1976 Maverick 2.3 swap

Update and question

I've made a little bit of progress with the swap. After being free all summer the guy that was supposed to make the motor mounts finally started to do something after I fixed his tv wiring, even though I'm paying him for his service. He cut some metal and now I have the motor in the car without a cherry picker but the mounts aren't welded, only in place. I've been at this point for about three weeks now, waiting on him. And now that I'm back in school have even less time to work on it, I get a notice that says I need to either have the car road worthy or in a garage by the 30th or face a citation. There is no way this guy is going to finish what he said he could do for me in time. ​

So I started looking around and found three old timers that finish projects for people. To finish this project I would need to finish the mounts, figure out how to adapt the electric fuel pump to the gas tank, run new fuel lines, new brake lines, make a firewall adapter for the hydro clutch, a firewall adapter for the new smaller brake booster, master cylinder for the new brake booster, adapt the exhaust header to fit within the shock towers, new exhaust pipe, fabricating a low place to mount the intercooler and reassemble the dash and windshield. Maybe a little more that I'm forgetting but that is about the gist of it. How many man hours is fair for that? The old timers quoted me roughly 1 week at 40 hrs but with 2 guys working on it so 80 man hrs. They charge $30 an hour making the total is $2,400 as long as it does not take longer, but they also said that would include the cost of materials. I'm not sure if that's good, bad, or the going rate for that much work.​

I had wanted to be involved in the swap myself but now that I'm back in school and have the citation looming my options are limited, besides I don't really want to rely on the original guy anymore, if it has taken him this long just to make mounts that aren't even finish, I can only imagine how long adapting the gas tank would take. I might have someone else take a look at the car tomorrow and give me a quote if the weather permits. But I did like how the old timers seemed like they knew what they were doing and getting involved with with this project, just not sure of that price. I figured it out recently, the total I've spent so far including the car and extra stuff, like MaverickMan's carbon grabber hood, have come to about $4,500. Then if I throw another $2,400 I'm at $6,900, making this the 2nd most expensive car I've had and it won't even have power steering or A/C. Even the 2006 G6 I just bought last week was only $4,500 (got the notice about the citation one day after I got the G6).​

To make a long post short, is $2,400 to do the work I need done so that I can drive the maverick fair, and is spending(cannot use the word investing with old cars) $6,900 sane or crazy?​

 

That is dirt cheap at $30 an hour, and I don't know if 80 hours is enough time to do all the work you need done..... I quess it depends on the quality of work they do.....

Where I work we get $60 an hour which is cheaper then most, but we do some extremely clean work there.....

 

i refuse to ad up what ive paid to mechanics over the years...I feel your pain bro. i put 6k into it last year.. at 30 per hr thats good if he has a concience... and doesnt cul de sac on painting return springs and b.s. .. like my ex mechanic.. what milage was you 2-fitty geiing? i have a 6

 

My 250 was only getting 15 mpg. But there was something wrong with the carburetor, it was leaking gas intermediately and when I would come to a stop I would have a 50/50 chance of it stalling on me. Not much of a gear head and had someone rebuild mine, maybe they left a gasket off but at that point I decided to pursue this 2.3 turbo idea, for not only mpg but also no tinker fuel injection and get a 5 speed to boot. If only I knew the horror I was getting myself into, my other neighbor that I met after just buying the 2.3 could have fine tuned that carb and showed me how to for future reference. Oh well at least I will get 5 speed out of this ordeal.

 

This probably isn't what you want to hear, but being realistic, I'd sell the 2.3 and use the money to start rounding up the parts needed to put that T5 behind the 250 and drop the 250 back in.. A properly tuned and driven 250 should get mid 20's for gas mileage with an overdrive trans. Put that 2,400 towards minor upgrades for the 250 like a header, etc. and I think you'd be very pleased with the results. Hell you could just buy a brand new carb for a couple hundred if you don't have a way to get your current one properly rebuilt.

