I have had 2 Shelby Z's and my dad had a Turbo Z and only 1 still had the original turbo. My turbo began puting oil in the coolant and my dads Turbo Z had a blown turbo when he bought it. I know of few to none that still have the original turbo. Everytime I've been to the junkyard the turbo is still on the car because there shot. Turbo I cars were the worst because they were not intercooled. The Turbo III's are known for head problems, this is not to say that they all will. Just like the Chrysler Conquest Tsi's, if you think it's a bad head gasket it's not, it's the head. The Conquests were well known for head problems. I have seen many turbos go south for many different reasons. Some people are just plain stupid and will drive a car with no coolant just to keep from calling a tow truck. I'm not saying that all turbo and head failures are due to not letting them cool down, but some are and almost all head and turbo failures are due to overheating reguardless of the reason.

 

My 191k mile '91 Spirit ES has never had turbo problems. I've always idles it before shutting it down. The clutch is still stock also...</P>


Try FWD Performance in Texas for your RT parts. </P>


It looks like I might be getting an RT myself this coming week. I also have an Labaron GTC turbo 2 convertible 5 speed, which is a pretty quick car.</P>


http://www.exoticperformanceplus.com</P>

 

in response to MoparTurbo
Not true. My 1985 Nissan 300zx turbo had 217,000 miles on it and i ran 14 psi with no trouble (although she does have an intercooler). ORIGINAL ENGINE. The secret was oil changes at 2000 miles and tons of preventative maintenance. The new owner runs 13-14 psi with no problems. btw i sold her because i needed money, not because she had any problems

 

[Deleted by Admins]

 

Yeah, the Lotus heads were picked by Chrysler to be the best performing head for their new 2.2L DOHC Turbo III engines. They contracted Lotus, Maserati and one or two others to design a head for it and the best flowing head wins. The intercoolers being mounted right next to the radiator was a bad idea, but at least it was better than the T-bird Turbo Coupes and the Subaru's being placed at the hottest possible area, right on top the engine. Thankfully Chrysler learned from their mistakes and put the SRT-4's intercooler right up front before the radiator.[sm=smiley20.gif]

 

[Deleted by Admins]

 

I'll second that.[sm=smiley36.gif]I will give the T-bird Turbo Coupe credit, they were pretty quick, but they broke down alot. My step-mother had an '88 Turbo Coupe and it had some pep to it, however I couldn't drive it to well with my size 13 feet in that tiny space that they put the pedals in.

 

Had a customer with an R/T that Chrysler kept trying to buy back and he just wouldn't give it up! Put 3 or 4 turbos on it, 2 heads, PCM, TONS of wiring repairs and a bunch more I can't remember. The guy just loved that car and I can't blame him-it was scary quick once you spooled the motor over 4500.
BTW, the local community college has a car donated by Chrysler I'm curious about. It's a 1989 Acclaim with a 2.5 Turbo (II?) and a 5-speed manual. Not sure if it's an New Venture or a Getrag. I've never seen that combo on the street before. Anybody know if that was available or if this was just a test mule?

 

Admittedly I just speed read through most of these replies, but it seems like no one hit on the real reason the RT's head's were notorious.

In the first year Chrysler used steel plugs for the top three casting holes on this aluminum head. The expansion rates are different for the two metals to it was quite common for the heads to crack around those and into the spark plug holes. By the second year (and the first for the Daytona IROC R/T) they had switched to aluminum plugs. This solved the problem generally, but it was already too late--high initial cost for the R/T model plus a bad reputation had killed sales.

My own RT was first sold in 2nd quarter 1992. It was assembled in Late '90 from what I can tell. That means it sat around unsolf for LOOONG time. I bought it from the second owner in 1998 with the head already cracked. The interesting thing is that the stampings on the side of my head seem to indicate a 1995 casting date. (Seems clear enough that's what the stamp says). So. . . it would seem some yahoo got a new head but (re-?) used the same steel plugs. There was a service bulletin put out to replace the steel with aluminum.

Instead we had the crack and the hole welded shut for about 60$. I suppose if your head isn't already cracked you might possibly consider having all the holes welded closed as preventitive measures. The one that cracked for me is the center plug.

ALSO: would like to note that there are a few people who are putting later model 2.4 DOHC heads on the 2.2 blocks. There are some slight changes for a t-III block but it should still definitely be doable. What that would mean is instead of 140$ per rocker/lifter times 16 for $2240 you could have a much more common 2.4 head and replace parts relatively easily/cheaply. I am presently facing this problem and have decided to take advantage of the tools and mechanics available to me. We're going to machine our own solid lifters with an adjustable screw for setting clearance.

ALSO (2): I have lost the turbo once, basically because I let a moron at work test drive my car. He bounced around at redline over and over until I yelled at him "Shift!!!" He forgot he was driving a stick. He shredded my aged oil pump gears. Once I replaced the gears and the bearings for the input shaft I started driving and within a couple days had gotten material into the turbo and broke it up. (Ooops, guess I didn't get it clean enough while still in car and trying to blast with water from underneath.) To replace/rebuild the turbo I found a Garrett turbo from a T-1 car, disassembled it and reused it's shaft and two rotors in my Turbo casing. Those where the only three pieces that were shared. All else is different. You'd need a impact wrench and a very careful way to hold the good rotors you want to save. But this saved me 600$. It was something like 20$ from the Junkyard.

Other things to watch out for--when putting timing belt on make sure you get the holes in the cam gears and the line on the crank lined up just right. . . you won't like the lumpity-lump idle if you don't. Also, use the good stuff--from dealer or order from good suppliers. I think Napa's got the good made-in-italy type. If you don't get a good belt or you put it on wrong you can expect it will break in 15,000 to 30,000. But the good news is the valvetrain is a free rolling type so there's a better chance you won't damage anything.

For PCM changes, Mopar Perf doesn't really do anything for the t-3. Never really did. There was a guy named Neil Emiro (spelling?) that reprogrammed but he only did it for a few people and by the time I got to him in '99 he's never since answered to my requests. He built a T-3 powered neon and then sold it off a couple years ago. He started a company I think for Neon performance--but not sure of that, and it may not be around any more.

Lastly, you might try www.relentlessracing.com. They don't show much on there now, but they used to have a few T-3 parts (and increased pressure Turbo for T-3 I think) and they had some used parts at one time. But they don't advertise those now. You could call and see what they've got/can do. They do take core intercoolers and weld them together to make double, triple even quad intercoolers. I think they like the Volvo's as was mentioned for doing this.

Good luck and enjoyment to you.

P.S.--I have only dragged this car once because of my busy schedule and other car projects. It was when I first got it. I wanted a baseline. It had the cracked head, and two terribly frayed spark wires and some worn out spark plugs. I got 15.75 Quarter mile at Sacramento Drags. Not bad. I have spoken to one other owner that has kept his stockish. It ran 14.2 with nothing more than 3" exhaust and some good sticky road tires stock size.

 

If you're still a Spirit R/T owner, let's talk. Maybe you've run into a problem I've got with mine that I can't as of yet remedy. Code F1-1 on the digital odometer/tripometer.