2.8 to 2.9 swap questions

[Diego H]

I'm not really a 2.8 fan but I would fix oil leaks on a good running engine before I swapped in a 2.9 in unknown condition plus all the wiring and fuel system stuff.

That said a 2.8 -> 2.9 swap is really easy on a 1st gen if you have a complete donor on hand. Just be sure it's in really good shape... I've had a couple 2.9's that seemed like good running engines but they would happily sip coolant. Sometimes it's obvious that the heads are cracked, sometimes it is really hard to catch. If you're SURE it's a very healthy engine, go for it, I like a good running 2.9. They are good engines.

Yeah that is a good point the 2.9 that I was thinking about getting apparently has bad injectors but i don’t know for sure and has over 200,000 km (125000 miles) which seems a little high to me, my 2.8 has a little over 80,000 miles so now I think I’ll stick with the original motor

 

[rusty ol ranger]

Just skimming through but as i figured the 4.0 got mentioned....

One thing i didnt see mentioned is if you went 4.0 youll likely want to swap the trans to, as whatevers behind your 2.8 pry wont live very long.

If you go 2.9 its the same trans as would be behind the 2.9.

The 2.9 is an upgrade over a 2.8. 115 vs 140hp, 150 vs 170 ftlb.

The 2.9 is a bit quirky, but keep it cool itll go a long time.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Just skimming through but as i figured the 4.0 got mentioned....

One thing i didnt see mentioned is if you went 4.0 youll likely want to swap the trans to, as whatevers behind your 2.8 pry wont live very long.

If you go 2.9 its the same trans as would be behind the 2.9.

The 2.9 is an upgrade over a 2.8. 115 vs 140hp, 150 vs 170 ftlb.

The 2.9 is a bit quirky, but keep it cool itll go a long time.

2.8 doesn't have as bad of head cracking fun, no noisy lifters to cause irritation (as long as you keep them set) and with a normal carb and duraspark dizzy is as reliable as any other 70's-early 80's engine. Mine went thru complete torture and it still ran smooth the day I pulled it out with enough blowby it was spraying oil on the exhaust manifold thru the dipstick tube.

 

[Brain75]

Since you are leaning towards keeping the 2.8, I got to ask where is it leaking?... rear main seal can be fixed without a world of work, timing cover, etc etc - a lot of the leaky can be fixed in place.... but like 85_ranger just said blowby - yeah, that can't be fixed inside the engine bay.

I've got a more than significant leak myself right now, it is the oil filter 90 degree adapter... I am waiting till it is due to change oil and have the stuff to do it right now (my GM has the exact same leak and is in the exact same standby slot too).

 

[rusty ol ranger]

2.8 doesn't have as bad of head cracking fun, no noisy lifters to cause irritation (as long as you keep them set) and with a normal carb and duraspark dizzy is as reliable as any other 70's-early 80's engine. Mine went thru complete torture and it still ran smooth the day I pulled it out with enough blowby it was spraying oil on the exhaust manifold thru the dipstick tube.

I didnt say the 2.8 was bad.

Just the 2.9 made more power.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

I didnt say the 2.8 was bad.

Just the 2.9 made more power.

Built in water injection helps no doubt...

 

[Diego H]

Since you are leaning towards keeping the 2.8, I got to ask where is it leaking?... rear main seal can be fixed without a world of work, timing cover, etc etc - a lot of the leaky can be fixed in place.... but like 85_ranger just said blowby - yeah, that can't be fixed inside the engine bay.

I've got a more than significant leak myself right now, it is the oil filter 90 degree adapter... I am waiting till it is due to change oil and have the stuff to do it right now (my GM has the exact same leak and is in the exact same standby slot too).

It leaks for almost every imaginable spot but most of it is around the back of the motor, but I do want to open it up to do bearings and rings it has some blow by and maybe a cam I’m not sure yet, and I want to start cleaning the rust on the frame

 

[Slyronious]

If you want more power out of the 2.8 you could put a 2.9 crank in it to give it more stroke. I'm in the middle of an engine rebuild and that's what I'm doing. I had a 2.9 crank sent to a machinist to have the front turned down to fit the timing gear of the 2.8 and I have it installed in the block. I've bored the cylinders over 0.040" and with the added stroke it will be right at 3.0l.

The 2.8 pistons on the 2.9 crank took a bit of work. When I spun the crank around by hand, the pistons hit the crank counterweight. I had to machine the wrist pin area of the 2.8 piston to give enough clearance for the crank to rotate. It needs 1mm or 0.040" clearance between the crank counterweight and the wrist pin to give good clearance. I did not have to modify the piston skirts as they were the same as the 2.9 skirts.

Add 2.9 intake and exhaust valves, a Comp Cams stage 2 camshaft and an Offenhauser 4bbl intake manifold with some 1986 Ford Aerostar factory exhaust headers and you should be good to go. Duraspark ignition and a single advance 1974 Mustang II 2.8 distributor. Still in the middle of the rebuild so I can't say for sure how this will work out but that's my list. Compression will be higher but hopefully I can get by with midgrade gas.

As for leaks, get rid of rubber and cork and paper gaskets if you can. Especially cork... Recently learned that cork gaskets and synthetic oil do not mix. It WILL seep through. Plus cork shrinks and hardens. Been going through replacing all O-rings with Viton and am using RTV gasket maker in place of cork.

 

[ford4wd08]

If you want more power out of the 2.8 you could put a 2.9 crank in it to give it more stroke. I'm in the middle of an engine rebuild and that's what I'm doing. I had a 2.9 crank sent to a machinist to have the front turned down to fit the timing gear of the 2.8 and I have it installed in the block. I've bored the cylinders over 0.040" and with the added stroke it will be right at 3.0l.

The 2.8 pistons on the 2.9 crank took a bit of work. When I spun the crank around by hand, the pistons hit the crank counterweight. I had to machine the wrist pin area of the 2.8 piston to give enough clearance for the crank to rotate. It needs 1mm or 0.040" clearance between the crank counterweight and the wrist pin to give good clearance. I did not have to modify the piston skirts as they were the same as the 2.9 skirts.

Add 2.9 intake and exhaust valves, a Comp Cams stage 2 camshaft and an Offenhauser 4bbl intake manifold with some 1986 Ford Aerostar factory exhaust headers and you should be good to go. Duraspark ignition and a single advance 1974 Mustang II 2.8 distributor. Still in the middle of the rebuild so I can't say for sure how this will work out but that's my list. Compression will be higher but hopefully I can get by with midgrade gas.

As for leaks, get rid of rubber and cork and paper gaskets if you can. Especially cork... Recently learned that cork gaskets and synthetic oil do not mix. It WILL seep through. Plus cork shrinks and hardens. Been going through replacing all O-rings with Viton and am using RTV gasket maker in place of cork.

Curious about your build. You don't see many build up the 2.8 to anything. Normally winds up in the scrap bin for a swap.

I might would consider pulling and resealing mine at some point, it runs very well, hard to want to swap in anything else.

 

[Slyronious]

If anyone wants to install a 2.9 crank in a 2.8 engine, here is the deck clearance you get. Measured it to be 0.336mm below 0 deck. This places the pistons 0.04mm higher than the 2.9 piston crown which should get somewhere around 10:1 compression since the 2.8 pistons don't have the dish that the 2.9 pistons have. Crankshaft casting number 86tm6303ba which came out of a 1986 2.9 Ranger.