Will a 95 4.0 fit in a 89??

[escort_gts]

I am looking at buying a donor ranger to swap a 4.0 into my 89. My 89 has a 2.3 WIll I have any problems with this swap, like wireing harness or anything??

 

[dangerranger83]

Wiring harness and your motor mounts will be different. I think for the motor mounts, your driverside may be different and you will have to drill a hole in your crossmember for it to adapt. As far as your tranny, the 2.3 has a different bellhousing bolt pattern then the 4.0.

Should be a straight forward swap, just make sure you know what wires went where.

 

[escort_gts]

I thought I read somewhere that the main harness was changed around 94-95. I might be wrong. Just want some opinions before I buy it.

 

[RangerSVT]

95 is completely different harness, and is OBD II. But, if you don't mind treading new territory, I would do this swap as well as swapping in the newer style dash as well. The 4.0L motor uses the same motor mounts as the 2.9L does, so you will have a bolt in mount available. It's best to find a 90-92 donor, as everything should be bolt in, 93-94 were different and year-specific wiring harnesses, changed again in 95...
SVT

 

[escort_gts]

so, how difficult would it be without swapping dash?

 

[escort_gts]

I can get the whole truck cheap, would it be worth my time and money buying it then?

 

[RangerSVT]

Depending on how much you spend on the donor, you can recoupe almost 75% of the invested donor(at least I did), but yeah, it'd be worth your time and money to get the donor. Swapping an OBDII motor and engine harness into a OBDI vehicle would be a challenge, as you don't have the diagnostic wiring or ports inside the vehicle. You would literally have to swap the dash harness as well, then it'd be best to use the newer dash since you need to use the harness from it, as adapting the harness to the older dash is again, possible, but would be much more time consuming than just swapping in the newer dash...
SVT

 

[escort_gts]

How hard would it be to swap the dash? Is it an easy swap? What will be different between the two?

 

[RangerSVT]

There should only be about 4 to 6 bolts holding the dash in. I'm actually in the early stages of planning a V8 explorer engine and trans with complete wiring harness including the dash and harness into an 87 ranger, should be perfoming this swap near the start of the summer. If you take it one step at a time, it shouldn't be too hard of a job to do...
SVT

 

[Andres629]

Been thinking about the same thing, a 97 4.0 into my 87 and keeping the first gen dash.If I go ahead with it, I'll make a thread.

 

[RangerSVT]

FYI, it is possible to have a 95+ 4.0L long block and use the OBDI style intake and run that in the truck...
SVT

 

[escort_gts]

wouldnt that require an obd1 wire harness?

 

[RangerSVT]

Yes, it would. But it would be easier to transplant the OBDI harness into your truck than it would be the OBDII...
SVT

 

[Andres629]

Yeah, I was kind of dreading trying to wire in an OBDII motor into my 87 and keep the stock dash. Good that I don't have to!

 

[escort_gts]

well, i passed on buying the 95 ranger, i will just keep looking for an exploder. Thanks for the help.