 

JAmie you have a good solid point..
if you proceed and succeed you will have an AWSOME car when finished.. its gonna have power and be light, and get good mpg! Look at what people are spending on new cars... heck its 15k for a KIA Soul.. you'll be way ahead of the game and will have a cool cool ride. I have a 200 and was interested in the 250 but learned that the 2 fitty was somewhat of a fail.. It didn't get the good mpg they expected.. 'bout the same as the 302. better torque at low rpm's for the gas used (3,000 and below...street driving rpm's)I'm gonna mildly build the 200 someday( raise compression, maybe a little head work. nothing rad) to get 10-20 more HP..
on the highway I get about 22 mpg.. if I keep it at 65.. I wonder what the 2.3 will get??

 

I had an 88 Turbo Coupe with 5spd and could get upwards of 26mpg on the highway..................and about 17 around town if my foot stayed off the loud pedal. The Coupe had stock 210hp and with the head work it was making over 270hp. I loved that car..................................wish I had it back.

 

I did consider going back to the 250, but wasn't sure if the gear ratio in that t-5 would be fine for the 250 considering it was paired with a four cylinder. Besides at this point it is more than just a motor; I bought a header, intercooler and piping, that monte carlo bar that it sold in the classifieds section which I heard wouldn't work with the inline six's because they're too long, and a few other specific parts. And at this point I would still have to pay someone else to finish the job because I don't want to rely on the guy that's been letting me down for several months. But I guess I would still save some money by not having to modify the tank and stick with only modifying the firewall... Maybe if I can find a good deal on the bell-housing, would it be a T-5 to a 250 that I would be looking for? 22-ish isn't bad and I could later on get a throttle body kit if I find I still don't like carbs after the crash course my neighbor gives me. I'll check the going rates the for the parts I would end up selling.
Also heard that other members who did the 2.3 swap got around 30 mpg on the highway but they had small bumper cars which saved some weight. The 1976 maverick is still lighter than the 1988 turbo coupe that this engine came out of though.

 

if you proceed and succeed you will have an AWSOME car when finished.. its gonna have power and be light, and get good mpg! Look at what people are spending on new cars... heck its 15k for a KIA Soul.. you'll be way ahead of the game and will have a cool cool ride.

......

maybe in a Honda...

...JMO...

 

Here in Brazil, 60 to 70% of Ford Mavericks we got left came from factory with the 2.3 OHC engine, very few 302 and some 6 cyl.
No turbo option down here for this engine, 99 Hp, manual 4 speed and 26 to 28 mpg on highway.

 

I can tell you the '87 & '88 Turbo Coupe engine harness is a monstrosity and is at least partly intertwined with the ABS/ride control harness(I've owned 13 of these cars and converted one to SEFI 5.0, isn't much I haven't seen)... Probably the the biggest issue is the ECM test port is in the ABS/ride harness and has a connecter to marry the two harnesses near the main ECM connector... Many guys who ditched the ride and ABS later found out they now had no ECM test port... A '86 2.3T harness can be used with a little modification and doesn't have the extra wiring associated the ride & ABS systems...

Also these two years used a IRCM that has all the relays(ECM, fuel pump, etc) on one PCB, it's common for the fan relays to be bad, the '86 I mentioned uses individual relays and id a far simpler setup, problem is '86 2.3T harness are getting rare... Some have used '87 - '88 Mustang 2.3 harness and just added the extra wiring for turbo boost sensor and VAM(you did get a VAM with the engine?)...

If you really want to learn about these engines head over to turboford.org and look over the past postings, likely isn't anything that hasn't already been discussed...

I wouldn't worry about using the TC dash cluster, other than looks, it's basically a POS that uses slow responding bi-metal gauges and the ammeter on most hasn't worked in 20 years due to the meter being defective(the internal permanent magnet looses it's strength)... Also the boost gauge is rarely accurate... Get some good aftermarket gauges you'll be a lot happier...

 

I wouldnt choose the 250 over the 2.3 in terms of power or milage

 

Just curious, do you have any more pics of a maverick with a 2.3 in it, like different angles. Did it have power steering or A/C options?

 

So spent 3 hrs last night getting mounts welded and getting bit by mosquitoes only for one of them to get ruined as the guy was trying to get it tapped while I was at work. Also before that he had increased the remaining fee from $70 to $100. On a more positive note, it seems most agree $30 an hour is a good deal and no one seemed to think 80 hrs to finish up the project was too high so I might just go through with it.

 

Yes, power steeering, a/c and automatic trans as options for the 2.3.

what kind os pics you need?

found some: