Scott Manley Wrote:
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> Skye- that list is on so many websites.
>
> I look at it this way, I've lifted several 2.3
> blocks and I move the heads around my work bench
> every so often, but I can't move either a pair of
> 5.0 heads and I certainly can't lift a 5.0 block.
> And I move 300 lbs. espresso machines (move not
> lift mind you) and 90 lbs grinders at work, so I
> have something to compare to.
Dave Williams compiled the list.
The current list is at
http://www.bacomatic.org/~dw/txt/engfyi.htm .
It's found its way onto many sites, often without proper attribution and without the notes at the bottom.
For instance... that [2] attribution next to the 450lb weight for thr turbo engine:
(2) Complete Handbook of Automotive Power Trains, Jan Norbye, 1981
So that is the reported weight, lifted from a book, of a 2.3 Turbo made before 1981. So, we are talking one of the engines used in very early Fox body Mustangs. Carbureted. It's entirely possible that the carb engine's manifolding is obscenely heavy, or the early Turbo blocks are much heavier than later ones, or maybe Merkurs used different blocks since they WERE shipping engines from the US over to Germany so they could bolt them into cars and ship them back here.
Note that the non turbo 2.3 as listed from the same source is 411... *and* that a non turbo 2.3 listed from source 18 (Ford SVO V-6 Racing Engine Builder's Guide, 1992) is *307* pounds... no mention made of manifolding present or not, accessories or not, BUT STILL... Ford did do a lot of weight reduction in some of their engines after 1981.
There's another attribution for a 2.3 Turbo, incidentally... 380 pounds, including turbo (and presumably manifolding) and flywheel, from source 162: "Brian Knowles 29 August 1997 (his scale)". Lending credence to the weight-reduction-program theory.
There's data, and then there's where the data is coming from. Kinda like saying 5.0s must weigh 500 pounds because some 1968 motor did, even though they shaved a ton of weight out of them in '82 and it's cheaper to buy all-up aluminum heads you can lift with one finger and thumb than it is to even rebuild stockers with new valves, shedding even more weight... *duck and cover*
Pete Remner
Cleveland, Ohio
1984 RX-7 (rallycross thing)
1978
Silence is golden, but duct tape is silver.