Learn me Ford 2.3 engines

A 5.0 will not get the same mileage as a turbo lima. I'm not saying it isn't the more cost effective swap, which I'm not convinced it is, but it'll never be as efficient.

http://www.esslingeracing.com/

P71 wrote: Go pollute a dead board (TF, NATO, whatever) and leave your TRASH out of GRM.

I guess it makes sense that you would rip on a board that you were banned from, eh Michael?

You're right though, TurboFord only has 5778 active members, not including the 4 who have been banned over the course of the last five years. Yep, dead as a doorstop.

A little more back on topic... The Lima 2.3/5 Turbo is the perfect GRM engine. Cheap to buy, easy to work on, tough to break, and oddly enough, an increasing number of parts are available for it.

The plot thickens!

stirs pot

I thought about getting a turbo ford for a while, and I do think a 2.3 turbo mustang could make a pretty good drag car. Fox bodys take too much work to get them to handle well from what I have seen, and Merkurs seem like you would really need to buy one and use it to build a car(some of the common parts swaps i have heard of: Turbo dodge computer, T-bird SC or E36 BMW rear diff, Scorpio rear brakes, Mustang tranny, etc), rather than buying one and driving it the way it is. If you like going fast in a straight line though, a mustang with a turbocoupe engine might not be a bad idea.

Travis_K wrote: I thought about getting a turbo ford for a while, and I do think a 2.3 turbo mustang could make a pretty good drag car. Fox bodys take too much work to get them to handle well from what I have seen, and Merkurs seem like you would really need to buy one and use it to build a car(some of the common parts swaps i have heard of: Turbo dodge computer, T-bird SC or E36 BMW rear diff, Scorpio rear brakes, Mustang tranny, etc), rather than buying one and driving it the way it is. If you like going fast in a straight line though, a mustang with a turbocoupe engine might not be a bad idea.

My SVO's handled quite nicely. Koni's from the Factory. We had Eibach wind some springs when I worked at Ft. Lauderdale Mustang in the early 90's.We were also working with Harry Hruska from Precision Turbo on upgrade kits, and Steeda with the g-trac braces.

They are sweet little cars. A few minor tweaks and I was pretty happy.

-John

I have nothing but good things to say about the XR4Ti I had. It was probably the best $800 I've ever spent.

DPDISXR4Ti wrote:

P71 wrote: Go pollute a dead board (TF, NATO, whatever) and leave your TRASH out of GRM.

I guess it makes sense that you would rip on a board that you were banned from, eh Michael? You're right though, TurboFord only has 5778 active members, not including the 4 who have been banned over the course of the last five years. Yep, dead as a doorstop. A little more back on topic... The Lima 2.3/5 Turbo is the perfect GRM engine. Cheap to buy, easy to work on, tough to break, and oddly enough, an increasing number of parts are available for it.

ORLY? I wasn't banned from TF despite what Paul likes to say after the fact. ANd yes, that board has DIED. It's 1/5 the size it was 3 years ago. His "Active User" count is bogus and anybody can see it with the whole dozen people left who post, and even then only to bicker.

No longer cheap to buy, easy to break, hard to find quality parts for, and an ever-dwindling supply. The lima is dying. Can't argue with reality (oh wait, you're trying).

Stop polluting GRM and go crawl back into your hole.

Because dredging up month old threads for personal attacks on somebody who hasn't touched a 2.3 in a year are really setting a shiny example. You guys are pathetic.

Obviously dying doesn't mean an occasional ringer can't be built. Huge difference between easy accessible engines and one-off big-money motors.

I know very little about 2.3 Fords, and I've never been on TF.

Let me offer this. Regardless of whether the 2.3T is a good motor or not, it has enjoyed a very good history with Challengers. The Thundercoupe was 2.3 powered, and that car was FTD on the autocross 2 years ago, with several top 10 overall finishes.

Additionally, I've been offered several complete running 2.3's for free. That makes them a good GRM motor, as far as I'm concerned.

Of course the poor little thing is past it's prime. So what? Heck, we've seen a Caddy 500 at the Challenge- now there's a boat anchor.

P71 and DPDISXR4Ti: Yo both appear to have a great deal of knowledge on the subject, and I'd love to learn more, but I'm not listening. Your tone is too far off for me to be interested in digging into your content.

I think the man of more grace will be the one to concede first.

I may be wrong, but from what I understand the SVo used alot of different suspension parts, and handles quite a bit better than the normal mustang, but you cant get alot of the suspension stuff for it anymore. I was refering to a turbo swapped normal mustang as being better for going fast in a straight line. I almost bought a merkur a while ago actually, but they just seem kinda crappy stock. Not that its really a bad thing, MK2 vws seem the same way in stock form, but i have driven a modified one and it was alot of fun.

P71 wrote:

DPDISXR4Ti wrote:

P71 wrote: Go pollute a dead board (TF, NATO, whatever) and leave your TRASH out of GRM.

I guess it makes sense that you would rip on a board that you were banned from, eh Michael? You're right though, TurboFord only has 5778 active members, not including the 4 who have been banned over the course of the last five years. Yep, dead as a doorstop. A little more back on topic... The Lima 2.3/5 Turbo is the perfect GRM engine. Cheap to buy, easy to work on, tough to break, and oddly enough, an increasing number of parts are available for it.

