First shelby daytona- putting her back on the road

[2manytoyz]

Hello everyone,i am a newb here and want to tell you about the new ride i picked up.Found a ad on craigslist for a 89 shelby daytona-$500 Hardly a discription and no pictures. So i travel 150 miles with my truck and trailer to pick the car up.I get there and its a white with red interior t-top automatic car.It has the digi dash,original radio with slave cd and the rear daytona sunshield still there(although its badly faded but done its job)The car only has 83k actual miles and is a clean title.The owner said it needed a turbo but they drove it around like that until the brake line broke,then he parked it.It has sat for 5 years and i did notice some rust on the d/s floorboard.P/s looked decent.The car has a full bra and says daytona across the windshield,lol

So im needing a turbo for the car,id like to get a t2 garrett and whatever i need to bolt it up and make it work,but a original mitsu turbo would be fine too because its just a atx car afterall.

I plan on bringing this back to dd status since its so low miles,plus the wife dont think its cool-but i KNOW its cool,funny thing is that the car is older than her,she will like it once she feels the turbo spool.

Do you guys think i should do a t2 conversion or just leave it alone? I dont want to replace the tranny so how much power can it hold?

Also what can you guys tell me about this car? How rare is it? What problems can i look forward too?

I plan on putting a fmic on it,i have a conquest one and some turbocoupe ones i could use-got a volvo one somewhere.

Ill get some pics soon-oh lastly how can i tell what build # it is?

[turbokid]

Howdy. Welcome to hobby!
How about some pictures?
Sounds like you have a lot of work ahead of you. Did a hard brake line break or one of the rubbers ones?
What are your plans for the car?
Drivers side floor rust is typical. I would definitely find out how bad the rust is before going forward with your project. If its just a little lower floor board rust then it will be ok. But I would check the drivers side rocker and make sure the rust hasn't eaten too far into the floors. Rust repair is a big job and from many experiences it can make or brake a project.
First, I would go for reliability , power later down the road. The mitsubishi turbo is a nice quick spooling turbo but is pretty small and even at stock levels is not nearly efficient for power builds. The garret is a great turbo for the 2.5l. Really to make the car to t2 status it requires a garret and an intercooler. To switch over to the garret you would want an 89 garret turbo with the 2.5'' swing valve as the your car has a 2.5'' downpipe from the factory. You will also need garret turbo coolant lines in order to use the garret turbo. Besides that the turbo will bolt right on. THe can make pretty good efficient power till about 250hp
The intercoolers you have are ok. Any intercooler is better than none (in most cases). I would not suggest the volvo intercooler, the conquest intercooler has good core size but small inlets and outlets and the turbocoupe ones arent bad either wth decent core sizes and larger inlet and outlets however that can pose fun when time to install the intercooler in the front bumper. But in all honesty if you are going to go through the trouble of putting a front mount on the car, a good cheap alternative would be a bar and plate design fmic from ebay. I make over 400 horse on a large cxracing intercooler that I paid 75 bucks for. Another alternative would be to use a factory radiator intercooler combo set up found in t2 daytonas. Most upgrade from the stock set up after about 250-300 horse power.The nice thing about going with the factory set up is that it will bolt right in.
The automatic transmissions in these cars are pretty sturdy and can hold some decent power with a couple mods. You should definitely increase the transmission pressure and run an external cooler for the sake of longevity. Ofcourse if you are shooting for high horsepower many mods to the transmission would be necessary or a 5 speed swap is in your future.
Ofcourse to make the car reliable I would suggest going over the vacuum line system, installing new fuel filter and fuel lines, I would put plugs and wires on it, and verify the timing is correct (both cam and ignition).
These can be great and fun cars if you take the necessary steps to make sure the car is in good health. More then likely if you are in need of a turbo you will be removing the head to get the turbo off ( from previous experience its not worth trying to just remove the turbo). In that event you will want a new headgasket, headbolts, valve cover gasket etc. There is quite a bit I am missing (suprising from this novel that starting to occur) but I hope that gives you some kind of idea of what you are looking into
Sorry for the novel.
Q

[2manytoyz]

no,thanks for your reply!You saved me alot of searching and answered alot of my questions.I def. want a intercooler on the car.I guess i should tell you guys this is not my first turbo car,and i own and operate a automotive repair shop.I have all kinds of toys and currently have about 15 cars in my "keep" collection.I had a 89 daytona es(non turbo pig)back in high school-white and grey just like this one.I have had at least half a dozen conquest's and still have alot of parts for them if anyone is interested.Ive also been into the ford 2.3t circles and had some isuzu impulse rs cars(a 87 and 91) Im thinking ill just run the stock mitsu turbo for now,ive found a good deal on one,The floor im not too sure how bad it is yet,its still loaded on my trailer and i want to spray it off before i unload it and start working on it-nothing worse than 5 years of rust and spiderwebs to fight against.
I have a lift so would it be easier to remove the turbo from the bottom?

Also if i get the car running correctly i will be looking for a good used t2 turbo conversion and the rad/intercooler set-up,250 hp is plenty for the automatic

[cordes]

You can pull the turbo from the bottom but as you may know it's a pain to get all the rusted nuts loose. If you have a lift I would think that it shouldn't be too bad. I use long pattern wrenches to break the bolts loose from the bottom.

