This website is a little bit more than just performance tuning the 2.3L Ford engine. There's really not too much performance parts that will
deliver inexpensive hp. It seems that when anyone wants power from these babies, they jump to turbocharging which is costly. This site looks at
inexpensive ways of coaxing power out of the engine. The most expensive modification and probably the best place to start spending money is to go to
a higher rear end gear ratio - documented farther down.
These mods will work with pretty much any 2.3L Ford, I have one in my Ford Ranger and that's the basis that I will be working with.
The 2.3L Ford Ranger engine is pretty weak and I've been slowly modifying it to get more push out of it. When I first bought the truck in 2005,
anything below 2100 rpm was dogging it. It was pitiful. Here's a list of simple mods that have had good return, I noticed that after all of these
mods, the useable rpm dropped from 2100 rpm until its now around 1200 rpm. At 1200 rpm in 4th gear, I can press on the gas and actually accelerate
- nothing to write home about but compared with the nothing I had before, it's great! An added bonus is the increase in gas mileage.
There will be some confusion as to the gas mileage gains when you read through the webpages. I'll try to put the increases in gas mileage with the modifications:
Most of these modifications are damn cheap if not free (except for
the rear end swap):
- Check your tire pressure!
I receive a few emails from people who want to increase their gas mileage. Here's the simplest way that's good for 1-3 mpg, inflate your cold tire pressure to the maximum setting for your tires! Check your tires and on the sidewall will be written the maximum tire pressure. My front tires which are summer/winter radials have a max psi of 30. The rear tires which are mud and snow have a max of 40 psi. My trailer tires are 50 psi.
- Intake muffler modification
The plastic tube between the air filter box and the throttle body housing has a muffler in it to smooth out the back flow from the cylinders
when downshifting. It is very easy to take apart.
- Free flow air filter
Adding a free flow air filter instead of the factory unit makes a huge difference and adds a growl when you floor it.
- Disable EGR
The EGR (exhaust gas recirculation) valve's job is to introduce exhaust back into the intake manifold to reduce emissions at the expense of
power and gas mileage. This seems to be utterly stupid especially because exhaust gases are added after the fuel/air mixture is determined. It
seems to be defeating the purpose of a proper air/fuel mixiture!
- Ram Air
Adding ram air to the free flow air filter increases your gas mileage and your power at highway speeds as it acts like a mini supercharger. Still
thinking about the easiest way to do this. One way is to move the battery to where the old air filter box is to make room for some mods to the
radiator support. The other way is to add a small hood scoop to the passenger side of the hood.
CK emailed me with a simple method to provide cool air to the KnN style air filter. It looks like a great way to start the ram air webpage!
- Throttle Body Spacer
CK also had this trick up his sleeve - adding a throttle body spacer to increase performance.
- Synthetic motor oil
This one surprised me as the engine really likes synthetic oil - it quieted down big time and added a couple hundred more rpm at the low end!
- Catalytic Convertor
Tested out the catalytic convertor to see if it was plugged and affecting the performance by pounding out the innards. There are screens at each end
of the catalytic converter that must be removed before the innards can be removed. In my case, it was severely restricted
and performance improved substantially - especially the gas mileage which increased dramatically on the highway!
- Went to a higher octane gas
I was running regular and with the unplugged catalytic convertor, I could hear a slight pinging sound on acceleration. The old non computer controlled
vehicles would make a hell of a racket if you were detonating but the new ones detect detonation and back off the timing. The result is poor performance.
I switched from regular 86 octane to 92 octane and no more detonation and more power at low rpm in the 1300 to 1600 range!
- Change to an electric fan
The mechanical fan robs you of 5 to 10 hp at highway speeds. The engine is powering it for no reason as the air moving at 60 mph is more than adequate to cool the rad. An electric fan is only turned on when you need it. I've purchased an electric fan and am currently researching the proper temperature switch to use and where to put it (intake hose or outlet hose). The 2.3L has no temperature sensor mounting hole so I'll have to make an inline one - basically a metal tube with a nut welded to it so that the coolant temperature switch can screw into it. You cut the rad hose and clamp it between the two pieces. The mid-80s SAAB 900 has an inline hose that would work if you can find one.
- Coolant Temperature Sensor
The coolant temperature sensor is read by the computer to determine when to go off choke mode and to programmable fuel injection. I've read that the temperature must reach 190 degF for this to happen. If your 2.3L temperature gauge reads low like mine - just barely into the normal range when warm. You are going to waste fuel as the computer thinks that the engine is still cold long after its warmed up and adds more fuel than needed. I'm replacing my local parts store sensor with one directly from Ford - that should fix this problem.
Surprisingly, none of the wiring diagrams for 90s and up Rangers, show where the temperature gauge receives its signal from. The sensor go directly to the computer but where does the temperature gauge get its source? I started researching this after I saw a guy selling a power module for the 2.3L engine on ebaymotors. It goes between the coolant or air intake temperature sensor.
