As u know im always looking for alittle more power with alittle less money. BUT ill finally be getting some work in. SO time to give my truck some attention. Ill be getting a electric fan, but dos anyone know what difference ill feel and how mucch better will mpg will i get. Same gos with headers what difference have you felt. But ill probly go with my back spaced rims and electric fan to start..

But what other little power mods are out there, that youv tried I already got a exhaust and spectrs filter. SOMEDAY i wana build a motor from the block up for some real power, but for now im stuck with bolt ons

 

Electric fan: You will feel no difference, other than constantly checking it and making sure it stays in place for a time after installation. MPG, figure 2% if you are lucky. Your alternator now draws more of a load.

Headers: JBA shorty headers are CARB approved. Not sure if any others are, but that's what you need or you won't pass smog. JBA claims an increase of 16 horse, 19 torque on 2004 which would be an SOHC motor. Figure something around that, maybe a bit less, for your pushrod motor.

 

hmmm really, ok.. And yeah id save the old headers for smog. And when put a new up for added hp, i always round it down because they got little ways to trix there dynos lol But thanks ill look into it

 

No difference with the electric fan

You'll barely notice the headers, you'll only notice the sound difference

 

To increase HP, you need to stuff more air & fuel into the engine, or increase displacement, or inject an oxidizer & more fuel. SO, money wise a nitro oxide kit & reprogramming the computer are likely the best bang for the HP buck spent & least mechanically complex way to boost HP & you can switch it on & off when you like.

Otherwise it's long been said that there is no replacement for displacement!!!!!

But no matter how you do it, increasing HP is going to put stress on other system things that aren't designed for the extra twist & stress, so maintenance costs are likely to go up, or you'll have to upgrade/redesign/replace those associated systems to take the stress so they won't break.

Bolt on's by themselves are likely to unbalance things & can result in less HP or torque output & disapointment, so the entire vehicles design needs to be taken into consideration when making changes, such that you get the desired results.

So maybe consider running this puppy by a shop that does this for a living & see what they recommend & have in the way of dyno HP & Torque data, for each upgrade on your engine.

If it were as simple to do as bolt something on, Ford would have already done it to increase efficiency, or offer it as an add-on so we could do it ourselves.

More thoughts for pondering.

 

yeah i agree that all of these bolt on are not goin to do much because there just bolt ons. But i dont see how an intake or exhaust would put any strain on other things. Because a intake and exhaust allow the motor to breath easier. were like cams, head, high compression pistons would put more strain on the motor. just my opinion. But maybe ill rephrase my question, What thes best mod for the buck, thats under $350.

I like pawpaws idea BUT that would drop my mpg right?

 

oh yeah when it come to basic headers, is there any real difference between cheap headers and more pricey header,, And what about coil packs, any better hp there ?

 

Dutter
The more I read, the more I’m leaning towards that improved performance doesn’t come from bolt-ons. Pawpaw makes a good point that if there were quick, slick improvements that could be bolted on, the OEMs out there would cash in on them with their own versions. That said I can see that some things might offer an improvement over stock items. Exhaust is one of those, but as has been pointed out to me, if you don’t tune your engine to take advantage of the improved flow, likely the computer will compensate and neutralize any advantage, or in the process, actually make performance worse.<o></o>
Thinking back to college days back in the mid 80s in GA, I lived pretty close to the Ruggles Performance shop. At that time, I owned an 80 Buick Skyhawk with the 3.8 liter engine (basically, a 350 with two cylinders chopped). Ruggles did some pretty slick things, low cost-no cost improvements to the V6 engine and squeezed out 50 additional hp from a basically stock motor that only cranked out 115hp. The key was in the finessing of things in the engine, and by adding a better camshaft and bolting on a 4bbl carburetor, got 230hp from a 231 cu.in. displacement. I had a college buddy with a Pontiac Sunbird that did the cam and 4 bbl and that car was pretty quick! The point here is this: Ruggles found a way to make more hp from the stock engine by doing simple things to the motor. And by investing more elbow grease, time and money, created the Skoal Bandit car that beat V8s on the racing circuit. At that time, the Grand Nationals were becoming the top dog, and when I toured their garage, they had around 15 engines in various stages of rebuilds – pretty cool stuff to a 19 yr old. Although I never did the work to my 3.8L engine, there is no doubt that the changes made to my buddy’s Sunbird were noticeable; especially to those 80’s Corvette owners we left at the light.
I've found a site on the internet with a guy who does some experimental things to tweak his 2.3L. It doesn't appear to be like Ruggles was in the 80s, but a site with an engine builder whose expertise and experience with the Lima engines is what we need. A builder who has the bonafied data to back claims, knows the ins and outs, and can provide objective evidence of success (e.g. a 'bandit' Ranger). Would be pretty cool to find a builder like that, one who can help the power freaks and the econo freaks (me) out there who want more from their power plants.
Regards,
Kevin

