Alternative 2.3 engines/parts? 1988 Ranger
 

I just picked up my first Ranger tonite. Last owner did lots of work for safety inspection and then took it for etest, and they wouldn't even test it because of the white smoke. He pulled off head and didn't notice anything wrong with gasket and reassembled w/old gasket, and got cam timing way off. ( sounds pretty dumb idea to me) Anyway, I am going to try a headgasket, but am wondering about alternative 2.3 4cyl motors if that doesn't fix it. Iknow the tempo/topaz hsc is totally different, but am wondering about other year rangers, mustangs and I have a 1987 Tbird turbo coupe rotted to bits but runs awesome.

Are parts/heads etc interchangable on these 2.3s? or am I barking up the wrong tree? I am a truck/coach mechanic but have NO experience with the 2.3, other than the 87/88 turbo coupes(I've had 3 of those without any work needed)

Thanks in advance for any help, tips, advice, even constructive criticisms.

White smoke means burning antifreeze. You don't ever reuse the head gasket on one of these. My thought is that if the P.O. was too inexperienced a mechanic to know this and couldn't get the cam timing correct, how would he even know what to look for to tell if the head gasket was bad?

Yank that puppy back off and have the head magnafluxed for cracks and checked for warpage. If it's okay then look more closely at the block, though a cracked block in these is somewhat unusual.

That T-bird turbo coupe motor is basically the same engine, and swapping one in complete with turbo is a pretty popular swap. It has forged pistons to handle the added cylinder pressure of the turbo as well as a turbo oil drainback hole cast into the block. But it could be built for non-turbo application as well and used as a stock replacement for your Ranger engine. The head should interchange as well, though there could be a difference in port shape...

First off thanks to whoever deleted my other duplicate post.

TigerDan: The PO definitely had very little experience, and I am counting on him not noticing a burnt fire ring or anything else bad. I went to my local autoparts store today and asked them for a price on head rebuild kit and JUST a head gasket. $83 or $25 ? I ordered just the head gasket, and will pull apart sometime this week, if the head gasket looks bad to me I'll change it and see if it stops smoking. Cat will probably be full of unburnt antifreeze so I'll probably have to run it for a while.

I have been reading up some on the 87/88 Tbird turbo coupes, and I think I'll build up a turbo coupe automatic motor, and a T5 out of a standard Tbird for the hydraulic clutch stuff. I guess the automatic motors had a different A/R ratio that gave it a little more low end boost but less high rpm boost. That would probably be best for a daily driver ranger.

I already have the 87 turbo coupe automatic car so that helps. LOW km but rotted bad. I will post some more when I dig into it more, my 10 hr afternoon shifts wear me out pretty good, worse when they turn into 12s.

Thanks again for input any more?

Not off the top of my head, but that F250 with the Cummins listed in your sig sure caught my attention. I may have to send you a PM to talk to some more about that, as I've just bought a Cummins for my '68 F250...

TigerDan:

Its a BIG JOB. And now I'm just going to remove the body and put on a 70 crewcab.

The turbo coupe engine swap would be cool. I am hoping to do that to my '87 when I can get it down here, and start looking for a good donor car.