Ok I have a 72 trunk car with a 4-Speed and the tiny rear end with 3.55 gears I believe. When I bought the car I also picked up an 8" rear with springs and everything from a V-6 Pinto. (Will it bolt right in?) I also have a turbo 2.3 shortblock and a ported big valve head with a pretty big roller cam. I wanted to build a naturally aspirated but still pretty fast Pinto using the lower intake from a F.I. 2.3 and using the Racer Walsh 350 CFM 2BBL adaptor kit. I also have a nice never used full length headder for a 2.3 in a Pinto. I might go as far as to buy forged flat top pistons to get the compression up.
I have a few more questions.
1. how hard is it to replace the 2.0 with the 2.3? I heard you can adapt the 2.0 frame to motor mount to hold the 2.3. Add a bracket or something (Heard that from a Racer Walsh employee) I know an electric fan is needed due to the motor being longer. What is the best way in your opinion?
2. I plan on putting a World Class T-5 behind it and was wondering if the shifter will line up with the hole? What about the tranny cross member?
3. Have any of you done an N/A 2.3 conversion to a 2.0 car? What were your experiances?
My goal with the car:
120-160 HP with decent compression 9.5:1 or so. (CA. has onely 91 octain gas.)
4.11 posi (Have access to one)
WC T-5 with 3.35 first and .68 overdrive. (Will render a 2.79 final drive with 4.11s)
7200 RPM redline. (Recommended with the cam I am thinking of buying)
The usuall MSD 6-AL box and coil.
I am hoping for a good handling (Has no sway bar where can I get one?) Pinto that can run low 14s maybe high 13s in the 1/4 mile.
In the future I might convert to E.F.I. or E.F.I. turbo. Or maybe Nitrous. But I really want to try N/A at first and I figure I will have the ground work laid for any future mods including the turbo. I live in Fresno CA. and there are more parts cars than you could believe. (Unless you live in CA.) The junk yards are full of turbo T-Birds and Mustang 2s and Pintos.
Any ideas or thoughts on the subject are greatly appreciated. I need ideas! And maybe you guys could steer me clear of some mistakes.
Thanks
-Aaron
I believe you MAY run into fit issues with the 2.3 in a '72. I think the radiator support is different making you put the rad. on the outside. Other than that it ought to be a straight forward swap. When you get this "HOT" N/A 2.3 built please let me know how it goes, I'm thinking of doing the same thing in my '74.
Sure will. My friend says if we cant get an honest 150 HP out of it we should push it into the lake. So I feel we might be able to achieve that much. I mean the ported big valve head flows pretty good. I just have to keep the compression to a street gas friendly level.
Aaron, my 73 has a turbo 2.3L and a 5spd out of an 85 SVO. I didn't do the install but my friend did. If I remember correctly he said he flipped the 2.0L mounts over and rewelded them into a new location. As you stated above, you will need to use an electric fan to keep the temp down. My car uses the stock radiator in the stock location. He used the stock cross memeber for the 5spd but I am not sure if he had to relocate it or not. I assume he did. The shifter opening had to be trimmed slightly to clear the shifter. The 8" bolted right into my car. Let me know if you have any other questions. I will answer them as best as I can. I attached a picture below.
Tigger- Thanks for the advise on the motor mounts. I just have to be sure they will clear the Pinto headder I have. But it sounds like it might clear better than before. Maybe it will make removing the starter less of a headach! It took me two hours to figure out how to remove it! I had to finnaly take the down pipe off and that was the onely way to weasil it out. It took me an hour to finnaly give in and realize it will not come out easy like the one in my Maverick did. (10 Minutes)
Wow! How did you do that passenger side carbed turbo? I imagine there was alott of fabrication involved! I was thinking of doing a blow through carbed turbo on mine in the future. But I was going to use a carb box to enclose the carb on the drivers side so I can intercool it. How does that set up perform?
The intake and carb setup came with the motor and transmission. We don't know much about it. The person my friend bought the motor and transmission from said this was motor was used for prototyping? Currently, the setup does not work well. I think something is wrong with the carb (500cfm holley) It run rich at an idle and leans way out under boost. I have another Holley that I may throw on to see if it makes a difference for now. Long term, it will get converted to fuel injection. I have a few more parts to round up before that happens..
Hey Tigger, can you send me more pictures of that intake manifold? I would like to see it and also the turbo/carb set up. Also, does the hood shut over the air cleaner????
Hey Tigger, BTW I will be in Portland on July 4th......hint hint....
Sorry for the delay. I have been busy lately. I finally made it to my friends house where the car is stored at to take some more pictures of the engine. Unfortunately I will be out of town next weekend. I just got my boat running so we will be down at Detroit Lake messing around.
Another picture
Another.....
The boat