Looking to rebuild a junked 2.3 for when my 2.3 dumps out

[henryj10]

Looking to rebuild a junked 2.3 to have on hold for when my 2.3 dumps out in my 96 2wd Ford ranger. My question is which can I use 95 to 97 or only 96. The answer I'm looking for is which engines can I drop in with fewest modifications as far as the OBD and computing, motor mounts which is the most simple and close to identical to my 96 2.3L also if I can use 95 -97 2.3's
Thanks,

 

[fastpakr]

You may not like this answer, but I think you'd be many, many dollars ahead to scout out a low mile 2.3 in a junkyard from an wrecked vehicle (wrecked because you know it was running. You should be able to get one for a fraction of the cost of rebuilding an engine and with no time investment at all.

 

[Mark_88]

I agree with ^^...

But according to the sticky at the top of this forum, 95-01 are the same engines...as opposed to 89-94...so try to find one in that year range...or go with a 2.5 if you can find a low mileage engine...there are a couple of threads in here about swapping in a 2.5 by Hardwareman...if you do a search you should be able to dig them up...