I got a silly question here... I plan on buying a pinto very soon, and knowing how the seats on these cars are I will end up replacing them... My question is: What other Fords will the seats bolt patterns match? I know where I can get Ford Escort GT seats, or some Ford Tempo seats, all of which are in great shape, and would look nice in a Pinto..
Also, will a Ford Tempo 2.3 engine fit in the Pinto? There was a carbed version of this engine in early 84, so engine electronics wouldn't be a problem.
If anyone knows, I would greatly appreciate the info, as it's been about 14 years since the last pinto my family owned.
Thanx :-*
I own a Ford Tempo with a FWD, transmounted 2.3. As far as "making it fit" in the Pinto, I don't see why not, although I don't know if the newer block has the capability of being mounted "normally" (ie, bolt hole locations for engine mounts). Of course, you could always pull the Tempo's engine *and* tranny and make a FWD Pinto.
I've thought about pulling my Tempo's seats and putting them in one of my wagons. Again, I think if the seats didn't bolt in stock, fabricating new seat mounts from angle stock shouldn't be hard at all. Check out 78Pinto's thread on "front end rebuild." On the 5th page of the thread, he gets into mounting new seats in his car and talks a bit about fabricating seat mounts.
the engines from a Pinto and a Tempo are not the same and will not interchange at all...two completely different designs. You can use a mustang or ranger 2.3 EFI, they are the same.
so either ranger or mustang 2.3 will fit the Pinto? Will the Pinto tranny bolt up to either one of these engines, or would I have to use the tranny from the car I get the engine from also?
Blocks are exactly the same. Only differance is the later model 2.3'3 have smaller main journals.
That's great news for me!!! I know of a junk yard that has plenty of rangers and mustangs in it. All I'd have to do is pull it, and inspect it to make sure it's all good.
Does anyone know if the Mustang 2.3 is a higher performance model of the Ranger 2.3?
Now, for the question regarding seat replacement.
Poison Pinto stated that if seats from a Tempo wouldn't fit that I could fabricate mounts using angle stock. My question is: what is angle stock, and where can I get some?
I like the way the seats in the Tempos look, and since the Mercury Topaz had a power driver seat, that would be a nice addition to the Pinto I get, whatever one I get.
Thanx for any help in this matter.
Tempo uses 2.3HSC which has nothing in common with the typical 2.3 we talk about. Later model 2.3 engines had fuel injection, dual plug head, no distributor and so on and so forth.
For seats, someone said once that you can put escort seats in by changing/mixing/modifying the seat rails.
"Angle stock" is angle iron (shaped like an "L"). You can also use channel iron (shaped like a "["). Look in your yellow pages for suppliers of sheet metal and/or machine shops. Some lumber yards may carry it also. You will have to drill holes for mounting bolts. A machine shop can do this for you if you don't have access to a drill press, etc. You'll need to take in your Pinto seats and Tempo seats, or have 100% accurate measurements.
You may also be able to fit the Tempo seats to the original Pinto supports using flat bar stock with holes drilled in it to bolt the two together. I don't know how similar they are as I have never taken the seats out of my Tempo to compare them to my Pinto, but if you can get under both cars and measure the bolt spacing for both seats on both cars where they come through the floor pans, you can see if it's a direct swap or how much difference there is.
I hope some of that made sense. It's been a long day....
Thank you for all the mentioned info, but I knew the Tempo 2.3 was different, as I used to own 2 of those pieces of junk... I just didn't know if there was a way to fit them in the Pinto... I will keep in mind though about fuel injection, and DIS ignition.
As for the seats, what years escorts ae you referring to? I Know the 86 and up use the same seats, and brackets as the Tempo, and line up the same, but I'm not too sure about placement of those in the Pinto.
Quote from: vbmdu on June 16, 2004, 10:08:06 PM
Tempo uses 2.3HSC which has nothing in common with the typical 2.3 we talk about. Later model 2.3 engines had fuel injection, dual plug head, no distributor and so on and so forth.
For seats, someone said once that you can put escort seats in by changing/mixing/modifying the seat rails.
That info does help out alot... I'll figure something out once I get the car.... Just gathering info so I'll know what i'm doing once I get it.
Thanx
Quote from: Poison Pinto on June 16, 2004, 10:22:38 PM
, but if you can get under both cars and measure the bolt spacing for both seats on both cars where they come through the floor pans, you can see if it's a direct swap or how much difference there is.
mustang seats (79-93) will also bolt onto the pinto seat rails with minor modifications (that also means tbird,lincoln mark VII and other fox body seats will work also) Tom has them in his '71
Cool..
The junk yards out by me have plenty of those, so I might go that route verses the Tempo seat route.
The only advantage I got is the yard I go to has a 30 day warrantee.. If the seats wouldn't fit, I could easily just return them for a full refund.
Thanx for the tip!! :)