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I was in high school in the 1980s and remembered these quick turbo cars put out by the big three. Besides the Buick Regal Grand National, some of the most famous included the SVO Mustang, Pontiac Sunbird GT, Buick Skyhawk T-Type, Dodge Omni GLH, Dodge Charger, and the Dodge Spirit ES. Why did they, the big three, completely stop engine development for turbo engines until today? Was the cost of turbos back then too high? Were they so unreliable that they felt they weren't worth further development or refinement? Few people today remember that in the 80s General Motors had an overhead cam 4 cylinder engine with a turbo that put out 150 to 160 horsepower (1.8L to 2.0L) with a 0-60 times around 6 seconds. The Chrysler 2.2L turbo engine was also fast.
I knew a man who had one of the first turbo Buicks back then. He ignored the 3000 mile oil change requirement and had to buy a new engine. He was a Mensa member, too.
I had a 85 Merkur XR4Ti, with the 2.3 turbo, that I bought used in 89 when I graduated college. It had just under 60K and already had the turbo replaced.
Was a nice and fairly quick car.
But it had a few issues, can't remember if all the turbo motor back then had these or not
It required premium fuel.
The AC went out due to the fact that one of the lines was factory placed to close to the turbo, basically the heat from the turbo ate through it.
No intercooler, at least on the 85, later models did get one.
You also were supposed to let the engine run for a few seconds/minutes before shutting it off to let the turbo cool down a bit...think once they got the intercooler that was no longer needed.
When I traded the car in 94, with around 120k on it, again the turbo needed replacing, and I did try and follow the manual as far a maintenance went for it....
some of the issues that needed addressing back then were;
1: maintenance requirements. most people didnt maintain a turbo engine properly, and thus had issues with coking, where oil would overheat and carbon up in the turbo bearing.
2: most poeple would treat a turbo engine the same as a normally aspirated engine, and shut it down as soon as they stopped driving the car. again bad move because of the coking deal. you needed to let the turbo spool down and cool off a bit before shutting the engine down, usually the manufacturers recommended idling the engine for a minute before shutting down.
3: fuel requirements again conspired to cause problems, a lot of people would not run the higher octane fuels, and as such they had detonation problems which cause severe engine damage.
I think it boils down to cost, GM was the only one of the three that actually designed and built a turbo car in house, the others all pretty much outsourced the design and much of the engine work from other car companies. Chrysler was in bed with Mitsubishi, they were the ones who provided the turbos they used from MHI and did their fuel mapping and ECU tuning, Ford used Cosworth for all their stuff IIRC.
I think there became a prevailing attitude that they needed to do all the development in house, and so they decided to scrap their turbo offerings and just concentrate on NA vehicles. Not sure why GM decided to throw in the towel, maybe because there was no longer any domestic competition offering turbocharged cars?
Why did they, the big three, completely stop engine development for turbo engines until today?
I'm not sure why the SVO was priced higher than the GT, it was a "Parts Shelf Car." Meaning it's unique parts like the Tube A-Arms came from an existing Lincoln Towncar, the 2.3T came from the Ford Thunderbird and Merkur etc. So it's not like Ford put lot into the design and R&D.
Now with that said, Ford did contract Jack Roush with Roush Racing to build a DOHC for the 1987 SVO. Jack built about 2-3 DOHC heads before Ford pulled the plug on the project. These heads was supposed to go on the new 1987 SVO and produce around 300hp. This drew some back lash from the GT crowd. The 85.5/86 SVO was already producing 215hp...basically the same as the 1986 GT (Ford fudged the 85.5/86 HP numbers to 200). The 1987 GT as you know was introduced with 225BHP. I know I'll get some flack for this, but I believe the GT crowd had a part in the canceling of the SVO. The GT guys started complaining about it and Ford was afraid they would create a disconnect with their fans. It was like the final straw in the coffin of a once great car.
If I'm remembering correctly, GM used the 2.0 turbo in the '87-'88 Grand Am SE. They weren't very popular at all though.
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