302 into a 2.3? Help please

stykthyn said:

Lsx. In all gods honesty b/c I have been there and done a v8 swap I would leave it alone. Drive it, use it as a beater or sunday cruiser and save up for a v8 car. The money you will spend to swap this car over will be on par with the purhase cost of a new vehicle. The only time this pays off is if you have a V8 donor vehicle already and can swap everything over.
If the 85 hp your 2.3 is cranking out isnt good enough find a svo or turbo coupe and swap the engine/trans out. With a few mods the turbo 2.3 will leave a v8 car in the dust.

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stykthyn said:

Yeah, you could fit half ofveverything you own in the back of a hatch.

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rd said:

Agree with the above. Back in the day, the 2.3 to 5.0 swap made sense. Now, wore out 5.0's are more plentiful, so the swap is not as cost effective.

That said, my toy is a 5.0 swap into an original straight six car. Since it's mostly a tin can track toy, I did not waste money on nice interior stuff I was going to remove anyway.

I have 265k miles on my carbed 79 Capri, and a 100k engine in the 82.

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Mr. Rustypwnz said:

if you have a 87-90 4 banger car already, the turbo swap takes literally an hour. Just get good arp head studs and dont go crazy with the timing.

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stang&2Birds said:

Look for a 5.0 that is mostly stock. If you can find one with the air silencer still in it (inside the firewall, do a search), then there's a better chance that the car was not beat on.

IMHO, at this point, I see rust as the main issue with Fox bodies. Replacing an engine, tranny, etc, are all cheap compared to fixing rusted shock towers, uni body, torque boxes (where the back trailing arms attach to the body), etc, etc. Plus, window channel rust, hatch rust, etc all get to be expensive quickly to fix properly.

Good Luck, and welcome to Stangnet!

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jrichker said:

Welcome to Stangnet...

Not all of us know how to fix everything, but some of us know how to fix some things
with excellence!

If you want to do the fix up & power up thing, make sure that you have some other
form of reliable daily driver. That way the stang can sit while your wallet and hands
take a rest from the last project that didn't quite get finished on that 3 day weekend.
Things always cost more and take longer the first time you do them. Having some
other working vehicle makes life easier since it isn't the big crush to get it running
for the Monday morning drive to work or class.

Plan on spending some money on tools it you don't already have them. The stang
has both metric and American fasteners, so you really need two sets of wrenches.
A timing light, digital voltmeter, vacuum gauge, compression tester, fuel pressure
test gauge and fuel line coupler tools are some of the test & tuning tools you'll need.
Visit the pawn shops and sometimes you can find a deal on tools & test equipment
if you stick to well known name brands.

A sheltered work area is almost a must, someplace that you can leave the car in
pieces without upsetting anyone. Some guys here have changed a transmission in
the parking lot of their apartment in a rainstorm, but they will tell you it wasn't fun.
Depending on where you live, a warm dry garage is a nice place to do the winter
projects that stangs tend to become.

EFI (Electronic Fuel Injection) Computer - every stang after 85 has or had one:
don't let it intimidate you. The computer based EFI systems are not hard to fix
and most of the time they tell you what's wrong with the engine. Here's a book
that will get you started with how the Ford electronic engine control or "computer" works.

Ford Fuel Injection & Electronic Engine Control 1988-1993 by James Probst:
ISBN 0-8376-0301-3.

It's about $35-$45 from Borders.com see http://www.amazon.com/ . Select
books and then select search. Use the ISBN number (without dashes or spaces)
to do a search

Use the ISBN number and your local library can get you a loaner copy for free.
Only thing is you are limited to keeping the book for two weeks. It is very good,
and I found it to be very helpful.

For lots of great ideas and tech notes on upgrades and repairs, be sure to check
out http://forums.stangnet.com/showthread.php?t=643651 “Useful Technical Thread Index” sticky at the top of the 5.0 Tech forum.

Things that break often:
T5 5 speed manual transmission (syncros go bad, mostly 3rd gear)
TFI Module (Thin Film Ignition module - mounts on the distributor)
Electric door locks (see the link in my sig for a cheap & easy fix)
O2 sensors(oxygen sensors) They are good for about 60,000 miles and start to go
down hill after that.
TPS Sensor (Throttle Position Sensor) causes flaky problems with idle & acceleration.
Fog lights They overheat the wiring and cause the headlights to flicker. The fix is
cheap and simple if you can do electrical stuff.
Harmonic Balancer – they separate between the hub and outer ring. A harmonic
balancer puller is a must have to change it. You can rent or borrow a puller from
most of the larger auto parts stores.

Things that are very durable:
Engine - as long as it hasn't been abused, it will run good for 150,000-200,000
miles without an overhaul
Rear axle other than an occasional case of worn clutches in the traction lock,
they almost never have problems.
Computer - believe it or not, the computers seldom have problems of their own.
Most of the problems are with the sensors and the wiring.
Suspension – the front and rear suspension has very few problems if the car hasn’t
been wrecked or seen a lot of drag strip runs. The drag strip runs tend to distort and
tear the mount points for the rear axle control arms. Revving the engine up to 4000
RPM and dumping the clutch with slicks or drag radials tends to break things.

Things that don’t break often but are hard to fix:
Water pump mount bolts – they corrode and shear off when you try to change the
water pump.
Rear oil seal on the engine – lots of parts to remove to get to a $20 seal.
Power steering pump – the pumps are noisy and the pulley requires some special
tools to remove and install. If you have the tools, they are easy to do. Again, the
larger auto parts stores will rent or loan the tools for the pulley.
Power Steering rack - it is hard to get the toe in set so that you can drive the car
to the shop to get it properly aligned.
Starter – the top bolt is hard to get a socket on if you don’t have the right combination
of socket, universal joint and extensions.

Everything considered, 5.0 Mustangs are not hard to work on. They just require
some patience and though before you get started.

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