Bought a Mustang this weekend

The engine I used was from an 88 turbo coupe (thunderbird). It would bolt right in. You can’t even tell the 2 apart if the turbo was removed from the side. I also used the ecm. All the accessories swap directly over too. Even if it’s a 90s car.
The 88 was something special, had one from new, black with black leather, manual transmission, quite rare with that combo, wish I still had it. The 87 & 88 are not the same animal, the restrictions on the turbo were removed on the 88 making it a beast.
 
If I had one, I might attempt a first or second gen Taurus SHO motor transplant.
Besides just being different, why bother?

They don't make that much more power than a stock turbo four banger that is basically a direct bolt-in, and it would likely be a huge pain in the ass, being designed for a front wheel drive vehicle.
 
Besides just being different, why bother?

They don't make that much more power than a stock turbo four banger that is basically a direct bolt-in, and it would likely be a huge pain in the ass, being designed for a front wheel drive vehicle.
It is 20 more hp than an svo, and I think it'll mate up with an M5OD or a T5 with an adapter plate. 2.3L turbo block parts are hard to come by, where the SHO blocks are plentiful by comparison. They are real screamers, no turbo lag, and no tuning to do. The downside to it is that you have to use all the revs, much like the S2000 was, not a ton of torque in the low end.
 
I did have a 1995 Taurus SHO with a manual transmission and a few years later, a 1998.5 Contour SVT. I actually had two Contour SVTs briefly.
 
It is 20 more hp than an svo, and I think it'll mate up with an M5OD or a T5 with an adapter plate. 2.3L turbo block parts are hard to come by, where the SHO blocks are plentiful by comparison. They are real screamers, no turbo lag, and no tuning to do. The downside to it is that you have to use all the revs, much like the S2000 was, not a ton of torque in the low end.
At least in my opinion, it's still not worth all the extra hassle and custom fab work involved for not all that impressive amount of power. It's not super hard to get extra power out of the 2.3 T.

As far as 2.3T parts being hart to find? The turbo and manifold, maybe. But as far as I know, they use the exact same block and head as every other 2.3 of the era. Except they have an oil return for the turbo added and different pistons. Besides, parts for ~25 year old Taurus SHOs aren't exactly plentiful anymore either.
 
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Turbo lag has a lot to do with what turbo is in use. The original ones from the 80s probably just don't spin up as well as a more modern one would. I'd be surprised if there isn't a turbo that would drop into an 80s vintage 2.3T setup and give more performance.
 
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I agree that swaps almost always have issues. The increased torque and power will always find the weak link from cooling to brakes to frame stiffeners left out to "save money". A lot of this can be corrected with a fair bit of work and some thinking. The donor is pretty much mandatory if you want to do this right. It's not as bad with a stock 8 but with something warmed up, things add up in a hurry. The 80s and 90s cars are were not overbuilt as a rule. If they could save a buck leaving something off, they did. We did a 4 to 8 with a 4 speed swap and it took the better part of two years to work out all the bugs that came up. I didn't have a donor which added to the problem. By the 3rd year, I had gotten most of it right :) Then I went up a fair bit in the HP and the process started all over :/
 
The 88 was something special, had one from new, black with black leather, manual transmission, quite rare with that combo, wish I still had it. The 87 & 88 are not the same animal, the restrictions on the turbo were removed on the 88 making it a beast.
I had an 88 too.. my favorite car of all I've had. I should never had gotten rid of it. But I hated the black on silver after trying to keep it clean for a few years :/ On the flip side, I took it from LA to Tuscon and it was the best ride I've had. I got out of the car and I was not stiff like most cars.
 
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