[Offroadford4x4]

Johnny, that tempo looks just like my parts car did, only mine was smashed in the back. And yours appears to have been a 2 door. Am I right? My truck used to spend just as much time in the mud and on the trails as it did on the street but I got bored with doing that so now it's just a street/show/work truck.

bgd73, the 2.3 was only really meant to be a low reving high torque engine. and it served it's purpose. Alot of the reason it's lacking much power comparred to jap engines is the fack that the 2.3 is a pushrod engine compared to the japs overhead cam engines. I have not done anything with the exhaust as of yet, since I'm kind of on a crunch here to get the car done, I stuck the OEM back on (yes its' all original OEM Ford exhaust from the 90k parts car and in good condition at that). I need to get it going so I can get the truck in the garage and get the front axle rebuild before winter hits. after the truck is done, than I will pull the exhaust, gut the cat out and find a better flowing muffler (not a fart cannon from some ricer). I will also look into the EGR delete, along with making my own highflow cold air intake which will probably require turning or relocating the battery so I can put a larger intake into the fender. I'm also going to look into insulating the intake manifold somehow since it's on top of the exhaust manifold. I'm sure that heat transfer does nothing to help economy or performance. I'll also be tearing down the original motor and looking over things like the cyl head to see where improvements could be made such as the bowls behind the valves and how well the ports match the manifolds. if I can increase the flow, I can increase the overall volumetric efficiency of the engine gaining both more power, and better economy (so long as I keep my foot outa it).

I'm not really shooting for major gains, but I would like to see an average of around 30-35 mpg combined driving while retaining the auto trans.