I've been tackling this on my II for about 5 years now (I still haven't started her up yet...I'm a little slow
) Ford did offer a carbed turbo in 79 to 81. These cars are oftet maligned due to poor reliability (many owners just didn't maintain them right and cooked their turbos) HP was around 145 factory at 6psi boost but several guys have "fine tuned" them for much higher power.
If your thinking about putting a turbo on, a few words of caution. The pistons in all the factory turbo engines were forged, a little detonation combined with boost will eventually destroy the cast pistons in a non-turbo 2.3 (what we have in our IIs). Also the factory systems included ignition controls (boost retard) that you will want to include in some form. Plumbing wise, the carbed set-up was a "draw-thru" system that pulled air/fuel through the carb and pushed it into the engine. Intercooling is not an option on these.
99% of "Turbo Ford" guys will tell you to forget the carb set-up and swap in a later complete EFI engine and related components from a T-bird Turbo Coupe or Turbo Cougar. Honestly this would likely be the easiest swap and would also provide higher HP (200+) at less risk or tuning headaches than the carb set-up. EFI is the choice if you want streetability. The EFI set-up is a "blow-thru" design where air is forced through the intake by the turbo, this will allow intercooling which reduces detonation and increases HP by making the air denser (colder)
This wasn't a concern for me as I'm working on a rarely used weekend cruiser that won't see lots of street or track time so I went with a "blow-thru" carb set-up. This route has been a lot more grief (and fun) as it was never factory offered and has required a lot of custom made parts (one of the reasons it's taking me so long). My engine is complete now, just need to complete the rear
suspension, install a drive shaft, and complete the wiring harness before I fire it up...hopefully by the end of the summer.
Don't want to discourage you in anyway, there are some very nice, very fast turboed IIs (ask a351Must2...not me
) Just make sure you know what you want your car to be used for, what skills you have, what kind of budget you plan (then triple it!
), and then decide what will be best for you.
Francis "Turbo II"