am I crazy?

[Rampid]

Well I'm trying to be as different as i can with my build, am I crazy to want to build up a carbureted 2.3 and slap a turbo on it? I know a lot of people would say just start with a donor car and swap the turbo engine, but would it be that much harder to build the internals of the n/a 2.3 and put a custom turbo on it? I mean I would be building the engine either way so would it even be that much different?

 

[fess40]

You can be as different as you want to be, it'll just cost a lot more. I don't see much sense in re-inventing the wheel, when your just making the same wheel.

 

[Red_LX]

Carb turbos have been done lots of times on the 2.3. Just make sure you use forged pistons and don't go too crazy with the compression ratio (i.e. don't use flat tops)

 

[Rampid]

alright great, i'm already sourcing parts, so far ive found a turbo manifold and a t3 turbo. does anyone have any useful writeups on turbocharging a carbureted 2.3?

 

[Red_LX]

Not here I'm sure...you might look over on turboford.net.

 

[Calponycarsmike]

Ford had a factory Turbo 2.3 in the 1979-1982 Mustangs and Capris. It had a carb set up on it, I have seen them in the junk yard every now and again, if you wanted to pick up something like that as a base and then just build up from there it would be the easy way to go.