Tedly's Bluebird

[tedly]

Throwing my hat in the ring with the Bird, just for fun. It's my daily driver and will continue to be used for the 100+ mile round trip commute to work, so minimal downtime, reliability, and low buck solutions will be the order of the day. I want to see what I can do to wake up the 3.8 since it will be awhile before I can swap an 8 into it. That 6 cylinder is a friggin slug and I want a little more power.

Starting point is a bone stock 97 Thunderbird V6 for $1100.

[Russell]

So pill it til you kill it is really not a good plan.

[Mater]

it would not take much lol the head gaskets like to go out witht he stock power and crack the heads

[tedly]

Head gaskets were replaced recently if I'm not mistaken, and nitrous is a little far down the list. Lots of other little tweaks and stuff I can do first. I just want to challenge myself and see what I can do with what I've got. I've been out of the game too damn long.

[milner351]

I totally love these things - I look forward to following this thread.

DD status prevents you from going gonzo on the rear axle gearing - that would certainly wake up the acceleration - perhaps move up to a 3.73 as to not kill the highway mileage?


How different were the supercoupe engines internally? I wonder how hard it would be to put a super coupe super charger / intake / etc on an existing 3.8....

[tedly]

Already looked into it, the SC engines were almost totally different from mine so no go. One thing I'm looking into right now is swapping it over to a stick. I could tweek the slushbox, but I want a damn manual transmission and plan on swapping one when I drop in the 8 anyway. Just gotta figure out what is involved with this swap, I already know I'll have to pull the dash to get the clutch pedal in correctly.

[Stich496]

thinking out loud..
is the head gasket issue on these, a reaction from the tty bolts, would arp studs fix this, if so, and I'd think with studs and good gaskets, you could bolt on a s/c and go..

[Russell]

Do you want to put a push rod or over head cam when you do the swap?

[Stich496]

Do you want to put a push rod or over head cam when you do the swap?

hahaha, I think the 5.4 you need a sawsall

[Russell]

hahaha, I think the 5.4 you need a sawsall

I bet there is room for a DOHC 4.6 and a vortec

[Stich496]

I bet there is room for a DOHC 4.6 and a vortec

ya the linc. had a 4.6 but it is tight

[tedly]

thinking out loud..
is the head gasket issue on these, a reaction from the tty bolts, would arp studs fix this, if so, and I'd think with studs and good gaskets, you could bolt on a s/c and go..

The whole engine is different - heads, intake, internals, etc... The only way to really do it is to swap the whole SC engine. If I'm going to the trouble of swapping engines I'm going with something I want - a V8.

[tedly]

Do you want to put a push rod or over head cam when you do the swap?

Not quite sure yet. I know the Windsors pretty well and they would be cheaper, but I keep coming back to the 32 valve. I'll just see what I can get when the time comes.

[tedly]

I bet there is room for a DOHC 4.6 and a vortec

There is, studying how to do it as we speak.

[Mater]

hahaha, I think the 5.4 you need a sawsall

no they make and intake that allows it to fit under the hood