[one302]

I have a 1986 non-turbo 2.3L. Since it is stock with 88 horespower, i am not happy with it. I have recently painted the car, bought new rims and restored the interior; now i am ready to start onto the engine. I am looking to get alot more horsepower out of my engine without getting a completley new engine. For example i would like to turbo-charge it but everyone says to get a new engine. I am capable of doing the work needed i just dont know what to do to add some serious speed to my little four banger. Any help at all would be great. you can e-mail me at ONE302@aol.com or feel free to instant message me anytime im on! Thanx!

[74stang2togo]

Okay, let's get started:

1. K&N FIPK, I don't know if they make one for the 2.3, but I'm betting that you can fabricate one using a K&N cone-style filter without too much trouble. You can also go with a Cold-air intake system, I don't know of anybody that make them either, but they shouldn't be too difficult to fabricate.

2. Exhaust, There are literally thousands of choices here from nearly 100 brands, the most common include: Flowmaster, Dynomax, Edelbrock, Hooker, Thrush, MAC, Walker, Cherry-bomb(my favorite), and about a dozen styles(cat-back, header-back, off-road, glasspack, dual-chamber, dual outlet/inlet)

3. a T-5 tranny, if you have an automatic, consider switching to a T-5 manual, the performance and reliablitly increases are amazing.

4. Ignition system: Options here range from just upgrading the plugs and the coil, to a full-on MSD ignition box.

5. Camshafts, go down to your local parts house (Autozone, Advance Auto Parts, Pep Boys, etc.) and have them look up cam shafts for your car in the computer, see if they offer a high-performance option, you may be pleasantly suprised.

6. Intake setup, If street legality isn't important to you, you may want to look for the all-rare, but all-awesome Offenhauser 4-barrel intake for 2.3s, these are designed to allow you to bolt on a Holley or Edelbrock 4-barrel carb to your 2.3, Recomendations state not to go bigger than a 390cfm Holley, but a 400cfm Edelbrock is much cheaper and is of comparable quality.

7. If street legality is important, but you already have a carb 2.3 intake (2-barrel) you may want to consider looking around for an older Holley 2--barrel carb, or getting a Holley 2300 model (available in 350 and 500 cfm)

You can always mess with other items too: gears, computer, chips, etc.

[carguy65]

Turbo Motor swap!
Its the best dollar to HP gain. Find a T-bird turbo coupe and Swap it, I have found T-birds and Cougars XR7 with turbos for as low as $300.00 running.

[Silver Pony]

the best thing to do with out dropping alot of cash is if you have an auto go swap in a T5, if you have a T5 find one from a early thunderbird and swap that in, the gearing is differnt and you will definalty love the new acceleration.
cold air intake you don't need since it really doesn't do much for our 2.3's, just remove the inner part of the intake tube or replace with 2.5-3" piping, and cut away half the lower intake, then you can also buy a K&N.
for exhuast either get a longtube header and 2.5" exhuast or find a 89?-94? 2.3 ranger and take the exhuast header from that, it's a direct bolt on, and then you can do 2.5" exhuast.
porting the head will do you wonder or you can look for a early pinto oval port head which flow much better than ours, you can gasket match the intake also.

quite abit of stuff you can do before you start dropping some serious cash and before going turbo

[Flex]

A good start would be to convert it to mass air. That alone is worth 17 hp. Another hp mod is disconnect the knock sensor after the timing is set not to detonate.

[henner91lx]

HOW DO YOU SET THE TIMING NOT TO DETONATE?

[Flex]

Well,
You have to keep adjusting the timing until you can't hear detonation. That loud clicking you may sometimes hear under load.

If you take the car someplace where the load is going to be greatest on the motor, like a steep hill, you may still get some but that is few and far between.

The way that this hurts performance on the 2.3 is due to the nature of the ECM's timing control. For some reason, Ford designed the system to knock back timing like 30 degrees at any sign of knock and then slowly creep it back to normal. A knock sensor is designed to detect knock before you will ever be able to hear it.

So your driving along, you hit the gas, the car starts to go and then all of a sudden starts bogging like crazy. Sound familiar?

After I found this info on the web, I tried it on my bro's heavily modded 2.3 and the diff. was night and day.

Even after the buildup, I was dissappointed with the performance thinking it should be faster. After the disconnect, I figured out why it was not. The funny thing is the racer where I get my machine work done told me about it but I was not paying attention. When I told him I found the problem, he almost kicked me in the ass.hehe.

[henner91lx]

I just had the timing reset on my 91 because it was bogging but it runs great now no matter the load it keeps on plowing up hills,so if I just dissconnected the sensor what would it do? And does it hurt the engine?

[Flex]

Only detonation hurts the engine. Disconnecting the sensor keeps it from sending signals to the ECM. SO the ECM does not alter the timing and no matter what the load, the engine maintains timing and max power. Been running our like that for more thqan 2 years with no problems.

[henner91lx]

so just pull the wire? what does the check engine light do? does it come on?

[Flex]

No the CEL does not come on. As far as the ECM is concerned, the knock sensor is just not sending anything so all is ok.

[henner91lx]

great thanks again I'll check it out

[Flex]

Henner, do you have an MAF on your car? If not, that is 17 hp right there.

[henner91lx]

MAF? Explain
I have a box with a 3 inch pipe up to the throttle body inside the box is the k&n air filter

[Flex]

MAF is a Mass Air Flow sensor and looks like a piece of aluminum between the air box and the pipe with an electrical switched in it.

It signals the ECM on how mush air is coming into the motor.