1989 MAF upgrade

[Badhabitinva]

I have two Rangers. A 1989 and a 1990. Both trucks are 2.3L 5 speed trucks.

The 89 has 322K miles and the little old motor is giving up. The trans also has some issues shifting and whines excessively in all gears but 4th. The fram & body are in pretty good shape.

The 1990 has a tired engine but the trans is good. The frame is rotting on the 1990. It runs ok but compression is low in all 4 cylinders.

My plan is to rebuild the 2.3 from the 90 and drop it & trans into the 89. The 89 is speed density & the 90 is MAF. I want the MAF in the 89.

I'm sure I could swap everything (wiring) from one to the other, but I recall being told that not all of the harness needed to be swapped. I know the ECM will.

Anyone done this? Advise?

 

[RonD]

No real reason to do that conversion unless you are modifying the engine.

But check out the Mustang forums, they used the same 2.3l engine and MAF conversion was more common because of engine upgrades.


Speed density runs engine from a fixed set of air/fuel mix tables based on engine size, RPM, throttle position and manifold vacuum.
Fined tuned by O2 sensor

MAF system runs engine based on air flow in, RPM, Throttle position.
Fine tuned by O2 sensor

Modifying engines for more power basically means they are using more air than stock, so 'engine size' has changed, speed density doesn't 'see" air flow so can't modify fuel mix enough in most cases.
MAF is air flow based so can.

But yes, you can use existing harness and add 4 wires(for MAF sensor), also change around a few other wires on the 60 pin connector for use with new MAF computer