1981 Turbo T/A
 

My wife and I acquired her dad's car after he passed away ~2 years ago. He was 2nd owner and car had been stored for 35 years. ~58,000 miles. Interior was re-done last winter, drove it a little bit last summer, a few car shows and cruise nights. This winter did carb and turbo rebuild and cleaned up under the hood a bit.

Wow, this car looks super original under the hood, thats rare these days. Have fun !

Nice 301T! Looks like a bigger downpipe, any other mods?

These cars get a bad rep mainly from people that dont or didnt know how to work on them, but they are going up in value and some people like the 301/T for cruising/MPG.

I have a lower mile 81 pace car that is 99% stock and when tuned right with simple mods like removing the catalytic converter and open exhaust its faster than the mid to later 70's 400/455 T/A's. And with other basic mods they can run in the mid to upper 13's, a few more mods but still stock bottom end they can go into the 12's!

Nice really original look!

Mods so far..... Yes, went with the 2.5" downpipe, cat delete, 2.5" to the Y pipe for now, but will most likely continue the 2.5" all the way back w/ muffler delete.
Just had carb rebuilt as well as a standard upgraded turbo rebuild. EGR delete, air/smog pump disconnected (but still in place, for now). All new vac lines, some cleaning and some paint while it was all apart.
The complete interior was re-done last winter, will have to get some pics and post them.

Sounds like it should run pretty good, what psi does the turbo run at?

Mine is just EGR delete, gutted the smog pump but still there as a pulley and for looks. most emission lines and solenoids are unhooked. Had the heads rebuilt with a good 3 angle valve job milled just for clean up, still has stock turbo set at 10-10.5psi, also stock down pipe but had no other exhaust for some test & tune runs, has mufflers now.

Good Question!!! Not sure yet as I just got it back together after the carb & turbo rebuilds recently and have not had it out yet. Still too much salt on the roads up here in the northeast.

Do you hear any detonation with 10psi?

I'm at 7-8 after bending my wastegate bracket(TTA advice). Now it runs so good with the carb rebuilt I'm going to bend it back and try 9-10.

I do get a slight pinging at WOT under full boost but none or not audible at 3/4-7/8 throttle or when the boost is under 8-9psi.

This is with normal 91 octane gas, havent tried 93 with 10% ethanol yet, but now that the car is full exhaust I dont usually do any WOT or high RPM runs on the street, its too nice of a low mile pace car to mess with racing or max boost, the test & tunes were just for fun to see what it would do, very happy with times that are almost 2 full seconds faster than recorded stock times with a professional driver... & mine is 99% stock still.

Now my check engine light is back on and idle is weird. Need to pull the code.