What can I do to enhance my 2.9L Ranger?

[Apocalypse3000]

What can I do to give my 2.9 more power? Superchargers are at least $2000 from what I've seen. You guys know of any superchargers or turbos cheaper than $2000?

 

[myranger26105]

for that price swap a 4.0 in it. i dont know if a 2.9 can handle boost

 

[red93terror]

yep. the 4.0 is the performance upgrade for the 2.9

 

[Captain Ledd]

yep. the 4.0 is the performance upgrade for the 2.9

yeah, the 4.0L is basically a stroked and bored 2.9L. And since it's something Ford produced, there's alot more testing done than any individual could do. You get reliability and much more performance.

If that's still not enough THEN supercharge the 4.0L. You'll get a much larger bang for your buck too. Also there's some people who have put turbo's and superchargers on 4.0L's, so there's more tech there too.

 

[country0001]

yep. the 4.0 is the performance upgrade for the 2.9

This should be put on a t shirt.

 

[Boggin]

yeah deffinetly a 4.0 swap. its a bolt in swap, ill get you the links for it in the tech library

http://therangerstation.com/tech_library/4L_Conversion.html
http://therangerstation.com/tech_library/4L_Conversion2.htm
http://therangerstation.com/tech_library/4-Liter_Conversion_wiring.html

read those, i dont it and theres a hell lot of info there. i also got a thread somewhere full of info on swapping a 4.0 in a 88 2.9, search it under my threads

 

[adsm08]

Yeah, the problem with coaxing any more power out of the 2.9 for less than it costs to put a 4.0, or even a 5.0, in its place is that Ford knew from the get go that a 2.9L engine was small, even for a ranger so they pretty much maxed it out at the drawing board. There isn't really any way to get a significant amount of extra power out of it without doing more work and spending more money than the 4.0 swap would take.

You can't chip them because 90% of the time it puts them in fail-safe mode, you can't blow them because the heads won't handle it, a bigger TB can make them run screwy if you aren't careful and doesn't give you huge gains in power, it was designed to run with its emissions controls in place, so taking those out doesn't help any, and it usually hurts you, if you bore and stroke the 2.9 block you get paper thin walls and more compression than the heads can handle.

Your truck is a 90 though, so for you a 4.0 swap is really a matter of taking a 4.0 engine, bolting it up and plugging it in. Just need a 90 computer too. That's a lot less than most of us needed to do (or still need to do) to get a 4.0.

 

[trail B2]

These little motors don't really have good gains for low cost like say a 302 or 350 chevy.I put in a 4.0 its nice and torquey four wheels good economy is good.If you want to smoke a ricer at a light its not much good for that in my opinion its kinda a low RPM motor.Hopping up a 2.9 is like lipstick on a pig a lot of work and you still don't have what you wanted.

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

Yep, there are a few things that you can do to give the 2.9L a lil boost, but it's not really worth it unless you're really in love with the 2.9 motor. About all that can be reasonably done to a 2.9 is to stick better heads on it and do a MAF conversion along with a Scorpio intake. Of course, you can also do intake and exhaust polish and port match, but that's expensive for little gain.

But when that's all said an done, you might as well have just dropped a 4.0L in it. And there is a LOT more performance to be gained out of a 4.0L, there is a good range of aftermarket parts available for them. Superchargers, turbos, headers, chips, etc. And it already comes with a MAF system so there is no modification required.

 

[Psychopete]

I was going to put a M90 blower on a MAF setup on mine, but changed my mind later on. It can be done for under $2000, but you will have a lot of fabrication and custom parts. Engine management is probably going to be the biggest hurdle/gotcha getting that thing to run right.

Easier to go with something that already has what you want instead of trying to do something with an engine that's been out of production since '92.. And trying to hop up a 2.9L for big money to get V8ish power doesn't make much sense - been there done that. I'd go SBF V8 for that vintage of Ranger. But I read you are from Cali and you might not be able to do much regardless. Will have to call and confirm before you commit to doing anything.

Pete

 

[AllanD]

You need the engine bay and engine management harnesses with the 4.0 engine and on a 1990 the harnessesthat work best are 1990-92 Ranger harnesses.

You CANNOT "Get by" with just swapping the computer and engine management harness because the EDIS is integrated into the headlight harness.

So you start at the "big round plug" and remove/replace it ALL.

I spent saturday stripping the 3.0 harness out of a 1992 Ranger
preparing the engine bay for the 4.0 that's going in.

AD

Yeah, the problem with coaxing any more power out of the 2.9 for less than it costs to put a 4.0, or even a 5.0, in its place is that Ford knew from the get go that a 2.9L engine was small, even for a ranger so they pretty much maxed it out at the drawing board. There isn't really any way to get a significant amount of extra power out of it without doing more work and spending more money than the 4.0 swap would take.

You can't chip them because 90% of the time it puts them in fail-safe mode, you can't blow them because the heads won't handle it, a bigger TB can make them run screwy if you aren't careful and doesn't give you huge gains in power, it was designed to run with its emissions controls in place, so taking those out doesn't help any, and it usually hurts you, if you bore and stroke the 2.9 block you get paper thin walls and more compression than the heads can handle.

Your truck is a 90 though, so for you a 4.0 swap is really a matter of taking a 4.0 engine, bolting it up and plugging it in. Just need a 90 computer too. That's a lot less than most of us needed to do (or still need to do) to get a 4.0.

 

[adsm08]

You CANNOT "Get by" with just swapping the computer and engine management harness because the EDIS is integrated into the headlight harness.

AD

Who's frigging bright idea was that?

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

Don't forget, these trucks were brought to you by the same intelligent folks who decided it would be a bright idea to mount the TFI module on the distributor of ALL trucks... and it is a device that is sensitive to heat...

 

[adsm08]

Don't forget, these trucks were brought to you by the same intelligent folks who decided it would be a bright idea to mount the TFI module on the distributor of ALL trucks... and it is a device that is sensitive to heat...

Good point.

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

Good point.

Yep, just a few examples of Ford's "better ideas" (yea, that actually was part of a marketing slogan several years back)