1990 2.3 Turbo Ranger 4x4 just finished, yeeehaw!!

[AllenSB101]

Whats up everybody, just finished my turbo conversion here in Santa Barbara, CA and I am soooo stoked! Since my girlfriend shows no interest whatsoever in all my hard work and effort, I figured I'd come here and share with people who would appreciate the beast that my truck has become. So far I only have her set at 9-10 psi as indicated by my gauge, but after the motor breaks in (fresh rebuild, well 5 year old fresh rebuild so the guy said lol!! ) I'm thinking of 15-17. So if I can answer any questions to those thinking of the conversion feel free to ask, and for those pros out there who have tips that might save me from future headaches all advice is welcome. So far it runs super rich, as indicated by my new air/fuel gauge and how black the inside of my new tailpipe looks. Not quite sure why, but after running the codes (66 81,82,83 10,11) it looks like it might be something to do with my VAF meter. What else, no egr right now, distributor timed at 12 with pip disconnected, no vacuum leaks as far as I can tell, and all new plugs, wires, cap, rotor, coil, dist, yada yada yada. Oh, its out of a 88 Turbocoupe, so LA3, volvo intercooler up front (pipes from STINGER, sweet!!). I have both size VAM, and it seems to run a little better with the small one, but is that due to compensation for it running right to begin with? When I get on the throttle hard it falters right before boost, but if I roll into it easy it does ok. Oh well, I'm gonna measure voltage and resistance next I guess to the VAF meter, and then.......? Any ideas??

 

[rtg143]

Welcome to the forums, Do you have any pics of it?

 

[AllenSB101]

I'll put some up tomorrow.

 

[pineapplesoymilk]

Welcome I want to see thi thing spool man haha, what rear end did you and up using

 

[AllenSB101]

Its a stock rear end still, 7.5 with 4:56 gears. I checked the tag on the axle. But it's open, so I'll pry swap an 8.8 in sometime soon and go for the locker.

 

[AllenSB101]

just put up some pics, sorry for the crappy quality. Dam iphone

 

[pineapplesoymilk]

nice set up bro any vids yet

 

[AllenSB101]

No vids yet. and she runs fine now, have the right VAF to go with the injectors and computer, and the air/fuel hooked up correctly, so off I go!!

 

[pineapplesoymilk]

Cool man, how does it pull

 

[sohc86-06]

welcome to the site cant wait to see pics

 

[cdawall]

Just finished helping my buddy with a thundercoupe and a 3.8 supercharged and it did the same thing when you got on it and the supercharger really hit boost...anyways whomever owned it before him put the plugs out of a stock non sc 3.8 in it so earound 3k the car blew out the spark of the longer gapped plugs would be willing to bet something similar might be happening in your tc 2.3...

 

[AllenSB101]

Thanks for the heads up. I'm actually running some of those new E3 plugs for the turbo motor, supposedly they are a performance upgrade over stock. But if they don't hold up, back to the motorcraft plugs I go!!