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curious people have been here...
The Car: Matt's 1988 Thunderbird Turbo Coupe, 5 speed
I built up Matt's's car, when the previous motor went south. Installed a new Jasper long block, new 3 core radiator, used SVO T3 Garret turbo, all new tune up parts, a Turbo Tek Toys Ported Exhaust Manifold, a port matched lower intake, and a Turbo Tek Toys Hot Street 2 cam.
This car ran GOOD. It just pulled through the rev range. You didn't feel the need to downshift and rev the snot out of it like a stock Turbo Coupe. Matt was happy. Later, he got the Turbo Tek Toys 3" exhaust system.
Whatever I didn't mention, was left as stock to this model year car, the EEC, intercooler, etc.
You can read
more about the Hot Street 2 cam here:The car ran good with the new exhaust and Matt wanted to see what it was doing, so he took it to EIP and ran it.
Dyno Pull 1: Third gear
Turbo Tek Toys Hot Street 2 cam, straight up, stock 88 turbo Coupe processor, stock large
VAF meter and 14 psi of boost.
Result: 199 HP and 294 LB/FT torque at the wheels, 229 HP and 338 LB/FT torque at the motor.
Observation: Hmm, funny flat topped hp curve. The knock sensor was connected. Great torque though! But corrected to the engine, this is BETTER than stock 5.0 HO's hp and torque ratings, and at lower RPMS!
Dyno Pull 2: Fourth gear
No changes to combo
Result: 207 HP and 281.9 LB/ft torque at the wheels, 238 HP and 324 LB/FT torque at the motor.
Observation: The way that the hp fell off in 4th gear makes me think that the IC was heating up.
These results are as measured at the wheels, I've added the industry standard 15% for the numbers at the motor. 93 octane pump gas was used, with no octane improvers added. Both runs were made within 5 minutes of each other, so, a proper cooldown could've produced more power on the later run. I wasn't present at the dyno runs, and no effort was made at tuning the car.
I'd like to hear your comments regarding these dyno sheets.
Summary:
1) This car is a blast to drive on the street. You shift at 5000, and scoot around everybody. For as big as a later Turbo Coupe is, this car really hustles. No Fuss/No Muss. It's pretty quiet, with a nice exhaust rumble, with the TTT 3" exhaust, even under max boost.
2) Many people would be very happy with this combo. Many of our competitors would be happy to have easy combos as drivable as this. Or maybe not, they'd sell less stuff. The car idles smooth, gets good mileage, and throttle response is instantaneous. In town, or on the freeway, passing one or several cars, or even staying way ahead of traffic, is only a 1/4 throttle away. See Matt's comparison to his 98 Cobra on the Cam web page.
3) The torque curve turns down, after the torque peak of 3500 rpm. This is because of the low overlap, and advanced events, on the cam. This cam is made to make low end power. And boy does it!
4) People chase hp numbers, yet ignore torque. Regarding the 2.3 turbo, this is a mistake. To make big hp numbers, you have to make big torque at 5252 rpm. If you do that, you give up a lot of torque at the bottom end, which our motors can really belt out, if you let em. Look at the wide flat hp curve produced by this cam. Do you want to make power from 3000 to 5000, or have to wait till 5000 to get the same power?
For a great comparison, print this dyno run, and the dyno run of Chris Thomason's XR with an Engle 55. Chris made 14 more hp, but 36 lb/ft less torque, with an Engle 55 cam. or 9 hp more and 42 lb/ft less, with a stock cam. Chris' car routinely ran 13.7-13.6 in the quarter mile. What do you think this Turbo Coupe would do?
Math lesson: Horsepower is torque times axle speed divided by 5252. On a chassis dyno, hp is EQUAL to torque at 5252 RPM. So if your torque curve falls off, at or below 5252 rpm, you will not make as much hp as torque.
Note that the Turbo Coupe made more than 200 lb/ft of torque from 2500 to 5250 rpm, with a max of 294, at the wheels.
5) It's important to note what is stock on this car; all the ignition components, the fuel pumps, the injectors, the fuel pressure, the head, the intake, the valves. It didn't have; big valves, ported head, a big intercooler, or a big turbo, (just a Garrett T3, like on every Merkur and SVO). Timing was set at stock specs.
6) How fast is it in the quarter mile? We'll never know. After the dyno runs, I asked Matt to come down here and let me tune the car on the dyno. I was hoping to figure out what was up with the hp curve. . Matt said the engine was making some knocking noises. We made an appointment for Matt to come down here, and have me look at it. Unfortunately, before Matt could get down here, the motor grenaded. Here's a look at one of the disection pics.
Dave