how reliable is the 2.3?

On the highway running 85+ mph I averaged 27-29 mpg on a recent trip from Orlando to Gatlinburg, TN. Most of my commuter driving is city driving and I get 23 or 24 mpg. This is with a '91 2.3 auto. The motor was refreshed recently, but the tranny has 179,900 on the clock and still shifts well. I use the car mostly for commuting. I took it on the road trip because it gets better mileage than my 5.9 powered Ram 1500.

I think you'll be happy with the fuel mileage and dependability. Stepping out of the 5.0 into the 2.3 is gonna be a bit of culture shock, especially when you stomp the go pedal.

Like any vehicle, proper maintenance, past and present dictates the dependability of a vehicle. If the car hasn't been taken care of, expect to dish out cash catching up on maintenance.

In my experiance the motors themselves are unbreakable.....its just everything else that falls apart.

I bought mine for 100 bucks with over 100000 miles on it and i beat the living snot out of it everyday that i drive it....and it still runs as hard as ever. little things here and there go out, but nothing major. so far ive changed the thermostat, fuel relay...and i think those are the only necessary things that i had to change and thats in a little over a year....mines an 88 and the owner before me never checked his fluids.....

mikeflys1 said:

In my experiance the motors themselves are unbreakable.....its just everything else that falls apart.

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I would put that in my signature but theres no more room.

thats funnie right there I dont care who you are!

Both the 2.3s I've seen blown had almost 300,000 on them. And they still cranked.

140CILX-Coupe said:

I would put that in my signature but theres no more room.

thats funnie right there I dont care who you are!

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lol thanks i thought somebody would get a kick out of that.

Ran the piss outa my '93 for 5 years, always wanted more. Only Major thing I had to do was when I got it the Auto tranie went out because it had sat for a few years, and the seals cracked and watter got in there. After that, normal matence, Oil, plugs, timeing belt, stuff like that. Still ran great when I sold it.

From my observations, they are an excellent motor. I had a 74 that I drove across country with.

I just got an 89 2.3 auto with 134k and it seems to run very well. The basic engine is pretty stout.

My daily driver 1991 LX has 240,800 miles on it, completely original motor and original T5.

I just took it on an 8000 mile road trip from Jacksonville, FL to the Rocky Mts, Great Salt Lake Desert, Four State Corners, Los Angeles, Roswell NM, and finally back to Jacksonville.

Got 30mpg like clockwork until I hit the higher elevation where it obviously dropped, but I had to hold that thing at 4000 rpms in 3rd gear floored to make it up some of the hills (the car was loaded with my junk). Did fine.

In Wyoming, the headwind was so strong that I had to use 4th gear at 70mph to maintain highway speeds for several hours, motor did fine.

This entire trip, the car did not consume a single drop of oil.

Cooling fan died in LA traffic, the motor produced so little heat that I didn't realize the fan was dead until I was home in Orlando, FL. Was stop and go traffic about 5 times, it just got "warm". My 5.0L would've died within a few minutes.

My point in writing all of this, is to show how much faith I have in this motor. I knew what I was going to put it through, and didn't even think twice. City mileage sucks, 22-25, which makes little sense considering how slow the car is, but hey, its a Mustang.

Did I mention it didn't eat a drop of oil?

My 92 has 170+k on it. Auto tranny. Everything works. Main troubles I have seen revolved around the DIS module or the coils. I replaced my module, coils, plugs & wires when I got it. It runs great. I dont know my exact MPG, but I can fill up with premium and if I drive "normally" I can get a hair over 300 miles per tank.

I finnally killed my na engine this winter after 320k I cracked the head. They may not have a ton of power but damn they will run.

Seems that everybody luvs the FI 4 cycl's but what about the 86 back carbed ones,are they as good?

I've never owned one, but I can only assume they got even worse gas mileage than their EFI counterparts. And our EFI 2.3's get horrible city mileage.

my 79 turbo mustang is rated at 28 on the highway and about 14 in town but hey if you got the turbo you gotta use it

internals are pretty much bulletproof

dual plug ignition is a plus if you got it

my 93 has just over 200,000 and its running just fine