2.5L ('98-'01) 2000 2.5l Turbo Ranger single

[Isaac H.]

Im 18 and have a 2000 Ranger with the 2.5 that I’ve had for about 3 years now, I’ve got a 3-5 lower and light bolt ons like a 40 series muffler and intake and such, I recently got a new daily (a 98 Civic LX) and now I want to turbo the Ranger, I’m pretty mechanically inclined, I am going to college for mechanical engineering and Im a home mechanic for my friends and family. I have a pretty good idea of what I need to do, the truck has 190000 miles on it with factory internals, my plan is to do a full refresh and rebuild and I want to put forged rods and heads in, ARP studs, and all that, but I don’t know where or what parts are good and how much I should build it up. I want to do 7-9PSI on a daily and push 12-14PSI on occasion but I know boost is addictive and if it’ll do 14 then I could do 15 and so on so. I want to shoot for a T4 but I dont know what manifold to get, I was gonna get a 2.3 turbo manifold off an older 2.3 turbo but I don’t think it will align right. Any tips or suggestions?

 

[Isaac H.]

Im 18 and have a 2000 Ranger with the 2.5 that I’ve had for about 3 years now, I’ve got a 3-5 lower and light bolt ons like a 40 series muffler and intake and such, I recently got a new daily (a 98 Civic LX) and now I want to turbo the Ranger, I’m pretty mechanically inclined, I am going to college for mechanical engineering and Im a home mechanic for my friends and family. I have a pretty good idea of what I need to do, the truck has 190000 miles on it with factory internals, my plan is to do a full refresh and rebuild and I want to put forged rods and heads in, ARP studs, and all that, but I don’t know where or what parts are good and how much I should build it up. I want to do 7-9PSI on a daily and push 12-14PSI on occasion but I know boost is addictive and if it’ll do 14 then I could do 15 and so on so. I want to shoot for a T4 but I dont know what manifold to get, I was gonna get a 2.3 turbo manifold off an older 2.3 turbo but I don’t think it will align right. Any tips or suggestions?

Here are some pictures from when I got it to now

 

[scotts90ranger]

The '98-01 2.5L is identical to the '95-97 2.3L aside from the crank/rods/pistons/fuel injectors so yes a 2.3L exhaust manifold will work

What parts to use depends on what you can find and what your budget is, if you have a high budget you can probably find rods and forged pistons for the current crank and meet your expectations. In general these old engines are getting harder to find parts for, I haven't looked for a while but forged pistons even for a 2.3L are hard to come by...

As for what you need for what you are talking about, the stock 2.3L bottom end can apparently take about 350hp before you need to get a different crank or anything which is WAY past where you're talking. The 2.5L crank is different and I don't remember if it is as stout as the 2.3L... I know the stock 2.3L rotating assembly aside from the pistons is the same between the NA and turbo... the 2.5L I believe has powder steel rods and hypereutectic pistons so might be more prone to issues... You don't need to get too crazy with studs, head (aside from porting the stock head, do that...).

Boost is addicting but it gets expensive and more complicated... on my 2.3L turbo it started getting complicated around 14psi with stock turbo 2.3L internals and a bunch of random Ranger stuff and it meets my needs so I just leave it... it would be happier with an intercooler (haven't gotten that far, it's on the list) then I could turn it up but meh...

To shorten it up get some better rods and pistons, hone the bores as they're probably fine then get a tuner and appropriate injectors and get it together and see where that gets you then hone from there. You don't have to get fancy with O ring headgaskets and head studs until in the 20's for boost, they'll take 15psi with stock torque to yield bolts just fine.