Original owner 88GT 5 spd. Installed Miller-Woods turbo kit ( with IHI RHB5 turbo ) in 1989. Car now has 8K miles. Have noticed an external oil leak from turbo ( oil smoke from body of turbo upon startup ) for several years. While recently porting exhaust manifolds, replacing water/oil supply lines ,etc. I decided to remove/disassemble turbo to find source of oil leak. Managed to crack one of the threaded holes on bearing housing ( insert appropriate expletive here! ).Took turbo to local turbo service center ( an IHI authorized dealer ). They called IHI with the parts #/serial # of my turbo and the only info IHI could provide was this turbo must have been some type of prototype. Without more info the local repair center could not help in the repair of my turbo. So my questions... Does anyone know if this same turbo was used on all the M-W/Design 1 V6 Fiero turbo kits?( I believe neither company is still in business ) Can someone suggest another company I can contact for replacement parts ? Can someone suggest another specific turbo I can purchase to replace my IHI ? ( I can build new exhaust system to match different flange if necessary )
Ford made a lot of cars with the IHI turbos, including the '87/'88 TurboCoupe and the Probe Turbo (same as the Mazda MX6 Turbo) - all in that same time period. If the one you have is similar to the TurboCoupe unit, you can easily replace it with a Garrett T3. If it's similar to the one on the Probe, I believe that's unique to that car. But these things are all still pretty serviceable if you want to go that route.
I do know that those IHIs were very small for their day - which is why they were chosen for low-boost/low-inertia applications. I think a modern cousin might be something like a Garrett T25 - and lotsa stuff is based on those, but they are quite dissimilar from any IHI.
I would start my hunt with Turboford... lotsa folks there with knowledge on IHIs. I'm sure folks there can point you towards service and replacement options.
