Totally insane swap thought : 2.3 Turbo!!!!

[merc91]

Why not turbo a V8 instead?

i'de rather put my foot halfway down in a 5.0 then to the floor in a 2.3... then put it to the floor with a turbo 5.0 to blow away the 2.3.

A 2.3 in a big boat! that would be a total dog

[Mercracer]

Would the 2.3 be compatible with the stock trans in my 91 waggin?

No it would not. The 2.3 has a tiny bellhousing in comparison.

[GoodSamaritan]

Ford should have put the Eco-Boost engine in the Panthers. More power and less emissions to keep the tree-huggers happy...

Happy tree huggers are never a good thing.




As for the swap, it would be doable, on a budget. Since both a 5.0 and a 2.3 both fit in the fox body, the 2.3 should be relatively easy to fit a stock one into a panther. You'd need a 5 speed (which should come with a t-5) and really low gears in the diff. (4.56-5.13 area)
You'd probably also need to drive it like my old 85 Saab turbo. For it to move out from a light with anything other than glacial slowness you had to blip the throttle slightly just as the light turned green to get the boost gauge up off "0" and it was fine after that.

I'd be worried about how long it would last though. You'd either be lugging the crap out of it, or else revving the pee out of it all the time to get anything out of it in a box.

With the right gearing, and the right boost etc, it should be doable, but I doubt you'd gain much in the way of mileage. You'd be better off with a well tuned lopo 5.0. In good form 24mpg is pretty common. I flog the crap out of mine and it's got almost all the original 160k 22 year old sensors on it, and it still gets 18.

[Crownvicman289]

Gas mileage.

You want mileage, get a Honda. I don't know about you, but I didn't buy a land yacht for its fuel economy. If you want to turbo a smaller motor in a bigger car, I'd be looking at a 4 liter.

[Smokestacklightnin]

A 2.3 in a panther!? Well i guess you can give it a try. Before you do that, you may want to try and pick a turd up from the clean end and see how that works out.

[pantera77]

You want mileage, get a Honda. I don't know about you, but I didn't buy a land yacht for its fuel economy. If you want to turbo a smaller motor in a bigger car, I'd be looking at a 4 liter.

I don't like Honda's or small cars.

I own 4 panthers. You really think I care that strongly about gas mileage?

Maybe if gas goes over $5 a gallon I'll pull my Tempo out of retirement. Maybe.

[tamalpass]

Yeah, crazy idea.

Only reason I would do it would be he novelty. Be crazy for folks to open the hood and see a 4 banger sitting in there.

Another option would be a 4.2 V6 out of F150. Maybe with a super coupe supercharger.

fascinating input, though. Thanks!

[GoodSamaritan]

Twin turbo 5.0?

http://toohighpsi.com/ Click the history tab, and look at all the twin turbo stuff this guy has done, using junkyard 2.3 turbo parts. My all time favorite quote from that site, is from a twin turbo fox body capri they did about 8 or 9 years ago. They had the hood up at the track and some guy came by glanced at it, and commented, "that cobbled together piece of crap would be lucky to run a 17" The owner turned to him and handed him a time slip and replied "Well, it's a cobbled together piece of crap alright, but it's an 11 second cobbled together piece of crap".

At one point he was working on a 351w running dual supercoupe superchargers.
Interesting if slightly horrifying. LOL.

[pantera77]

Another option would be a 4.2 V6 out of F150. Maybe with a super coupe supercharger.

fascinating input, though. Thanks!

Ewwwww. 4.2's are disgusting. I'd rather use a 300.

[LTDMan83]

I have an '88 TC. The Turbo 2.3 is an excellent DD motor in a fox body. Not much for low end acceleration, but it has decent top end power. The stock 114K mile 2.3 turbo motor has powered my T-bird up to around 135-140mph quite a few times, on long highway runs. Gets on average around 21-28mpg depending on how it is driven. Wouldn't be worth it to swap into a heavier car, unless you were really gonna build and boost the hell out of it. Would be cool just for the novelty of having one in there though.

[merc91]

Maybe if gas goes over $5 a gallon I'll pull my Tempo out of retirement. Maybe.

$5 a gallon here in canada. I got 17MPG at best with this new motor and i live 20 minutes out of town. I will not under any circumstances get a 4 banger anything... the merc is here to stay haha.

[87gtVIC]

$5 a gallon here in canada. I got 17MPG at best with this new motor and i live 20 minutes out of town. I will not under any circumstances get a 4 banger anything... the merc is here to stay haha.

I said that a couple years back...now I also drive a 4 cylinder Escort as a daily driver.

[johnunit]

Why not go for a little extra gas mileage? Personally, I'm almost as interested in mods that get you better mileage as ones that get you better 1/4 mile times. They're both the car doing it's job "better". I love my 17MPG (on the highway, empty) boat, but if it got better mileage I sure as hell wouldn't bitch.

[yucatecd]

Dear Panthers,

Johnunit wrote: "Why not go for a little extra gas mileage? Personally, I'm almost as interested in mods that get you better mileage as ones that get you better 1/4 mile times. They're both the car doing it's job "better"."

You can improve an engine by making it more efficient or by burning more fuel/air.
I chose the former: hence, roller rockers, electric fan, dual exhausts 20-21 mpg Interstate at 70mph. I would like a little more punch passing at 75 (western highways) but I'd like better mileage too.

I saw a Paul Solomen interview on the News Hour in the Chevy lab where a tech with a smoke hose showed how air flowed over the new Volt. I'd sure as hell like to get the Cruiser into that lab. I'm thinking streamlining with a Lincoln underengine pan might be my next step.

Since my engine will turn 300 k this summer, I'm studying replacements, maybe a diesal. Nothing that gets less than 22mpg at 70mph.

Why settle for worse?

Donald McCaig

[johnunit]

off topic, but Yucatecd if your engine is unrebuilt at 300K you might gain significant mileage just by rebuilding it. Less cylinder leakage, less frictional losses from worn bearings, etc.