Is there a sig difference in these two motors performance wise? How about to the naked eye? Is there a viewing difference or do these motors look the same? Will the 2.5 bolt up to a 90 mustang LX the same as the 2.3?

 

yes it will, but you will run into all sorts of issues using a 95 or newer motor... the 95-up lima blocks no longer have a hole for a distributor so you would have to be running a DIS system, they use different crank and cam position sensors on the 95-up motors and the blocks dont have the mounting places for the older sensors... however yes teh 2.3 and 2.5 are basically teh same motor, the 2.5 is a stroked 2.3. for ease of installation a 94 or older 2.3 would be the best bet, if you want to stroke it out you can use the crank, rods and pistons in and older 2.3, the bore is the same and the crank journal diameters are the same. the biggest issue using the 95 up 2.3 or 2.5 though is the lack of the distributor. if you wanted to take the engine, wireing and computer from the 2.5 and install it all into the 90, computer and wireing and DIS system and all then yes the block will bolt to the tranny and the engine mounts (as long as the mustang has a 4-cyl in it now) but that would be a lot of wireing to swap from a FI engine to a FI engine... so a 94 or older 2.3 block will have the hole for the distributor (even though it has DIS the hole for the distributor is still there) so depending on what you currently have in there would figuire what would be easiest to use.

 

i currently have a 2.3 in it...

 

do you run a distributor? or is it distributorless?

the easiest thing to do if you wanted the 2.5 and can do the work yourself is to swap the pistons, connecting rods, and crank into your block. then you wont have to worry about other things working or not.

 

im running distributor...

 

ok, if you are running a distributor than you want to stay with a 94 and older block, because for the 95 year they eliminated the distributor hole in the block and changed where the oil pump is and a bunch of other little things. so for you bolting a 2.5 block in would not really work because of your distributor. you can however take the crank, and connecting rods, and pistons from a 2.5 and bolt them into the block you are currently useing as long as the block you have hasnt been bored over at all. or if you want to do the work to spare block, get a 94 or older 2.3 and the 2.5 crank, rods and pistons and bolt them in. all the 2.5 is is a stroked 2.3, the bore is the same.

 

Will the turbo kit for the 2.3 fit the 2.5 engine and is the turbo size enough for the engine turbo kit
What else would I need to complete the kit.

 

just so you know SSAutochrome has a very bad repution, they are known for using low quality parts and multiple people have had the welds on the manifolds come apart and such. You can easily piece together a turbo setup from the junkyard with factory ford parts, or even quality aftermarket parts and build a better setup for the money. also you have to think about rebuilding the block with forged pistons if you want to run any amount of boost over about 5 PSI.

 

What kind of power will I get with 5psi? how much were they boosting to break welds? From what car can I get the turbo manifold from? what about tuning?

 

well the turbo exhaust manifolds can be had off of any mustang SVO, thunderbird turbo coupe, or merkur XR4Ti along with the turbo. you would have to run an oil line to the turbo and then run a return line to the oil pan after adding a boss to the oil pan to attach the return line to. you will have to run the exhaust and intake pipeing on your own, along with an intercooler. you will have to figure out how to get the proper fueling and the correct programming control so you dont run lean. it takes quite a bit of work to turbo an existig setup properly. there are quite a few good books and other resources out there on turbocharging and forced induction that would be good to study up on.

another possibility is to get an entire engine, computer, wireing harness, and all sensors from a turbo coupe or XR4Ti or SVO and swap them into your truck and just do the wiring to get everything to work right.

 

what psi was the 2.3 turbo engine that ford made running?

 

those ran i think it was around 15 as a high, i know someone running about 21 on one of em.

 

Do they have interal wastegates? they should I would think? What would be the limit on them(boost)?

 

yea, the original IHI and T3 turbos have internal wastegates so you need to use the correct downpipe for it. the little IHIs can get up to around 17-18 lbs of boost before just dropping all efficiancy, the T3s are a little higher, then you could also do a t03/t04 hybrid and get even more. the biggest thing is can your engine handle more??? forged pistons and the fel-pro 1035 head gasket are a must. also the fueling needs to be able to handle it without going lean, only the original turbo setups have knock sensors, none of the newer (mid 80s up) lima motors in rangers have knock sensors integrated into the system so the engine doesnt know when it is detonating and about to blow a hole in a piston. but if you are using a complete turbo motor and computer then you will have the knock sensor as long as you wire things up correctly.