PINTO CAR CLUB of AMERICA

Welcome to FordPinto.com, The home of the PCCA => General Help- Ask the Experts... => Topic started by: Don Geren on December 28, 2014, 10:56:50 AM

Title: 2.3 Pinto engine useage
Post by: Don Geren on December 28, 2014, 10:56:50 AM
I need to know what Ford cars and years  that will work in my  automatic 1978 Pinto. I want to stay with the 2.3 Ford engine. I also do not want to use a fuel injection system  thanks for your response   Don
Title: Re: 2.3 Pinto engine useage
Post by: amc49 on December 28, 2014, 07:36:19 PM
'74 and later Mustang II, Pinto, Bobcat and Fairmont models, thinking Capri too.  Motors very close to the same but the emission equipment on them changes almost year by year, could be important if you have to have all that period correct. Depends on the state you're in. There are possible issues with round as versus D type intake ports. The D showed up around '82 or so. Ford went to fuel injection across the board around '86, so a cutoff point there.
Title: Re: 2.3 Pinto engine useage
Post by: D.R.Ball on December 30, 2014, 03:24:08 PM
A Ford 2.3 Lima Engine is the same except for some heads have different bolt hole configuration for intake manifolds , and of course if it has a distributor or not....So in other words any 2.3 lima engine would bolt right in , it just on how YOU WANT the fuel and spark to be run....You can remove the EFI and with an adapter run a carb. Check with Esslinger for more information you are not limited to just post 1986 engines....
Title: Re: 2.3 Pinto engine useage
Post by: amc49 on December 30, 2014, 07:18:29 PM
I am not 100% sure but do they remove the fuel pump hole from the block on EFI blocks? They did on Tempos for sure when they went to EFI. It saves machine work at the factory. And following that would the aux shafts be blank on the pump lobe? I do not know for sure.
Title: Re: 2.3 Pinto engine useage
Post by: amc49 on December 30, 2014, 08:10:06 PM
After a bit of digging....... ........74-88 interchange... ...........'89 went to DIS and no distributor, the crank sensor does it (requires a PCM, TFI ignition).............. .....'95 for sure has no distributor hole at all, cam sensor is on aux shaft and oil pump too........... .............s ome early '90s had a completely different bolt pattern on intake that then only accepts EFI intakes, and some Ranger engines had 8 plugs (DIS) or straight round intake runners that the angled early 2.3 intakes will not work on. One carb in there is a one barrel. There is a dead straight non-angled D port Ranger head too. So, they clearly do not all interchange if one wants carb only and as would probably follow, distributor too.

Depending on what state you're in again, you may well be required to hit the emission specs of the engine not the car at inspection time, the later you go the harder that will be to do with a carb.
Title: Re: 2.3 Pinto engine useage
Post by: r4pinto on January 01, 2015, 07:11:55 AM
Don't forget amc49 that the tempo 2.3 is a totally different engine and the only similarity is that it has 4 spark plugs and is cast iron. Other than that there is nothing the same about the 2.3 pinto engine versus the 2.3 tempo engine