 

I will disagree with some post. You can gain a small amount with an electric fan. Really depends on the set up and the conditions you drive in. I have a Permacool 18" electric fan installed in my 06 2.3l. It rarely comes on because I live in the country. It is bolted into the factory shroud so I don't have a clue as to were it might go, if that was a concern. Still have the factory AC fan. I don't think Ford engineered this truck for maximum performance. They engineered it to be acceptable in a wide range of conditions at a certain price point. If so why does the new 2.0l in the Focus have 17 more hp over this 2.3l? My truck feels like it gained some power in the low rpm range because of the electric fan. With a decent intake, exhaust and electric fan I don't see how you couldn't gain a few horses and a little torque. I certainly feel that I did and I have bolted on a few items over the decades. Some are probably useless such as headers in your case. You might gain 2-3 hp at 5k but at what cost. How many times would you run it to 5k. I would rather find my gains were I drive, low end to midrange. Each to their own but if you have not done it why carry on that it will not do anything.

 

Believe what you want. Enjoy constantly fixing any of that stuff.

 

Alright yeah thats what iv always thought, because my brother races cars at the strip and always tell me that bolt ons dont do much. which yeah i totally understand, thats why i kind of make fun of guys that have bolt ons and THINK there ride is fast. But of course this truck aint no hot rode. Like i had plane of fully rebuilding this motor and pumping it up. But im not goin to wast my time pumping up a motor on a newer truck(yes a 94 is new to me lol) So sooomeday i wana get a old half ton and then make er into a hot rode. But idk i still wana do what i can to get alittle more out of this motor. Or you know what maybe ill just get lower gears for my truck, because its the 35s the boggged my power,, hhmmm ill have to think about that one. But i still like to hear everyones input, it helps me pounce ideas around

 

My last Ford before this Ranger was a fullsize 2000 F150 I bought new. I installed a Magnaflow catback exhaust, K@N intake, Moto-Blue underdrive pulleys, Motorcraft Windstar factory electric twin fan and a Superchips 9100 programmer. It was like that the last 3.5 years I had it and I replaced nothing so I am not sure what your point is bankshot. I would be willing to bet you have a decent amount of forum researching listening to people giving opinions on things they have never tried. Somethings are useless some are not. None are really cheap.

 

Something I'm wondering about and I don't think it's been brought up here yet - what gear ratio are your axles running? With 35's, are you running 4.10's or what? Seems to me that could also help get the beast up and moving...

Just a thought...

 

Ok, I'm going to go at a tangent to most of these guys. What they mostly said about bolt in performance is mostly true. Exhaust can help. The biggest restriction in most stock setups is the muffler. The cats are already free flowing.

The next would be the manifolds if you replaced them with headers, but the gains are small. There is a difference between cheap headers and more expensive ones. The cheap headers are know to rust, crack or break, and often have rough edges and fit issues. An expensive header is made from better materials, has more attention to detail, and have been fit checked by the manufacturer. Do I think that headers are a good bang for the buck? No, not really. They are an improvement over stock, but a very expensive way to gain a couple HP.

