Thanks to some helpful members on Facebook I was referred to this forum to help me better understand my newly acquired Gen 1 Cartech single turbo powered Foxbody (arrives later this month).

The car has an a single Turbo street kit with a T-44 that was installed ~15yrs ago along with BigStuff3 (BigStuff3 was upgraded maybe 10yrs ago). It's a stock bottom end 5.0 with a Cobra upper and Edelbrock Performer Aluminum heads.

I've begun leveraging the many great resources on this site to bring me up to speed on all thing turbos. When the car arrives I plan to go through it top to bottom to ensure I know what I am dealing with. I will use this as an opportunity to also upgrade portions of this kit where necessary. My feeling is that technology has improved since this kit was put on 15yrs ago so perhaps it's time to upgrade the turbo and other aspects of the kit.

While I'm coming up to speed I am interested in the following:
- Learning the good and bad about this Gen 1 Cartech kit
- Locating the installation instructions
- Learning about BigStuff3 and if this is something I should keep vs. going back to the stock wiring/ECU
- Learning the specs for the T-44 turbo and if I should consider upgrading it.

My goals would be to use as much of what I have that doesn't need updated, upgrade the turbo to achieve better/realistic/more efficient results while preserving the short block for as long as possible. I don't plan to build a dedicated race car out of this (70% street, 30% drag/road course).

I have a long history with mustangs and have been tuning my own cars via SCT for nearly 20yrs. Turbos, foxbodies and BigStuff3 are all new to me.

Please feel free to share as much info and guidance as you can to this newbie

 

If it runs and drives an upgrade to a modern turbo might help it spool a little quicker. Unless it's got an aftermarket block that's going to be your limit. Welcome to the site! Peruse the builds boards, lots of fox and 5.0 powered stuff in there, and all the builds are different. It's the best place to learn, and you get to read a good story while your at it.

Any specific goals for the car?

 

Thank you for the build board suggestions. I’ve been digging into a number of the old builds this morning. It’s really informative.

I’m on a stock block and would like to have a safe setup for street/track, which I believe is around 450rwhp. That’ll be plenty for this light car.

I’m leaning towards upgrading the turbo like you said. Need to understand more about what The turbo I have now and understand what it’ll take to upgrade.

 

welcome to the forum. Sounds like a great project . When you get the car see what you got and go from there. T44 turbo is probably 10 years old back in 2000 . I’m not saying it doesn’t work well but a modern turbo of proper size should help in the response and a little bit in the hp department. Just remember it’s a stock bottom end 5.0 don’t push it to the ragged edge and expect it to live a long life. Make sure your fuel system is up to snuff if it’s been running that long.

 

I've finally gotten this car back on the road now with the Holley Terminator X setup. Car is coming along quite nicely and I'm currently buttoning up little odds and ends to make the car just right. I'll put a new post up with some questions about the slip fit joints...