Hopping Up the 2.3

[The Bandit]

Is there any hope for giving my '94 2.3 a little more throttle response? Just for the sake of interstate driving, merging, and going up grades I'd like to have a little more power. My truck is all factory stock. I don't want to tear the motor down or throw any codes either.

So far, I've deleted the cat and relocated the air intake tube inlet to behind the bumper, below the frame rail.

 

[Bryan22]

use the search button! hate to be 'that guy' who says that but if you just looked through 2-3 pages on here you'll see at least 1 or 2 threads with this exact disscussion.

But to answer your question, sorry to say, more power on a 2.3 is going to cost you some money. and you're going to have to at least take off the head and have some work done to have any real gains.

 

[The Bandit]

Haha, I just hate using the search function-and I'm just looking for a little more zip from the throttle, not a whole lot of power. I could really tell a difference in throttle response from the cat delete, but it may not have added any peak horsepower or torque at all, just broadened the curve.

I also thought that the 2.3 might have some of those damn intake silencers throughout the air hose, little things like that just choke the absolute shit out of a motor.

 

[mc_muench]

your ranger is older...try this

http://www.therangerstation.com/Magazine/Summer06/throttlecablemod.htm

 

[Earl43P]

Change your rear ratio.
4.10s would pull hills better, etc.

That's really the simplest way, IMO.

 

[schlutzer]

Gear ratio's changed to 4.10's, your fuel mileage will likely go up marginally if you do alot of city driving. Your first gear becomes REALLY short tho.

Your clutch fan is likely pooched, and stays on all the time, I've never seen one mroe than 5 years old that hasn't failed and just stayed on, replacing this with a electric fan from something like a taurus will give you better throttle response and a noticeable difference in the "butt-dyno"

The throttle cable mod as was stated before is helpful, made a world of difference for me.

Other than that, you could put the newer dual plug head on( from a 2.5) , as it flows marginally better than your dual plug from 94. As far as I remember its basically a bolt in swap.

Besides those things, you can turbo it, but thats more than you want to do.

 

[The Bandit]

Thanks for all the information. I'm just glad I haven't got flamed yet for being relatively new to this forum.

I'll try the throttle cable trick tomorrow.

As for the rear end swap, I've got a whole 1992 Eddie Bauer 4x4 Explorer 4.0 auto for parts. Good rear end too, any one care to guess what its gearing is-and if it would swap into my truck?

I just removed this thing (Not my photo, sorry if it belongs to someone) from the intake tube. Took about 5 minutes to take the two hose clamps off, pull the "dildo" off, and push the "Nerf Football" inside backwards to pop it out. Re-installed and done a 10 mile test drive.

Once I put the truck in reverse I noticed a little more buzz to the throttle. Once I pulled out of the driveway it wasn't much of a struggle to get up to 55. Tested it out on a mile long steep grade, and it held its speed much easier. We have two corners in my town that are notorious for causing problems with weak vehicles turning into traffic. Both are on slopes and with a hard right hand turn. All stock, this truck would bog pretty bad on them. Now with the silencer removed, and the cat delete, it will take it with just a little struggle.

The noise from the intake is not too noticeable. Sorta sounds like someone is blowing compressed air in a pipe from a distance at wide open. I'm not sure why Ford had to design something so restrictive to eliminate the noise.

Cat delete with the stock exhaust made it sound like shit. Seriously sounds like its saying "blahhhhhhh". Blah is right, now it needs a new muffler.

So, overall this may not have added a single horsepower or footpound of torque. But it certainly made driving less annoying.

 

[Losbadgt]

your ranger is older...try this

http://www.therangerstation.com/Magazine/Summer06/throttlecablemod.htm

i just did this and it did make a difference, i remember doing this in the past to both of my stangs and it made driving a lot funner

 

[The Bandit]

So the cable actually keeps you from hitting full-throttle?

I think my fan clutch might actually be bad. I gently put a stick into the running fan today and it didn't try to stop turning. Its got a new thermostat, and the temp gauge never gets above the first mark on "normal", which would seem to me like the fan may be overcooling the motor.

I also believe its time for a nice stock replacement airfilter, its never been changed since I bought it-and that was 25,000 miles ago. Not to mention it was worked on a dusty ass job site for about 6 months or so.

It probably needs new plugs, and plug wires. Where can I find a good set of 8mm wires, like Accel or some other equivelent? Probably just go with cheap ass spark plugs since there is 8 of them. All my other 4 cylinders get the fancy ones since there is so few to begin with.

I'm guessing the stock muffler probably isn't too restrictive since it looks to be the same as those on the Crown Vic interceptors. But I'll probably just build a high-flow chambered muffler and stick on it just to be sure.

For a 1 1/2 ton, 100 horsepower, automatic truck it does pretty well. I can possibly get the truck onto a chassis dyno sometime, so I'm keeping the "nerf-football" to reinstall and see what kind've difference removing it makes with actual documentation.

 

[12step]

mc thanks for the cable suggestion put a few zip ties on mine before i left work ,and the ride home was awesome its nice to actually have pedal left doing 80 in 5th. tommorow i think i am going to give the little spring a little preload might make the throttle that much more responsive.

 

[The Bandit]

I also done the zip tie trick this morning. Holy shit, what a difference. I had about 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch of play in my cable. I then stuck a few on the kickdown cable and it actually broke the rear end loose a little on a wide open throttle 90* left hand turn at about 20 miles an hour. So I took them off the kickdown. Figured it would cause all kinds of issues out of the interstate.

If it wasnt for interstate driving, I probably would stack a few more on the kickdown cable for all the hills around here.

 

[The Bandit]

My truck has 225/70/R15's on it as well. Is this too much tire for my truck?

 

[The Bandit]

I had the stock muffler/tailpipe cut off today, and a 3" inlet/core/outlet footlong glasspack and 3" diesel truck resonator stuck on in its place, with a 3" tailpipe stuck out the side.

It added much more top-end to the truck, as well as strangely reducing vibration at speed somehow.

There is no doubt in my mind that a 2 1/4" exhaust would've done the same thing, but I was just experimenting.

Deep and smooth, too much resonance.

 

[Duane867]

Further proof that 4 bangers "needing" back pressure via the exhaust is a myth.

Did your check engine light com eon when it geared down after you removed the baffle in the intake tube ?

 

[The Bandit]

Nope, my CEL has never came on.

This truck runs so smooth now, its completly different than it was before. I can cruise at 70 with maybe less than 1/4 throttle applied A/C on as well. I've had it up to 85 now as well. Something unheard of before.

I had to ditch the glasspack/resonator set-up because of the ear drum pulsating resonance. Its now got a single muffler off of a Expedition or Trailblazer, that turns out the side with a 3" slash cut tip. Its semi-loud, and not ricey at all. This muffler is like 2 1/2" in and out, and is fairly open inside as it was meant to be paired with a converter or two and a resonator. The power remained the same.

It does need plugs and plug wires, and its got a dirty air filter. I may port match the intake as well.