1985 Ranger 2.3 head

[Bonedriver]

Hello!!

My name is Tom and I'm an addict... Ford Addict that is!

My best friend is deployed to Afghanistan and he owns a 1985 Ranger 4x4 Dual Tank 2.3. It's a great little truck he picked up in Wyoming. Anyway... it's using oil at a pretty good pace... but runs like a champ. He has a new block and a roller cam, followers, etc, etc ready for a rebuild (gonna rebuild the engine and then just swap it instead of pull it and then rebuild it).

While he's deployed, I've been looking for a replacement head for his 85. I've already read the sticky, but have some questions:

Am I stuck with only being able to use an 85 head? I found a 1988 2.3 but am not sure if this is the head I need. If I interpreted the sticky right I come up with this:
83-85 had "round" ports - They all had a distributor, BUT 85 is the cut in for EFI, 83-84 were Carb'd.
83-88 all have a distributors, but 86-88 all have "oval" ports. (can't remember where I read the bit about the oval ports... can't find the reference now... sorry)
89+ all have DIS, dual spark, and "D" ports.
Which leave 85 as the ONLY year you got EFI, "round" ports, and a distributor for 2.3 heads...

Any and all help will be most useful..

P.S. I had meant this to be my first post, but I read the bit about the messed up Tach and it was Dejavu BAD... sorry.. hehehe

Cheers!!! Happy St. Patty's Day!!!

 

[Mark_88]

If you want to stay with the same intake then using a head with round ports would be best...you can, however, also swap in the intake if you go with a different head...just may be some mixing and matching to do to get everything right...apparently you can even use the 8 plug heads...just have to plug up the other 4 holes...

Mismatching the ports can cause minor to major performance issues...but you can also use heads from Mustang 2.3...I have a mix and match setup now...87 short block...89 mustang head (oval port)...78 mustang intake and carb (oval ported "OFFY type) and 93 mazda shorty header...

It works, but still not sure what the performance is like since I haven't driven it yet...but the same setup on my other truck worked good...though not EFI...

 

[Mutant Pony]

That is not quite right. The '85 2.3 Efi should have d-port heads, The same heads all the way to '88. These are not the Dual plug heads. This is the best head/intake combo for use with a carb. '89 and newer are the dual plug heads.
The '89 and newer block is better and all of the '85 parts will fit it.