944J

Some guy at trader joes stopped me about my 944 and we were talking he said that if I wanted to supercharge my 944 then I could opt for a thunderbird supercharger from the junkyard for $100 and use it.

Would this work?

I have no idea what year thunderbird he was talking about or even what a thunderbird is.

AWolf

There was an manifold on ebay for a 944 a while back. It supposedly mated a Thunderbird supercharger to the 944. I am sure it is not as easy as it sounds but in retrospect you could fit any supercharger/turbo on our cars with enough modification. A thunderbird is an 80's and 90's Ford car, kind of ugly in my opinion. I do not personally remember a supercharged version in the 80's (I think they only made a turbo) but I do remember one in the 90's that kind of looked like a Taurus and said "supercharged" on the back. So in summary, It is possible but would take a lot of work ($$$) to get it right. But I say if you have the drive and funds go for it. It is always nice to see something new.

-Andrew

AWolf

The T-Bird's that were supercharged looked somewhat like this

http://www.funmp3players.com/photos/...rd-neo35-1.jpg

Yes.......They put a supercharger on a car that looked that ugly!

-Andrew

Porsche-O-Phile

Yea, I think they had two models through the late 80s / early 90s; one was the Thunderbird Turbo Coupe (turbocharged, I think it was a 6 cyl) and the other was the SC - standard 8 cyl. I could be wrong about this though, that was a long time ago.

A guy I knew back then DID have the turbo coupe though - I rode in it a few times, I remember it was pretty decent performance-wise. Dunno about the handling or anything, I wasn't as technically into them then as I am now.

944J

I've looked around and it appears its a roots type supercharger... low efficiency but high low-end torque...

porschefig

this doesn't help answer your question, but: the t-bird was a ford from the 50-today (with a few skipped years in the middle)

also, what other supercharge options are there? (not that I can ever afford to dream about doing engine mods yet)

944J

my 944 is still a peice so its all dreams right now...

kennycoulter

ok people.......the thunder bird turbo coupe was made from 83-88. only 87-88 had the intercooler. they were the same engine as an svo mustang(2.3 4 cyl.) yes a pinto engine. had 18 lbs boost and a garret t3 on man. trans cars. the autos had the smaller ihi turbo. the svo had a .63 a/r and the t coupe had the .43 or so. the supercoupe was the 3.8 v6 and had a front mount intercooler also(t-coupes and svos are on top) the supercoupe was made from 89-91. yes theyre ugly and boring but supposedly pretty fast. the t-coupes and svos are WAY undertuned.

Predator

I think the T-Bird used the same Eaton SC that is used with the Huntley setup for 944's. (or was used, isn't Huntley DOA?)

Dave

Huntley IS gone and he DID use that SC.

Geo

The biggest issue to overcome for adding a turbo or supercharger is going to be engine management. Until you have this base covered you're pretty much stuck. But if you have an engine mangement solution then either should be possible.

Dave

Stand-alone or piggy-back engine management isn't that difficult for most of us Geo, the hard part is building the banifolds/brackets/etc. since few of us have access to that type of equipment or the skill to design these parts. A turbo probably isn't that tough since you can start with 951 parts but an SC is another story.

Jack667

I knew two guys that had the Thunderbird SC. They both loved them. One of the guys put over 100k miles on his from new and had an excellent service history. They looked a littler cooler than the pic above. I rode in one and it was damn fast. At the time, it was very cool to have a fast american coupe with a stick shift. Now, its a little more common. Ex: GTO

odie

The late T-Bird SC used a "traditional" style supercharger (eaton roots design, positivve displacement) which would be mounted directly to an intake manifold specifically designed for the SC and the engine in use. So you can't use it...Well you could if you made a custom manifold.

I believe that the old 55-57 Birds were offered with a Paxton type blower (centrifical compressor which mounts basically like any alternator, AC compressor, PS pump, etc. That was back when Detroit was more intune with customer desires for high performance and was willing to sell what the public demanded. Shelbys, Yenkos, Baldwins, Super Bees, Boss, Cobra Jet, blah blah blah. and "win on Sunday, sell on Monday" really meant just that.

Just make a bracket to fit the engine and blower and plumb it between the air filter and throttle body/carb. How you go about doing this is where DIY come in. Do you have room, what do you have to move, vacuum issues, computer issues.

v944god

I think an Eaton m90 will work for a 944.

Check this link out, a s/c'd rx7, guy spent around $300 to do the work.

http://www.rx7club.com/showthread.ph...hreadid=289791

In theory this can work on an n/a, right?