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Ranger roller cam swap


Silver talon84

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Hey, been reading on a bunch of easy upgrades for the merk motor Im putting into the ranger. And the Ranger Roller hydrolic cam keeps showing up as an upgrade. Anyone done this? Is it worth while? Is it a direct bolt on where the merk is a slider cam, and ranger is a roller? Done a bunch of reading, but it seems to kind go a couple of ways, and no direct answer on if its a direct swap.
 


AllanD

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The issue with the original "slider" cams is something I've vbeen refering to as "base circle wear" for 20-ish years....

What happens is that the back side of the lobe wears a groove across the face of the follower, when the lobe tip rides through this groove at full lift it causes the follower to "hop" as the lobe tip pops out, this creates a second "chatter grove" across the face of the follower.

IF you are running a turbo engine on the original electronics the knock sensoir hears this as a spark knock, pulls timing and dumps boost.

This is exaggerated by the fact that this hopping and clicking tends to cause cracks in the hardened surface of the tip of the cam lobe...

and while all this is going on where do you think those metal chips are going?

yes they all wind up in the oil filter but not before taking a bite out
of the oil pump rotors...

The Ranger roller cam is essentially the same lift and duration without ANY of the headaches.

As for it being roller Vs slider, it is assumed that you'd be swapping the followers with it, and yes the 07-87(when they switched to the roller cam) through the end of 1994 model year production (1995-up is very different) swaps directly into any 2.3LIMA cylinder head.

I would not run a LIMA 4cylinder for ANY purpose without one of the factory roller cams.

It has long been proved that on a factory iron head that the 2.3 turbo engine is relatively insensitive to cam timing.

I have one cam here that I know for absolute fact has 225,000 miles on it and after cleaning off the varnish it is indestinguishable from one with known to have <1000 miles on it. (I installed it as a replacement into my brother's beater truck and the engine doppped piston two weeks later)

Another selling point will be revealed when you do this simple thing... try turning the cam gear by hand with slider followers... can't do it can you?

No try the same thing with the roler followers... turns pretty easy doesn't it?

Now I'm not going to say that'll translate into more power at the flywheel,
but it for damned sure willl reduce strain on the timing belt...

if you have the chance to do so swap on a set of the later "round tooth" timing belt pullies (crank, cam and accessory shaft) the round tooth belts are less likely to shed teeth and allow the timing to jump

AD
 
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Silver talon84

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Ok, so its a good idea to swap, and it will bolt in. So what about these followers you speak of? Are you talking about the tips on the rockers? Or the whole rockers them selves?

Thanks for the advice man! Very much apreciated! Hate to blow a motor up by not paying attention to something small!
 

scotts90ranger

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the whole thing, they are very different from the flat tappet to the roller... that's the cam I'm using too, very easy swap, way easier while the engine is out :)
 

AllanD

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Ok, so its a good idea to swap, and it will bolt in. So what about these followers you speak of? Are you talking about the tips on the rockers? Or the whole rockers them selves?

Thanks for the advice man! Very much apreciated! Hate to blow a motor up by not paying attention to something small!
The "sled" followers slide on the camshaft.

The "roller cam" uses followers that have a 3/4" diameter "wheel" that contacts the cam lobe.

You need the cam and followers.

SFAIK nobody makes roller tip rockers for the 2.3

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Bodyblender302

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Hey guys. I'm new to the ranger station. I've been reading around all over the net about roller follower swapping in 2.3s. I hope you guys can help spread the word. I have personally opened one of the 95+ followers to accomodate my earlier turbo 2.3 valves. Then when I went to test out the cam follower I measured the roller with my caliper. It measures .9 inches. The roller o my earlier 94 foller also measured .9 inches exactly. Obviously if you are swapping followers but the roller is the same you will see no change. There is alot of confusion on this. I'm just trying to clarify. This swap makes no difference whatsoever. Great experiment, but useless. Please don't waste your time or money trying this. You can measure the rollers yourself. They are exactly the same. Yes i'm talking about the two different "cast" and "stamped" followers. Just a heads up. Thanks.
 

ghunt81

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It's more of a swap to gain a roller cam and a slight amount of efficiency, I figured everyone knew it didn't make more power.

I used the roller followers in my Turbo Coupe to swap in a Motorsport A237 cam...now THAT was a good swap.
 

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