- Air Intake Temperature Sensor
The computer reads the air intake temperature and adjusts the air temperature to 70 degF - ideal temperature for the 2.3L according to the sources I've read. The computer uses the exhaust heat riser valve to control the temperature. I know that in cold weather (below -10 degC), I get very poor gas mileage and the engine takes forever to warm up. I'll have to explore the whole engine temperature concept further.
- Electronic Fuel Injection Modifications
I've been researching some inexpensive ways of improving performance by modifying the electronic fuel injection (EFI) components. Here's the theory
behind what works and what may work.
- Advancing the camshaft timing.
Advancing the camshaft timing in relation to the crankshaft will lower the power curve range on your engine. This means that the power curve will start at a lower rpm. Retarding the cam timing, increases the power curve - the power curve will start later at a higher rpm. One reader advanced his cam timing by slipping the timing belt by one camshaft gear tooth. He reported that it gave a lot more low end torque and power but that there were other problems. Advancing the cam timing in this manner would advance the cam by about 18 deg which is way too much and NOT RECOMMENDED. A safe range would be 4 to 6 deg with 6 degree probably ideal. I'll give this a try in the future. There are timing keys and adjustable timing gears that you can purchase to do this but I have to research it further. Racer Walsh sells adjustable cam gears., so does Need HP - division of Summit racing.
- Select a hotter cam
The least expensive swap is to grab a roller cam, followers and lifters from a 1989-92 Ranger or 91 and up Mustang if you have a hydraulic cam. Otherwise there's a lot of cams available for the hydraulic lifter but very little performance cams for the roller cam. The performance roller cams tends to be almost twice the price of the hydraulic cams if you can find one. Camcraft sells a decent performance cam for the street. Here's a great website that discusses the many cams available: Merkurencyclopedia
- Lower gear ratio (most expensive mod)
This one is a must to do if you plan on spending money! I've replaced the 3.08 gears with 3.73 gears. The 3.08 gears are way too low - I hardly use 5th gear!
At 120 km/hr (70 mph), the engine is turning around 1600 rpm and nothing happens when I floor the gas pedal. I want it to be in the
beginning/middle of its power band which is about 2500 rpm. The 3.73 gears are fantastic! What a difference, I have pulling power down to 1500 rpm
- not much but at least its usable now! I've found that my shifting habits have changed, instead of shifting at 3000 rpm, I'm shifting at 2500 and
driving around town in 4th at 1600 rpm with no problem. If you are going to spend money on a modification - CHANGE THE GEAR RATIO FIRST! After driving
for a couple of months now, I would even consider going to 4.10 gears with my tire size. I've listed
some gotcha's at the end of the page.
- Exhaust Modifications
I recommend going to a free flowing non catalytic convertor exhaust system if possible. I do NOT recommend adding headers. The stock exhaust manifold is
well designed and perfectly adequate up to 5000 rpm. If you have a pre 90s 2.3L, you may want to consider swapping in the header style cast exhaust manifold from a 90s Ranger - they 're plentiful at the junkyards and cheap.
I've studied swapping in headers and free flow exhausts for about 40 years now and have concluded that
any performance gains you will see from headers will only been seen above 5000 rpm. Around 3000 rpm, you won't seen any performance increase
at all. I've replaced the catalytic convertor with a straight pipe and it works great. The stock Ranger muffler gives a nice throaty sound. I've left it at the stock 2" dia piping as I've heard that going larger will hurt your bottom end torque which is exactly what I don't want to do.
I picked up some exhaust pipe tape/wrap (header wrap). It is an insulation material that you wrap your exhaust pipe and manifold up with to keep the heat in. It's costs about $50 for a 2 inch x 50 foot roll. It serves two purposes:
- Keeps the underhood temperature lower. Engine runs cooler and cooler air to the intake. Supposed to make underhood temperatures lower by 50%
- Keeps the hot exhaust gas in the exhaust pipe which increases the exhaust gas speed providing better scavenging of the cylinders during the exhaust cycle. Engine breathes better. Supposed to be good for 2 or 3 hp.
Here's a website that shows how to wrap an exhaust pipe with the exhaust wrap as an example.
- Intake modifications
Over at Merkurencyclopedia they have some nice instructions on porting the upper and lower intakes for maximum flow - doesn't look to hard (famous last words!).
- Head Work
Essingler Racing has race proven heads but make sure you bring your checkbook cause they ain't cheap! If you want to get down right radical, you can put a Volvo DOHC head on your 2.3L that flows absolutely amazing. Of course there is a little bit of machining and fabrication required to make it all work.
Not a performance modification, but it may result in better fuel economy if your idle speed is lower. I felt that the idle speed was set a
little bit too high at 800 rpm and tried the procedure on the Adjusting the Idle Speed webpage to reduce it.
It didn't work for my 1992 Ford 2.3L but it may work for your application.
If you have some tips and tricks that squeeze a little more power out of your 2.3L Ford and you want to share them, contact me at: