has anyone been able to do it,i mean ive heard that theres not enough room but in the armpit of fla its incredibly important.i really wanna do the swap but i cant sacrifice air.any ideas>?

You'll have to excuse me cause I dont know a whole lot about the 2.3T, but why wouldnt there be enough room for the A/C compressor? It doesnt sit in the way of the belt does it??

i have no idea why it wouldnt fit,but ive heard it from this site a few times,and ive heard it from a guy i know who spends all of his free time moving turbos from one car to another.but he and i could be wrong,i dont know.

Well, IM positive Jeff will know. He should be on in the morning.

It's not the compressor that is the problem, it the evaporator box. The turbo sits exactly where the box is. I have seen a picture of a guy that inversed his exhaust manifold and made the turbo sit forward instead of rearward.

Right, it's the heater box/AC plenum that interferes with the turbo placement. There is a fellow over on turboford.org that's talking about manufacturing a header for the Rangers, that will put the turbo in the same place that flipping the manifold would, without interfering with the spark plugs, but I don't think he's got any out yet. It's mainly the O2 sensor that causes the clearance issues in the stock location, and there wouldn't be any real problem in moving that around, but the turbo itself is still going to almost (if not actually) touch the plenum, and as hot as it gets it will melt that plastic. Here's a picture of where the turbo sits in the truck, so you can get an idea of the clearance:
http://www.rangerpowersports.com/projects/knightranger/passengine.jpg
Notice at the back of the turbo you can barely see the O2 sensor. The silver on the left of the picture is my heater box (I painted it for kicks) and I have a metal heat shield on it as well as "notching" it.

Here's one before the heater box was actually installed, you can see how close the turbo sits to the bolt for the heater box:
http://www.rangerpowersports.com/projects/knightranger/Turbo1.jpg

And here's one of the heater box, so you can see how deep the notch goes:
http://www.rangerpowersports.com/projects/knightranger/HeaterBox.jpg

One more, this one showing a flipped manifold:
http://www.rangerpowersports.com/projects/knightranger/FlippedManifold.jpg
You can also see in this one how he's relocated the O2 sensor to the downpipe...if you turn this to the side in the stock location in a Ranger, it'll make things a lot easier.

It looks like if you went w/ the flipped manifold, that some sort of cowl hood would be needed, and since the cowl hoods are pretty common now, it wouldnt be that difficult to get one I would think.

But, by flipping the manifold you run right into where the coil packs sit. Correct? Now, this is probably no concern for some of you as you run distributors. On DIS trucks it will be a problem. :bawl: :eek:

Originally posted by JBRanger
But, by flipping the manifold you run right into where the coil packs sit. Correct? Now, this is probably no concern for some of you as you run distributors. On DIS trucks it will be a problem. :bawl: :eek:
True, and I've brought that up before, but like you said unless you're trying to turbocharge the stock engine (which is possible but not recommended) or use DIS on the turbo engine (again, possible, but no real benefit) it's a non-issue. And even if you do need the turbo and DIS, the coil packs could be moved...

I figure I'll get flamed for this one but here it goes. This is my plan. First, I am getting a 8.8 rearend. Probably gonna happen next week. Next, I will get the super cooling radiator from a 4.0 equipped truck. My original plan was to do a v8 swap but the turbo route seems to look more and more promising. Anyway, I will be using the DIS DP head(ugh). I know, I know. Problems. I think I can make it work because I am not going for 10 second timeslips here. LOL But I will build up an engine using Crower rods, Mahle aftermarket pistons(can get these for about oh 15 or so dollars(forged BTW) . Hehe. It's who you know. Also, put in better bearings, use ARP bolts, and find someone to port this drinking straw port sized head. Then I'll use the turbo. Also, had thought about using the turbo and letting the boost never get above 4-5psi, until I build the new engine. Sufficiently intercooled the 4-5 psi shouldn't be a problem for a well maintained engine. What do you think? Sorry so long..:)

No flames here...the DPDIS system is being used with some success, but you will need to trim the PIP tabs to reduce the base timing because of the increased efficiency of the DP head with the aggressive timing curve of the turbo computer.

An intercooler won't do much at 4-5psi, you really don't start heating the air significantly until you get up to around 10psi. But you might as well go ahead and plumb it in, it's not going to hurt anything now, and you'll need it eventually...;)

When I swapped in my turbo motor I used a stock tiny radiator with the factory temperature thermostat. I was going to use the much larger 2.9 one, but the hose outlets were wrong. I wanted to use stock hoses to make it look a little more factory. Anyway, I have the flex-a-lite black magic fan for a ranger cooling the engine and I never go above 205*, even when it is over 100* out and hard driving.

I figured that. Also, I'm not that knowledgeable on the "turbo" computers. I plan on using the regular computer with a superchip to modify the fuel curves and such. This is one area where I don't know squat! I've been in contact with Mike Troyer of superchips and he says it can be made to work.
:eek:

In that case, you'll need some high impedence injectors (I'd look for some Cobra 24 lb/hr shooters) and an appropriately calibrated MAF...

I've heard different stories on the injector swap. Okay, if I get Cobra 24 lbers and the MAF off the same car....would it work? Or would the puter fry itself trying to figure out what I had done to it. LOL If that'll work that's cool. Hey, also. You got any pics of a T3? What are the dimensions of it(width, and length). Thanks. It's starting to all come together. Thanks for all of your help.:)

Well, I do know that getting the MAF and injectors from the same vehicle dont matter. The only thing that matters is just to make sure you have your MAF calibrated to the injectors. But as to how to calibrate the MAF, thats beyond my knowledge.

pro M (www.pro-flow.com) sells universal mass air meters for fairly cheap, i think around$170-200 for the bullet MA. Thyre all individualy calibrated for whatever youre runnin, and flow alot better than the stock cobra meters. Im gettin a one of theyre BLOW THRU mass air meters for my cougar, so you can just put an air filter on the inlet side of the turbo, and the MA is downstream under pressure... just another idea to throw around

Everyone on the turboford.org website says the mass air conversion is junk. Muscle Mustangs & Fast Fords put one on a turbo car and made 8 hp. That is with countless dyno runs to get it to where it was making those 8. For how much it cost, you could get something else that would make a lot more hp. If I was you, I would just swap in the computer and everything from the turbo car.