2.3L ('83-'97) 1994 Ranger, 2.3, Rebuild or Replace?

[BackBeat Sailing]

Greetings. I'm sorry if this has been covered elsewhere; after spending about twenty minutes lurking here, it seemed easiest just to ask the question afresh. One of my kids has a '94 Ranger with the 2.3L and manual trans, 2wd. It's got about 250k on it, and it's crapping out. Should I buy a new engine? If so, are remanufactured long blocks readily available at a reasonable cost? I can rebuild the engine, but I've never done a Ranger. If we rebuild it, is there anything else I should replace at the same time? Are there any upgrades that I should do? What should I watch out for? I only want to do this once, and I'd rather help him do it correctly and reliably. He just needs a reliable truck to go into the mountains for mountain biking and camping and whatever. He doesn't need a fire-breather--just a freshen-up for a truck he really likes. I'm asking here because I've had good suggestions and tips on vintage motorcycle forums. I'd like to probe the Ranger hive-mind before I start taking things apart. Thanks in advance, Kevin Jones

 

[Shran]

Welcome to the forum!

I guess my first question is, what do you mean by "crapping out"? I'm just asking because I've personally seen people stress out over a "bad engine" or some other seemingly major issue when it's something that can be fixed without major expense... for example a friend of mine was told she needed a new engine by a mechanic but it just had a bad spark plug wire.

250k is a lot of miles but the 2.3s are pretty durable and many go well past that. If it does in fact have some major issue requiring a rebuild, the best thing to do would be talking to a machine shop or three that have a good reputation and get estimates for "worst case." My guess is you will be looking at $2-3000. Less if you just have them do the machine work and assemble it yourself, and pull it/reinstall it.

Other stuff to think about while you've got it out - radiator, water pump, timing belt & tensioner, clutch/resurface or replace flywheel, clutch slave cylinder.

 

[scotts90ranger]

Yeah, will probably have to take a trip to the machine shop to be done "right" as it might need to be bored to the next size, it'd probably run decent with a hone and rering and getting the head fixed up (probably worn out exhaust valves). I've cheaped out and just done a hone and rering (or new pistons and rings) along with cleaning and gaskets and stuff with good results, heck I threw my current turbo 2.3L together with ebay/amazon parts and the best 4 of the 7 pistons (broke one, hence building another engine...), new rings and bearings and went for it... it's been going pretty good...

I'm with Shran though, what is going on?