Any ideas

[ajr]

Hello everyone!
I am new to the group and was wondering if anyone might have any ideas on how to (on a budget-meaning nothing crazy like engine swaps) add more power to my 2004 Ford Ranger 3.0 V6 Manual trans.
I was thinking bolt on stuff (exhaust system, headers, new intake things like that) but I wasn’t sure. I’m kind of hesitant just because I start getting into having to program the ecu and that becomes the opposite of budget effective upgrades. Does anyone here have any ideas, or maybe has done these upgrades or something like it? Any info would be greatly appreciated! Thanks! I am sorry in advance if I posted this on the wrong section, I am still getting used to navigating the site.

 

[Ranger850]

sorry dude, you don't have a lot of options. lol. new gears may be a better option. idk what route you want to go. keep it street, or go off road.

 

[racsan]

I’d roll a different rear end under it with lower gears. If you have a 3.45 now, a 4.10 ratio will do a lot for performance.

 

[ajr]

sorry dude, you don't have a lot of options. lol. new gears may be a better option. idk what route you want to go. keep it street, or go off road.

Thanks man. Yea, I figured as much lol. I am thinking of keeping it on the street. I wouldn’t mind some light overland stuff, but I have 2wd and no limited slip, so that wouldn’t be great at all off the street lol. I barely got my ranger a few months back, and spent some time replacing parts half the Colin system lol. So now that it’s finally up and running I’m thinking of performance/customizing and basically working on a build of my own for it lol.

 

[Ranger850]

i have the same motor and trans with 3.73:1 rear end. looking for a v8 donor for mine.

 

[Curious Hound]

See above ^^^^
There just isn't much to do. Exhaust is designed pretty well from the factory. You MIGHT get a tiny bit by going to electric cooling fan instead if mechanical. I removed some restriction from the intake piping and airbox. But I doubt that really did much. The 3.0 runs pretty good. But it's power is in the higher rpm range. So gearing it to run more in the power band is about the best you can do on a budget. Get a different rear axle from the junkyard and pop that under it.

 

[sgtsandman]

Unfortunately, more power and cheap don't go together well. Like state above, doing a regear or an axle swap is probably going to be the best bang for your buck. Everything else will go up in cost from there. Even the 4.0 SOHC isn't exactly a power house. The engines offered in the Ranger get the job done but none of them were ever real axle twisters.

 

[ajr]

I’d roll a different rear end under it with lower gears. If you have a 3.45 now, a 4.10 ratio will do a lot for performance.

Not a bad idea, I like that. I don’t have to worry about the engine, just use it’s power to put more torque to the wheels.

 

[stmitch]

Underdrive crank pulley and e-fan can be done for a couple hundred $$ and will be a noticeable improvement in feel and even mpg. They're the go-to first mods for a 3.0. Roller rockers can help too for a bit more money/effort.

And of course it's worth checking your throttle cable for slack. If it's a little loose, the zip tie "throttle cable mod" is almost free.

 

[8thTon]

I have a 2004 3.0 Edge, but with an auto an a 4.10:1 rear. It runs quite well with those gears. Different people have different expectations, but a 154hp engine moves a 3100lb truck pretty well with the proper gears. Eventually I will do a different cat back exhaust, but if that gave me 5hp more it would be a miracle.

The 3.0 takes some crap here, but it's a sweet little engine. The hp peak is at 5200rpm, but it's not a narrow powerband, and with a manual you can pick the gear need.

 

[PetroleumJunkie412]

There's lot I did to my 2.9 that were easy and low cost. The first post of my build thread covers the list.

1988 Ranger Restoration - Keeping a Promise

Ok, so just a forewarning, this post is going to be heavily edited, re-written, and changed throughout its construction. This is being written as a post to document the restoration of a truck that was a terrible candidate for restoration, and to offer explanation to others that read my posts...

www.therangerstation.com

 

[Denisefwd93]

Be Realistic is my suggestion, for what it's going to cost you to get "more power". Just get another truck that has the power you want, if it means not a ranger, so be it!!

 

[ajr]

There's lot I did to my 2.9 that were easy and low cost. The first post of my build thread covers the list.

1988 Ranger Restoration - Keeping a Promise

Ok, so just a forewarning, this post is going to be heavily edited, re-written, and changed throughout its construction. This is being written as a post to document the restoration of a truck that was a terrible candidate for restoration, and to offer explanation to others that read my posts...

www.therangerstation.com

Thanks man!

 

[ajr]

Be Realistic is my suggestion, for what it's going to cost you to get "more power". Just get another truck that has the power you want, if it means not a ranger, so be it!!

True true, but I love my ranger lol. I am not expecting to get enough power and torque to pull a bus, nor am I wanting to make it a drag strip truck lol. I just wanted a little bump up. I hadn’t considered any of the options mentioned on here until I posted this lol. The options mentioned, I think are great. It’s exactly what I am looking for, and could do the trick for me lol. I honestly think if I bought a brand new truck I would be in the negative $35,000 or so. Plus, an older ranger still has components about it that I can modify; these newer trucks have so much heavy use of the ECU that if I open the hood wrong I can throw a error code lol.

 

[sam-ranger22]

Hello everyone!
I am new to the group and was wondering if anyone might have any ideas on how to (on a budget-meaning nothing crazy like engine swaps) add more power to my 2004 Ford Ranger 3.0 V6 Manual trans.
I was thinking bolt on stuff (exhaust system, headers, new intake things like that) but I wasn’t sure. I’m kind of hesitant just because I start getting into having to program the ecu and that becomes the opposite of budget effective upgrades. Does anyone here have any ideas, or maybe has done these upgrades or something like it? Any info would be greatly appreciated! Thanks! I am sorry in advance if I posted this on the wrong section, I am still getting used to navigating the site.

you can't do much for power on cheap if you had a budget we could help for example: intake manifold, exaust, tuner, nitrious, turbo