School me on the 2.3L turbo.

[DON SVO]

-Broke a piston when the fuel harness failed and leaned out cylinder #1.
-Sheared the teeth off my distributor gear and mangled the auxiliary shaft.
-Rebuilt motor sucked up trash (reused the pickup, my fault) on the first start, while idling, starved the motor and required new main bearings.
-constant charging issues related to shitty wiring
-Blew an intercooler pipe off and broke the worm gear clamp at 3am in a dark-as-fuck area without a flashlight or tools.

Aside from that it was a good car.

[4EyedTurd]

I'm with Cooter they aren't that bad if you address the known issues. I've had pretty good luck with all of my 2.3t's

[dumpycapri85]

I guess I was just leading a charmed life back then, but I really never had any major problems with any of my 2.3t's [/QUOTE]

I never had any major problems either but it just seams like it was always something . After you mod everything then it may be semi reliable .

[46Tbird]

Fuel injector harness?

Cracked oil supply line, which sprayed a fine oil mist over the exhaust manifold. Here were some other adventures:

- sheared 14 teeth off the 7.5 ring gear
- blew five head gaskets before swapping to ARP head studs - then burned a piston
- burned two exhaust valves
- went through a few alternators and about a half million spark plugs
- the ubiquitous Fox body ignition switch gremlins

I swapped out the .48 a/r T3 with a .63 T3/T4 hybrid and it was actually pretty quick like that. I was lucky that the car was built from an '86 SVO so it had the PE computer and the larger (36lb?) injectors. I put a 255lph in-tank pump for a V8 Mustang in it. I spent three days grinding away at the cast iron manifold for probably zero gain. I didn't run a cat converter, and the SVO T-5 held up fine. The Ranger 2.3 roller cam was a nice upgrade IMO. I put a Mark VII 8.8 in it, then swapped the 3.27s for 4.30s - and it was a lot slower after that, go figure. The liquid to air intercooler was cool as hell, but I got greedy with the boost, hence the burned up piston and the swap to a V8.

And after all that, it was way faster and more reliable with a mild 302. I still like the 2.3T cars but I really don't want another one. It did get me REAL comfortable with working on my own cars though.

[talisman]

Cracked oil supply line, which sprayed a fine oil mist over the exhaust manifold. Here were some other adventures:

- sheared 14 teeth off the 7.5 ring gear
- blew five head gaskets before swapping to ARP head studs - then burned a piston
- burned two exhaust valves
- went through a few alternators and about a half million spark plugs
- the ubiquitous Fox body ignition switch gremlins

I swapped out the .48 a/r T3 with a .63 T3/T4 hybrid and it was actually pretty quick like that. I was lucky that the car was built from an '86 SVO so it had the PE computer and the larger (36lb?) injectors. I put a 255lph in-tank pump for a V8 Mustang in it. I spent three days grinding away at the cast iron manifold for probably zero gain. I didn't run a cat converter, and the SVO T-5 held up fine. The Ranger 2.3 roller cam was a nice upgrade IMO. I put a Mark VII 8.8 in it, then swapped the 3.27s for 4.30s - and it was a lot slower after that, go figure. The liquid to air intercooler was cool as hell, but I got greedy with the boost, hence the burned up piston and the swap to a V8.

And after all that, it was way faster and more reliable with a mild 302. I still like the 2.3T cars but I really don't want another one. It did get me REAL comfortable with working on my own cars though.

Cracked oil line, check. Broken ring and pinion, check. Blew 4? head gaskets before melting a piston? Check. Something like 6 alternators? Check. Mine was an 84, so I found the upgraded later intake of a Merkur at Awesome Auto Salvage for $20, and put an upgraded turbo(old one blew) build by Dave, and got rid of the cat all at the same time. Suddenly, it was a decently quick little car for awhile. Until I melted a piston, which went up into the head, and then blew the newish turbo. That was when it got a 302.

[JC316]

Timing belt job on that motor sucks when you are doing it for the first time. Kept winding up a tooth off, figured out that the crankshaft keyway isn't the timing mark, but there is a little arrow one tooth to the right of it. What really sucked is that the crankshaft keyway lined up perfectly with the TDC mark because the old timing belt was so stretched out.

[JC316]

Well, I have finished it up. It won't be going up for sale though. My mom decided that she likes it better than her 30th anniversary bird. In other news, that 30th will be up for sale before too long.

[talisman]

When you hand her the keys make sure you gift her a Triple A membership.

[JC316]

When you hand her the keys make sure you gift her a Triple A membership.

Being stock, I don't think it will be that bad. I will add the grounds, check the wiring and all that before anything.

[76 Maverick]

I can't believe there is that little faith in the 2.3.... While i haven't driven my svo much, my old 87 converted coupe i never had any trouble with and it wasn't completely stock....

[Skidonenko]

Where would be a good place to pickup a long block and trans?(turbo or N/A) looking for a new heart for my falcon but dont want to beef it up for a 302.

Or anyone know where to get a 200-250 I-6 locally?