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2.3L ('83-'97) Been researching 2.3t swap need some guidance.


Cole8222

New Member
Joined
Mar 7, 2022
Messages
4
City
Tiffin ohio
Vehicle Year
1997
Transmission
Manual
So I'm handy enough to be dangerous (usually to myself lol...) Love rangers with a passion was gonna 302 swap my 1997 xlt standard cab 2.3. now I'm obsessed with this 2.3t swap. I have a donor 87 t bird. Runs great prolly gonna throw some new seals in it clean it up good. Maybe a larger throttle body and a Garret T3 mid range turbo.

But this is where I'm struggling. 95-97 is that part of gen III that went to OBD2 so I'm assuming nothing is going to be plug and play. Now I do have the donor for the harness and the dinosaur ECU bit. I've never had to swap over a harness before. Can I use my existing gauge cluster, what about my speedo since it's a sensor instead of a cable. Basically if anyone knows how I can make this work in a 1997 give me any and all details if u would before I just jump into it. Would just swaping the guts and tapping the block for oil return really be an easier way to go? (Internals is there just pistons? Or should I take rods too?) know I'd have to chip the ECU to deal with the boost, remove the ac or flip the header. If I can keep my stock harness in place I think I'd prefer that.

1997 is my fave year personal reasons. I've made many mods already changed the rear end to an 8.8 4:10, got 1999 mustang rear break calipers ect to lose the drums. Re did suspension ect this is my last step minus a paint job and some body work. Thank y'all so much. I spend hours on this form reading y'all's content (I should add, end goal is 15-18 pounds of boost)
 
Last edited:
Welcome to the site.
 
Forced induction negates any gains you would get from a bigger throttle body, especially with the throttle after the compressor, so don't worry about adding one of those...

Someone will probably chime in on the OBD II stuff, I haven't played with aftermarket stuff much on mine... my 2.3L turbo is just a mixmatch of factory parts... runability leaves some to be desired but it does what I want...

The turbo engines were only different mechanically from the oil drainback port on the right side of the engine and the forged pistons, that's it... rods can handle supposedly like 325hp or something but the piston pins are pressed into the pistons so if you do swap the forged pistons in might as well keep the rods... Electrically the turbo engines had high impedence injectors and a different pinout of the same computer connector of the older computer...

Conveniently in a '97 the speedo isn't related to the engine at all, so no worries there...
 

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