Question about top speed on my 88 2WD 2.0

[Detri Mental]

Good day fellow Rangerers,

I owned a 1990 2.3 Ranger in the past, loved the thing and I remember it being able to keep up on the interstate, but that was a million or so years ago.

Now I have aquired a fairly low mileage 88 Ranger with a 2.0 and regular cab I drove it a few miles down the local highway and I can tell it is gutless at best.

I am about to change careers, and my new job will require me to make long distance travels from Atlanta to South Louisana. I want to use this truck for my commuter because it is the most basic Ranger that Ford made. I mean no power steering, no AC no power brakes... I like that because there is less stuff to spontaneously self destruct in the middle of the night while driving across isolated parts of the interstate.

I am planning to change all the belts, hoses, thermostat, tune up, brakes, transmission and diff fluid and head gasket just to be safe and while I have the head off I plan to port the head a little. Or at least blend the head to the gasket.

I have two questions for you:
1. With just the ported head will the little 2.0 powered Ranger be able to maintain 75 or so mph across flat land? It seemed so gutless going down the local roads Im genuinely wondering.

2. Is there anythig you would add to my list of maintenence items to make this old truck a reliable commuter for 530mile one way trips?

Thanks so much for your input!

Robert

 

[chilsam]

Mid 90's shorty Ranger header

was the best bang for buck I did on my 87 2.3 and chit can the stock air plenum and box.I have a 87 Mustang 2.3 in it so with IACV on the throttle body I just spliced in some wires to lengthn the loom and am running a K&N style filter right off the TB.Chit can the CC if you can also IMHO! The shorty weighs A LOT less also.

 

[Mark_88]

Well, aside from Chilsams' suggestion, which I would recommend also, if you are going to pull the head you might want to inspect the pistons and give them a wiggle test...see if there is any play in them...if not, the bottom end is probably in good shape...

At that point I would consider adding a 2.3 head, port it, add a mild cam upgrade, and dump the stock carb/intake for something else...if it is a one bbl, upgrade to a 2 bbl...

There are a few threads in this section where recent upgrades made a difference...and read the post by Kenneth S...he posted a great link with some information about the heads and intakes...

If you throw the original head back on you won't see much if any difference in performance...I had a 2.0 but eventually swapped in a 2.3 short block with a 90 or so mustang 4 plug head...ported it and put on the motorcraft 5200 carb and stock intake from a 78 Ford mustang...

Much better performance...but even that could be improved with some cam work and maybe a different carb...

Plenty of options if you want to keep the 4 banger and give it a bit of life...other suggestions...Turbo...but that requires quite a bit of change...

Oh, and welcome to TRS...

 

[19bonestock88]

welcome to TRS, and i see no problems with the 2.0... with the stock 2bbl carb, i can hit 100 mph...(takes a while though)... IF you can, remove the smog pump belt, do a tune up, flip the air cleaner lid, throttle cable mod, etc... there is power in there, but it needs to be unlocked... and IF the bottom end is in poor condition(like stated above), it needs a rebuild before it will be any sort of powerhouse... but i can maintain 75-80 mph in these WV hills... make of it what you want

 

[Mark_88]

Yes, definitely check the throttle cable for slack...that made a huge difference in my truck...and it is so common and such an easy fix that I often overlook it...but I did mine about 6 years ago with minor changes since then...(see my thread on the cable mod if you want to change it a bit)...but there is a post in the Tech Library on how to zip tie the cable to take out the slack...

Good call bonestock...

 

[Detri Mental]

Thanks for the welcome, and for the good advice!

I don't mind so much if the truck takes a while to get up to speed so long as it can maintain 75MPH since 90% of my time in this truck will be spent at high speed on the interstate.

My goal is to have the most basic and reliable vehicle I can get, and something I can fix on the side of the road if I have too. With only 125K on it, I believe the engine probably still has quite a few thousand miles left in her. In a couple of years after things settle down a bit I would like to throw a small diesel (probably a Kubota V2203) in it, for the ultimate in reliability and economy. We shall see.

