Too slow need help on 2.3

[FiveORookie]

Hey guys what's going on I just sold me 87 lx 5.0 and bought a beater of mustang. Its an auto 2.3 lx. The thing has problems getting out of its own way. Have a couple of quesitions

1) what is the horsepower, torque, 1/4 mile et and mpg of this little POS

2) Do all the cheap mods also apply to the 2.3 as the 5.0.... (eg timing, cooler thermostat, gutting the cat,)

3) Does anyone know how much nitrous this little beater can take???

I bought it to waste less gas than my 5.0 but damn I have had 5 other 4 bangers that ran a hell of a lot better than this. Pleaseeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee help.

[84LX89GT]

You just bought one of the slowest vehicles ford made in the late 80's. With 88 horsepower and 135 lb/ft of torque, the 2.3L isn't inclined to get out of it's own way. I have no idea why you sold a 5.0L to get an auto 2.3L and are worrying about performance
All the cheap mods to apply to the 2.3L.....if you're lucky you may squeeze as much as 100hp out of that puppy
I'd start by gutting the cat, colder t-stat, and if you really want to buy premium gas then advance the timing. Also you can pick up gear sets for the 7.5" rear axle for dirt cheap, especially from junkyard rangers which most have 3.73 or 4.10 gears, which would help alot. You can also take the intake tube off, and using a knife, cut out the inner diameter of the muffler which restricts the air intake (it says ford and is big between throttle body and air cleaner housing). You can also cut the bottom half of the air cleaner housing off if you feel like, since that's cheap also. Later rangers also have a header stock, which you can from what i hear install in your car. If you really feel like getting fancy you could buy a higher stall converter and shift kit to help keep the engine pulling instead of lugging, with gears this would help quite a bit.
I don't know how much nitrous you can use on a non-turbo 2.3L block, but the turbo 2.3L's regularly see about 14 lbs of boost easily. You might be able to run up to a 75 shot of nitrous before things start to melt and come unglued, but don't hold me to this.

Good luck,
by the way, my 5.0L gets 18mpg city and i had a manual trans 2.3L that averaged 21 city.....i'd much rather have a 5.0L but that's just me.

[FiveORookie]

I drive about 500 miles a week. mostly highway driving so I was wasting about $80 bucks on gas a week. Which sucks since I'm saving up to get married in two months. I got the 2.3 for dirt cheap $200 and its in failry good mechanical shape. I just wanted to see how much this little thing spin. I've been told they notoriusly sturdy engines so hopefully that stay true. Thanks about tip on the ranger gears. so I guess I have to start messing around and see what i can get out of this hink of clunker. I'm just the type of guy that I try to mess with whatever I have. I had Toyota pickup with a 22r carburated engine. Shaved head. LC engineering cam. Tweeked carb. Ran hard with a 4.10 rear end and stick. Sucks though when some lady runs a stop sign with no insurance and a suspended drivers license. Thanks man laters

Does anyone have any info on how much NOS these little clunkers can take???? What about compressiong and exact specs on the engine????

Vic

[lilmustang boy]

i have an 89 2.3 stang automatic... those engine have sum pep... i have squelled the tires before... mom wasnt happy but dad laughed pretty good... as for the eninge... as far back as my dad can remebr they cant be hurt... he drove abou 200km (sworry dont no miles as im a canuk) with out a rad or cooling fan in his pinto and did the speed limit and it didnt over heat... but just dont sit and run the engine when its hot out thats when it gets hot...