88 2.9 died, can i put 88 2.3 4 banger in it?

jeremywayne · Feb 24, 2010

I have a 88 ranger and after spending 300 bucks on sensors to get it running good it jumped time and blew up, can I buy a 1988 2.3- 4 cylinder and drop it in and bolt it to my 4 speed manual transmission without wiring harness nightmares.

177CIOfPureLove · Feb 24, 2010

Nope. Your 5 speed tranny is a different bellhousing. The wiring harness is completely different. How a 2.9 jumped timing is beyond me, but a 2.9 only runs or it is pure crap. If you are sure its pure crap then best you can do is find another one, or buy an engine/tranny/wiring/ecu off of someone else to swap. And you already have a good engine, so you would only need a 4-cyl bellhousing tranny and wiring/ecu.

jeremywayne · Feb 24, 2010

2.9 swap

Thank you for the info on the swap, I am just going to haul her to the crusher, 2.9 engines cost more than my old truck is worth. Sucks I got 1000 bucks in the truck only had it 2 months, ran rough, did tune up and it blew up in the yard when i revved it up to 3000 rpm trying to warm it up the other morning. One huge loud backfire now the engine wont do anything.

BlackBII · Feb 24, 2010

2.9's are plentiful in junkyards...and can be had (for around here) for ~100 bucks...

How do you know it jumped timing?
What do you mean the motor wont do anything? Wont turn over? Is it seized?

177CIOfPureLove · Feb 25, 2010

Yeah man, she shouldnt have blown up that easily. I bet it could be fixed, if you were willing to give the time to look at it....

88 2.9 died, can i put 88 2.3 4 banger in it?

jeremywayne

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177CIOfPureLove

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jeremywayne

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BlackBII

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177CIOfPureLove

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