My photo gallery
This is updated on a continual basis.
Please don't judge me for the jumbled manner in which these pics have been assembled.
I am just getting them posted then later I will organize.

The first 2 pics are my wife(priorities first). Then comes the car. :o)

The engine info starts over here---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------->

We are just adorable aren't we?

Hey Babe!!

This is the 2.3L disassembled block, pistons & crankshaft
Just got them back from the machine shop.

I was able to reuse the original pistons. They look great and are the original Ford with standard bore.

The OEM rodbolts were upgraded to ARP. The rods were then recondition/resized.

If you look close you can see the top ring placed in the cylinder for sizing.

This is the ring end gap. Totalseal's spec is a maximum of .022in.

Even though my bore is standard at 3.780, the ring gap showed a little large at .026in.
A talk with Totalseal's techs eased concern when we agreed the slightly larger ring gap is fine if not better for a high boost turbo application.

At this point the cylinder head is untouched by me. Only things done to it thus far are magnaflux to reveal any cracks and...........

.......the very first attempt at porting. This was done before I got the head. Its a good starting point. (Thanks Mark)

There is a pretty noticeable lip just above the intake valve. Common sense says its pretty restrictive.
This ended up being a pretty wasted step since I ended up getting the head cut for the big valve. Oh well, live and learn.

Intake port. About 80% complete.

Exhaust port 80% complete.

Here is the head after about 8 hours of porting & polishing.

Combustion chamber 90% complete.

After recommendation from fellow 2.3 enthusiasts, I opened up the combustion chamber by "laying back" The wall adjacent to the exhaust valve.

Intake bowl

Exhaust bowl

Oh my achin eyeball. Do NOT do any porting unless you have a good quality pair of safety goggles.
Regular safety glasses won't work.
Ask my eye doctor and me how I know.
hahaha, what a gross picture.

The upper intake is not hogged out like alot of 2.3's. I just smoothed out some of the rough spots. There were some pretty nasty spots of casting flash.

On the other side there were some huge bumps created by the mounting holes for the throttle linkage. Its flat now.

The fitting on the underside of the upper intake to the pcv had to be ground down as well. It protruded about 1/4 inch into the intake.

The stock E6 exhaust manifold is port matched to the turbo flange gasket. I smoothed out as far into the manifold as I could reach with my die grinder and a 6" extension.

There has been so much debate out there among 2.3 enthusiasts about headers vs. ported manifolds. I have elected to stay with the ported manifold until someone can prove a header is best. Besides, the manifold is free unlike the tab for a header.

I took as much off as I dared on the corners to cylinders 3 & 4. Smoothing out flow to the turbo.

Ported E6.

Here is a mostly assembled beauty. Isn't she cute? I ended up incorporating ford blue into the engine/compartment because of the blue v/c gasket. It looks good and will be easier than hiding the gasket.

The right side of the engine. I didn't notice until the picture was taken that I don't like how the exhaust manifold looked.

Here it is with everything reassembled. The only 2 things left to do before the motor goes in are clutch and a special order turbo gasket. Don't worry, the red distributor cap will get traded out for a grey one. Gotta keep with the color scheme.

I ended up painting the exhaust manifold and turbo an ultra hight temp jet black. I think it turned out pretty good. Also notice the blue I chose for the coolant plumbing. I think it turned out good.