2.3 turbo questions

[fish92]

So I am new to turbos and would like to get a little bit of experience with them by putting one in my 1994 ranger. It has a 2.3L engine that is bone stock as far as i know and I have a relatively low budget. I have been looking at the turbo section of the tech library and it lists all the parts you would need like 36# injectors 190 LPH fuel pump and a fuel pressure regulator and i know that all these parts are fairly expensive. I would like to know what the bare minimum is of what I would need to start with to make it work on a low budget but will eventually add more on as I get more money to put into it. and also I found a turbo kit for $580 ( http://www.ssautochrome.com/level.itml/icOid/1716 ) and i would like to know if that would be my best bet or if I should just go find a 87-88 turbo coupe to get it off of. Thanks

 

[Silver talon84]

The general consensus is to grab something for a turbo coupe or an old merkur XR4Ti like I did. I paid $400 for my merkur with a blow head gasket, so there are deals out there. This way you also get all the sensors and brackets that would be nessasry for the swap too. Trust me, it will make your life much more easy that way. Not only will you have all the parts, but you will have a good base tune for it also, using the swapped ecm.

 

[fish92]

ok thanks would I need for injectors? would I just need the ones from the engine i get the turbo from or would I need to buy new ones and also would I need the 190LPH fuel pump and fuel pressure regulator or could I get by with out them?

 

[scotts90ranger]

the stock fuel pump works fine on a stock engine from a turbocoupe or xr4ti, along with anything else bolted on the engine...

 

[Silver talon84]

There really isint much else you would need if swapping from a donor car. The only things I have to buy for my swap (Merkur to Ranger) is a new crank pulley as I am keeping the ranger AC and swapping all the ranger pulleys and accessories to the Merk engine. The other thing is a new header so I can keep my ac, but if you dont have ac, or are removing it, you dont need one.

 

[fish92]

so is there any way i could put a turbo on the engine that is in it now? or would I have to do a complete engine swap?

 

[scotts90ranger]

you could turbo what's there now but you would be limited to about 5psi (130ish horsepower) without swapping pistons and the tune won't work too well...

 

[fish92]

so would that increase if upgraded the other stuff or would it still be about the same?

 

[scotts90ranger]

if you swapped pistons and injectors to get enough fuel to it, you could handle as much as your money permits...

 

[Insanejughead]

Like Scott is getting at, if you just buy the entire engine and accessories out of a turbo coupe or XR4TI, you'll be able to reassemble the block as is. If you take out your block and do stuff to it, you're out of a truck for several weeks. If you do it our way, it'll be cheaper and you'll only be out a truck for... Maybe two days.


Plus, pulling the engine out of a t-bird will teach you more about the engine than you'll realize.



I put one of these in my truck, then put another turbo motor in my thunderbird. Now I have two engines that I rebuilt from scratch, and they're going to last a hell of a long time.

 

[fish92]

Well my issue is that i just put the engine into my truck less than 6 months ago and I dont really want to tear into it too much. I learned a lot about the engine in the process but i just dont know anything about turbos so would it be worth the money without tearing into the engine and just swap the fuel system or should i not even waste my time? My goal isnt to go drag racing or crank out 400 hp just to kinda get a little more power out of my truck and to learn a little bit about turbos.

 

[sien brute]

i have a 2002 ford ranger stock with 2wd 2.3 5 speed and i want to swap the 88 turbo couple motor trans harness and ecu to my ranger. what do i need to do?

 

[scotts90ranger]

that's a whole different bag of worms than the normal turbo ranger project... the new duratec 2.3 is completely different from the old style Lima 2.0/2.3/2.5 so the mounts are different along with the transmission.

 

[fish92]

so where would i start after getting the turbo? should i start with new injectors? or should i go for a completly different angle? and what all is different between the 94 2.3 that is in my ranger and the 87-88 that were in the turbo coupes? I know that all the ignition is different and probably the intake but is it the same head? and im assuming since you guys said to swap pistons that they are different but what is the difference? is it a different shape and different compression? and what would I accomplish by swapping the pistons?

 

[scotts90ranger]

I was talking about the 2002, a '94 is still a standard lima engine...

the turbo pistons are dished more for a lower compression ratio and are forged so they are stronger to live longer under the higher cylinder pressure with the turbo.

the main difference between the turbo engines and the N/A engines are the pistons, oil drainback hole in the side of the block (easy to just drill and tap a hole for this in the block or oil pan) and the cylinder heads are said to have a little higher volume to lower the compression ratio a little. you can put the forged pistons in your current block, get the turbo injectors, computer, turbo header and turbo along with the other sensors and you would have a turbo engine that would handle what you want rewire your current harness for the appropriate sensors, keep your DIS ignition (might want to eliminate the drivers side plugs as I heard something about it burning too hot with both sets, but have also heard about people successfully running both sides)