I want to make an '86 XR4 engine a NA carbureted engine. Whereas these engines are not my specialty..I am asking you guys what things I will need and what problems I will encounter. Thanks
'86 Turbo engine....wanting NA
- Thread starter PetesPonies
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Shawneebear93
Dirt-Old 20+Year Member
I'm doing a 2.3 project. This is one engine available to me. Compression is not too much of an issue, as I said..I'm building an engine. I can choose my pistons, have the head milled whatever. I wasn't sure if the ports would match up to a carb manifold etc. Things like that ....
GSP393
New Member
GSP393
New Member
evintho
Dirt-Old 20+Year Member
Waste of time and money! However, judging by your list of vehicles, you should have a pretty good idea what you're doing and should know that! But then again, if you knew what you were doing, why would you come to this forum to ask such a basic question? I'm at a loss!
Anyhow, here's the short answer. Plug the turbo oil drainback hole in the block and slap in some 9:1 pistons (or whatever the comp ratio is). If the XR head isn't cracked, sell it. Everyone's looking for an uncracked turbo head. Go to the 'yard and pickup a garbage N/A head. Do the machine work and you're good to go (although I'll never understand why!)
Anyhow, here's the short answer. Plug the turbo oil drainback hole in the block and slap in some 9:1 pistons (or whatever the comp ratio is). If the XR head isn't cracked, sell it. Everyone's looking for an uncracked turbo head. Go to the 'yard and pickup a garbage N/A head. Do the machine work and you're good to go (although I'll never understand why!)
Shawneebear93
Dirt-Old 20+Year Member
It is very expensive to make the N/A engine fast, if you could even call it that. Unless you have intentions of really trying to do something with the N/A motor, you're better off just finding stock parts to throw on it and make it run.PetesPonies said:
A couple of good points were brought up.
Sell the turbo head and grab a naturally aspirated head. It's an easy way to gain some compression and a few bucks in your wallet if the turbo head isn't cracked. Combine that with a nice set of flat top pistons and you're ok.
As long as the intake port style is the same, the manifolds will work. Other than that, you can pick up a modified EFI intake from Essligner or from mini stock guys on ebay. They weld up the injector bosses, and adapt the upper intake flange to fit a carburetor.
As for fuel delivery, You can keep the electric pump in the tank and use it to feed the carb, BUT you'll need a high quality bypass regulator to control fuel pressure at the carb. Barry Grant makes a nice bypass regulator that we use on outboards with an EFI pump (56psi) and carbs(2-5psi). You'll need to address power delivery to the pump since it's currently controlled by the EEC but won't be when you get done.
If you decide to go with a mechanical fuel pump, you can take the block-off plate off the side of the block and mount a mechanical pump there. The eccentric is already on the aux shaft to operate the pump.
Ignition might be tricky. Since the EEC controls ignition and timing, and does so with regards to sensor input (which I'm assuming is going away) it won't be able to properly adjust timing advance and such. If money isn't an issue, I'd seriously consider an MSD Pro-Billet distributor and a 6AL. It's plug and play. On the cheap side, you could get an old points distributor, throw a pertronix or Unilite conversion in there (I hate points). That'll give you vacuum advance, reliable timing and spark triggering. You might be able to modify an old Duraspark distributor, to work, but I don't know the particulars.
You could sure get rid of alot of junk in the engine compartment if you decide to do all of this.
Like everyone else, I'm not sure what your intentions are so it's hard to give specific advice about things. I've touched on the basic stuff off the top of my head that you'd run into if you were to do this. Whatcha thinking?
Sell the turbo head and grab a naturally aspirated head. It's an easy way to gain some compression and a few bucks in your wallet if the turbo head isn't cracked. Combine that with a nice set of flat top pistons and you're ok.
As long as the intake port style is the same, the manifolds will work. Other than that, you can pick up a modified EFI intake from Essligner or from mini stock guys on ebay. They weld up the injector bosses, and adapt the upper intake flange to fit a carburetor.
As for fuel delivery, You can keep the electric pump in the tank and use it to feed the carb, BUT you'll need a high quality bypass regulator to control fuel pressure at the carb. Barry Grant makes a nice bypass regulator that we use on outboards with an EFI pump (56psi) and carbs(2-5psi). You'll need to address power delivery to the pump since it's currently controlled by the EEC but won't be when you get done.
If you decide to go with a mechanical fuel pump, you can take the block-off plate off the side of the block and mount a mechanical pump there. The eccentric is already on the aux shaft to operate the pump.
Ignition might be tricky. Since the EEC controls ignition and timing, and does so with regards to sensor input (which I'm assuming is going away) it won't be able to properly adjust timing advance and such. If money isn't an issue, I'd seriously consider an MSD Pro-Billet distributor and a 6AL. It's plug and play. On the cheap side, you could get an old points distributor, throw a pertronix or Unilite conversion in there (I hate points). That'll give you vacuum advance, reliable timing and spark triggering. You might be able to modify an old Duraspark distributor, to work, but I don't know the particulars.
You could sure get rid of alot of junk in the engine compartment if you decide to do all of this.
Like everyone else, I'm not sure what your intentions are so it's hard to give specific advice about things. I've touched on the basic stuff off the top of my head that you'd run into if you were to do this. Whatcha thinking?
Brantley
Founding Member
Going back to the horse and buggy, I see. Maybe I should sell my 351w TT and put a 1.8 Escort engine in my Stang!
Brantley
Founding Member
RustBucket said:
Yeah, you're certainly right on that one.. I was mainly looking at it from a power and torque perspective
Or.. hmm, I think I'll pull the chipped 7.3 liter Power Stroke turbo diesel engine out of my 7400lb truck, and replace it with a stock carbureted 300 I6
lonchair
Founding Member
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