1984 Mustang GT Turbo - By The Numbers
A Cleveland Boy Saved This Car From Doom And Had A Lot Of Fun Along The Way. He Did It.Lewis Lukanc's 1984 Mustang GT Turbo
If you head a few miles south and west of Cleveland, OH, you'll shortly come across the municipality of Brooklyn. This is a place that can claim an attachment to many things automotive. For example, in 1966 Brooklyn became the first community in the nation to mandate the use of seatbelts in cars. Later, it was the first to ban the use of non-hands-free cell phones when driving. Brooklyn is also the home of the Lukanc family and their current stable of several Fox-body Mustangs. Members of that particular herd include a 20th Anniversary 1984 Mustang with T-tops and a turbocharged engine, a 1989 Mustang LX coupe with 2,200 original miles, a 1991 GT with a 347 cid mill and a 1990 Mustang that is destined to get a 351 with twin hair dryers for motive force. Recently departed (sold) was a 1989 LX that was running a twin turbo setup and punching out 392 RWHP and 506 RWTQ.
The topic of our current article, however, is none of these stellar examples, but yet another 1984 car that Lewis Lukanc's friend 'Gator' originally found for him. The car was a total loss when Lewis picked it up and it sat for 18 months before he decided what to do with it. "That was the hardest thing about that car, figuring out what to do with it," Lewis told us. When he did figure it out though, it was inspired. We're sure you'll agree. His objective for this car - build 11-second performance for under $2,500.
Now, he had originally bought the car because of its rarity. It had been one of about 400 turbo Mustangs built with T-tops in 1984. As a turbocharged four cylinder engine of the era, it brought more potential than most enthusiasts are prepared to acknowledge. Aside from the heavy walled, cast iron block that can easily stand over 30 psi of boost, the I4 configuration supports each connecting rod with a main bearing on each side. Those turbo rods, by the way, were essentially 289 Hi-Po rods with new part numbers.
With over 100,000 miles on it today, the bottom end of this four banger remains dead stock. The top end, however, has been done over and some new thinking applied to the boost system. A Ford Motorsport 'big valve' cylinder head was secured, along with an A237 camshaft for the turbo. Lewis has done much of the engine work himself with help from Gator and other friends when needed. Gator spent a lot of time porting the upper and lower intake manifolds, even cutting open the upper portion to make massive changes. Once put back together, the 65mm throttle body from a Thunderbird Super Coupe was used to replace the original. To keep expenditures under control, a few trips to the recycling yard produced the boost system that Lewis was looking for. A Holset model HY35W turbocharger, typically used on the Cummins 5.9 liter truck engine was scooped, along with their wastegate. A Mack Truck intercooler with its massive 30 x 17 x 4-inch presence came through the same shopping venue.
Still, there was plenty of work to be done getting everything to fit and stay together under pressure. Lewis fabricated all the intercooler piping himself, providing a 2.5-inch delivery to the intercooler and 3-inch tubing from the intercooler to the throttle body and to accommodate the Forge Motorsport blow-off valve. On the exhaust side, he made his own 3.5-inch plumbing to feed into a Dynomax UltraFlo muffler. Things began to spiral out of control, but in a good way. "Good deals just kept coming my way and the car got a lot more than it needed to get the job done," Lewis mentioned. "Total cost of the engine was so cheap, it's almost silly."