Advice for more bottom end.

[Rackster]

Black smudge are unburnt gases

the black on the bumper is from not running a catalyst (which isn't going to get you anything on something smaller than a big block), not from running too large of exhaust... I haven't figured out why all of the honda's have the oil cloud behind them.

Thanks Scott. My informal study of vehicles most likely to puff smoke out the tail pipe, Civics appear to be at or near the top of the list. I'd hate to have to keep wiping the smudges off the bumper. I'd keep the cat in.

Kevin

 

[DJ2.3]

hey jbreitz,
do you have the silencer baffle removed from the intake tube?

 

[press 1 for english]

The air intake is still getting a bunch of hot air from the engine compartment. CAI don't do shit for these engines.
The exhaust is pretty funny, but gains nothing if it doesn't lose a few HP.
It's a 19 year old truck.....would you force your great grandfather to run a couple of miles with you.
Be realistic!
The 4.10 rear end gearing would get you better low end, but it is a 19 year old truck.

 

[press 1 for english]

the black on the bumper is from not running a catalyst (which isn't going to get you anything on something smaller than a big block), not from running too large of exhaust... I haven't figured out why all of the honda's have the oil cloud behind them.

Ricers are primarily owned by ghetto people. Routine maintenance takes away money used for fart cannons, wings, big wheels and custom paint/stickers......therefore oil changes are not done.

 

[jbreitz]

because hey, what could changing the oil possibly gain? i mean, as long as its got some in there still, that's good enough! now how much more can i put towards my subwoofer...

I do have the intake muffler taken out, and recently mounted the air intake temp sensor in a better location.

the exhaust is much more free flowing, but the larger diameter for the 30 inches or so could've been the cause of the loss of torque.

 

[Rackster]

Loss of Torque

JB,

I'd be interested in what you find at the end of your investigation. I'll be moving to a new exhaust sooner than later, so I'm reading all I can on the subject from various angles (trying to find the right solution). Post back here with the details.

Kevin

 

[jbreitz]

I realized that getting off the throttle slightly solved the problem. at full throttle in low revs, it would have no power. backing off solved this for me. at higher revs, however, all of the throttle range is usable. I'm not sure exactly what caused this, but it seems logical.

 

[Rackster]

Acceleration

I've found that driving harder vs driving normally does not result in significantly noticable acceleration differences. I've also noticed that if I'm hauling 500lbs of demolition in the back, acceleration is about the same as well. I've been thinking that the Ford engineers may have been focused on creating reasonable acceleration under normal driving regardless if you are hauling anything or not. It might suggest that's why we hear from 4 cyl. Ranger owners who find towing performance acceptable.

I've been thinking more about the comment English made: will an aftermarket exhaust improve or retard stock performance. I'd hate investing in an exhaust solution only to find that it made performance (especially mpg performance) worse. Would I just be another victim of gimmickie solutions? Hmmm...this has got me thinking.

 

[jbreitz]

That would be a reasonable explanation if that engine was purpose built for rangers, but its essentially a pinto motor. and i don't think ford had towing in mind while designing the pinto.

In theory, aftermarket exhausts make sense. They should improve power, and with an altered driving technique, increase fuel economy as well. The problem comes when the motor is not tuned for less back-pressure. I think the real problem lies in the fact that people just install the exhaust, and expect power gains right away.

 

[Rackster]

Theory vs Fact

You may be right jb. But I'm thinking that the transmission gear ratios and the rearend ratio may be different in the Ranger than the Pinto. No data on that; just my speculation. But that's the point here - plenty of speculation and not much data to support, and where data exists, confidence in it is mostly limited.

Take your point and pair it with English's: will the average consumer benefit from an aftermarket exhaust solution? Loads of aftermarket manufacturers out there making unsubstantiated claims. Many folks out there confirming these claims, mostly without scientifically gathered data to support it either. I'm o.k. with that as circumstantial evidence might be adequate in making a buy decision, but buy at risk to a lesser/greater degree. I think you make a good point about tuning the engine to support the purchase. Buying and bolting on a new exhaust or adding a K&N filter might be a waste of money if the computer just compensates and neutralizes their potential positive effects. Good food for thought. But finding credible data online, where not supplied by the manufacturer themselves, is limited.

Thanks for the input - more to consider in the buy decision.

 

[scotts90ranger]

an engine is an air pump, sure it was designed for the pinto back in the day but it had come a LONG way by the demise of the Lima engine. The main difference in an engine designed for a car and a truck is the camshaft, the ranger engines got a cam designed to make power at a lower rpm than the cam put in mustangs, the Ranger cam peak torque is around 2600rpm if I remember right. It's not a perfect engine, they never really did give it a cylinder head that would flow a decent amount of air stock.

You want more bottom end? get a cam with a lower rpm peak. Want another option? get lower gears or smaller tires to shift the shift points so that you can cruise at a higher rpm to get more in the power curve.

I tune engines for a living, today the main goal is to meet emissions regulations, but you can do that and still get good power readings. For now with standard fuel injectors going before the intake valves you basically get what you get, engines are basically tuned to run at 14.7:1 AFR while being switched rich and lean to keep the catalyst happy until you have to increase the fuel intake to reduce exhaust temperatures to keep from destroying the catalyst and melting the exhaust valves. Everything is basically tuned for best power at all points while still meeting emissions. To meet emissions only small compromises are needed, slight timing tweaks to reduce the cylinder temperatures and reduce NOx emissions.

The gear ratios were different in the old Pintos, probably 2.7:1 or 3:1 if I had to guess, but that's mainly because they ran tiny little tires...

 

[Rackster]

Mostly a gimmick or not?

