Hey all! New guy to this forum. I've been a member on a couple specific forums on my car for quite some time now. Nothing wrong with them, but I feel it's time to branch out a little.

I am the second owner of a beautiful black on black 1986 Dodge Daytona Turbo Z w/ T-tops. How many other mid 80’s turbo cars do we have in here?!
First off let me give you some history. This is a phantom Shelby Daytona. Carroll Shelby didn't have his hand in the Daytona line until the next model year series. But from what has been done to it as you read below. I feel the Shelby markings work for it. I even got my hands on a rare 'CS' emblem off the back of a Shelby lancer to replace the original Pentastar that was on the rear hatch. Pics below

A "little" history on my ride. This thing has gone through an abundance of changes over the last few years. I bought it in mid 2007 from a guy I used to work with who was the original owner. It sat in a field with a blown head gasket for almost 13 years when I saved it. I worked on it in my spare time for about 1 month before it was road worthy. I threw a TON of parts at it to make it a dependable daily driver. And it was just that for almost 5 years with minimal maintenance. Until the transmission lost 2 gears. It got parked, and i searched and searched for a replacement A520 trans with no luck whatsoever! At this point my only option was to change the transmission type. Which involved not just simply swapping it. But the linkage and shift selector as well.

So, If many of you don't know the history of the TI,TII, TIII, TIV engines that came in these 80’s-early 90’s K style cars. Here is a very quick run down of the 2.2L w/the Garrett Turbo. The 2.5L’s were the same block but had a longer stroke crank, balance shafts in the oil pan. And came with the much smaller Mitsubishi turbo. And as far as I know were all not intercooled.

TI -SOHC 7 psi non-intercooled 4cyl turbo 147hp.
TII -SOHC forged internals intercooled 12 psi 4cyl turbo 174hp. (debuted in 1987 Shelby turbo models)
TIII - DOHC forged internals intercooled 12-14 psi turbo 224hp (early 90’s Spirit R/T’s & Daytona IROC R/T’s)
TIV – SOHC forged internals intercooled 12 psi 4cyl VNT (variable nozzle turbo, i.e. cuts down lag) 174hp

So back to the story. The car had a TI. And for years I’ve wanted to put a full blown TII swap into this body style because it was never factory offered. Or better known as the Shelby Dodge engine. So I got my hands on a very cosmetically beat down 89 Shelby Daytona for $250. It was the full package! It had the better engine, better transmission (A555). And all of the suspension and break components were the most beefed up from all of the models! That included 11" front rotors. And vented rear disc. And better yet, aside from the front bumper and rear bumper looks. Everything in between was the exact same body. So the swap was going to be cake. And it was easy. The entire parts swap took me 1 month to get the 89 Shelby torn down to basically a shell. And get all the parts bolted up to the 86 Turbo Z. Then came the engine harness wiring. Not much changed. It consisted of adding 3 pins to the harness for the AIS, MAP and TPS. Swapping out from the LM (Logic Module) mounted MAP. To and underhood MAP. And swapping position of some of the pins to bring it 1987 wiring specs. Also having to change the LM to one that came from one of the 87-88 Shelby cars. The 87 GLHS is the best one. But I got my hands on one from an 88 Shelby Lancer. Seems to work just fine. When I got it fired up, I drove it on it’s maiden voyage of 50 miles to its first car meet in 3 years. A small group here used to do monthly meets. Fuuuu that thing was fun! Aside from the engine temp running a little warmer than I’d like (3/4) it ran great! When I got back to my garage, I noticed oil leaking from the strangest area. I installed a 90 deg radiator hose on the DSM BOV to blow air under the car. It was dripping from that hose. I blew the turbo…. Luckily I had a spare. While it was down I decided to look into the overheating issue. Everything in the cooling system was brand new. Aside from the original radiator. I found out it was almost completely clogged. So from that day the car has sat due to life events and lack of funding. But it is in a climate controlled garage. Thanks for sticking around to hear me rant. Kudo’s if you made it to the end! Here are some of my favorite pics.

Her is what it looks like today




And I’m not a huge fan of this pic because I just recently acquired difficult to find and always destroyed front lower air damn that is in the picture above. But it’s still sexy.




Here is a current engine bay pic also a split pic. The top is the stock TI. And the bottom is the current T2





Booty shot



Interior shots.






This is a pic of when I very first got it running and on the road. No louvers! And no tint!




Now for some of the transformation pics.
You are looking at the donor car. May it rest in pieces. But the soul lives on!





New TII/A555 on left. Old TI/A520 on right



Rear Disc!



K-frame upgrade!



Break upgrade!





And this was the lower intercooler when I removed the lower hose right after the turbo blew. Yuck!



So needless to say, This car is my friggin baby. Thanks for viewing!

 

Welcome to DF! Be sure to check out the K-car section. I love those Turbo Z's, always wanted one. You've done a h3ll of a job on that car.

 

Any chance to get it back on the road any time soon? Winter is coming for you too I should imagine.

There is one of those sitting a mile or so from my place, with a blown motor. Could prolly get it cheap. Delivery might be expensive though. (I may have to cruise by tomorrow, and see if it is still there.)

 

Thanks guys! Probably no chance of getting it back on the road within the next 6 months. I'm actually temporarily living with a family member trying to save up a decent down payment to get a bigger house for my family of 6. So it's STILL on the back burner. Priorities, family comes first. I've actually got my eye on a 87 Shelby Z that has been abandoned at my buddies transmission shop that is pretty beat. But has even more goodies on it that I want to put on this one. All in due time.

And I checked the K car section before I originally posted this. It's pretty quiet in there.

 

Nice project you have . I have seen one for many years. Hope to see more as you have time to work on the car. Yes, family comes first. The engine looks like either the 2.2 or the 2.5 turbo. Hope to see on the forum more often.

 

Thanks! It's quite the head turner when It's out. It is the 2.2 with forged internals. They never made a forged crank for the 2.5. Therefore never factory inercooled them. You can add it of course. Exact same set up. But they used the smaller Mitsubishi turbo. And they just put a straight bypass hose right from the turbo outlet to the Throttle body. And I believe they kept the stock boost set at 10psi.