Posted by Charlie (IP: 131.204.59.116) on October 31, 1999 at 17:36:27:
In Reply to: To all who were following the 2.3 Turbo thread below posted by Bug Bug on October 30, 1999 at 21:38:59:
: Let me put it simply. Are you guys friggin sick?? I'm not talking about the people who considered installing one, I'm talking to the idiot or idiots who claim that they are not streetable and don't go fast. You used to drive a `75 Camaro with a tunnel rammed 305 with dual 750's and a "3/4 race" cam when you were a kid, didn't you? The turbo 2.3L is THE bang for the buck Ford engine today. Guys are even turning away from 5.0L engines to use these. Why? They are cheap, they produce incredible power for their size, easily modified, lighter (better weight balance and handling), and are TOTALLY streetable in ANY trim. You bring up Joe Morgans turbo Pinto. It runs 10.75 in the 1/4 mile, and he drives the car EVERY DAY!! It's good on gas, has excellent street manners, and doesn't puke fluids sitting in the Del Taco drive-thru. You ask how I know? Simple, I've been in the car. Joe is a friend of mine, and we took it out for a ride while I was visiting him. Car rides excellent for a Pinto, takes off like a rocket, and has NO problems sitting in traffic. I have built several of these engines, and am in the proccess of building a FULL RACE version for my car, which by the way, will be totally streetable if needed. Hows 500+ hp sound from a 2.3L? Now I am going all out on mine, and spent a good chunk on an aftermarket head, but this is not required for most people as i am aiming for the 9's. Wanna know why Joe runs the nitrous? Spool time. His turbois optimized to be launched on the squeeze. The turbo he uses is a STANDARD UPGRADE HYBRID, not a "race" unit as one of you implied. It is the same turbo any 2.3 guy would get when upgrading from stock. Joe just chose an oversized turbine housing for drag racing use which requires help spooling up at the line, so he launches on the juice. By going back to the normal sized housing (which just bolts on while still in the car), the car would do high 11's without the juice. He just chose to go faster, but the larger housing hurts spool time off the bottle. As for what is stock on his engine. Lemme see. STCOK block, STOCK crank, STOCK pistons, STOCK cylinder head casting (ported with bigger valves, but still a stock Ford casting), STOCK Ford Ranger camshaft, STOCK manifolds (ported, but still stock ford castings), STOCK throttle body, STOCK computer, STOCK injectors, STOCK air meter, etc. Trans? How about a C4 with a STOCK flexplate, and STOCK Pinto torque conveter. Trans got your average street/strip rebuild, but he also opted for full roller bearings for more reliability on the street and less parasitic drag. Rear? STOCK 8" housing with STOCK carrier. Nothing but a Detroit locker and 4.11's added (he had a STOCK Ford trac-lok, but the gears started making noise and he got the whole pumpkin with gears and D-locker cheap). He recently installed an 9" into it, not for reliability (as the old 8" was installed into his friends car), but becasue Strange came out with a new carrier to allow the use of 8.8" gears and differential which have less parasitic drag than the 8" or 9".
: So, you tell me one car you can build for under $5000 that can run 10's. Hell, find me one BBF engine that you can rebuild to be totally reliable for street driving and be able to propel a car into the 10's for under $3000? You need to wake up and get out of the `60's with your bullshit thinking. Given the same spending limit (say $5000 for example), the 2.3 turbo will almost always be faster and handle better than a V8 car, and if not, it will be damn close. And yes, we LOVE the look on you guys faces when we hand you your ass with a 4 banger :) You should try looking into the TurboFord list at Egroups.com where we have a bunch of guys doing 11's and 12's with these engines.
: Oh, and as for why the stock turbo cars were slow (slow in your mind that is), you obviously never drove one or checked specs. The SVO Mustang was FASTER than the GT in those years. The T-birds were just too damn heavy for the 175hp they were given, and the Merkurs shred rears becasue they installed a shitty rear to make the car cost effective. Not to mention that the Stangs weighed in at a beefy 3100 pounds and the Turbo Coupes at 3400+ pounds. Hows 250 hp from an SVO for under $100 in mods sound? Pick up the Nov `99 issue of Muscle Mustang & Fast Ford where Ken Schultz's SVO walke all over a supercharged Cobra that cost OVER twice as much. The magazine even rigged it to make the SVO lose in certain events and it didn't work. They were only supposed to get 3 runs each and they ran the Cobra 9 TIMES to try and get a better time and couldn't do it. And the SVO was set up for autocrossing, so it didn't even have a drag tuned suspension. Wake up dude.