59 EDSEL 2.3 Turbo 5 Speed Conversion

[bhazard]

Yes that setup is in my tbird. Not quite 100% sure but it did seem like it could lug down a couple hundred rpms further than with the stock setup, especially in lower gears. However I dont drive the car anymore now that I drive my festiva, and may be parting it out or selling it...

[texanidiot25]

Originally Posted by amcpacer

I agree about that Kuhmo tire being ugly. It has huge letters with a bunch of lines that form a hideous design. I plan to use a grinder with some 400 grit paper to carefully sand the lettering off of the tire and then use acetone to wipe the sidewall clean and then add the Krylon Fusion satin white paint.
Tire Sidewall Smoothing - Tech - Sport Truck Magazine

Ha, I've always thought about doing that. Wish I would have seen that when I had those tires on the front of my CST10.

[NHRABill]

Speedo gear huh? that sucks I never worked on the tranny you have but I am currently putting off a tailshaft swap that I need to do on a 4l60E that I have the E uses an electric reluctor wheel to read speed using 40 impulse per revolution. problem is I needed a 4l60 non electronic that uses a Plastic speedo gear set that gives me 4 sparks per rev so what happens is the computer in the car shoots the sppedometer to 120mph when you are driving 5mph and the convertor is on full lockup no stall.. your odometer goes about a tenth of a mile per foot moved ....

I feel your pain with this replacement ... Computers are such a pain good luck on the fix looking forward to hearing how it comes out.

[texanidiot25]

Congratulations

Curbside Classic Special: 1959 Edsel

[slowmover]

That was a well-done article!!

[Kraig]

Love your build!! I used to own a '86 Turbo Coupe, it got 32 mpg highway and 27 driving around. I sold it with 257,000 miles and it still ran great! I own an '86 Competition Prepared SVO Mustang (1 of 86) and it gets 27 mpg and will run 14.7s in the 1/4 with crappy 2.3 second 60 foot times. I currently have the drivetrain out of an '86 XR4Ti that I plan to put in a 1969 F100 Ranger.... I also used to own an '80 Mustang with the carbed 2.3 turbo..what a mess that was! The EFI motor is definely better!

[79transam]

Ran into your build this week. It awesome. I own a 1959 Edsel Ranger and also had a 1987 Tbird Turbo Coupe, so I can really appreciate what you have done. I have worked on both extensively.

I decided to join the forum and post my information on a 1979 Trans Am with a 4.3L Vortec swap that I am currently working on.

Check it out.

http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...fit-21129.html

[jtbo]

There is issue with heating of springs, they go weak, they fail. When spring fails at speed it can end badly, so that is very big no at least in here.

Edsel base level was with six right? Those had softer springs, so one option might be to source such springs, even new ones are not costing much and custom made springs are not really so expensive, from my understanding it is not much more than 50 for pair?

But when changing springs shocks should be replaced too, well, with Edsel you probably are not needing to do that, valving in V8 version is just going to work better with softer springs as those shocks were tuned to very low amount of rebound damping, making that mushy soft ride.

Don't forget rear springs either, you have V8 rear springs, which are bit stiffer than lower spec models (usually, haven't checked Edsel specifically, but mopar and GM stuff generally), if you soften front you are getting less understeer and while good for autocross etc. on road it can be bad, so it is worth to check if six cylinder version springs could be swapped.

From my another hobby I have learned quite a bit of suspension tuning and there one change affects everything.

Good way to evaluate stiffness and oversteer/understeer is to check natural frequency of suspension, either remove shock and bounce front/rear, calculate how many bounces it does make in second or one can even calculate it without touching the car if springs (also motion ratio of suspension) and corner weights of car are known.

There is huge difference with what looks good and what works reliably.

Mid-West spring had even some calculator software for download free on their site if interested of what kind of springs would be perfect match, worth to at least ask offers as it is cheap insurance to have properly made springs compared to what would happen at 50mph when spring fails. That is at least my 2c.

[amcpacer]

Here is a video to show what the outside of the car looks like.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZvuXnwLNTY&hd=1

The car continues to be my daily driver and only car I own. I fixed the transmission tail shaft speedometer drive gear and it was actually a very easy job.

jtbo, the reduced height springs should not be an issue since the only part that was heated was 3 coils near the perch and the remainder of the spring was saturated with wet rags. Even if a crack were to occur it would be adjacent the perch itself.

It has recent shocks on all four wheels and new poly sway bar bushings. The handling is very tight, there is no steering slop, and minimal body roll. I spent much time with hard turns in a large parking lot and found it tended to under-steer a little. I removed two shims each side from the upper control arm pivot point to give the front wheels slight negative camber. After that change it is possible to break either the front or rear tires loose depending on throttle position during an extreme corner. It handles quite well, the hardest thing about taking very fast turns is the bench seat that does not conform to the body. I have no plans of installing bucket seats since the bench seat has great original upholstery, is quite comfortable, and is easy to stretch out and take a nap on.

I got rid of the Ford EEC/IV computer and am running a DIYPNP megasquirt computer with a set of Siemens Deka IV 60lb/hr injectors.
I installed a wide-band O2 sensor and found the factory computer was absolutely terrible. Sometimes it would run extremely rich (9:1) at low RPM WOT. The worst thing was the vane air meter that somehow managed to bend its movable air flap.
Megasquirt is absolutely awesome, it uses a MAP sensor instead of the vane air meter and since I used autotune in tunerstudio the fuel ratio is always precise. I will post some pictures soon.
I found the Ford 2.3 engine does not like to run lean and needs an especially rich idle. It idles very smooth around 13.7:1 but feels rough and loses RPMs if I try to reduce fuel. It will go as lean as 15:1 at higher RPMs but for some reason needs a rich idle. Is this normal for a Ford 2.3?

I installed a new catalytic converter and the exhaust has almost zero detectable smell of unburned fuel. Combined the converter, turbocharger, and giant magnaflow muffler make for a whisper quiet exhaust.

The spray painted white-wall paint has held up quite well. It is due for a repaint due to a light sidewall tire rub while parallel parking.

[EdKiefer]

Since the O2 sensor is being used at idle and low speeds I would think it would be around 14.7 . I never measured mine but do know it hunts (trying to keep at 14.7 ) at idle and up as long as part throttle . could it be a issue with EGR , I always had to clean mine as it would get stuck closed with gum/buildup . maybe yours is slightly open .
I can believe they ran rich though , I know I messed around with calibration spring (under the plastic top cover of MAF) . tightening the spring up a click or two gave it much better response but since I didn't know what was happening across rpm band I always kept it stock .

One thing be careful those motors the rods are not strong and easy to bend ,that is if you start raising boost to like 17+ lb. I would keep it low like 12-14 range for heavy vehicle .