My 1989 Ranger

[Badhabitinva]

I have a 1989 Ranger with a 2.3L, 5 speed combo. It currently has 331,000 miles on it and the body is really solid. I have cylinder #'s 2 & 4 that read less than 75 psi on compression check (vs 145/152 psi on #'s 1&3). The cam appears to have quite a bit of wear on all the lobes. I also have a significant whine in the tranny. This week, I have developed a vibration in the rear. I opened the cover and was not pleased with what I saw.

My son has a 1990 Ranger with the same running gear. Only difference I am aware of is speed density vs mass air. The body of the 90 is rusted pretty badly (it was a NE truck), but the running gear seems to be solid. It currently is not in use due to the Flintstone floorboards.

Has anyone converted an 89 to mass air? Seems that the ecm & associated harness installed in the 89 would be what I'm looking at. Would it just be a lot easier to use the manifold and such off the 89 on the 90 long block?

 

[Mikel89us]

The manifolds should be the same. The 89 also should have a roller cam, and if its worn, it would sound like a bucket of bolts in a paint shaker, if it even ran. Yours is an 8 plug motor right? If so, his motor will drop in, and you just have to change the vacuum tree, so you have the right amount of vac supply lines to use your map sensor. The MAF conversion requires either harness and ecm swap, or just an ecm swap with some wiring to the stock harness.

 

[Badhabitinva]

That answers my questions.

As for the cam, it indeed sounds like a solid lifter cam in the mornings.

It is an 8 plug motor.

The future will have some performance upgrades so swapping out to Mass Air will be the most logical thing to do since I have a running truck to get everything from.

 

[Mikel89us]

More than likely the lifters are weak, if it were the cam, the noise would never go away.