3.0 Build

[bobbywalter]

What dat is? Looks fun.

Day be cheeeeps

 

[ericbphoto]

Cheeeeps is almost my favorite price.

 

[bobbywalter]

Tree hundred cheeps herz perz.

 

[rusty ol ranger]

Drop in a 5.3 it's a pre built 302

Fords should stay ford.

Piss on it go with a 460

 

[C.Fuller305]

@C.Fuller305 you might to look across the street at a Taurus forum. Those motors were made for that car and any tuning or mods for a Vulcsn3.0 will be there, not here. Almost every person in the forum has NO faith in that motor and asking them about it is only gonna piss you off. I say go for it. The Vulcan motor is a high RPM motor and would probably make an excellent drift motor if built correctly.. take plenty of pictures and show us what you can get out of it.

Thank you for that and yea I see what you mean and I’ll have to ask

 

[Uncle Gump]

There was a post made here that got reported. So we have to look into it and determine what to do with it.

While I really don't see anything totally offensive here... I'm going to close the report as resolved and just remind everyone to be mindful of other member opinions. At the end of the day... we're just a bunch of Ford Ranger guys here to learn and share and keep TRS the best Ranger site on the internet,

I don't want to exceed 500 which should be pretty easy. My build is a street/drag/drift truck I want to make a decent amount of power so I can attend a variety of events and be able to actually compete

I honestly think you could drain a couple three perfectly good checking accounts to get that kind of power out of a 3.0L... nothing cheap on even close to easy to fall considerably short of 500 HP. There is information out there that can probably help get you more from your 3.0L... dig in and see what you can do with it. Just remember to have some fun along the way.

 

[Blmpkn]

I'm with Bobby. 5.3 and a turbo. Cheap, and 500hp all day long. Ya just gotta get it in there first..

 

[mc17eln]

You can research stock engines of all makes and eras using the simple formula of:

horsepower divided by displacement in liters​

For example, your stock 1993 Vulcan is 140 / 3 = 46.7. A 1993 Corvette LT1 engine is 300 / 5.7 = 52.6. Despite of different manufacturer and displacement, they are only about 10% difference, because they are limited by the technology of that era.

Fast forward 10+ years, the 2005 Porsche Carrera GT that killed Paul Walker has a V10 engine, which is 603 / 5.7 = 105.8. Ten years of newer technology and German engineering doubled that ratio.

@C.Fuller305 Your goal is 500 / (3x3.997/3.504) = 146.1. You only need to do 40% better than all those high pay German, GM and Ford engineers combine with a 1993 engine.

By the way, not all engines are designed to survive aftermarket mods of your choosing. Ford designed the iron block Vulcan for reliability doesn't mean it will survive thinning the cylinder walls plus a supercharger and twin turbos. Like others have said, you will literally blow up your money.

 

[ericbphoto]

Ford designed the iron block Vulcan for reliability doesn't mean it will survive thinning the cylinder walls plus a supercharger and twin turbos. Like others have said, you will literally blow up your money.

Yeah. Leave one of those turbos off.

 

[mc17eln]

Leave one of those turbos off.

haha, my other car is a 2004 Audi allroad quattro with a 2.7T twin turbo engine. I can't help it.

 

[stmitch]

I have a 3.0 V6 that came out of a 1993 ford ranger, and I am putting it into a 1987 Ford Ranger. I am wanting to build the 3.0 a little bit to get some more power and torque out of it and I was wondering what my options were I also am doing a full rebuild of the motor and after a little bit of research I believe I am going to bore the block to 3.997 in. and that is all that I have found on the motor. Can anyone give me some ideas or websites that would help. Yes It is not usual for someone to build a V6 3.0 but I am wanting to do something that is different from the crowd.

I've been a 3.0 performance guy for a long time. The highest power that I've ever seen was around 325-330whp from a Probe back in the day (probably 15 years ago on a forum that's been gone for years now). I don't recall all of the specifics but he was running something like 25-30lbs of boost from twins with a bunch of supporting mods to get those numbers.
Most Ranger guys that ran Whipples (8-12psi) and maybe had some minor supporting mods ended up in the 220-230whp ballpark.
I've got a Vulcan with a decent amount of work and money into it. My Whipple has the "small" pulley and makes about 10psi after all of my porting/headers and stuff. I swear that one day I'll get it on a dyno, with the goal being at least 250whp, but I'm not counting on much more than that.
Morana sells a forged stroker kit that might be a good base if you're planning a big power build with lots of boost. His HP claims seem optimistic to me, but I've never seen anybody actually buy it and verify anything about them. Stock bottom ends are good to at least 20psi for street driving. It's rpms that kill them, usually by stretching rod bolts.
Vulcans are strong engines, but they're not powerhouses without tons of work. The valve springs are junk. The cam profile is lazy. The rocker ratio can be improved. The heads and intake manifolds flow poorly. If we are trying to max out a 3.0, you're going to have to address pretty much everything.

