2.9l intake manifold swap

[rusty ol ranger]

everybody and their brother has a efi 2.9l
how many people have a carbureted 2.9l

This is true.

But theres also a reason for that lol.

Unfourtantly theres no real effective way to carburate a 2.9. If there was i would of done it when mine gave me fits.

But if you do do it id be very interested to see the results

 

[19Walt93]

i'm thinking more like salvage yards

I found one of those Offy intakes at a swap meet probably 15 years ago. He had it marked as GM 2.8 for $150 and I told him what it actually fit. He sold it to me for $125 and I put it on the 78 Mustang 2.8 I swapped into a 64 Sunbeam Alpine for a friend.
I sold or gave the stock intake to Gary Baum of Second Generation Mustang that year at Carlisle.

 

[franklin2]

everybody and their brother has a efi 2.9l
how many people have a carbureted 2.9l

I have been seriously thinking about this. What I was going to try is take the top part of the 2.9 intake manifold off till you have the 3 sets of two ports. Take the fuel injectors out and plug the holes. I have some 3/16 steel, I was going to weld up a slim metal box that would sit over top of the 6 manifold holes, cut holes in the bottom of the box to match the intake holes.

The top of the metal box would be removeable, so you could use the original 2.9 upper plenum bolt holes to bolt the box down onto the lower intake. Then make a lid that would bolt on the top of the box. The box would have two holes and 4 bolt holes to mount a 2100 2 barrel on it.

Initially, I would run the original TFI, you can run it with just 3 wires, power ground and coil wire. But the timing will be locked. I have run the 2.8 like this, and it got me back and forth to work for about a year. Fuel mileage was down a little bit, but otherwise it ran ok. I have done a lot of research on timing options. There is a box that may or may not work. It's $200 and I called the guy at the factory and he was not sure it would work. It's a electronic retard box. You would set the TFI timing to 30 degrees BTDC, and then the box retards the timing 20 degrees which will bring you back to 10 below 1000 rpm or so. You can program it with a different curve if you like, but it will not have any vacuum advance capabilities.

You may think I am crazy, but I am seriously thinking about making a timing setup like a model t or model a. Make a arm that will clamp to the distributor housing, use a lawnmower belden cable, and leave the distributor clamp bolt just a tiny bit loose. I can then move the lawnmower throttle cable to move the distributor as I am driving to advance or retard the timing, just like a model t or a did. They had the handle behind the steering wheel.
.

 

[fxkl47BF]

What I was going to try is take the top part of the 2.9 intake manifold off till you have the 3 sets of two ports.

do the three ports in the original manifold each supply two cylinders or are they all merged inside the manifold
how about three side draft carbs
cheap chinese lawn mower carbs
2.9l is about 177 cubic inches
find a mower engine that's about 60 cubic inches
???

 

[Josh B]

I have a barrel full of old carburetors, glass fuel filters, and other related schtuff out in a shed, be glad to get rid of it for little more than postage.
I had a list of what they all were, and there was some good ones, but most didn't even want to annie-up, so none ever got sent. I listed them somewhere at an old cars forum a long time ago, don't recall it's name, don't really care to. Some single, some 2 and some 4 BL

They came out of an old guys barn whose wife was a friend of my moms, and she asked me to help her clean it up 10 or 15 years ago. He had been a Ford mechanic at the local dealership all his life and brought a lot of work home with him

Can't guarantee any it still in any decent shape

 

[bobbywalter]

Use mega jolt....or a 4.0 ignition setup... and 3 bike carbs.


Not hard.

 

[bobbywalter]

For testing, just pull the throttle body off and adapt a 1bbl. It will run .... dial from there

 

[19Walt93]

Mounting a box on top of the individual ports or sticking a carb in place of the throttle body would probably run but not very well. Runner size and length are important and affect the power curve, and it would be hard to get even fuel distribution. If you can find a stock 2.8 manifold and distributor-and assuming the distributor would fit- would be the only reasonable way to do it.
My 351 powered 93 Ranger has a Holley carb but I would stick with injection and EEC IV on a 2.9, assuming you don't need a part that can't be found.

