cant decide on what to do with my 2.3.

[Blackdog455]

ive been reading posts about people wanting to "upgrade" their 2.3's but i still cant figure out what i want to do.

im looking at making more hp then the stock 2.3 has (which is a little.)

i was thinking about porting the head, boring it .030 over, and a new cam, pistons etc. what kind of performance could this get me?

if you guys have any better ideas it would be appreciated.

also, how much would it cost me to turbo it? what would i need? where would i get it?

and im not looking to spend to much, im just looking for ideas here.

thanks.

 

[mikepotts]

the ford 2.3 is an interesting motor, since there has been so many diff. types of racing done with cars that came with 2.3's there is HUGE aftermarket support... you can spend as much a you want to make power with one. available are aluminum heads, strokers, long rod kits, cams from mild to wild, and nice induction, headers.

some simple power gaining mods... adding a windage tray makes a dyno proven 10hp, swaping from flat tappet to a roller cam (stock grind) will add 10hp, ect.

my combo will be... 86 2.3 short block, 94 ranger roller cam, windage tray, head milled .060, EFI intake with holley 2bbl carb, duraspark, racerwalsh header. i am still working on getting this put together, but i am expecting close to 130hp, with a nice gain in torque. funds are short right now, but when money is available i will be porting the head and intake and adding a stage 2 racerwalsh roller cam.

 

[Blackdog455]

do you have any websites i could go to for all of this? i cant find anywhere that sells really nice heads. Where can i find a stroker kit?

 

[mikepotts]

heres one...
http://www.esslingeracing.com/merchant2/merchant.mvc?

and the other i would suggest...
http://racerwalsh.zoovy.com/category/4cylinder/

i was trying to find the head when i ran into this...
http://www.esslingeracing.com/merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Category_Code=HEAD

but i found a nice picture in my 2005 ford morotsport catalog of the head sold by esslinger.

 

[mikepotts]

found this...
http://www.esslingeracing.com/dport/dport turbo app.htm

 

[Blackdog455]

thats a lot for a cylinder head. wow.

 

[mikepotts]

and there is always the volvo twin cam head people are converting to the 2.3!

the esslinger head is nice! it might seem pricey, but ive spent that much on a set of heads for a 5.0 before. PLUS... the performance they showed was "as cast"... imagine porting that head!

 

[Blackdog455]

ive heard about the volvo twin cam. How much do you think that would cost? well from what ive see on prices i think im going to have to stay with what i got. It would be nice to get a new 2.5 crank in it but i dont know.

So basically what im looking for is much more pick up and go, and to be able to actually make up hills. It would be nice to be around 120 hp though with a good looking/sounding/tough engine.

 

[mikepotts]

the ford 2.3 is an interesting motor, since there has been so many diff. types of racing done with cars that came with 2.3's there is HUGE aftermarket support... you can spend as much a you want to make power with one. available are aluminum heads, strokers, long rod kits, cams from mild to wild, and nice induction, headers.

some simple power gaining mods... adding a windage tray makes a dyno proven 10hp, swaping from flat tappet to a roller cam (stock grind) will add 10hp, ect.

my combo will be... 86 2.3 short block, 94 ranger roller cam, windage tray, head milled .060, EFI intake with holley 2bbl carb, duraspark, racerwalsh header. i am still working on getting this put together, but i am expecting close to 130hp, with a nice gain in torque. funds are short right now, but when money is available i will be porting the head and intake and adding a stage 2 racerwalsh roller cam.

here ya go!

 

[Blackdog455]

ya ya! i dont want to spend that much though. i know a good amount of money will be involved but im not going to spend that much.

 

[birdmanslopy]

ive heard about the volvo twin cam. How much do you think that would cost? well from what ive see on prices i think im going to have to stay with what i got. It would be nice to get a new 2.5 crank in it but i dont know.

So basically what im looking for is much more pick up and go, and to be able to actually make up hills. It would be nice to be around 120 hp though with a good looking/sounding/tough engine.

the volvo twin cam wakes your 2.3 up!
finding a head costs anywhere from 300$ to 500$.
the pros from what ive seen and heard is that the compression gets a little better which adds power. twin cam flows better so it helps out alot there.
ive heard of just doing the head swap getting 30 to 40 extra hp n/a.
but you gotta weld a drain on the back of your head and block.
im in the process of making a sticky for this website showing how its all done.

the cons of it though is that the head sits SOOO close to the deck of the block one tooth off on your timing bends valves, so that motor has to be timed perfectly and you need to trust your weld on your timing belt tensioner because theres a big process to adapt the head to the block.

now if this was turbo and you were adding the head, i would say do it in a heartbeat, ive read on merkur xr4ti forums people saying that from stock boost turning it 5 pounds up more with just the headswap they were making 100+ more hp and ive personally seen 2.3s running 25 to 35 psi barely modified without the head swap running the crappy flowing 2.3 head it comes with stock so only you can figure out there.

but its all about the benjamins, check out my thread on here with pics of the 700whp 2.3 with the volvo head swap my brother in law is doing.
should get you an idea on how that would look if thats the path you wanna choose.

 

[Blackdog455]

i can afford the volvo head. where might i be able to find one on the internet? and whats the head called again?

 

[birdmanslopy]

this is a link describing whats needed to do it all.
http://www.merkurtech.com/merkurtech/techarticles/item045.php
head is called volvo B234F on ebay
my thread has the pictures and whatnot on it of what it should look like

 

[Blackdog455]

ive seen your thread and it looks nice.