I couldn't figure out if the 5.4 was part of the '97 model year or not either, wikipedia articles suggest that the 5.4 was available in '97 but I can't seem to find any examples of it, and we all know how reliable wikipedia can be...
Anywho, going to go and look at it close-up tonight. Even if it has the 4.2, hell thats good enough for me. The Ranger decided to implode another slave cylinder last week, and I'm getting tired of the disassembly/fix/reassembly cycle every six or seven months. This time it nearly got me injured, stupid thing went out with no warning while I was driving. Just can't seem to get a handle on whats causing it to do that, so its getting gutted.