building a 3.0 flex fuel motor

[ranger450]

am going to be putting together a 1999 3.0 flex fuel motor for a ranger, was wondering if any body had some cheap mod ideas? like maybe bigger throttle body?

would like your input


thx

 

[stmitch]

IMO, there are 3 stages of engine mods for the 3.0.

Stage 1: ( Simple bolt-ons, fairly inexpensive, will improve throttle response, slight increases in power, and can improve mileage)

underdrive pulleys
a decent cat-back exhaust
electric fan
Air intake kit
*an sct X-cal tuner

Stage 2: (More indepth install requirements, increased cost, work best in conjunction with Stage 1 mods)

porting/polishing heads and intakes
roller rockers
headers
*an sct X-cal tuner

Stage 3 : (Most advanced, will see largest power gains, highest cost, )

Tom Morana products
Forced induction
*an sct X-cal tuner

* Make the tuner the last mod you do, no matter which stage you quit modding. Making it the last thing you do will allow custom tunes to be written that can account for all of your previous mods, thus having a larger net effect on performance.

 

[ranger450]

i dont see any reason to put all the underdrive pullies on, just the underdrive crank pulley only. will there be a problem with that?

 

[stmitch]

Not really. The only potential drawback would be if you have lots of lights or a big stereo, or an e-fan that draws lots of power. Some guys that have that stuff notice diiming of lights, etc because the alternator runs at a slightly slower speed. If you want to avoid that, you can also get the alternator pulley

 

[ranger450]

where can i find those and a belt?

 

[tempforce]

just make sure your engine controls are capable or modified to detect the flex fuel ratio, so that the spark timing and fuel air ratio is optimized.

 

[ranger450]

am also starting with a fresh 3.0 shortblock, what are the best set of heads to put on them?

 

[ragajungle]

where can i find those and a belt?

shosource. they are a vendor on tcca

 

[ragajungle]

4got to link it:: http://www.shosource.com/catalog/ its somewher in ther

 

[ranger450]

heads?

 

[3.0ranger1227]

I've been poking around Morana's site looking for the best option for my 3.0FF.

Is there any advice on which setup to go with?

Box intake or Twin TB? Does the box intake really give you more low end?

Camshaft or Rockers? Or both? Is it worth pulling the motor for the camshaft?

Are his heads worth the price?

Anything else on there that is a must?

 

[stmitch]

heads?

3.0 heads haven't changed much over the years, so if you're looking for a specific year, they're all just about the same. The flex fuel heads do have different combustion chambers than standard gasoline 3.0's, so that may be a consideration. If you want to get the most out of your truck, you can buy some worked over heads from Tom Morana, or you can try and have a machine shop do something similar. You may even be able to do a port/polish job yourself if you're confident, but it's easy to go to far. If you've got the heads off already though, you might as well try and do some sort of upgrade while you can. I've spoken with some professional machinists on the subject, and they say the heads have lots of potential for improvement, so you should see some gains.

 

[ranger450]

i was told that i could use a later model like maybe a 2002 3.0 intake and throttle body because it is a bigger MM throttle body,is this at all true? do you know?



thx

 

[stmitch]

Yes you can use a newer upper intake manifold with some work. The upper intakes are a little different on the newer trucks. They are composite rather than aluminum, and have slightly longer intake runners from what I understand. I haven't seen one in person to confirm that. Theoretically, the longer runners would help with torque. You'd probably see equal or better gains by just porting and polishing your aluminum one though.

As far as the throttle bodies, I only know of the one size. I know that some people have put larger Ford Escape throttle bodies onto their plastic upper intakes, but it's far from a bolt on deal. You have to build up the mating surface with jb wled or something similar, and it's still difficult to get a proper gasket seal. IMO, it's not worth the minor gains you'd see, from the extra 5mm or whatever it is, but I have no personal experience with either mod.

Before I stumbled onto my supercharger, I was going to get Morana's box intake. It seems like the best available option for an N/A engine, and would give you the largest possible gains.