Differences in throttle bodies 88/89+?

[MikeInID]

So I'm kicking around the idea of adding a MAF and some kind of Stand-alone management to my 2.3 87' ranger in an effort to improve driveability and responsiveness to performance upgrades. On another board, i found a thread about adding MAFs and megasquirt to the 83-88 EFI systems used on the 2.3 turbo motors and was wondering if some of the same principles and ideas would apply to what I'd like to do with my truck. On the other board, a member added megasquirt v3.0 along with a 90mm MAF and one other sensor (either IAT or MAP) on the intake manifold to the 86' turbo coupe motor he had dropped into an obdII ranger. Using the factory EEC-IV computer along with the MS piggybacked, he was more or less able to interface the older motor with the later OBDII system that initially came on the truck. This greatly expanded the tuning and troubleshooting potential of the older motor and he was then able to improve it's driveability as a result.

Which brings me to the point of this post. While I have no intention of adding a turbo or other FI to my motor, I would like to achieve a similar level of onboard diagnostic accuracy and user-friendliness as well as driveabilty with my older EFI motor. I know that sometime around 89-91' the 2.3's began sporting MAF sensors after the airbox and the IAC motors were moved from the side of the airbox to the throttle body. If I wanted to add a MAF along with some iteration of magasquirt at some point to the equation, would I be able to switch to the later-style throttle body (IAC and TPS on the sides) beforehand? Are the TPS/IAC sensors and connections the same between 1st and 2nd-gen trucks? If so, I could snatch a later stye TB and MAF from a truck at the junkyard, move some wiring around on my truck and switch to the later-style throttle body using a custom airbox (no IAC on the side) while saving up for mega (or micro) squirt. At that point, I could simply add the ranger MAF and screen at some place on the intake between the airbox and TB when it came time to wire up the MS. Am I making any sense? Is this even possible?

I would like to add a later style (89+) roller cam along with some headwork as well as a tube exhaust manifold from a 94+ truck at some point as well and know a mass-airflow system would respond to the changes much better than the ancient and frustrating speed density system the truck is currently sporting. Any help/ideas/confirmations/negations/other ideas or considerations would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your time and consideration. God bless,

Mike In Idaho

 

[steve63]

my 90 2.3 is MAF,the IAC is up and behind te throttle body,the tubular exaust header which by the way is hard to find here because of dirt trackers ,would bolt right up,you prolly would want to get a chiltons manuel to compare wiring differences between the years,as i think you would need the MAF engines computer.