Turbocharging a ford i6 170

Turbocharging design and controls have come light years since the Porsche 930 hit the streets. Just even in the last 15 years, building a good reliable turbo system is way easier today. Your biggest issue is going to be fueling with the log intake of the 170. It can be done, but you're going to need to keep the boost low. Almost to the point that it's not worth spending the cash and effort to gain 60-80hp.

If you're seriously considering it, check out The Turbo Forums There have been a few 170/200/250 build threads.

How about swapping in a supercharged 3.8 V6 from a Thunderbird Super Coupe? The 3.8 V6's are plentiful and dirt cheap. If you blow up a stock one, who cares, spend another $700 on a junkyard engine and do it again. You can usually find complete blower kits for under a grand.

I wonder if a Barra would even fit height wise. With it being a DOHC, it's gonna be way taller than a 170/200. The only thing I could find on it's height was from this post where the guy measured his engine and it came back at 680mm (26.7 inches).

I seem to remember a few years ago reading a post about a guy that wanted to swap in a 300 and everyone was saying it was too tall to fit. The deck height of the 300 is 10" where the 250 is 9.46" and the 200 is 7.8". If a 300 won't fit, I'd have to question if a Barra would fit. Not to mention the cost of getting one over here and all the headaches that go with doing a swap on an engine where no swap kits exist.