Scott,

Given your livelihood, can I trouble you for your opinion on this short list for the Ranger 4 cyl (gimmick/neutral/beneficial) -

• Aftermarket Cold Air Intakes
• Aftermarket Airfilters (e.g. K&N)
• Non OEM Sparkplugs/Wires
• Aftermarket Exhuast Systems (e.g. Magnaflow, Dynomax, etc.)

Not many of us get to see the data/charting/graphs before or after these bolt-on type modifications. I'm hoping that given your potential access to this data, you might be able to offer beneficial advice on what might be worth the expense, and what definately isn't.

Regards,

Kevin

 

[scotts90ranger]

Most of my work is on engine dynos, and is all on industrial and marine spec engines. The marine engines are the most applicable to automotive where they max about 5000rpm and industrial max at 3000rpm.

There are minimal performance changes up to 5psi of exhaust back pressure (measured before the first restriction with a special probe), and you don't get there until high exhaust flow. On the little 100hp 2.3l making peak power at 4600rpm with a 2" exhaust you might gain a HP or two with a nice exhaust but you aren't going to notice a huge improvement. When I first put my turbo engine in my truck I was actually running that Car Quest muffler and the stock 2.3 cat, about a year and a half ago I pulled that off and removed the cat (will replace it with a universal unit soon, I've driven it less than 5k miles since then) with 2.5" pipe and a Thrush welded muffler ($40 at Jegs) and the power didn't feel any different on the good ol butt dyno...

On my truck I have ran a few different systems in the last 12 years and 120K miles. Back when it was N/A I had the stock muffler, a $20 "Turbo" muffler, and a $25 Car Quest stock replacement muffler, I drove the CRAP out of the thing, shifting at 5000rpm, cruising at 2500-3000rpm and I was happy with the performance and all 3 mufflers gave the same performance.

On the intake side, I would skip the aftermarket cold air intakes as they generally suck in warm air near the exhaust side of the engine on these things. If you really want to see if there's anything to be had from a higher flowing intake system get yourself a vacuum gage ($15 from Harbor Freight) and mount it in the truck to a vacuum source (behind the throttle body). It will show 0 with the engine off, probably 20-22"Hg at idle. Driving down the highway downshift so the engine speed is at the horsepower peak (say 4500rpm, I don't remember what it is on your 2.5) and go to full throttle, the gage should show 0 again, if it's still negative then you either have a plugged filter or the stock system wasn't adequate to start with. If it's only 1"Hg you aren't missing much power wise.

On the oiled filter thing, you mainly gain in filter life not performance, and they can actually fight you on an engine with a mass airflow sensor as the oil droplets tend to come off the filter and skew the sensor which changes how it runs.

Spark plugs, not much power to be gained, different plugs mainly change the completeness of the burn, going from one plug to another might change performance 1%. There is plenty of spark energy being put out by the DIS system on your engine, I would go with a quality platinum plug (autolite is fine, with 8 of them they should last forever basically) with a quality wire, with plug wires any quality wire set should be fine. Basically you just want the wires to last as some of the cheap ones don't.

 

[Rackster]

Tips to consider

Thanks Scott. I figured that you might have access to a dyno and various specialized flow gages/transducers/probes. I have a friend who is a helicopter mechanic; ends up he's a pretty handy auto mechanic to. Having access to these tools help to eliminate some of the speculation; many of us out here are left to our uncalibrated butts to determine the effectiveness of a particular attempt to optimize performance. Heck, my truck is faster after a wash and wax or fresh oil or maybe new plugs. Some improvement can be noticed I suppose, but I'll bet a good bunch of it is left to the imagination.

My exhaust is hanging on for the moment (original equipment nearing 12 years of usage). I really debated on buying a new exhaust system and spyed a system from a place in Cali. For performance built engines, it's a no brainer. But for a stock engine, I'm becoming more skeptical about whether or not I'll get really improvement. I'm trying to avoid loud as well; those years are a bit behind me at this point. I'd just like to squeeze out a few more hp's and mainly, better mpg. My reading here and elsewhere support your conclusion that the CAI is a waste of money; stock intake is actually regarded as CAI and hard to top without major creativity. I'm not an advocate of the K&N type airfilters either, precisely for the reason you stated; more likely to mess up your MAF and create problems. And as for plugs and wires, the information out there really supports OEM replacements. I pulled out my original plugs a few weeks ago and the gaps had grown (by erosion) to 0.060" and my mpg's were right where I state they are in my Signature. New plugs seem to keep things idling smoother perhaps, but again, just my uncalibrated ears and butt to confirm this. My mpg's actually seemed to drop 1-2 mpg but a recent study shows that I'm about the same as before the change. New OEM wires as well.

So the current thinking is that if I do anything, I might get an aftermarket exhaust, but will probably opt just to get an OEM replacement since I don't want to wake the neighbors as I head off to work early. What I'd really like to do, if I had the time, is to get into the nuts and bolts and see what can be done to the stock motor to eliminate some manufacturing allowances to optimize performance. I doubt the wife would let me with the current state of the honey-do list, but its fun to think about.

Thanks again for your input!

Kevin

 

[scotts90ranger]

the main restriction in the 2.3/2.5 is the cylinder head, get a spare from the junkyard and go at it, I'm sure you could find something on porting a 2.3 head on U tube or something

On exhaust, Putting on a mild muffler and 2.25" pipe from the cat back you might gain a little and shouldn't hurt the sound too much, mine isn't too loud until I get on it, would be quieter with a cat...

The other note on intakes, on these things they seemed to like to use the same air filter on all engine sizes (at least on the older ones), the 100hp 2.3 had the same filter as a 155hp 4.0L

Changing spark plugs could certainly smooth out the idle, with a wide gap the spark is going to be a little more inconsistent, and you will get a little more power with a properly gapped set of plugs