86 mustang lx 4 cyl

04-24-2001, 03:00 AM

If you want some cheap power rip off the exhaust starting with the catalytic converter back and take out the air filter and box (only if you don't care about the engine or lots of noise). More practical things to do are 180* thermostat, If you have a die grinder get some stones or carbide burrs and port the intake manifold, and then blend it with sandpaper rolls. Port match the exhaust and intake manifolds, taking off the exhaust after the cat will reduce noise a little and give you a bit of power also. Not much you can do to noticably increase 2.3L power. Advance timing from 10* (i believe is stock) to about 14 or 16 degrees depending on how far you can go before it pings or detonates on acceleration.)another thing you can do is take the bottom of the air box and cut away everything just below the air filter so it's exposed and breathes easier. Another idea is to take the air inlet tube (from the Mass Airflow sensor to the throttle body) and cut out the inside restriction (inside the tube you'll see it decreases in diameter from about 2" to about 1 1/2" and i believe in pre-'91 2.3L mustangs you can cut out this part of the air intake muffler -the big oval shape thing in the middle of the tube-). You should be able to get 5-10hp alone from the thermostat, de-restricting the intake tube and exposing the air filter to air (the stock airbox is pretty restrictive) maybe even more hp....i couldn't tell you because i don't have a 2.3 anymore or a chassis dyno. Good luck and have fun!

Actually some of this may not apply since i don't know if your car is carbureted or not...
------------------
'84 Mustang 5.0 T5, FMS aluminum radiator & 180* t-stat, 1 5/8 shortys/2.5" duals, '88 GT tail lights and wheels, Holley 4160 4 BBL, FMS smog pump idler

[This message has been edited by 84stangLX (edited 04-24-2001).]

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04-24-2001, 03:00 AM	#2
84stangLX Guest Posts: n/a	If you want some cheap power rip off the exhaust starting with the catalytic converter back and take out the air filter and box (only if you don't care about the engine or lots of noise). More practical things to do are 180* thermostat, If you have a die grinder get some stones or carbide burrs and port the intake manifold, and then blend it with sandpaper rolls. Port match the exhaust and intake manifolds, taking off the exhaust after the cat will reduce noise a little and give you a bit of power also. Not much you can do to noticably increase 2.3L power. Advance timing from 10* (i believe is stock) to about 14 or 16 degrees depending on how far you can go before it pings or detonates on acceleration.)another thing you can do is take the bottom of the air box and cut away everything just below the air filter so it's exposed and breathes easier. Another idea is to take the air inlet tube (from the Mass Airflow sensor to the throttle body) and cut out the inside restriction (inside the tube you'll see it decreases in diameter from about 2" to about 1 1/2" and i believe in pre-'91 2.3L mustangs you can cut out this part of the air intake muffler -the big oval shape thing in the middle of the tube-). You should be able to get 5-10hp alone from the thermostat, de-restricting the intake tube and exposing the air filter to air (the stock airbox is pretty restrictive) maybe even more hp....i couldn't tell you because i don't have a 2.3 anymore or a chassis dyno. Good luck and have fun! Actually some of this may not apply since i don't know if your car is carbureted or not... ------------------ '84 Mustang 5.0 T5, FMS aluminum radiator & 180* t-stat, 1 5/8 shortys/2.5" duals, '88 GT tail lights and wheels, Holley 4160 4 BBL, FMS smog pump idler [This message has been edited by 84stangLX (edited 04-24-2001).]