turbo ford 2.3l?

[jake149]

urbo 2.3 in jeep

I am currently building a ford 2.3l Turbo motor with intentions of putting it in a 2wd ranger. Yea I like this idea about going fast but I'd rather be in a jeep any day of the week.

I did have a lifted Cherokee but sold it for a bike, so I'm not new to this.

I'd like some opinions, facts, statements,help, or input on this. What kind of jeps have you seen these in, I know they've been in cj's and yjs. Has anyone had experience with this?

Will it be a problem with the Turbo trying to spool and nit making enough power?? Or will it be fine.

My last xj had a 4.5" lift with 33's. I'd like to go bigger now.

Any questions just ask.or any thoughts I'm all ears

 

[Jimbos76cj]

what are you trying to do with it?? if its just going to be a mall crawler then the turbo motor would not be to bad.. If your a mud or rock guy I would think the lag in spooling would be an issue. Normally off road torque is required more then HP. with few exceptions crawling is finesse with the power not balls to the walls. Im not a big turbo guy so Im sure some one else will chime in. Oh do they make adapters for this type of swap or will you be fabbing all this by hand?

 

[derf]

Yep. It's all about what you're going to do with it.

Street driving, it'll be fine. Even mudding or dune running will be good. High engine speed with a constant power need is just fine for a turbo.

Trail riding or rock crawling won't be as good. There's a reason just about every single trail rig out there doesn't have a turbo. You don't want that big kick of power when you're trying to finesse your Jeep over the obstacles in front of you. That's a good way to have "unintended consequences", like shooting over an obstacle into a tree or, worse, a crowd of people.

 

[cass]

i think it would be great with a 2.3 non turbo. i just got rid of my dune buggy that had a built 2.3 in it and i loved it. milled head, roller cam, roller rockers, double valve spring, msd ignition, holley 350 carb, ported lower intake. it ran very very good for a 4 cylinder. i would love to have that motor back and in my CJ5 :drool:

 

[1986cj7]

Yep. It's all about what you're going to do with it.

Street driving, it'll be fine. Even mudding or dune running will be good. High engine speed with a constant power need is just fine for a turbo.

Trail riding or rock crawling won't be as good. There's a reason just about every single trail rig out there doesn't have a turbo. You don't want that big kick of power when you're trying to finesse your Jeep over the obstacles in front of you. That's a good way to have "unintended consequences", like shooting over an obstacle into a tree or, worse, a crowd of people.

I don't know much about turbos, but that they kick in at a point in accelarting so this maybe a stupid question-idea can the turbo be bypassed with a switch or some mechanical linkage, if so you could turn it off for rock climbing and other obsticales and have it for mud or on the street. Like I said I don't know anything about turbos so this may be a stupid reply.:dunno::dunno:

 

[derf]

Sure. You can put some kind of valve in your exhaust to divert exhaust around the turbo. Or put a manually operated pressure release in the intake side. But I think it would be more trouble than its worth.

But if you never intend to need the low speed, low throttle finesse, there's nothing wrong with running a turbo.