I will look into the accelerator cable deal, and also see what kind of junk I have laying around that I might be able to use for an intake. Does the stock round intake and filter just not flow well at all? Im planning to keep the Aisin carb for now and just rebuild it, but I have looked into swapping a Webber on it. Ill probably make that my next step, but if the truck will hold 75MPH then absolutely nothing is what I plan to do to it performance wise.

Thanks again for the suggestions. I forgot to mention It also has the M5R1 manual transmission. I already changed the rubber plugs in the top for steel plugs so the fluid wont leak out and toast my input shaft. Is there anything else I should consider, or be aware of with these trucks that is reliability issues that I can address now before I put it on the road?

 

[Kenneth S]

Find you a 1988, and later model Ranger 2.3, and get the roller cam, and roller rockers from it, and put them in your 2.0 head (that ought to help put a little pep in it's step).

 

[Mark_88]

^^ yep, that's why I put the Mustang head on...rollers rock!

 

[chilsam]

E-bay shoty header

was the best bang for buck I did on my 87 2.3 and chit can the stock air plenum and box.I have a 87 Mustang 2.3 in it so with IACV on the throttle body I just spliced in some wires to lengthn the loom and am running a K&N style filter right off the TB.Chit can the CC if you can also IMHO! The shorty weighs A LOT less also.

There is a shorty on e-bay current bid is $2.25 with 6 days left item #270984055989 if your interested.

 

[19bonestock88]

if you are looking into rebuilding the stock 2 bbl asian carb, why not look into swapping on a weber DGEV carb? you'll get more power and possibly better mileage...look at post 12 in my "what carb so i have on my 2.0?" thread to see the kit... but i have to tell you, the biggest power bump i noticed is removing the smog pump belt(but only do it if it's legal in your state), followed by flipping the air cleaner lid.

the theory behind flipping the lid is that the engine needs more air than can flow through the little hole in the cleaner, so by flipping the lid, you are exposing the entire filter to air instead of only getting air through the plastic air intake system... plus it makes a cool noise when you get on it...

 

[Mark_88]

... plus it makes a cool noise when you get on it...

I did this when I had that carb and it was pretty cool sounding...can't do it with my current setup though...so I cut the breather open a bit...now I have to fix it...

 

[Detri Mental]

Arrrgh.. took the valve cover off this weekend and saw that a couple of lobes on the cam are worn pretty good. I found a reground cam on ebay for cheap so im probably going to go this route, and swap over to a 2.3 roller cam head later, unless I end up putting that Kubota diesel in it before.

sheeesh. Im just trying to put together something that will make a 1000 mile round trip reliably for not much money.

I looked into the Webber carb, and decided that for the money I could just rebuild the factory carb for now. Im already putting a little money into this thing just changing maintenence stuff and camshafts, so as long as she can run at interstate speed im ok with not getting more power.

Thanks for the input. After I get the engine all buttoned back up im gonna change the trans and rear dif fluid and then its on to build a strudy grill and headlight protector bumper.
I have seen deer every time I have driven the route I will be using to get to work, and Im afraid that Ill hit one and wipe out my radiator some cold night out in the middle of nowheresville.

Long term plans are to maybe make it 4WD. I dont know yet if Ill put in some solid jeep axles, or if Ill swap in a Ranger TTB system. It wont be for anything hard core, just a little insurance against snow or flood.

Take care!

 

[Kenneth S]

Don't forget to put all new rocker arms in it.

 

[Detri Mental]

Don't forget to put all new rocker arms in it.

What if I just polished the wear surface of the old ones? I was looking at new rocker arms and they don't appear to have any special kind of texture to them. Im sure they probably have some radius ground on to them, but I could duplicate that on the mill pretty easily.

I hate to be so cheap, but I just got married and im waiting on the money tree to blossom again

 

[chilsam]

Contact surface

is hardened to withstand the wear "I" would replace them go to salvage yard at the LEAST. IMO!