Hey all this is my first post to this board and I'm hoping someone can help me out a little bit. I just bought a 1987 LX. Its 2.3L and 5 speed but other then that I don't know anything about it. The owners manual is long gone so I have no idea of where to look for specifications and stuff. Is it turbo or not? I don't have license plates or insurance yet so I can't drive it around any. Is this a fast mustang? More importantly, is it faster than the stock civics my friends drive? Its blue, does being blue make it faster? Anyways! Any help anyone could give me would be awesome. Thanks a bunch!
There are cams available. Unorthodox racing still has a %50 underdrive crank pulley available. Esslinger and Race engineering have lightweight adjustable cam and auxillary gears. Esslinger sells a windage tray. Import CAI's can be made to work. Other improvements rewuire engine work.
I have two pages on my website devoted to n/a mods and reviews of those mods.
Might be helpful to you.
Politely I disagree w/ someone saying you need a certain amount of backpressure on these little engines. Your stock manifold is restriction enough and the head doesn't flow that well on it's own. I've never seen anyone show w/ a dyno a loss, only gains.
If you put a long tube header on it from Monza Pacesetter, as I did, w/ a 2.5 off that, no cat, then y pipe to duals through dynomax mufflers, it will sound great, you'll gain low end torque and upper end power. It's only a plus. been there, done that.
-then yank all that crap out and turbo it for real satisfaction.
i have just bought an '89 2.3L lx , i've been trying to find mods for it cuz the car definitly needs more HP !! i've been thinking of getting a performance muffler and cold air. Although i can't seem to find a cold air system that will fit my car. any ideas ????
I was wondering if anyone knew some good 2.3L after market performance sites or tips for my '93 mustang? I've had it for almost a year and I want it to compete with Hondas without putting nitrous or a turbo on it. Any help would be great!
I was wondering if anyone knew some good 2.3L after market performance sites or tips for my '93 mustang? I've had it for almost a year and I want it to compete with Hondas without putting nitrous or a turbo on it. Any help would be great!
I figured out the driver's side exhaust (tailpipe) for a GT bolts right up. You can also bolt on a cold air kit for a GT although I made my own.
Superchip makes a chip as well that is good for 10hp. MAC makes a header as well but then you'll need a custom exhaust to make it work.
I'd say some home porting of the intake, heads and throttle body would be good for 10-30hp. There are also some good cams out there and these motors respond well to retarding the cam 4 degrees.
Hi my name is Landon I've owned three 88 mustangs all 4 bangers lx's all hatchbacks. I bought one from Vancouver that had some mods on it and I really need help on finding out what was on that car first off all it had a custom exhast with glass pack pretty much full straight pipe with glass pack by the axle very loud, second it must have had a different differrential in it cause all three of the stangs I've had have all gone 90KM an hour at 3000 rpms well this mustang I had went 90KM an hour at 2500 RPMS and it would smoke alot of cars cause I could reach a really high top speed but I have no clue what differential gears to put in which really ticks me off. and all this talk about the silencer I never heard of doing but im gonna try it I need some tips on that as well please if anyone could help me on the differential question that would really help thats my main problem thanks alot have a goodone! and both speedo's were tested and both were accurate so it's not the speed
do u know that smog pipe that goes threw ur fender take off your passenger side fender and connect a 3" pipe to it and run it unded the car and put a k&n filter on the end of it or a cool blue which one u like the best it works well i have done it to my high compression 2.3 liter 1980 coupe with lt slots
go with a flowmaster 40 series it will give you a good sound and increase your horsepower and get a header from racerwalsh.com you can order a free catalog online. the header will cost you 200.00 but i got mine out of a junk yard in a ford courior for 20.00 so i would check around
There is a 90 california mass air ecm that is better to use for conversion.
i have done this conversion. you need a ecc turner for good mods.
Flex said:
Well, even if you gut it, it will still hurt flow Black because of the chamber expanding so much larger than the rest. Remove it completely and replace it with the appropriate sized PCV tube. It will cost a few bucks from Home Depot etc. They even sell rubber plunbing connectors and reducers if you need. This will provide a smooth straight flow path. I will post a pic later.
Don't go too large on the exhaust. 2-2.25 inch max unless you are going Turbo. A large pipe will kill backpressure and bottom end torque. The factory pipe is like 1.5". Eliminating the cat will add a huge amount of flow by itself.
The Flow is a good muffler as is the Flowtech Terminator (on our car) or if you want more sound, take Black's suggestion.
Also, the Ranger exhaust manifold I mentioned is a factory tube steel header.
MASS air came in 91 and later cars. It is only "necessary" to convert to it if your car is heavily modded but it is supposed to be worth 17 hp and a lot of guys say the 2.3 really responds to mass air conversion.
The bad thing about it is that I have not found one that has a distributor so you may have to take the DIS and pull your distributor at the same time. I have recently obtaind everything except the DIS and will try the conversion soon.
on my 90 it has a rubber peice after the air box and then the silencer and then a nother rubber peice so i junked the silencer and added the an exhaust tube in place of the silencer. And then i have ram air and a k&n air filter.
the gear you should put in a 3.73 gear your proplem now is that your car has a smaller gear than the outh one thats why you have more top speed if you put the 3.73 in it like a svo you will get up to speed quiker and the shifts will come on earlier. The silencer thing you should just junk that thing and ad a exhaust pipe where the silencer was and it wont cost you much because it will just be straight pipe and you can find the measerments for it by measuring the inside of the rubber tubes.
i also have a lx coupe with the 2.3l with the dual spark plug motor. does any1 know of any good mods to do to it besides air intake. iam going to be getting a k&n for my mustang
So I just bought a 91' LX Mustang 4 cyl.
This is the first 4 cylinder car I've ever owned and WILL be the last. The car handles pretty good and all but is obsurdly slow. I mean it's actually painful how slow the damn thing is. The car is just begging for a V8 or at least a Turbo!!!
Yes I test drove it but I didn't really floor the car. Either way there really were no stretches to open her up on. It's still a fun little car to rip around town in. If I didn't like it I wouldn't have bought it.
Also there are few cars that can really compare to my old Z. :winks
the 2.3 is an economical car... or atleast it was in its time. although they did sell a ton of em, i think 4cyl stangs were a bad idea, being one of the slowest cars on the road, they give the mustang a bad name when it comes to performance... although performance wasnt ford's intent.
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