144 help

futuraman

New member
Hi everyone, im new here [well been lurking for awhile]. Anyhow looking at buying a 62 4 door falcon with a 144 automatic combo and it seems to run well but could use more power !!! I know that it would be more popular to swap out to a 200 but I just want this motor to run as strong as it can without tearing it down or removal [i have a history of tearing down and not finishing] I have had a stock 200 auto combo before and was fairly pleased with its performance, so power in that range or hopefully better would be great. Thanks,Mike
 
1) Get the Falcon Performance Handbook from Classics Inline or the Ford Six Shop below. It will take you where you want to go.

2) Put in an electronic ignition with a hotter coil. Cheapest: Pertronix I and Flamethrower coil. Cheap but more involved: DuraSpark II, either salvage or new from auto part store. Most expensive but highest wow factor: DUI, which incorporates the advantages of both the above from Classics Inline.

3) Good flowing intake head with larger throated carb. Check the handbook, aka 'the bible' for your applications.

4) Exhaust headers and unrestrictive muffler once you have fire and enough air to burn the fuel efficiently.

5) Look above you to the sky, because that is the limit on cost, if not absolute performance.
 
Thanks for the adviice, I have the falcon six performance handbook. Has any one hopped up a 144 with any real "seat of the pants" improvement? Thanks, Mike
 
8) use a small turbo from an 87-88 tbird turbo coupe. it is sized right for the 2.3L engine you have(144ci=2.3L). i would also use the mega squirt efi system with three tempo throttle bodies. since you have to pull the head to mod the log for the throttle bodies, grab a later model head and mod that, then bolt it in place of the current head. that way you also minimize the down time to a head swap and hooking up the turbo. the megasquirt also has provision for ignition control as well, either with a distributor, or a distributorless ignition system. the latter is the way to go. that way you can eliminate the load o matic distributor. if you dont want the ignition controller, you can use a pertronix conversion to eliminate the points, replace the lom dist with a later model duraspark dist with the shaft turned down to fit the early block, or open the guide hole in the block to fit the later dist shaft. or oyu can contact one of our aussie members and have them send you an electronic dist from one of the aussie sixes. addo sent me one for my 64 falcon. either way you will have to change the oil pump and oil pump drive shaft to the later model shaft(5/16 vs the early 1/4).
 
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