I need more horsepower!

[bobbylx]

Ok its driving me crazy. I have one friend who drives an 04 Lightning and another who drives an 04 mustang GT. When I hop in my 2.3 it just makes me sick. So.....what can I do with limited money if anything? I always check Ebay and found a T3 turbo and exhaust manifold for $50. I know its not good for the N/A motor to run turbo but is there a way to limit the boost? Oh yeah, I should mention that I am a pretty good mechanic, but my 88 2.3 is my first car that actually has EFI. I am originally and old school carburator kinda guy. I have opened up my air flow some by cutting a larger opening in the air filter box, bumped up the timing a tiny bit and done lots of other little tweaks I could find. Since I am married and paying for my wifes car and a house I really don't have the money to do a complete Turbo swap at this time, but am planning on it a couple years down the road.
Maybe I could put a newer throttle body on with the turbo and just make sure I don't blow a piston or something? Also, how would I control how much boost I am using? Is there a valve or something? Anyway, I am just frustrated with my slow car really don't know much about turbo's so any help or advice would be good. Keep in mind this is all trying to get done on a low budget, along with all my body work
Thanks

 

[mr_woodster]

would be cheap if you can find a completeturbo motor in a savalge yard or a complete turbocoupe donor. Ive seen complete motors go for 50-300$ in price at pick-a-part, look around see what kind of deal you can swing!

 

[351wcoupe]

ok with everything I have including the turbo and nitrous I can run with newer stock lightnings easy but with minimal mods I better go back to work.

 

[Pro-Hawk]

The end to all our problems is to stop wanting....

 

[JamesBaumann]

Run a search on this forum, this has been over a thousand and one times, I promise that you will find answers to all the questions that you asked and more. Don't get your hopes up though, other than a turbo swap there is really nothing you can do to get a lot of power out of a n/a 2.3 motor. Atleast not with little money anyway.

 

[351wcoupe]

The end to all our problems is to stop wanting....

I've discussed this over and over again also. Theres been a few weeks were I just take the car, make no changes and just try to drive it identically the same everytime.....At first that was the biggest challenge I've had. Now its gotten to be clock work. So if I ever get a weekend off I should go a couple rounds of bracket racing anyway.