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Just a heads up on the 2.3t

Rogues Gambit

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Oldie but goodie from the Mustang forum:

According to my former Engineering professor, alot! I grabbed my stock parts out of the basement and headed to his house for some beers and BBQ (rained out unfortunately so we got some pizza) and Had a look at some things in the garage.

First is the much maligned intercooler. The Stock unit in his exact words "Cheap garbage but at least it's Cheap!"
My phone did not capture the IC well as the light was dim but I did mangage to find some images online that were perfect.


His notes.
"Far too small and light for a gasoline turbo application, might be ok on a Small Diesel, No where near enough thermal mass, Tube and fin is terrible for Air to Air applications, but it's cheaper to manufacture."

So we pulled the end tanks off, Not hard by the way and he mused, "I'll give those 5 years before they leak."

"Terrible flow, the Air has to make a sharp 90 degree turn here, creating a high pressure area blocking flow, the volume and design of the endtanks do not provide adequate flow to the top, the botom 3rd is doing the most work here. Plastic is a good insulator so will not provide any real thermal mass either."

"Nearly half of the area is blocked, fin density and surface area are minuscule, the only advantage is strength for weight here, It's like they used a design for a water to air heat exchanger and built it out of aluminum. This is a major restriction, and one that does not provide an airspeed increase like a venturi."

We talked about the detrimental effects on an engine and he said, "if you were sitting in traffic for like 10 minutes on a warm day, the road opened up and you were to give it gas, this would actually heat up your air charge and could cause DET if you had low quality fuel, I don’t think you could pull timing fast enough".
I told him about the blown motors on this forum and he asked me how many had stock intercoolers. As far as I'm aware no engines have blown with upgraded ones! His exact words “I would expect a cooler of this size and design to support 250 hp at relatively low boost. At 310 and 18 psi on a small turbine like this, this is a danger to the engine”.
“The Primary concern developing this part was cost, nothing else, not even performance. The thing that really jumps are the end tanks, unless they are used in something else that is highly space limited, they could have been designed much better at no additional cost or complexity to manufacture. I bet Ford produces these at around $10-12 a unit, they could have made it much better at 0 cost unless they had tons of these cores and end tanks lying around,” (as far as I can tell this intercooler is Mustang specific) and the could have nearly doubled the efficiency by spending 25 cents a car more, but that is a bean counter issue, well over $1million in profits over the lifespan of the car. The only way this passed hot weather certification was by avoiding boost.

I'll post the pics later, but just a heads up, and if the hyperlink doesn't work: https://www.mustang6g.com/forums/threads/how-bad-did-ford-sandbag-the-ecoboost.56367/
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Rogues Gambit

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The second thing he noted was the turbo is too small for an engine this size, “2.3 liters at WOT and high RPM, this turbo will be too far off of its efficiency Island to make good power, It just doesn’t have the flow, It will overboost in the mid-range and be putting out lots of heat at the top, a bit more turbo would not hurt reaction time much, a few hundred rpm at most but the benefits in all around efficiency and power would be well worth it, the choked up turbo combined with the junk intercooler, means you need a pretty aggressive anti knock strategy to protect the engine Seeing as these are specific to the platform, it would have been a no cost option to size this turbo appropriately, this is deliberate, when I was working at (he asked me not to say but it was a Global Manufacturer with a division in Germany) we would be forced by management to use a more expensive, smaller turbo to keep a predefined distance from a larger motor. One of the reasons I left was having a beancounter tell me my engine was making too much power, make me redesign and de tune it to run like garbage and complain when I went overbudget .”
 
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Didn't have inter-cooler available at the time.
 

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as far as I can tell this intercooler is Mustang specific
Is that still true, or do other vehicles using the 2.3L EcoBoost use the same intercooler as the Mustang?

Also, I would expect the 2.3L in the Bronco to be tuned similar to how it's tuned in the Ranger rather than how it's tuned for the Mustang (less HP, less torque). How much of an impact does the difference in tuning have on this heat problem, if any?
 
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Didn't have inter-cooler available at the time.
No worries, figured that was the case as they're relatively new to the market, petty nice #'s though

Is that still true, or do other vehicles using the 2.3L EcoBoost use the same intercooler as the Mustang?

Also, I would expect the 2.3L in the Bronco to be tuned similar to how it's tuned in the Ranger rather than how it's tuned for the Mustang (less HP, less torque). How much of an impact does the difference in tuning have on this heat problem, if any?

Good question and it's more it'll heatsoak if you're pushing it on a hot, humid day.

My general rule of # with turbo's is Intercooler is generally amongst the first mods, though ymmv
 

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Good question and it's more it'll heatsoak if you're pushing it on a hot, humid day.

My general rule of # with turbo's is Intercooler is generally amongst the first mods, though ymmv
Depends on where you live, if it's only 10-15C (<60F) consistently you can get away with a lot more.

Still, if you're going to be doing significant tuning at all you should be looking at intercoolers for safety. The engine was tuned with some left on the table for a reason.
 
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Depends on where you live, if it's only 10-15C (<60F) consistently you can get away with a lot more.

Still, if you're going to be doing significant tuning at all you should be looking at intercoolers for safety. The engine was tuned with some left on the table for a reason.
True true

Here in Dirty Jerzy for example, we get random Winters and humid summers, so while most of us won't WOT at the lights, still be nice to not suffer heatsoak.

Curious, how's your summers up there?
 

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True true

Here in Dirty Jerzy for example, we get random Winters and humid summers, so while most of us won't WOT at the lights, still be nice to not suffer heatsoak.

Curious, how's your summers up there?
Depends where you are. On the coast where I am it never usually gets much above 20C (~70F) even in the middle of August. If you venture into the Okanagan valley it can get up to a dry 40C (~100F).
 

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Rogues Gambit

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Depends where you are. On the coast where I am it never usually gets much above 20C (~70F) even in the middle of August. If you venture into the Okanagan valley it can get up to a dry 40C (~100F).
Oh snap crackle and pop, that's awesome
 

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Note that the focus RS (2016-2018 US models) used the 2.3T in a transverse application with AWD and was rated at 350/350. It's a lighter, smaller vehicle than a mustang, but not by much. With drivetrain and bottom end upgrades, quite a few folks make over 400whp with them. I considered an RS, but they were too short lived in the USA. They also have lots of problems like most german cars.
 
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Note that the focus RS (2016-2018 US models) used the 2.3T in a transverse application with AWD and was rated at 350/350. It's a lighter, smaller vehicle than a mustang, but not by much. With drivetrain and bottom end upgrades, quite a few folks make over 400whp with them. I considered an RS, but they were too short lived in the USA. They also have lots of problems like most german cars.
And those seats too

I'm 5'9 and 205lbs, they hug too tightly. Sure if I had the $$$ and stuff, be easy to fix the pogo stick suspension and the seats, but that money would be better spent working on something else
 

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Sounds pretty good! Step 1 after purchase. Intake, Intercooler and cat back.
Step 2 active fuel management to run e85 or 93.
That alone should get 300whp and 350lbft then a turbo to get 400/400 would be tits!
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