If I just wanted to build the baddest 3.0 out there, I'd start with a newer block than '93. The blocks gained strengthening ribs over the years. I'd probably seriously consider Morana's stroker kit and main cap girdle. You'll need to run lots of boost and rpms, so you want high quality bottom end components that are very well balanced and stable at any rpm. You can likely get close to 300hp on stock bottom end, but that's probably not going to last in a drift truck where you're on the rev limiter a lot.
Next, I'd focus a ton of attention on the lower intake manifold and cylinder head flow. I'd want a spare set of heads to cut up and see casting thickness, and mess around with porting/flow testing. Bigger valves would be nice, but there's not much room to grow, and as you get bigger, you'd increase shrouding. Special care should be taken to polish the combustion chambers to avoid hotspots or places that carbon could deposit itself and cause detonation.
The lower intake manifolds are super thick, rough castings. I'm sure they can be improved. Opening them up as much as possible might work well with tons of boost, but isn't guaranteed to be the best flowing option.
Morana sells stiffer valve springs. They'll be critical to avoid valve float. Custom cam grind, perhaps with an appropriate roller rocker will be key to making power.
As many ARP fasteners as possible to hold it together.
98-2000 upper intake manifolds are better than the earlier ones, while having larger throttle bodies and still being aluminum (can be ported). Not sure I'd want one of the newer composite intakes with 20+psi, but YMMV. This would be new territory, so you'd have to be comfortable being the Guinea pig, and paying/waiting for custom parts. Doing it for $5k without the expensive stroker kit and some used parts would be impressive. With the stroker, new turbo(s), etc you're probably closer to $9-10k unless you own a machine shop.

 

[bobbywalter]

This.


Do that

 

[rusty ol ranger]

This.


Do thatView attachment 71645

No do this. 460CID of pure 'murica

 

[Ranger101]

I've been a 3.0 performance guy for a long time. The highest power that I've ever seen was around 325-330whp from a Probe back in the day (probably 15 years ago on a forum that's been gone for years now). I don't recall all of the specifics but he was running something like 25-30lbs of boost from twins with a bunch of supporting mods to get those numbers.
Most Ranger guys that ran Whipples (8-12psi) and maybe had some minor supporting mods ended up in the 220-230whp ballpark.
I've got a Vulcan with a decent amount of work and money into it. My Whipple has the "small" pulley and makes about 10psi after all of my porting/headers and stuff. I swear that one day I'll get it on a dyno, with the goal being at least 250whp, but I'm not counting on much more than that.
Morana sells a forged stroker kit that might be a good base if you're planning a big power build with lots of boost. His HP claims seem optimistic to me, but I've never seen anybody actually buy it and verify anything about them. Stock bottom ends are good to at least 20psi for street driving. It's rpms that kill them, usually by stretching rod bolts.
Vulcans are strong engines, but they're not powerhouses without tons of work. The valve springs are junk. The cam profile is lazy. The rocker ratio can be improved. The heads and intake manifolds flow poorly. If we are trying to max out a 3.0, you're going to have to address pretty much everything.

If I just wanted to build the baddest 3.0 out there, I'd start with a newer block than '93. The blocks gained strengthening ribs over the years. I'd probably seriously consider Morana's stroker kit and main cap girdle. You'll need to run lots of boost and rpms, so you want high quality bottom end components that are very well balanced and stable at any rpm. You can likely get close to 300hp on stock bottom end, but that's probably not going to last in a drift truck where you're on the rev limiter a lot.
Next, I'd focus a ton of attention on the lower intake manifold and cylinder head flow. I'd want a spare set of heads to cut up and see casting thickness, and mess around with porting/flow testing. Bigger valves would be nice, but there's not much room to grow, and as you get bigger, you'd increase shrouding. Special care should be taken to polish the combustion chambers to avoid hotspots or places that carbon could deposit itself and cause detonation.
The lower intake manifolds are super thick, rough castings. I'm sure they can be improved. Opening them up as much as possible might work well with tons of boost, but isn't guaranteed to be the best flowing option.
Morana sells stiffer valve springs. They'll be critical to avoid valve float. Custom cam grind, perhaps with an appropriate roller rocker will be key to making power.
As many ARP fasteners as possible to hold it together.
98-2000 upper intake manifolds are better than the earlier ones, while having larger throttle bodies and still being aluminum (can be ported). Not sure I'd want one of the newer composite intakes with 20+psi, but YMMV. This would be new territory, so you'd have to be comfortable being the Guinea pig, and paying/waiting for custom parts. Doing it for $5k without the expensive stroker kit and some used parts would be impressive. With the stroker, new turbo(s), etc you're probably closer to $9-10k unless you own a machine shop.

Did I read correctly in that you said 98-2000 Ranger 3.0s came with aluminum upper intake manifolds? Just checking. I know 2000 Taurus cars came with them and I was going to get one to port for a larger TB and put it on my Ranger.

 

[stmitch]

Did I read correctly in that you said 98-2000 Ranger 3.0s came with aluminum upper intake manifolds? Just checking. I know 2000 Taurus cars came with them and I was going to get one to port for a larger TB and put it on my Ranger.

Yeah. As far as I know, all Vulcans had aluminum upper and lower intakes until 2001, when the upper was switched to composite. But 98-2000 were supposedly the best of the aluminum ones in stock form. Putting Escape throttle bodies on was fairly common for awhile, but I believe it required adding some material to the throttle body flange in order to seal well enough to avoid vacuum leaks.