ORLY? I wasn't banned from TF despite what Paul likes to say after the fact. ANd yes, that board has DIED. It's 1/5 the size it was 3 years ago. His "Active User" count is bogus and anybody can see it with the whole dozen people left who post, and even then only to bicker. No longer cheap to buy, easy to break, hard to find quality parts for, and an ever-dwindling supply. The lima is dying. Can't argue with reality (oh wait, you're trying). Stop polluting GRM and go crawl back into your hole.

You just got totally reamed by these guys. Now is the time that you should just quickly and quietly exit this thread before you look like any more of an ass.

SVreX wrote: Let me offer this. Regardless of whether the 2.3T is a good motor or not, it has enjoyed a very good history with Challengers. The Thundercoupe was 2.3 powered, and that car was FTD on the autocross 2 years ago, with several top 10 overall finishes. Additionally, I've been offered several complete running 2.3's for free. That makes them a good GRM motor, as far as I'm concerned.

Can I get an amen?

Incidentally, the 535HP engine I referenced above was built from junkyard parts at a cost of less than $1200. Could anyone do it? No. Is is for everyone? No. It took a fair amount of skill, perseverance, and dedication, but the results speak for themselves. Isn't that the GRM way?

I'm not getting into the pissing contest here, just want to relay our 'experience' with our 2.3T:

We got a $900 barely running XR4Ti, and after fixing/upgrading the broken bits we have a hell of a screamer. We went XR4 for one simple reason, 2900lb curb weight in stock form with 4 wheel independent suspension since we wanted a track car not a drag car, I'll admit though that a turbo fox body may have been easier to deal with. Since ours is severely gutted, we're down to 2500-2600 lbs (that was quite some time ago and we've had more weight savings). We know we could have had parts cheaper in a fox, and the 5.0 is a more suitable platform for monster numbers, but a stock 2.3T engine with suitable fuel upgrades, a big turbo & IC with a decent tune can lay down big numbers. Our engine has at least 160k on the clock (at last registration in 1998) and yet we've slapped on a Holset and are pumping 30psi. We replaced the flimsy T9 with a T5 unit out of a TC which was a simple bolt in swap (minus the crossmember). That's the difference, There are so many compatible parts in the cars that had the 2.3T that you can come up with a decent grassroots combo for next to nothing. Before we got into non-grassroot upgrades the car was in running form for $2500. We need to get it on a dyno and are planning on it so I'm not going to claim unprooven power but we have alot of fun with it, and for us the fun of the 2.3T is as much the learning of boosted engines as it was repair and upgrades. Take it for what it's worth.

And I actually frequent TF since we started our project a couple years ago and it is THE site if you need 2.3T specifics, even the SVO, TC, and XR4Ti boards out there all funnel members to TF for engine specific questions. For chasis specifics I'd head to respective vehicle boards to get an understanding of drawbacks/limitations of each but here's a good measuring stick:

1) Foxbody Mustangs ~ PROS: Cheap, parts plethora, modable. CONS: Solid rear axle, somewhat heavy 2) Thunderbird TurboCoupe ~ PROS: Cheap, short stock trans ratio, modable. CONS: Harder to find, very heavy 3) Merkur XR4Ti ~ PROS: Cheap, modable, lightweight, IRS. CONS: car specific parts hard to find/expensive, T9 trans, rear drum brakes

Enjoy!

SVreX wrote: I think the man of more grace will be the one to concede first.

Ah thank ya very much! LOL I let Mike have the last word a page ago...

As for Turboford, the only beef I have with it is that there are some things have been accepted as being true for a long time. As a result, when someone comes along and disputes those beliefs with hard evidence (track runs, data logs and ugh...dyno sheets), some members STILL argue in favor of 'tradition' because it sometimes defies logic.

How can you make progress like that? It's like some people think they have the motor all figured out, so they just stop thinking.

Way to dig up this up again, but I had to comment because you finally said something that made sense and I had to agree with you!

The 2.3 crowd has a very hard time learning anything new. God forbid anybody bad-mouths the "Ranger Roller" but how much more HP/TQ are Bo's (and others) cams making? Holset this and Holset that and how fast is Jon Moller's "Mr. IHI" full-weight TC going? All of the true innovators are being driven from that site in particular and from the engines in general.

Seriously?

I give up. You're obviously just being a jerk to try and evoke a response.

Oh, and the 4,000Lbs was at the tracks scale. There were 5 TF members in attendance that saw it. Big difference between full-option and no-option cars.

But hey, doesn't matter cause you're too blind to read.

So again, please GO AWAY

P71 wrote: Oh, and the 4,000Lbs was at the tracks scale. There were 5 TF members in attendance that saw it. Big difference between full-option and no-option cars.

So now TFers have some credibility in your book?

http://natomessageboard.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=016244

Now the people in that thread who were ripping you apart...they're credible. Bob knows his sh!t and has done some amazing things. You thought you'd hit low 13's? You didn't even come CLOSE! 335 hp? Yeah, OK - again, you're DREAMING . Stock bolts were TTY in the turbo motors?! 100% FALSE.

You're what happens when people learn on the internet instead of at the track or parts yard or in the garage. I don't expect you'd ever say, "You know what, I was wrong about (whatever)", or to even say, "I don't know" when you actually don't know. You always have an answer, even when you don't know!

So please do a favor not for me, but for all the people who ask for info about the 2.3: just shut up. Don't say anything. That's the only way you'll be able to provide less false information.

Why don't you both prove some maturity and consideration for others, stop posting on this thread, and make it clear that no bannage needs to happen here?

Really. Just walk away.

Margie

Yeah...this doesn't make me want a Turbo Ford.

The pot is pretty damn thick.