Hi 2.3Lranger and TLyttle, and Welcome to FTE! Please take a moment to check out the Guidelines as they contain important info you'll need when posting on the site:

https://www.ford-trucks.com/guidelines.html

Unfortunately, it's just not a matter of slapping a carb on a modern EFI engine. As previously stated, the computer that controls the engine does a lot more than just run the EFI. A '97 is OBD-II which is a very sophisticated (not to mention complicated) system that doesn't like to be screwed with. I really don't know how you'd go about swapping in a carb and still making it work short of ripping all the wiring out and starting over.

But never fear, it's really not all that bad to work with and us old dogs can learn new tricks! I've always been a carb-and-points kind of guy, but with the help of the Internet and some great books I'm learning about EFI, and it's not a scary as you'd think. I'm even swapping a 5.0 into my '89 Ranger and keeping it EFI, so I had to learn about the systems and how they work together to make the swap. A simple little device called a Code Scanner makes things a lot easier as well.

Here's a good site with lots of EFI info:

http://fordfuelinjection.com/

And my feeling on this is; if it ain't broke, don't fix it! Leave the FI on there, you'll be happier in the long run!