 

[rusty ol ranger]

Mounting a box on top of the individual ports or sticking a carb in place of the throttle body would probably run but not very well. Runner size and length are important and affect the power curve, and it would be hard to get even fuel distribution. If you can find a stock 2.8 manifold and distributor-and assuming the distributor would fit- would be the only reasonable way to do it.
My 351 powered 93 Ranger has a Holley carb but I would stick with injection and EEC IV on a 2.9, assuming you don't need a part that can't be found.

The 2.8 distributor has a different drive gear then the 2.9.

do the three ports in the original manifold each supply two cylinders or are they all merged inside the manifold
how about three side draft carbs
cheap chinese lawn mower carbs
2.9l is about 177 cubic inches
find a mower engine that's about 60 cubic inches
???

Im not sure a mower carb would work even with 3 because mower carbs are generally designed to run at one speed (wide open) and the governor does the rest.

A K582 Kohler twin is 58cubes. 58x3 is 174CI. Not sure thats solid logic but you can buy carbs for them pretty readily all over online. Although you'd have to do some serious adapting to get them on.

You could probably cut the upper plenium off at the runners and use the runners as a basis to build some sort of box/adaptor thing to graft on to all 3 runners and mount a 2 or 4bbl on top.

Either way....its gonna me a massive project with probably less then stellar results.

Even if you do figure out the intake...you have to contend with ignition.

 

[fxkl47BF]

For testing, just pull the throttle body off and adapt a 1bbl. It will run .... dial from there

what do you think
https://www.amazon.com/Carburetor-a...re-acceleration/dp/B07ST1FLS9?tag=959media-20

 

[rusty ol ranger]

what do you think
https://www.amazon.com/Carburetor-a...re-acceleration/dp/B07ST1FLS9?tag=959media-20

You would need to fab an adaptor elbow if you wanna put it in place of the TB like bobby suggested

 

[franklin2]

Mounting a box on top of the individual ports or sticking a carb in place of the throttle body would probably run but not very well. Runner size and length are important and affect the power curve, and it would be hard to get even fuel distribution. If you can find a stock 2.8 manifold and distributor-and assuming the distributor would fit- would be the only reasonable way to do it.
My 351 powered 93 Ranger has a Holley carb but I would stick with injection and EEC IV on a 2.9, assuming you don't need a part that can't be found.

I don't think it would be any different than this as far as distribution. You would want to keep the box as small as practical.

 

[franklin2]

Lawnmower carbs do not have accelerator pumps or power systems. That would not work very well.

Multiple carbs are a nightmare. They have to be balanced just like they need to be on a multi-carbed motorcycle. And if you bolted them to feed only two cylinders, you can easily overcarb the engine. If you knew how to order and tune webers, that would probably be the way to go and look cool also.

But I want to keep it simple and reliable. If I wanted it complicated I would keep the EFI or put a aftermarket EFI on it. I want minimal electronics and wiring, which minimizes failure points and complication. I am too old to want to get into the learning curve of a megasquirt or something like that. It seems doable to get a single 2 barrel or 4 barrel carb on the engine. The distributor is the sticky point.

 

[fxkl47BF]

I don't think it would be any different than this as far as distribution. You would want to keep the box as small as practical.

please post more info when you get your box made

the following is just me rambl'n
we're talking about a box on top of the original manifold
the original manifold has 3 openings
i have not been able so far to find out if they are joined inside the manifold
if you mount one downdraft carb in the center of your box i would think the end cylinders are going to be starved
the box would need to have baffles to split up the mixture
multiple carbs would be a way around this
or maybe as bobbywalter suggested mount it in place of the throttle body
i think the hood would not close with a downdraft carb
maybe a sidedraft carb would work better in that position
now to find a sidedraft carb for 177 cubic inch engine
like i said just and old man rambl'n

 

[bobbywalter]

you are not too old for megasquirt.