I'm thinking of getting an svo with a bad 2.3l engine. Can i replace it with any Ford 2.3L or is the svo engine different in some regard? Can I use merkur, thunderbird turbo engine?

 

They are all basically the same engine, but I believe that you would have to use the original wiring harness if you do a swap.

 

the SVO/TurboCoupe/XR4Ti/Cougar Turbo all had the SVO motor. some without intercooler, some with more boost, some with different ECU tuning, but the same longblock and hardware. the diff between a non-SVO (turbo or not) 2.3 and an SVO 2.3 is mainly the head. the SVO motor had a special hi-perf head specifically for that motor. other than that, im pretty sure the rest is the same. and yes, the SVO and T-Coupes had the intercoolers so the ECU and wiring is diff than the others. the T-Coupe had a better intercooler, but the ECUs were pretty much the same, with the later T-Coupes having the best ECUs.

 

The xr4ti and turbo coupe engines are the same as the SVO, minor deals with the oil pan and stuff..like the oil level sensor...The PCMs and some harness pins are different.. The later turbo coupes are "considered" to be the best PCMs.... But they are not plug and play.. certain pins are different and the later Birds had an additional IAT...