Spirit 2.5 turbo swap

[jory]

I'm going to swap a 2.5 turbo/5-speed from a '90 Daytona into my '92 V6 5-speed Spirit. I'm going to pull everything I need and swap it all into my Spirit over the winter. The parts Daytona has a blown engine but a rebuilt head/turbo. So the short block will need to be rebuilt. I'm going to pull the head and oil pan and see if the engine is worth salvaging, if not I'll pull the short block out of a 89 turbo lebaron. While the engine is out of the Spirit it will get a new quick ratio steering rack. Any tips on the wiring/electronics part of the swap? I've never done this swap before so any tips are helpful.

[Vigo]

havent you been paying attention to the turbo 3.0s? why take something interedting and write 'been done a million times' all over it by putting the 4cylinder in?

brents turbo/5spd 3.0 spirit went 13.9 @5psi and im sure he'll tell you there was room for improvement. you'll be lucky to get 13s with 3 times that boost w/ a 2.5 spirit.

Im not saying you wont end up with a quick car. But if you finished putting your 3.0 back together you could easily be running high 14s at 0 psi anyway, and THEN turbo it. dont let anyone tell you 10:1 and boost arent compatible either, it can be done and done well if you do it right.In fact i remember one car, a 3.0 camry with a gt40 iirc, that was running somewhere between 10-11:1 compression and i think that thing made over 400whp.

So now that im through hijacking... i suggest you try to find a harness from an sbec turbo spirit, it will make your life much easier since it will probably plug right in. Post a wanted ad in the parts area here, i found a harness for my sbec minivan very quickly.

[turbovanman²]

IIRC, the 92's have a weird computer setup, so nothing is really plug and play, a custom harness will have to be made up, but using a 90/91 turbo Spirit harness should help. ShelGame would know better than me.

Don't listen to Vigo, Ondonti, has $1000's and $1000's into his 3.0L, not to mention a ton of custom made parts, and he still has bugs. Keep the tried and true turbo 4 banger and you'll still be happy,

[Vigo]

i looked on allpar and it said they did make turbo spirit's in 92.. so that harness must be out there.

The only reason brent spent so much money is because he was working from scratch on almost everything and he spent a lot of money doing some things twice.. which probly had more to do with the operator than the parts..

but anyone could do what he did to his spirit, and then instead of stopping to work on a wilder buildup, just kept going. before i ever talked to brent i used to talk to a guy joe who had a turbo 3.0/5spd acclaim and he was trapping 108 on 11psi or so on a stock motor. Every 3.0 turbo ive ever seen numbers on has trapped ~100mph on ~5psi in the beginning. I just recently talked to a guy who doesnt come here much and he dynoed ~250whp @6psi.

I say unless you're gonna do something that really pushes the envelope with the 8valver, then save yourself the effort of a swap into that spirit and buy a stock turbo car or an easier swap.. like an 89-90 aa body tbi for a few hundred bucks.

trying to combine two styles of ecm/wiring into a car that came with a different engine/tranny and building or buying a shortblock seems like a lot of work to end up with a stock t1/5speed that wont be much faster than the 3.0 until you put more money into it.

[turbovanman²]

i looked on allpar and it said they did make turbo spirit's in 92.. so that harness must be out there.

it.

I think thats the Mexican one.

[jory]

Ondonti, has $1000's and $1000's into his 3.0L, not to mention a ton of custom made parts, and he still has bugs.

That right there is the #1 reason why I want to swap in the four banger. I've thought about it and I've been asked a hundred times if I'm going to turbo the 6. It seems like it would take $1000's to get a reliable set up with a good tune. My 3.0 is pretty modded right now for an N/A, but I'm at the point where I feel like I don't have much room left in the good ol' 3.0. And I just busted it again, so it isn't driveable now. So I figured if I'm going to pull the transmission and motor why not just go all out and swap in the turbo 2.5 with some mods. Plus I bought a perfect condition neon for super cheap so I have a reliable DD that only costs $25 to fill up. I figure that since I now have a way to get around that I'm not always breaking and fixing, the Spirit can become a project car. I put new shocks and Daytona Shelby springs on the rear, plus 11" vented rear discs and the big R/T front brakes and master cylinder. It also has new tires on 15" snowflake wheels, fully stainless fuel lines, and a 14 gallon tank. That is only a drop in the bucket of what I have into this car. So to me it's worth the extra work.

[Vigo]

well all right, wish you were closer so i could pick up your cast-offs.. id love to have a pile of 3.0 parts and a 543.

[jory]

well now i'm undecided on the swap. i might get a factory turbo car instead.

[Vigo]

Luckily you shouldnt have any trouble finding one close to you.. watch the for sale forums, ebay, craigslist, and the local classifieds.

[jory]

Well there's a modded turbo shadow vert for sale here but they want 2500 for it. I'm looking for something cheaper that may or may not need some work. I'll keep searching.

[Vigo]

http://www.turbo-mopar.com/forums/sh...ad.php?t=19262

[Aries_Turbo]

my buddy jesse (redpunk101 on here) is selling a shadow project on here for around 1200$ iirc.

where in upstate Ny are you?

Brian

[turbospirites]

I think thats the Mexican one.

1992 dodge spirit r/t rare but they did make a turbo spirit in 1992

[Vigo]

1979 Cadillac Fleetwood Hearse S/S 425ci
2000 Aprilia RS 50 (Suzuki RM250 motor in it)

wow, those get my attention.. cool!

[turbospirites]

wow, those get my attention.. cool!

offtopic

my hearse at the 06 turbopalooza meet




the aprilia i don't have any recent pics on it

[Vigo]

[turbovanman²]

1992 dodge spirit r/t rare but they did make a turbo spirit in 1992

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My bad, durrrrrrrrr, lol! 91/92 Spirit R/T's,