I have a 1986 Ford Thunderbird?

That is a "Fox" platform car, so about 99% of parts interchange with the mustangs of the same era. If I remember right the chassis and engine parts are all the same. Any upgrades or mods that worked on the 5.0 mustangs also work on these cars. Most had AOD transmissions so the real weak point in the drivetrain is the rear differential, which could be just a little 7.5" that will not last long with a strong v-8. If you're lucky it'll have the 8.8" which was used in F150 pu's and the Explorer's up to 2002? Until the IRS became standard.

this car is now sen as a classic and is rising in value. looked after is both an investment and offers years of driving pleasure. the top speed is indicative e.g. the speedometers will be calibrated to show doing more miles per hour then we actually are doing. both to be meet manufacturing rules and to be on safe side. imagine somebody speeding but speedo showing legal speed then having accident.

guess who will get sued? therefore all speedos unless specifically calibrated such as police cruisers will show excess speed and give as we progress in road speed ever increasing ( Fibs) figures .hence dad quite righty saying speedo showed way over specified figure.

if we check our modern cars speedo with sat navs speed ( not all sat navs are really good) we will note are road speed using sat nav is lower than cars speedo.

this is typical around 5% but will often get up to 10% when at higher end of speedo readings.

in days that car was built 100mph was seen as top end stuff. the mileage you show if we have full service history ( paperwork) will assist in keeping its value up. these are nice cars.do look after it and avoid risking accidents blown engine etc by being tempted to drive it fast . see it as a decent vehicle in your trust.

Check out its worth, an 86 is 31 years old and cars reach classic's at 25 years. Thundredbird is a popular car and there are those that are collecters so even if you don't want to repair it you should find out what it's worth! The 86 fords were gas guslers so it could cost you a lot to operate.

The 3.8L V6 model had 120 HP. The 5.0L model had 140 HP, and the Turbo Coupe had 155 HP. Given that the T-Bird was a large heavy car, none of the engine options offered what would be considered outstanding performance.

I had a 1992 T-Bird SC (supercharged 3.8L, 210 HP) in high school and the first two years of college and it was pretty quick for it's day, but would only considered a little faster than average by today's standards.

If the car you have has the 302, then there's a fair amount you can do to it. If has the 3.8L or 2.3L Turbo, then there's not much aftermarket (comparatively speaking)

dont treat it like a race car and you can get 200000 miles out of it dog it and you will get about 10000 more miles and the old saying goes how fast do you want to go? how much money do you have

80 MPH is pretty fast. 100 MPH is VERY fast for a street car.

Engine work is the least of your worries. RUST is the enemy of old cars. Fixing rust can cost much more than fixing an engine.

Be nice to your dad. He loves you. Please take care of his car. The 1986 Thunderbird is a classic.