[OneOwner88LX]

Just picked up this '88 turbo coupe 5 speed. Engine is a Jasper with low miles and runs very well; no smoke and no leaks. Trans shifts very nicely and exhaust looks fairly new. Rear is quiet and nothing on the drive train leaks. Suspension seems tight too. Car is pretty much a pile of junk otherwise. Plans are to swap all the drive train, rear, and brakes into my son's '88 LX 4 cyl. Then we will part out the rest of the car. Been reading about the wiring ect out on various sites.

[OneOwner88LX]

Here is the Mustang that will be getting the t-bird parts:

[OneOwner88LX]

Here was have swapped in some pedals that we bought from a local junk yard. It was not easy:

[OneOwner88LX]

I have found this site to be the most helpfull:

http://www.flemworld.com/slug/howto/8790T.html

[68rest0m0d]

looks like a sweet project too bad the coupe is junk from the pics looks like it was a nice car at some point good luck the stang will def make a nice sleeper

[samotrx7]

Nice little project you got goin there , keep us posted.

[OneOwner88LX]

The turbo coupe is loaded with that fancy adjustable suspension, key less entry, ABS, 5 speed etc but none of the body panels line up, looks like a 5 year old $199 paint job, after market stereo in the dash, the doors don't open and close right, trunk hinges are messed up, no trunk key, out side door handles are sloppy, interior is very ratty, power seats don't work, missing AC components under the hood, under hood wire harnesses look old and dry etc. It has 170,000 miles on it and the people who had it did not work on it. When it broke it went to the shop.

The engine/trans/rear however are in outstanding condition. The car was tagged and the seller drove it an hour to bring it to my house and NO smoke what so ever comes out of the pipes. It made the one hour trip effortlessly. Even after sitting for days it fires instantly and runs flawlessly. They were asking $1,500 or best offer and I offered him $800 cash plus bring it to my house which I thought was good given the condition of the drive train. I was prepared to pay more until I looked the car over the condition was so bad I didn't want to pay higher then $800. I consider myself lucky to have found this car as a donor.

[The Rooster]

believe it or not that is a rare factory color for the Turbo coupe... 2 bad it is messed up as you said... it would be a killer street machine... Nice stang little hatch back you hae to looks clean like a old lady had it lol... keep us posted on the swap.. or if you fix the turbo coupe...

[93stangfutr5.0]

your lucky enough that you dont have to do alot of wiring like me in my 93 im doing the swap right now as we speak.

[OneOwner88LX]

I think since both the turbo coupe and Mustang are both '88s that will make the swap go much smoother. The later model 2.3 mustangs with speed density and coil packs are a bit tougher to wire up.

Unfortunately the turbo coupe won't be saved. It looks worst in real life then it does in the pictures. The Mustang is a rust free North Carolina car with a very nice interior.

[93stangfutr5.0]

same here with my car 93 stang no rust from NC too the 86 TC is from Myrtle Beach so she's a rust Queen.

[The Rooster]

put the turbo coupe wheels on the mustang

[93stangfutr5.0]

believe it or not my TC actually has the same wheels as my stang just with hubcaps with a Tbird symbol on them.

[OneOwner88LX]

Clutch pedal install complete and old engine/trans out. AOD will be junked.

[OneOwner88LX]

Pulled the engine/trans out of the turbo coupe today. One thing that surprised me was the coolant lines around the oil filter. No mention of that in any of the swap write ups I have been reading on line? Seems like a good thing to leave in place. The other surprise was the T5 in the TC has two wire connectors going to it and the T5 out of the '88 2.3 Mustang from the junk yard has three connectors like my '88 5.0L has. Was planning to use the turbo coupe trans because I drove the car and it worked well but it won't hook up to the Mustang T5 wire harness??

Here are some pics. The engine is supposed to only have 1,000 miles on it. Someone had hooked all the waste gate hoses up wrong and end result was the waste gate was getting the boost signal directly from the vacuum tee hence it only boosted 8 pounds of boost. That is all the boost this engine probably ever saw since the previous owners knew nothing about any of the workings under the hood.