2.3 Max power.

[turbo cat]

All i can say is the bigger you go on porting and bigger camms the more torque down low and fuel economy you will give up. A turbocahrged setup can have the best of both worlds. A good steady stock idle for good economy and good low rev torque while the boost still increases the upper range with bigger gains on only mild boost that a NA 2.3 will never see. Also a turbocharged setup can cost way less than expensive cams, heads, port work, big carbs, tuning....

 

[DesertStorm]

All i can say is the bigger you go on porting and bigger camms the more torque down low and fuel economy you will give up. A turbocahrged setup can have the best of both worlds. A good steady stock idle for good economy and good low rev torque while the boost still increases the upper range with bigger gains on only mild boost that a NA 2.3 will never see. Also a turbocharged setup can cost way less than expensive cams, heads, port work, big carbs, tuning....

Porting hurts nothing. Helps the engine breathe. Cams change it around alot. Not really gonna make the cam much bigger, if any bigger. The ecu is only capable of handling so much before you need to swap out to carb or stand alone management. A stroker kit will not really hurt the fuel economy too bad, coulnt be any worse than a 2.5 that came stock in the rangers. My brother in law races super stock 4 so I can get alot of advice for the internals and what works best. He has found a 2750 kit, but it has to be used with a SVO block. I just like to tinker with the ole 2300. Do cheap/free stuff here and there.

 

[turbo cat]

Too much porting can hurt low end performance on a streetable motor. Wether it be carbed or EFI. Air moves slower thru a larger opening. If you try and hog out the ports too big and take too much material away it will kill port velocity at lower revolutions. There is such a thing as race ported heads. Same trhing goes with larger TBs, short runner intakes, big cams with long durations and close LSAs. Those items IF too big will give up torque to make power up high (they move the powerband up)

 

[DesertStorm]

Too much porting can hurt low end performance on a streetable motor. Wether it be carbed or EFI. Air moves slower thru a larger opening. If you try and hog out the ports too big and take too much material away it will kill port velocity at lower revolutions. There is such a thing as race ported heads. Same trhing goes with larger TBs, short runner intakes, big cams with long durations and close LSAs. Those items IF too big will give up torque to make power up high (they move the powerband up)

Got a 3" intake tube and matched port job with a mild clean up on ports, the valves will only flow so much air, mild porting helps the valves to reach their full flow. i also have a huge exhaust, which supposidly make the low end worse. Not so. I can be in 1st at idle( manual tranny)mat the gas and break stock size tires loose as a goose. (locked) I have 4.56 gears, but it sure goes like hell from 750 rpm to 3k. revs like a fawkin honda. QUICK.

 

[jax4bangin]

dstorm sounds like a pretty bad ass lil LIMA u got.. have u ever raced a duratec truck? my duratec will kill a stock lima but iv never ran against a hopped up one

 

[mikepotts]

Too much porting can hurt low end performance on a streetable motor. Wether it be carbed or EFI. Air moves slower thru a larger opening. If you try and hog out the ports too big and take too much material away it will kill port velocity at lower revolutions. There is such a thing as race ported heads. Same trhing goes with larger TBs, short runner intakes, big cams with long durations and close LSAs. Those items IF too big will give up torque to make power up high (they move the powerband up)

x's 2... put a die grinder in the wrong hands and you are ruining a head, intake or whatever... not only will enlarging runners too much KILL velocity, porting in the wrong places in the head can destroy the airflow.

if valve sizes are inceased the bowl becomes even MORE important, but most heads benefit from port matching the intake to the head, polishing the runners, porting the short side radius, and pocket porting the bowl.

 

[feellnfroggy]

Just an open exhaust will throw that thing off pretty bad. I really wish someone here would do it so we can get some info. I'm interested in putting the dual plug head and EFI on the Mutant pony but, I can't afford all that expensive EFI modification stuff. I have several stock systems though.

Guys, you are all awesome at building trucks, but you sound kinda new at the horsepower game, (no offense to anyone). SCT tuners or diablosport, and yes the cone shaped cold air intakes, no header, you'll needa turbo setup. and a mostly straight through exhaust (due to the turbo). I will say that ive only read about these engines. But I have seen the 2.3l as high as 800 hp. But thats a little out of your range. With the tuner, turbo intake, etc. You can have a very streetable 300 HP. (Cam too)

Open exhaust doesnt really throw the eec IV off too bad. I have a cherry bomb and no O2 on my 2.3l and it runs just fine, except for the busted MAF.

EDIT:: this was posted before reading the entire post, there are some good ideas in here as I read on.

 

[Mutant Pony]

Where I race the Mutant pony I cannot use a turbo or they put me in a class with nitrous or blown big blocks.
I would rather have a 200 hp NA motor than have to pay $1500 everytime my turbo spits a bearing.

 

[killacal]

Sorry to bring this thread back from the dead, but you can easily make 500+ RWHP using a 2.3. Here's a video of a 9 second mustang w/ a 2.3 in it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=569OwzJsHfA

I believe he was running somewhere in the neighborhood of 50psi boost through it, and I'm almost positive this was on a stock crank.

 

[Winger]

2.3L tweaks

I by no means an expert but I've played with the headers and cams on my 88
I ran a competition hydraulic 268H in it for awhile loved that cam it was pretty peppy on the freeway when wound up. It gave it a nice lopey idle, I hadn't done any of the head work mutant spoke of but thats now done oversized valves from RacerWalsh and valve springs and cleaning up the bowls a little as required during the valve instal. I'm trying a 252H this time with this setup and a Headman Header. You can't run the EGR tube with this header but there are headers out there that do. The company that makes those advertises here on TRS that sells them there spendy though. I'm going to try the intake from racer walsh with the 2300 holley on my 2.3L pinto until I decide wether I want to turbo it or just put a V8 in it..... Love to tinker

 

[Blackdog455]

for my ranger i picked up a hedman header, lunati cam which is pretty big compared to the original, and im going to be picking up single exhaust with flowmaster muffler, electric fan, probably a new water pump, new wires and plugs. Now im pretty sure that easy set up wont mess anything up, but i could be wrong. Should it get a few more horses out of it? if so how much? by the way this is an '89 2.3 from a mustang.

oh and should i just skip the single exhaust and muffler and just get straight pipe duel exhaust?

 

[bigblak250]

i had a 2.3 in my 83 bored .60 with a d port head racer walsh stage 2 roller cam, 500 holley 2bbl, long tube with a 2.5in exhaust, eletric fan and fuel pump 5spd with 3.73s was fun to drive but loud as hell

i have the cam, carb and header for sale...

 

[skyy_4life]

heh. my ranger is super loud and i love it. lol. turbo downpipe into stock cat. then 3" Y pipe down to 2.5" straight pipe duals all the way back. no muffs either. i love being loud and i didnt feel any loss in power either. its awsome being as loud as the 100 Srt-4's on every block in cleveland.

 

[bigblak250]

oh yea loud is fun