E-fans do work, but you have to make sure you get a fan with an overkill amount of airflow. In your case, I would make sure the replacement fan has at least 2,800 cfm. There are direct bolt on fans from Flex-a-lite. Just go with the kit. that way you know installation will be easy and quick. You might see a slight gain in economy, but the difference in performance is almost undetectable. I have a 3300 cfm flex-a-lite on my Aerostar van. It bought me 2 mpg on average, largely because when I am on the interstate at speed, the fan rarely has to come on.

The next major upgrade is not an intake kit or TB spacer, those are wastes of time and money and often cause more problems. The next best upgrade is head and intake porting. This is expensive work and not for the light hearted. But the gains from these mods are quite significant. The object of porting is not to enlarge the ports, the stock ports are usually already large enough. Its to get rid if the rough edges and sharp direction changes that restrict and slow the flow. You also want the ports to line up. Turbulence robs power, so the less you have the better. I'm not going to go into how porting is done, there are lots of videos and instructions on the subject that can be found, and lots of engine shops that can do it if you don't want to tackle it yourself. How much can you gain from a good porting job? Typically between 7 - 12%. So on a 4.0L OHV engine, with stock valves, the stock output at the crank is 160 hp, you can go as high as 179 hp. If you go with slightly oversize vales, you can pick up an additional 10 hp. Porting combines with other mods very nicely, so you can get more gains if you combine this with better exhaust and a tune.

Tuning is one of the best bangs for the buck. The stock tune is often cited as holding the performance back. I don't agree with that conclusion. A lot of the stock tuning has to do with protecting the engine in the event something goes wrong. However, the margin of error the factory allows for is huge, and you can use much of that to squeeze more power out of the engine. You can give the engine a little more timing advance to get more power. You can also get more enrichment on acceleration, which while hard on fuel economy, can get more performance and prevent pinging. The tunes can be optimized to take advantage of other mods the vehicle has. But most importantly, the tune can be optimized to take advantage of the effects of higher octane. On a stock tune, the manufacturer designs the tune around an octane, usually 87, because they don't want the consumer damaging things by using too low and octane. But if you use a higher octane on a stock tune, the timing is too slow and late to take advantage of the fuel, in fact often performance will decrease because the mixture ignites too late and burns too slow to apply the optimum pressure at the right time in the mixture. This causes lots of unburned fuel to enter the exhaust, which can be hard on emissions components too. But if you design the tune around a higher octane, say 89 or 91, then you can run more aggressive timing. This more aggressive timing increases the amount of fuel that burns in the cylinders, increasing the amount of energy transferred to the crank. So how much increase are we talking about here? An optimized tune for a higher octane can easily get you between 10-15% more power than a stock tune. So in other words, a 4.0L OHV with slightly oversized valves, ported head and intake, stock cam, stock intake, performance muffler, and headers, can exceed 200 hp. That is it taking the old OHV engine into the SOHC territory. If the tune is done just right, you could also gain a couple mpg by leaning out the cruising part of the fuel map.

Beyond that, you need to start upgrading injectors, higher flowing fuel pumps, nitrous systems, forced induction, cams, etc. It is possible to get a N/A 4.0 OHV to produce around 400 hp, it depends on how much you are willing to spend. At that point it would be a race engine not suitable for the street, and you could easily have spent upwards of $15,000 on upgrades. The above list up through the tune are you best bang for the buck, everything after that requires a lot of money for the gains.

 

Yep that was the last mods i brought up, because my truck had good power befor the 35s, so thats why i was thinking about lower gear. Now i already have the dana 35 up front and 8.8 in the rear. But i dont know to much about gear ratios and what not but i think itll sure help. And thanks for the good info KhanTyranitar i would like to polish my heads but theres SOO much crap around my motor for smog and what not, That it would have to be a real project to get it done. BUT that would be a true HP again-er that id notice. I had a dirtbike that had that done and oohh yeah it gave it some more ***** for sure, But i will look into that.

And its sounding like headers arent the way to go, so what do you think about me getting lower gears to match the 35s i have. Because thall be like $500