Buick V6 vs Ford 2.3......I'm still indecisive!

I have both, not sure if the V6 is odd or even fire, but can't decide which to use....

The V6....I know nothing about, but its complete, and I have the bell and an adapter, but the tranny holes are a lil to far apart to fit my T-90....

The 2.3....I know runs good w/ 160K miles, is fuel injected, I have a different bell, but would prolly have an adapter made out of some steel round plates (1/2" and 1" thick)...

Both would need motor mounts, wiring, cooling, etc....pretty much whatever's needed to replace the old F-head this had at some point (long gone before I got it)

I'm 99% positive this will never go off-road mehh and would only be a "fair weather lets go get an ice cream!" type ride, so no hill climbing or mud running power is needed, just good putty putt economy and driveability.

Thanks!!

 

You need to at least check the compression and oil pressure of the V6 before you plan to use it. That is, unless you are willing to rebuild the engine once it's installed.

Each of these engines has been adapted to the T-90. The 2000/2300 is popular because it can be used with a specific shallow Ford bell, and you can keep the existing input shaft on the T-90. The V6 will require a new T-90 input shaft, unless you buy the (relatively new) shallow adapter kit from Novak. The factory V6 adapter does not work with the T-90, but you may be able to machine it to work.

I'd suggest you do a little more reading and understand the issues involved with each of these swaps. The main obstacle for the 2300 is finding the proper bell. Otherwise, both of these engines can be adapted to the T-90 routinely. You can start by reading about the T-90, 2000/2300 swap and V6 swap on the Novak page.

http://www.novak-adapt.com/knowledge/pinto.htm
http://www.novak-adapt.com/knowledge/chevy_buick_swap.htm
http://www.novak-adapt.com/knowledge/t90.htm

 

Another option is to rebuild the F134 and buy an overdrive. That would fit the usage you describe.

 

He said the F-head is long gone....

 

Ah, yes.

 

Just FYI - the old version of the Novak 2000/2300 adapter was a simple plate adapter and a sleeve that changed the T-90 bearing retainer to work with the Pinto TOB (IIRC). If you were handy with metal machining, I'd think you could make the old style adapter with little trouble. This swap has been around for a while, and I believe it also works with some Ford inline sixes (the 144 and 170 and maybe the 200) that (I presume) use the same shallow bell as the Pinto.

I'd guess this is a 225 V6, since you say you have the adapter. For a T-90, you can use the generic GM engine adapter to the T-90. Lots of different engines can be used with this adapter, including the Chevy Buick Olds Cadillac and Pontiac V8s, the Chevy inline 6s, and a couple of GM 4-cylinders. Of the 4s, the GM 151 (Pontiacs, CJs, S10s) and the 153 Chevy (mail Jeeps, Chevy II) are the most plentiful. There's also a 181 cid Mercruiser marine and industrial GM 4 that will work, but it's not plentiful.

 

I chose the buick v6 swap because nearly everybody and their brother has done it...tons of info on here and people close by that have done the swap. It was my first engine swap so I didnt want to make things harder than they needed to be. Plenty of power and torque and it fits great in the engine bay.

I have nothing against 2300 fords in fact they are a great little engine

 

LOL, I just got told today I make projects harder than they need to be.

I did throw the V6 adapter on, and the holes are off, like it came off a lil bit bigger tranny, but there's enough meat to redrill and tap new ones for the T90.....so long as the hole is centered correctly for the input shaft to go in the pilot bushing. And, I do have motor mounts for the V6, that supposedly came out of another jeep..... "looking" looks like they'll work fine.

I had a helluva time trying to find the "Pinto" bell, but did get an aluminum one from a T-bird, and would hafta get it on the motor, then slide the tranny up to it to see how thick an adapter would need to be. I believe the t-bird had a t-5, so its not too too big on the tranny side of the bell, so anything with both bolt patterns drilled into would work once I had the correct thickness. In theory

I should mention to Novak they should redo their 2.3 adapter to work with newer, more plentiful bellhousings....prolly not much of a demand tho...O well!!

For simplicity's sake I'm starting to lean towards the V6, but indeed need to do a compression test first, as I'd hate to install a bad motor :O

I"ll hafta think a little bit more tho.....

Thanks!!

 

Well, I went against the grain and swapped the 2.3. I went all out and used the SVO turbo motor. It works great, but the swap did have a couple pitfalls. My Jeep had a carbed 2.3 when I got it. The biggest problem was the front driveshaft interfered with the starter. With the T-90 it was really bad. I had to clock the transmission and T-case to clear and it was still close. I'm using a T-98 now, and the clearance is much better. I still had to shave off one of the starter mounting bolts though. With the T-90, the firewall had to be cut and that was with the tranny crossmember moved up next to the pedal mounts. With the T-98 I could move it forward. The motor mounts were easy enough, the right one came off a CJ-7 and I made the left one out of two pieces of heavy angle welded together. Those worked well with the Mustang motor mounts.

 

The v6 adapter that you mentioned is probably a t86/t14 adapter. You can redrill it to work with the t90 but you also have to grind some steel off the top of the adapter to clear the t90 shift tower. You also need the longer t90J input shaft from a willys pickup or wagon or FC-170 with an inline flathead six to work with the v6. The pilot bushing is also different with the t90J input shaft but can be sourced from advanced adapters.

 

I had the same clearence problems when swapping a 2.3L into my CJ3A. I just took the easy route and did a suspension lift

 

Is that with the T-90? I have a suspension lift as well, but it still hits on full stuff. I need bigger bump stops.

 

Ya, thats with the T-90. The drive shaft was actually hitting the bell housing before the lift. A 3" suspension lift and a little grinding on the bellhousing made for enough room.