[J. Rhapsody]

All this and now you want to trade it? The carbed 2.3's have a better chance than a EFI one at beating a V8. I would just swap the rangers T5 into the car and have fun till 3rd gear blows.

[Matto211]

I am not trading it, I thought about it now. It's like I have done way to much work to just stop now and get rid of it. I am keeping it until it dies. Or until I finish it and keep it...

[Matto211]

Ok since I have decided to keep it I am going to, Paint it semi-gloss black very shortly or as soon as it warm's up. Then after that I am going to install Polyurthane Suspention bushing's and get a ford ranger cam from ebay.

don't know what else I should do. I also need to repaint my rear sway bar and get that back on. I am probably done though for right now or until I get the money.

[Matto211]

Well guy's it's been fun, but now it's time for me to move on to bigger better thing's. I really enjoyed all the fun time's I have had reading on here about these fun little 2.3L Mustang's, but my time has come to move on. I have thought about it long and hard. I never thought I would say this guy's but, Project Matto211 N/A build has came to a end. Yesterday, I took it to the track for the first time, it was running really good all up until my second run when the water pump blew.
I was just starting to get very happy with my car and the how it was coming togeather. But now the old 2.3L engine has had it's last chance and will becoming out soon and going to be replaced with a 5.0L H.O. as soon as I can get everything together. I hate doing this but I am sick of it having so many problems. I know the water pump is a very minor fix but I just want to stop the problem's. I have already started to unhook wire's from the engine, and will be continueing in the morning.

I know that many of you are probably really frestrated with me because of me swaping out my 2.3L for a 5.0L, but I just have to do it. I plan on getting another 2.3L Mustang soon after I finish the 5.0L Swap and I will begin to modify it too. Sorry guy's I didn't mean to let any of you down and I hope you will alow me back in here when I get another 2.3L Mustang.

If anyone is intrested in buying the origanal 2.3L with 60,000 origanal mile's please let me know. I will include the Short ram intake, and the K&N filter, the clutch, and flywheel.(clutch is fairly new). Just let me know and give me a price and I'll pull it out for you.

As for now
REST IN PIECE 2.3L
August 1989 - January 1st 2009
60,000 miles

I just want to give a special thank's to everyone that has helped me out on my project. Thank's to all who have read and participated in this thread.

[93slowpony]

I'm sorry to hear that, I have been following this thread since the start up. Hope you get done with the FiveOH soon. I would like to see you back hear. And there is nothing wrong with a good ol' 302. Have fun with it and the best of luck on your projects to come.

[J. Rhapsody]

I was gonna sugest painting its valve cover but I see yous is getting a 5.0. But you have lead me to find my calling because I know people use 2.3s in ministock and the like and I will probably blow mine, I think I'm gonna start buying peoples 2.3s when they do engine swaps. Experiment with different setups, sell blocks/heads, have replacement engines for myself.

[Matto211]

As all of you may know, I blew my water pump at my local race track. My last plan's were to do a engine swap, but I kinda changed my mind once again because I do not have the funds to do a full engine swap right now. So a few month's back I was offered a trade and I decided to see if the guy was still intrested. Fortinately he is still intrested. So I fixed the car and decided he has a deal. So I am trading the guy very soon, he seen the car and is very intrested.

The only reasion I decided to do this is because my friend has a 1992 Ford Mustang 2.3L 5speed with absolutly no rust on it, very low mile's and very clean. I decided since the body on my Mustang is in fair condition and could use a lot of work, I am just going to get another 2.3L and start from scratch, I am going to do the exact same thing's I have done to the 1992 Ford Mustang 2.3L as I have done to my 1989 except I am going to do everything better and also do more to make it faster.

So here it is, I am sure everyone is wondering how much Money total I have in this car. I am so unsure of how much, but al I know is I have way to much money in it for its condition. So here it goe's.

