2.3L ('83-'97) 2.3 Head

[2.3sandrail]

hello i am building a sandrail with a thunderbird 2.3 in it.. so after some it a year or 3 i got back to the build went to start it and nothing after some time trouble shooting it i found my cam was rusted to my the head so the head is NG.. found a head from a 90 ranger but things are different on the intake side.. so i guess is there a way to use the bottom half of the intake (90 ranger) and the top half of the thunderbird intake..

 

[franklin2]

Put the cam and other parts from the 90 ranger head into the thunderbird head?

 

[2.3sandrail]

Put the cam and other parts from the 90 ranger head into the thunderbird head?

The head Is junk I think it is cracked the cam is rushed to where the bearings are

 

[2.3sandrail]

 

[franklin2]

Get some penetrate and clean the camshaft up and then take it out. Get a spring compressor and take the keepers out, and take the springs out and the valves. Keep everything in order. Clean it up really good and then take it to a shop and have them look at it. Any parts you need you can get from the other cylinder head. I would keep the turbo head on the turbo engine if I could. This will be a good learning experience.

Once you get the valves out you can wiggle them around and see how much play is in the guides. You can also put new valve seals in it. Or you can get the guy in the shop to do it. Just make sure you clean it up good before you take it to him, they appreciate not having a greasy mess to handle.

Look up valve spring compressor tool on Amazon, they are pretty reasonable.

 

[2.3sandrail]

Get some penetrate and clean the camshaft up and then take it out. Get a spring compressor and take the keepers out, and take the springs out and the valves. Keep everything in order. Clean it up really good and then take it to a shop and have them look at it. Any parts you need you can get from the other cylinder head. I would keep the turbo head on the turbo engine if I could. This will be a good learning experience.

Once you get the valves out you can wiggle them around and see how much play is in the guides. You can also put new valve seals in it. Or you can get the guy in the shop to do it. Just make sure you clean it up good before you take it to him, they appreciate not having a greasy mess to handle.

Look up valve spring compressor tool on Amazon, they are pretty reasonable.

so you think it is savable... i will try to take it apart... and if it is ok do you think i will be ok using the valve train from the 1990 ranger head

 

[franklin2]

It might surprise you if you try to clean up the camshaft, how good it looks once all the crusty stuff is off. But if you need to use the other camshaft, just keep everything in order, keep the cam followers in order and keep them with "their" camshaft. Put the other camshaft in place and use the cam followers that were with it in order. The cam followers have been running against that cam, and have made their "home" or wear pattern on that cam. So putting them back will keep everything happy. It's up to you on the lifters, you could swap them also if you wanted and keep them in order.

Since you are tearing it down, I would go ahead and pull the valves and check the seats to make sure they look good and then put in valve seals in place. You can take the springs and line them all up side by side on a flat table and eyeball them to make sure they are all the same height.

Those keepers can be a pain, but a small magnetic screwdriver and some wheel bearing grease can help getting them back in place.

If you are afraid the head is cracked, I would take it to someone and pay to have it checked. You can also get them to lay a straight edge on the surface of the head to see if it's warped.

 

[2.3sandrail]

Cool thanks for the help.. is it bad to run the ranger head.. this is not a daily driver this is going on a sandrail.. I might just take both heads to a shop and just let the put it all back together

 

[scotts90ranger]

The dual plug head is fine, apparently they're a bit more crack prone, but the real issue is the distributor will hit the lower intake manifold so it gets complicated... what you need is to either get the old one cleaned up (might need cam bearings too, but that shouldn't be a huge deal) or try to find a '86-88 Ranger head or a '86-91 Mustang head, they kept the distributor setup longer in the mustangs for whatever reason I think...

 

[franklin2]

Cool thanks for the help.. is it bad to run the ranger head.. this is not a daily driver this is going on a sandrail.. I might just take both heads to a shop and just let the put it all back together

If you do not feel confident to do it yourself, that sounds like a good plan. Having someone look at it who does it everyday will guarentee a happier ending. They will grind the valves and seats and do any guide work needed to make the head like new again.