Alright guys well due to gas prices I'm looking for a beater to drive on the week days and I've found a good little prospect its a '85 ranger 4x4 with the 2.3 and somethings wrong with the motor the guy wasn't to clear on his ad about what's wrong with it but at the price he's got it up for I could have it running and driveing for about 1,200-1,300 bucks if I just replace the whole motor and be done with the headace.
Now for my question. Where orwhat can I get another 2.3 out of and pretty much just drop it right in and got?
Thanks guys.

 

The 2.3 came in so many different vehicles in the '80s...they were even used as industrial motors. The basic engine is going to be pretty much the same (short of the turbo version) for most applications, you might have to change intakes but that's easy. And don't limit yourself to the '80s in your search for one, they came out in 1974 and were used in quite a few vehicles in that decade. Here's a list (probably not complete, but close) of vehicles that came with that engine, some as the base model (like the Mustang, which of course also was offered with a V6 or V8.)

Aerostar
Courier
Pinto
Ford Ranger/Mazda B-Series
Mustang II ('74-'78)
Mustang (Fox body, '79-'93)
Fairmont
Mercury Bobcat
Mercury Capri
Mercury Zephyr

And I haven't even touched on the turbo version models here, which would require a bit more work to adapt (especially the EFI models.)

 

Thanks man, that's good to know, means my chances of finding one for dirt cheap looks a lot better.
I know its a really rough estamate but would you or anybody out there have a clue what a '85 ranger 4x4 2.3 M5-R1 might get as far as mpg's?
Thanks man, you just backed my argument up really well with my dad on how its a pretty good investment.

 

keep in mind bro, the crank they put in the rangers have larger journals than the mustangs did. i learned this the hard way when i bought my '92 ranger. it needed a new top end, but i decided to get a whole new motor for it. bough one off craigslist for $100 complete and the fella said it came out of a '92 mustang lx. as it turns out, the block was from a truck, and the head was off a trubo coupe t-bird. so really do your homework before you buy.

 

The turbo engines are good swap candidates. They have forged pistons and some other parts that helped make the engines more robust. They did come with lower compression but that can be fixed by just having the head milled. The Ford 2.0L and the 2.3L heads can be milled quite a bit. In the case of the 2.0L over 0.100 inches! The 2.3L not so much but more then enough to get a turbo engine compression up from 8:1 to something like 9:1 or a bit more if used with a carb or FI but no turbo. You will need to get an adjustable cam gear to get the carm timing back to stock. Milling the head changes the cam timing. Not a big deal.

Another thing to do is to swap in a roller cam and lifters if the engine you get does not have one. You just have to find a Ranger 2.3L with the roller cam and pull it and the rockers, swap out the older style slider cam and your good to go. The roller cam has a bit more lift and less friction so it produces a bit more power.