FINAL MODIFICATION'S --

1. Warm air intake with APC cone filter ( intake made by me, Filter:$49.99 at autozone.)
2. Thrush Cherry Bomb muffler ($35.99)
3. Ported upper intake manifold (Freebie)
4. 95lph fuel pump out of a 5.0L Mustang (Freebie)
5. GT rear sway bar ($55.00)
6. GT front sway bar($55.00)
7. Polyurathane sway bar end links ($29.99)
8. Manual cooling fan switch ($14.99 for the aircraft style switch with safty cover and 1 inline fuse)
9. Co2 Sprayer to cool down the engine when in the staging lane at the track (custom made by me, only spent $45.00 on part's)
10. Accel universal ignition coil ($49.99)
11. Weight reduction(removed spare tire and some other stuff)
12. Cut out before Catalytic converter($129.99)
13. Gt Front brakes with new Ford Racing brake disk ($129.99)
14. Hood Pin's ($12.99)
15. Pilot fog/driving lights ($34.99)
16. Sony Xplod cd player ($89.99)
17. Sony Xplod 6.5" conponet door speakers ( $39.99)
18. Sentrek 240 watt 2 channel amp($50.00 used)
19. Two 12" Rockford Fosgate Punch P1 Subs($200.00)
20. Custom L.e.d shift light's (one in each vent and one in the gauge cluster ($15.99 for used shift light on ebay then I custom made everything)
21. Cobra Fuzz buster ( $129.99)
22. Cobra Car alarm ($139.99)
23. some painted interior trim
24. Flush mount bass controller (hidden too)
25. red wire cover

So there is pretty much all the mod's that I can think of, I think there might be more though. I don't know, but I do know I have a lot of money into the car.

New Parts and recent work that I have done to the car! --

1. New clutch cable ($39.99)
2. New OPTIMA yellow top battery ($120.00)
3. New Brake line ($19.99)
4. Newer hatch back ($75.00)
5. Newer hatch back struts ($12.99)
6. New Ignition controll module ($29.99)
7. New Distributor ($40.00)
8. New Distributor cap ($12.99)
9. New emergancy brake cable's (free)
10. New hood latch ( free)
11. New driver side hinge pin's ($9.99)
12. Some new interior trim that was missing ($5.00 total)
13. rebuild computer (Free)
14. New map sensor ($5.00)
15. New spark plug's ($12.00)
16. New spark plug wire's ($54.99) (mSd 8.5mm wire's)
17. New valve cover gasket ($15.99)
18. New upper intake gasket (came with valve cover gasket)
19. New water pump ($39.99)

So there is definatly a lot of stuff done to this car. All it really need's is a good owner to finish it. It will just need body work, and some other stuff.

As for memories I have ton's of picture's and time's slip's of the car since it was completly stock when it ran a 28.9@61mph's it's slow and it's still slow, I believe if I had one more time to run it, I could pull a 18.9 or so because the last run was when I blew the water pump and I ran a 20.3@70mph. So yeah, it's slow, I never really got to tune it or anything.

So as soon as I get rid of this 1989 Ford Mustang 2.3L 5speed, I will be getting a 1992 Ford Mustang 2.3L 5speed that is red with absolutly no rust anywhere, way better body than my 1989. It's all stock and it is even a little bit faster, than mine with all my mod's. So I am going to be getting this 1992 and I am going to be installing a True Cold air intake with Texas turbo ram air bumper insert, I will be making it all out of 3" PVC pipe that goes straight into the fender and it will be wrapped in insulation. I already have all the stuff for that. I am also going to buy a y pipe, cut out w/electric opener, 2 flowmaster 40's and slp tip's out the the back, also I am going to do a full 5 lug converstion with brembo brake's all the way around. Also considering Cobra "R" Rim's with Kuhmo tires.

But then I will definatly be getting the 8.8 rear end and a 3.73 rear gear's. I also have been thinking about getting injectors and throttle body. It's going to be nice, but for now I am going to have a Ford Ranger with a 2.3L I will also post picture's of some of the modification's I am going to do to that! If anyone is intrested. Because it is a 2.3L and I have a lot of great Idea's to try with it.

[Matto211]

I do know there is a couple people actually following this thread and I want to tell all of the people who actually follow it that I am sorry for getting rid of the 1989 Ford Mustang Lx 2.3 5speed.

I plan on getting another 2.3L Mustang soon, but until then I have a 1990 2.3L Ford Ranger 2.3l 5 speed, to build up. I plan on doing some work to it to make it a sweet truck. I am going to try to Post a Build thread on it for all the 2.3L guy's who wanna know info about them. In some case's the tech info is the same.

I do not know if the mod's will alow it though.