fuel delivery and intake

[ricardo93]

What is the easiest and least expensive way to beef up the fuel delivery and intake systems on an 86 ranger with a 2.3l?

 

[adsm08]

Do you want cheap and easy or genuinely effective.

 

[ricardo93]

Well can you describe both?

 

[RonD]

Do you have a carb or EFI(fuel injection)?

Your description has "a 1986 with and 83"??

Porting is free, well new intake and exhaust gaskets, so almost free.

Good read here on it:
http://www.therangerstation.com/tech_library/pdf_documents/head_porting.pdf

Basic goal is to get better flow through the cylinders, carb or EFI benefit from this.

With EFI you can't really do much without computer control, there are some options to "tell" computer the engine is cold even when it warms up, this makes the computer run the engine richer so more power.

Cold air intakes are what comes stock on most engines, so pass on those

 

[ricardo93]

Its got an 83 tranny... its efi

 

[ricardo93]

Well it has a tranny from an 83, where would I be able to buy the porting kit? And is there any other options to try?

 

[adsm08]

Well can you describe both?

Cheap and easy: Doesn't cost a lot or take much effort, but usually doesn't actually do anything either.

Effective: Costs something, probably means taking things apart, and may take days or weeks to do, but will provide real results.

 

[ricardo93]

Can you describe the upgrades for both?

 

[adsm08]

Well items like the G-force chips, the "Tornado" and electric super-chargers as well as processes like drilling holes in the air box or removing/punching out the cats fall into the first category. While they aren't "cheap" per se I would also lump cold air systems in here since they do not generally produce the gains claimed on the box without other work being done.

Things like the port and polish, headers, cams, turbos, super chargers, bigger injectors, etc are usually highly effective for increasing power, when done correctly, but usually cost a lot more and take a lot more effort and skill.

 

[scotts90ranger]

I just sent you an email in reply to your PM to me (my box is full, as it says in my sig...)

Just adding fuel is not going to get you more power, to get more power you need to add more air and fuel. Since they are just a little bit bigger the injectors from a 2.5L would probably be a reasonable swap to do, with it in closed loop it will account for the larger flow rate of the injectors to some extent.

To get more air in and out of the engine, the main bottleneck is the cylinder head on these engines, the intake and exhaust manifolds aren't too restrictive (if you do port the head, massage the bumps for the fuel injectors a little as they are large) so don't bother with a header... When I rebuilt my turbo engine a few months ago I ported the head, I USED to be able to get to 16psi of boost, but now after the porting I'm getting to 12psi, which means the air is getting digested by the engine and not just building up pressure... I didn't even go crazy with the porting, just smoothed out the bumps and opened up the ports a little from their lazy machining...

The "chips" that modify the coolant temperature signal are NOT recommended, they will get you more fuel but at the expense of gas mileage and engine control, if you move the ECT signal enough to add fuel you are also forcing it out of closed loop fuel control which means it won't adapt for anything, I've done a few odd things to my Turbo engine and I left it in closed loop fuel control so it can do it's job and account for the more airflow to trim the fuel accordingly, under wide open throttle the computer adds more fuel anyway...

As I said in my email, if you are just trying to account for your taller tires, take into account that you are going faster than your speedometer says, and the best way to get the gearing balanced so 5th gear is useful again (I've been there...) is to regear the axle(s), you said you are running 31" tires, 4.56:1 gears would be a wise choice...

 

[ricardo93]

also I have horrible play in throttle because the spring is really weak... how do I fix that... because I can't figure out how to take it off and fix that because the cable seems to be solidly connected

Thanks again for the advice, I'll keep you posted on the results from this when I do it

 

[RonD]

Ranger throttle cables can stretch over time.
Inside the cab look up at where the throttle cable attaches to the gas pedal arm, while looking pull out on the gas pedal, you should see the now bare area of the cable.
You can put a couple of zap straps(wire ties) on the bare area to shorten the cable to factory length.
This will give you back full throttle.
Read here:
http://www.therangerstation.com/Magazine/Summer06/throttlecablemod.shtml

If it is a broken spring on the throttle plate then you may have to use an external spring, like on carburetors.
Bad or broken spring symptom would be RPM not dropping very fast when foot is taken off the gas pedal, air flow is holding the plate open because spring pressure is less than it should be.

 

[ricardo93]

Also I was wondering if putting cone filters on would do anything beneficial for the amount of air being sucked in?

 

[RonD]

Also I was wondering if putting cone filters on would do anything beneficial for the amount of air being sucked in?

No

 

[ricardo93]

Also I was thinking about putting cone filters, I was wondering if this would help with the amount of air coming in, of if this would be detrimental or just downright unsafe for this engine