New owner looking for help 88 TC

Bought my first turbo coupe yesterday. Need to do the basic tune up and fix up minor issues. I’m having issues after the car gets hot with sputtering and stalling also when under boost it hesitates. Drivers great while cold. Higher mileage on the motor plan on a rebuild but would like to get it running right till then. Looking for recommendations on where to start to correct my problems. believe temp gauge is faulty but not familiar enough with this platform to be sure

Welcome to the Forum! Great to see someone else from the place I still consider Home (I’m actually from nearby Latrobe, PA).

I’m guessing you probably don’t know a lot about the Turbo Coupe you’ve just gotten. One of the things you can do is make electrical connections that will allow you to “pull codes”—get the error codes from the EEC-IV computer that pretty much runs most everything in the car. Then, all you have to do is go through and eliminate each by solving the problem.

Here is an article from this site that will get you started: How to pull EEC-IV engine codes. As mentioned in the article, the CHECK ENGINE light will flash and from there you can gather the codes—you will find a pen and pad of paper most handy for this step, to note the number of flashes.

One thing I strongly advise you to do is get some sort of repair manual for your TC. Haynes and Chilton both make (barely) acceptable shop manuals for the 88 TC...your best bet is the set of actual Ford shop manuals for your vehicle—at the very least, if you are serious about maintaining the car. Keep in mind that these are not cheap nowadays...but trust me you will be much happier with the wealth of knowledge found in these books. The complete set is 6 volumes, and includes Engine and Drivetrain, Body (2 books), the EVTM (Electrical and Vacuum Troubleshooting Manual), a 1988 Update manual—especially useful for you, and a valuable volume on Emissions testing, which will guide you through the codes you’ll get with the Self-Test. Do an eBay search to see what’s available.

These are general guidelines just to get you started on the correct path. You will find many individuals here—Jeff K and Pete D in particular—who are a great wealth of knowledge.

Good luck!

The sputtering and stalling when could be the TFI on the verge of failure. Ford suggests replacing both the PIP and TFI at the same time, which is what I have always done. Be sure to use ONLY Motorcraft parts for these, as many aftermarket parts are of questionable quality. TFI is easy to replace. PIP requires pulling the distributor, removing the press fit gear and pulling out the dist shaft.

Thanks for the the info guys I will definitely look into getting a manual for it just because I’m not familiar with the car at all. I did hook a snap-on scanner to it and pulled codes wasn’t able to writ them down before I lost connection but there were codes for temp sensor and o2. I appreciate being able to talk with people who have a great knowledge of these cars

Am I able to but a new distributor with a new PIP on it

Yes, you can buy a new dist with a new PIP in it, BUT, the PIP will likely be some cheap off brand POS that is likely to fail, and, the new gear on the new dist may not mate properly with the gear on the aux shaft causing gear failure and sending metal shavings thru the engine. If replacing the dist, you should also replace the aux shaft with a quality part.

Welcome to the Group! I also am a new owner and there are a couple more recent purchasers on here. I find that the factory manuals are cheap, but I used to buy them new years ago, so maybe my expectations are different. Fortunately for us the TC doesn't have a specific manual, so there will be only a very few of us trying to preserve a 1988 T-bird, compared to the number of manuals they sold. I am new to the TC, but have had a Lincoln Mark VII for a long time.

Hey gang just wanted to update finally tracked down all the parts for my tune up from ford and spent most of the day fixing the old girl up new plugs wires 02 senaor temp sensor and rebuilt the distributor and replace both models in it. Proud to say I’m not having anymore issues and it’s running like new wanted to say thanks for the help I’m heading for the track next weekend to see how it does wish me luck

Be sure to check out the info here, if you haven’t already: More Horsepower from a (Mostly) Stock Engine .

Great information.

Good luck at the track!