod and make sure it fits your model correctly. You might use the heads, and cam as well. Just be a junkyard pick and pull event. Look, your engine is asleep. I think it is like 128 RWHP and that is about it. You could just go with a windstar motor. Or a 99-04 Mustang engine if you want to stay with V6. The T bird came with a supercharged engine. Getting one from a junk yard would be a boost. Also check out Super six motor sports. Cai exhaust, tune, you need a lot buddy.

[Author]

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