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can I put a 4 barrel carb on my 86 ranger with 2.0


Joel34

Member
Joined
Jun 23, 2015
Messages
5
Vehicle Year
1986
Transmission
Manual
Never mind
 
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yeah....get a 5.3 from a chevy truck and put that in there.



or a huge turbo.


how the fawk is 2 liters in that lame ass stock configuration going to utilize the fuel that would come from the smallest of regular car 4 bbls?....unless it was a micro carb off of a 1/4 scale engine or something.


swap in a 2.3 efi engine if you want some grunt.

if you want some power, get a 2.3 turbo. those will put a smile on your face and broken parts under your truck.
 
Big debate on this all over the place. My thoughts are, unless you build the engine to handle the extra fuel the 4 barrel is gonna throw down, its just a waste of fuel. Dont over induct. If your wanting more power tear it down and put a few high performance parts in it. Do a good valve job, headers, some better pistons and change the cam out. porting and polishing also adds power and torque. Even on my 347 I only use a stock Quadra-Jet. The engine can handle more (lots more) but Im pulling 400 hp out of it with this system (I got a max of 425 using the Pro-Jection 2D kit).
More fuel doesnt always equal more power.
 
Okay, I have a 1986 ford ranger with a 2.0 in line 4 and I was looking for a little extra. I wanted to get a 4 barrel manifold and carborator for it but I haven't had any luck at all. I was just wondering if anyone has any information on this. Or any alternatives to my speed deficiency problem .. any input is appreciated and keep in mind I'm in high school working construction so there's not a whole lot of money that I can afford to dump into this... thanks guys and girls!

A gasoline engine works by mixing air(with oxygen in it) with gasoline in a ratio of 14.7 to 1, this is a weight ratio, so 14.7grams of air to 1 gram of gasoline, or 14.7 pounds of air with 1 pound of gasoline.
That is gasoline's ratio, propane, diesel, natural gas have different ratios.

You get the most power from a gasoline engine by being at that 14.7 to 1 ratio(for explanation purposes, not accuracy :)).
If you add more gasoline, rich mix, you lose power, if you add less you actually gain power but lean mix will melt the pistons and valves, lol, so a temporary increase, preceded by pre-ignition also called pinging/knocking and then engine death.

So adding a bigger carburetor is only needed if current carburetor can not sustain the 14.7:1 ratio, thru the whole RPM range.

A 2.0l engine uses 2 liters of air every 2 RPMs(4 stroke engine)
A 5.0l engine uses 5 liters of air every 2 RPMs

The 5.0l has more power than the 2.0l because it can suck in more air every 2 RPMs so can use more gasoline at 14.7:1 ratio.

A turbocharger(or supercharger) compresses the air, so forces more air into the engine, so a 2.0l engine is now using 2.5 liters of air every 2 RPMs so can use more fuel and has more power.

Same with a Cam, it can allow engine to pull in a bit more air so more fuel can be added at 14.7:1 ratio which gives more power.

Simply adding more fuel will reduce your power, adding more air so you can add more fuel will increase your power.


You can remove your mechanical fan on the engine and replace it with an electric fan from the wrecking yard, this is not too expensive and frees up horse power you already have but is used up by the fan, it ain't much but it ain't nothing either :)
read here: http://www.therangerstation.com/Magazine/Summer2003/ElectricFanInstall.htm
You need to find the right parts at the wrecking yard but they can be cheap if you shop around

Cold Air Intake, all fuel injected engines have this but not all carb engines do.
Most know that "warm air rises" why?
because it is lighter than cold air
So cold air is "heavier", 14.7:1 is a weight ratio........................
So heavier air = more fuel can be added
Again it isn't much but not nothing either.
If your carb air is coming from inside the engine bay it will be warmer air, if you can make an air intake tube that can pull in air from in front of the rad support, then you can tune the carb to add slightly more fuel.
 
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You could jet a 4 barrel to work on a 2.0 but it will probably be more problematic than it is worth. Carburetors need a certain minimum air velocity to work well. Engines can easily be over carbureted resulting in poor low end performance.

If you plan to run the engine at high rpm all the time, the 4 barrel would probably work. I just don't think it will be practical for driving around town.

Then again if you find a carburetor with small primaries and not to large vacuum secondaries, it may work well but the secondaries will most likely not open very often because the 2.0 probably can't draw in enough air to create enough vacuum to activate the secondaries.

If you like this kind of project, go for it but expect to have to play with it a lot to get it to work and don't expect to gain much power with it. I have been racing a 4 cylinder sports car in SCCA since 1987. A rules changed allowed me to run two 1-1/4" or two 1-1/2" side draft carburetors. I stepped up to the 1-1/2" carburetors and did see some improvement on the track but it ran terrible running back and forth to and from the track. I dealt with it because I wanted the extra power. Then the rules changed again to allow the 1-1/4" carbs to open the throttle plates area only to 34 mm (1.34"). This kept the velocity through the venturi area but opened the area at the throttle plates resulting in less restriction. I decide to try that and was able to gain even more power plus had better drivability going back and forth to the track. Result was, the smaller modified carburetor was better than the larger carburetor.
 
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Sorry to be a buzz killer, but more power and short money are 2 mutually exclusive sets. Best bang for the buck would be to get the truck running as best as you can with a limited budget.
 
Yea maybe but................"better in hock than stock"

And the always true..."there is no replacement for displacement"

:)
 
Yeah, in addition to the rule "Don't over induct" there needs to be "Don't under displace". Your issue isn't fuel, it's size. You need about twice the engine you have right now.
 
Or 1/2 the truck :) , power to weight ratio
 

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