euro 2.8-2.9?

[stegomon]

has any one ever slapped the heads and intake from a euro 2.8 or 2.9 into a ranger or bronco 2? lots more horses with turbo options.

 

[heptofite]

it's not the heads, it's the tune.

mechanically the engines are the same, the tune is what makes the power.

for that matter, you can't turbo those motors without the same work you'd put into an american one.

 

[strvger]

i've only seen one euro 2.8, and it was already turbo'd. if i had had the $500 selling price, i would have bought it for sure!

 

[straycat]

has any one ever slapped the heads and intake from a euro 2.8 or 2.9 into a ranger or bronco 2? lots more horses with turbo options.

Well, 2 of my Ford tech buddies tried this swap twice about two years ago, once on a Ranger and once on a BII. They found out the swap was a mistake, they feel....the 2.8 heads are more restrictive and caused some issues and after putting way too much money in it they were not satisfied with the conversion. One of the techs is a turbo expert and he feels that the 2.9 is a better turbo option since he has done over 25 turbo setups for people. Nobody has complained about the work and I keep thinking about doing it as well to my 99 Ranger and my buddy will help out for free...but I just never bought a turbo setup yet..maybe one day....lol

 

[JoshT]

For the most part the American heads are better than the European ones. I believe that the exception is the Cosworth ones, which are rare and expensive. The Europeans even prefer the heads we get, I believe that it is in part due to the exhaust port layout. IIRC two cylinders on each head share a port.

Now what you may be able to get from over there is intakes. As you know the only intake option here is the Offy 4bbl. I recall seeing aftermarket intakes for everything from a single two to triple-deuce . To the best of my knowledge the intake runners are the same so you should be able to use those on our heads. There are also supposed to be some nice cast aluminum valve covers available. I have a set in my storage building that I believe originated over there, if I don't forget I'll get a pic of them.

I was researching other mods to do to mine during when I swapped it from the totaled 84 into the 86 body. Since I already have the Offy, Holley 390, Stage 2 Comp Cam, Metal Timing gears, Long tube headers Duraspark, and mildly ported heads there isn't much left to do. Only other things I could come up with were the valve covers, different ratio rockers (if you can find them), rocker arm spacers, and valve springs. Haven't looked into that stuff since I found a V8 to install instead.

Just a little hint for when you are searching, alot of people over there call it the Ford 2800 (for the 2.8L).