Ok well I have been seeing this clean little coupe setting in a yard on my way to work for about the last month. I got around to stopping to see if it was for sale. It was a lady probably in her sixties. She said she has had it for about 5 years and about a month ago she got ready to go somewhere and it just wouldn't start. She had her son look at it. His diagnosis was that it had jumped time. So she just went and bought another car. I left her my number and ask her to call me if she decided how much she wanted for it. She called a few minutes ago and said $300.00. My question is if it jumped time isn't there enough clearence on the 2.3 that the valves probably weren't damaged? I took a look under the hood it was very clean with no visible leaks, and the oil looked like it had just been changed. The tranny fluid looked a bit darker than it should but it didn't look or smell burnt. The interior was very very clean not a rip or tear anywhere. Body was nice and straight. She was old and wasn't even really sure off the top of here head what year it was. I forgot to look and see if it had an airbag wheel or not, but it had the DIS ignition system and ten hole rims if that narrows it down. It was showing 21K on the odometer so I figure 121K miles. I am just wanting a 2.3 for a daily driver to keep the miles off of my 5.0. Just looking for advice on the timing belt situation and any other things I should look out for on the 2.3 cars. Thanks
If DIS ignition system means a distrubutorless ignition (which I'm pretty sure it does) then it was anywhere from 91-93. If it had a distributor then it was between 87-90. If you go to look at it again make sure you take a look at the steering wheel and see if it is equipped with an airbag. If it is, 91-93, if not, 87-90. 2.3's are really good cars. They may not be as fast as your 5.0L in naturally aspirated form but the motors are very reliable and essentially bulletproof. Considering it sounds like a really clean car and she is only asking $300.00 then I'd say go for it for sure. Think of it this way, that $300.00 you spend on this car now will have itself paid for very soon in fuel savings. Plus, having one more Mustang never hurt anybody.
id say get it if it did jump time just reset it and go mine has jumped once and it didnt hurt anything
If you can get a running car for 300.00 Id say go for it. Now if you want to get it in order to fix it up (hotrod it) , I would say keep saving for something else.
The 2.3 is a non interference motor, you can spin the cam and the motor out of time and not have contact (99% of the time...there are certain hard to fathom circumstances out there) .for 300$ id give i a good look over, all else fails, invest a few dollars in a timing belt , rest the time cam/crank and sell it for a profit! If you do keep it, a 5speed swap will be in its future....
Or you can turn it up so it is nose down into the dirt and place a telepnone pole and a Hydrant next to it like an accident scene, thrown down some gravel and some landscaping timbers then make a fountian out of it. Great lawn orniment. Or you an drive it too.
LOL Yep mustangs do make great lawn ornaments. Don't have any whole cars, but my back yard looks like one exploded, there are parts stacked everywhere. I was basically interested in this as a daily driver. I am just a mustang fanatic, doesn't matter to me that the car isn't that fast. I like mustangs period. Hell my GT has probably only been over 70 mph about 3 times since I have owned it! This is one of those cars that looks so nice you just wanna save it from the scrapyard. I am guessing by looking at it that replacing the timing belt should be very simple. I put a new timing chain on my 5.0 at 100K miles so compared to that this should be cake right?
yeah, buy the car if it's in good condition. Even a roller is worth like 500-1000, the 2.3's are generally around 1200-1300 blue book for fair condition. the hated airbag wheels debuted in 1990 not 91.
timing belt will take about 1 hour by someone experienced, maybe 2 if you don't know what you're doing.
Trust me Ray III speaks the truth Getting that crank pully off is LOTS of fun I used some jinky puller and it messed up my threads in the crank I was able to retap the threads and the bolt works good now ..Thank God Then one of those crapy timming chain incerts, (the ones the bolts screw into) striped on me. I couldn't get the cover off without cutting into it. I will post pics of this on my site soon.
I mostly have a bunch of parts from an old '82 GT that was way past saving. I have all of the body panels and the T-tops. Never really thought of selling them. You never know i might buy an old 4 eyed car that needs a fender or something. Was there a certain part you needed?
ya man i just bought a 89 lx hatch for 80 bux, popped a battery in it and it runs good. needs some tranny work but thats it
