Hello everyone. I have a 2.3 1990 lx auto car notch. I found a 2.3 turbo 84 gt car
Manual trans how hard is it to swap everything over to the notch . Computer wise and plugs etc.. bless thanks for the advice
Is their anything wrong with the motor in the 1990? If not and you just want a manual car then the swap is pretty straight forward. If you are wanting to swap the motor and the manual trans from the 84 into the 90 and keep the injection off the 90 then there is a little more work.
I am going to move this to the "2.3L (N/A & Turbo) Tech" forum as you will get more eyes on it there.
It's a worthwhile swap to put a 2.3T in your 1990 car but not by using the 84 GT Turbo engine. Use an SVO engine or thunderbird turbocoupe engine. The engine itself is mostly the same as the 84, however the exhaust manifold is an E3 manifold which sucks, the intakes are a little different, turbo is a little different, and the tuning on the 84 is Really REALLY conservative. IIRC they were 145hp. 1990 stock 2.3's were 112hp, so you don't gain all that much.
Look at stinger performance. There is a tech article on how to swap the 2.3T into these cars. You will run into issues with the IRCM that they don't talk about. It's not that big of a deal. You'll have to repin the EEC connector, install a LA3 computer, again not hard to do. IMO, put a front mount intercooler on too (although a top mount will work), BUT on the LX front bumper, you will have to trim a little bit to get the IC to fit in there.
With the FMIC, 3" exhaust from the turbo to the bumper, open air intake, and about 20 psi boost, it is a lot of fun and still gets 30+ mpg for most folks. That should put you close to 300hp at the flywheel which is about max for the brown top 35lb injectors and the stock big vam, and stock cam and cylinder head. You can take it a LOT further but you need injectors, then a computer to run them (standalone is the best option), bigger turbo, better exhaust and intake manfiolds, etc--it gets real expensive real quick, but 400hp is doable if you're willing to risk it on stock rods.
I did this to my 93 coupe but I just used the turbo manifold, an ebay intercooler and pipe kit, ProM blow thru maf, and stinger downpipe for the turbo. I tuned it using BE after buying my strategy from Sailor Bob. It made 250ish hp and gobs of torque. It was a blast right up until it wasn't. I had ran it on the dyno with 87 oct and blew a head gasket like an idiot. I think I damaged a rod then and about 1.5 years later, it exited the chat.