I am in the process of helping my Dad fix up his 1986 T-Type to perfect operating condition. The car is not running like it used to, and definitely needs some attention. I know this for a fact because I found some very disturbing problems earlier this week. First I will give you the background on the car and then tell you what we want to do. I don’t have a lot of experience with Turbos, so that is why I am here.
Like I said, the car is an 86’ T-Type with 71K miles. The car is completely stock with no modifications. It has never been wrecked or changed in anyway. The interior of the car is near perfect and has the regular aging on the outside, chips, etc…. For its age, it is in great condition. It has the moon roof and bench seats. Could someone tell me what the deal with bench seats is, I thought all T-types had buckets? Anyway, back to the problem. I was cleaning the car for my Dad last weekend and decided to open up the Air Filter to see if it was dirty. It was extremely dirty, so we got a new one. Then I wanted to open up the rest of the intake and take a look at the MAF. When I got there, I found metal flakes, NOT GOOD. When I looked down the air tube leading to the Turbo I saw a nut laying at the very end before the Turbo, VERY BAD. Well, somehow, the nut that goes on the spindle part of the Turbo had come off. I’m guessing that the metal flakes had come from the Turbo. We put it back on and hooked everything back up. I took the car for a spin and it seemed fine until I hit High boost. I could hear a noise coming from the Turbo, plus it didn’t seem like the car was doing much good either. Just didn’t have the power it used to have. The noise sounded like an old fan belt that was slipping when you get into the throttle. Kind of a buzzing rubbing noise. Anyway, the car just didn’t have any power at all, except at take off speed, up to 2nd gear.
We want to do a serious tune up. Replacing everything from the Fuel Pump to the Injectors. The engine itself seems fine, so all we want to do there is Injectors (maybe a little bigger), spark-plugs, and clean the Intake. I’m guessing the Turbo is bad and will need to be replaced. So basically, if anybody can give me some help, I would appreciate it. I would like to know what to buy and how to go about it. My Dad wants the car to run a little better than stock form, but nothing crazy. Let me know what you guys would do. Thanks in advance for your help. Also, we are on a budget, but we don’t want crap either. I really can’t wait to get this thing back to its bad butt self. I have a lot of good memories in this car when I was a kid because he bought it when I was 12 years old back in 1989. I remember the first time I drove it when I was 16; Man what a Rush….
Like I said, the car is an 86’ T-Type with 71K miles. The car is completely stock with no modifications. It has never been wrecked or changed in anyway. The interior of the car is near perfect and has the regular aging on the outside, chips, etc…. For its age, it is in great condition. It has the moon roof and bench seats. Could someone tell me what the deal with bench seats is, I thought all T-types had buckets? Anyway, back to the problem. I was cleaning the car for my Dad last weekend and decided to open up the Air Filter to see if it was dirty. It was extremely dirty, so we got a new one. Then I wanted to open up the rest of the intake and take a look at the MAF. When I got there, I found metal flakes, NOT GOOD. When I looked down the air tube leading to the Turbo I saw a nut laying at the very end before the Turbo, VERY BAD. Well, somehow, the nut that goes on the spindle part of the Turbo had come off. I’m guessing that the metal flakes had come from the Turbo. We put it back on and hooked everything back up. I took the car for a spin and it seemed fine until I hit High boost. I could hear a noise coming from the Turbo, plus it didn’t seem like the car was doing much good either. Just didn’t have the power it used to have. The noise sounded like an old fan belt that was slipping when you get into the throttle. Kind of a buzzing rubbing noise. Anyway, the car just didn’t have any power at all, except at take off speed, up to 2nd gear.
We want to do a serious tune up. Replacing everything from the Fuel Pump to the Injectors. The engine itself seems fine, so all we want to do there is Injectors (maybe a little bigger), spark-plugs, and clean the Intake. I’m guessing the Turbo is bad and will need to be replaced. So basically, if anybody can give me some help, I would appreciate it. I would like to know what to buy and how to go about it. My Dad wants the car to run a little better than stock form, but nothing crazy. Let me know what you guys would do. Thanks in advance for your help. Also, we are on a budget, but we don’t want crap either. I really can’t wait to get this thing back to its bad butt self. I have a lot of good memories in this car when I was a kid because he bought it when I was 12 years old back in 1989. I remember the first time I drove it when I was 16; Man what a Rush….
Make sure you have a good oil supply line. Clean. Preferably new. Also, there is a brass "T" that supplies oil to the turbo and to the oil sender switch. Mine actually got clogged up with material from the timing chain which is made of nylon. You may want to pay close attention to that as well before you just 'throw' another turbo on there.