The upper one on the driver's side I get with a 3/8ths drive ratchet and extension. If you do it right you can grab the ratchet with a pair of vise grips or pipe and turn it just in front of the fire wall behind the intake.

Note that most guys feel it easiest to just pull the head, but I'm cheap so I just pull the turbo with the head on.

Finally, the white with red interior was probably a rare option in 89'. IIRC the maroon interior was not terribly common, and white was the second least selected color.

[2manytoyz]

A buddy of mine had a few daytonas back in the day,he too said it was pretty rare and almost all of them were red or blue it seemed.Personally im not a fan of white but i also know better than to change the color of a car.I had a 88 conquest tsi that was white/marroon also-at least the grey breaks it up some. I hate to pull the head and do all the timing and crap just to swap a turbo,cant i just pull the cartridge out and swap it?

[cordes]

You probably could. It would be pretty easy with the mitsu guessing by the fact that when that band clamp breaks due to rust they'll fall out.

[ShelGame]

Whoa, whoa, whoa - you're MARRIED to someone born after 1989? I graduated High School in 1988. Damn I'm old...

T2 turbo should be fine. The Mahle pistons are good, and the 2.5 turbo had the T2 rods. It'll be fine.

[2manytoyz]

lol,yea i was born in 1980 and i dont know how i pulled a chic 10 years younger,lol

Anyways a update today.I pulled the car in and it ran on starting fluid-hooking up voltage to the + coil, just finished off the fuel pump,so i pulled the old one out and ordered a new one.I also pulled the wheels off and since i have a tire changer and balancer i pulled the rubber off and cleaned the wheels good.Tires have some rot,but nothing im too worried about-hell they have 9/32 all the way around too! Looked at the brakes and painted up the calipers grey-someone had them purple in the past.

Has the typical dent in the oil pan,has the original marchal foglights and they still work.The worst rust is on the driverside,it probubly could be cut out and saved but im not going to mess with it at the moment-its nothing structual and the car needs paint anyways-im more worried about getting it road worthy first.

I cut the converter off it and the front side had the turbo exhaust impeller laying against it,lol Ive only seen one other turbo that had split in half like that. Im going to start on removing the turbo tomorrow and i need a stock mitsubushi turbo to stick in its place,i think i have a lead on one from a member here.

The stock radio and cd player are in place,i got it to power up and i heard a click-i could change stations but i heard no sound and the eq wasent lit up.Also the cd player didnt even light up,not real sure how these work and where the factory amp is.

Lastly the windows dont work,the last owner told me this and said that he replaced one window motor and it didnt fix it,he thought it was a switch-any ideas on where to start?

[cordes]

I would check for power at the window motors first and work my way back.

[2manytoyz]

is there a relay or fuseable link anywhere? What about the switch,do they go bad?

[cordes]

is there a relay or fuseable link anywhere? What about the switch,do they go bad?

I don't believe there is a relay at all. I think there is a fuse under the dash for them?

[2manytoyz]

what about the radio? Do you know where the factory amp is?

[cordes]

what about the radio? Do you know where the factory amp is?

I'm not familiar with the slave CD units. As a matter of fact the standard infinity radio in my 89' Daytona doesn't work. I think it's a short in one of the speaker wires or something, but I've always got bigger fish to fry with the car than to chase it.

[2manytoyz]

i cleaned up the car today-got the interior all cleaned up.The car still has the original plastic battery cover and front licence plate holder.I got the radio to come on and the cd player lit up after i put a cd in it.But the cd wont eject now,lol.The carpet and seats are in amazing shape,i do need a little button for one of the lumbar seat switch's. Took t-tops out,seals are like new.The spare and jack are all still there,as is the rear sunshade.It even still has the original t-top bags!
I purchaced a turbo and fuelpump-hopefully i have the car going this weekend.

[2manytoyz]

Well folks she rolls under her own power today.I got the fuelpump in and got her running.I removed the cat and put a pipe in its place.Got new oil in her and got her up to temp.,all hoses held and i capped off the coolant for right now-took about half a gallon.
The oil pressure looked great and im still running about half crap fuel-but i did manage to drive it around the lot and make sure the trans was shifting and all systems are a-go.

The turbo is def shot,its smoking pretty good and thats besides the fact it doesnt have a exhaust impeller(found it in the cat)-i have one comming soon so hopefully it gets the car down the road well enough.

Cd player works but it wont eject the old nelly cd i put in it...ugh..., The radio actully sounds pretty good for 89 spec stuff.I also couldnt get the computer to do anything,it is lit up but none of the buttons seem to work.

[2manytoyz]

turbo is getting installed tomorrow,Still plenty of stale gas needs ran through it.I also noticed that there is a reman ecu in it(or smbc).Ill get the numbers and see what it is tomorrow.

[cordes]

The buttons go bad on the travelers. You can replace them.

[2manytoyz]

Well i got the turbo replaced today-it spools good but the turbo seals were bad on it,ugh.. at least everything is loose and wont be so bad when i put another turbo on it.Anyone have a KNOWN good mitsu?

[cordes]

Well i got the turbo replaced today-it spools good but the turbo seals were bad on it,ugh.. at least everything is loose and wont be so bad when i put another turbo on it.Anyone have a KNOWN good mitsu?

Why not just put on a garrett? There are probably a lot more known good TII units out there than the mitsus if I had to guess.

[2manytoyz]

She went to car heaven today-Sadly the cancer killed her.
I stripped her of all her goodies though