Well been having fun with the 2.3t carb draw through...
Main problems ive encountered lack of info....
As far as my own experience, the melted pistons come from a lean condition (old carbs and very easy to clogh) broken pistons knock ( maybe do of excessive timming.
50 feet of old crappy vacums and mechanisms that where lets say invented to fix somehow what went wrong might be the biggest issue.
This is what i think everyone should do to either preserve of modify some how in the right direction this engines.
Back to basics: delete everything that a regular non turbo engine works. Egr, vacum craps, everythkng thats not essential. Theres a win win here, less parts that can cause headaches and yes ur engine bay will clear a lot.
A must have is wide band gage, this to monitor air fuel ratios and tune the carb.
Duraspark its ok, i would definitely use a boost timming master. Check the total advance in The distributor. Regularly boosted cars like lower timming ( the 2.3t carb engines retard only 6 degrees with the duraspark, and that is if ur vacum selenoid is working properly if not it will not retard and u might kick a rod or break it) this will vary depending in your boost levelsobviously, Im looking for a 18 degree timming under full boost (15 psi on my setup) but having a total advance of 36 on mine this means that if my btw retards only 15 degrees means that i would have to set my initial timming 2 degres after tdc or rediculous numbers like that.(gonna have to mod the distributor to lower the advance, that way i can have an initial 10 degrees, have it advance to 33 total and retard back to 18 with the btm) yeah a msd boost timming master programable would be amazing, but not planing to spend that much. Just yet.
Im also planning on porting the stock intake manifold. Specially before the turbo cold side. Its just ridiculous to expect any perfomance out of such narrowed and restrictive intake. Starting with the small 32/36 blades with a 27mm speed venturies in this carb. On the head side its now worth it that much since the oval intake port is way to large for the engines capacity (hense why the later models svo is a d port shape)
I also upgraded to the ranger roller cam, i managed to work how the 95 8 plug cam and followers to work on our oval port head. Lots of work needed and parts, would be lot easier just to use the 88 ranger roller cam with its roller followers. Plug and plah they say. ( If ur curoius, for the 95+ the cam goes in nice and perfect, the followers need to be enlarged to fit the wider valve stem, also cleared on the bottom to clear the wider spring hat, and you do need the 95 lifters or ull always have valves opened and the engine will spin like it had no plugs) then again the 88 cam has a higher lift and less ratio followers, a combo of the 95 followers and 88 cam doesnt seem to crazy now. Thats for a cheap cam swap that will benefit alm around and have very nice street manners.
Ordering a adjustable cam gear is always a great idea.
Having a piston stop tool to mark down ur real tdc its worth it. This way you can mark down real tdc timming. Degree your cam for either economy torque or high rpm performance.
Ive had trouble as well with the aux shaft, yes u can install a later model shaft but it can come without the fuel pump lobe, yes u can use an alectric fuel pump and regulator. If u cant seem to manage to find one with the lobe, and always can spend some money on the esslinger one.
Well ill trh to help out on the go on what ive learned in a couple of months buildkng a weird turd.... Have fun
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