Have any of you guys ever install a 302/351 in a little ranger. I got one that is also a 4x4 all wheel drive. It was a 5 speed standard. But Im hoping to install a builtup 351 that has about 400 horsepower. But Im trying to be real buy going with a automatic 4 wheel drive trans. maybe out of the larger broncos, To help keep the sudden pressure off the drive train. Have any of you done this swap,will the little ranger holdup to the larger engine ?? I was told its done all the time by guys,to get more power

 

well i used to have a little ranger and was also thinking about that swap myself. Turns out i smashed it into 6 trees before i could do it but i did do alot of investigation into the subject and have purchased another ranger to start playing with. There is going to be a problem with your 351 idea because some of the parts that you are going to need for the swap are going to be different from the 302, plus the 351 has larger heads which make the motor wider and taller. The nice thing about the 302 is that there are so many companies out there that have parts readilly available for the swap. The parts that you are going to need are going to be motor mounts, a dual sump oil pan kit, oil filter relocator with 90 degree fittings, a new rad, and if you want to keep the stock transfercase then a transmission to t-case adapter. The part that is different for the 351 is the oil pan because the crank bearing journals are bigger and the pan is a different shape and i have yet to come across some one who makes a dual sump pan for this particular application. A good place to check out would be www.advanceadapters.com and go to the online catalouge. they have a page that has all the parts you need and goes into some more details of the swap. Hooker headers also has engine mounts for this application and that website can be accessed from www.holley.com and then click on the link at the bottum and look under super competition headers. Depending on the year of your ranger, the diffs will be either strong enough or marginal. I think the 91-up trucks came with a larger Dana 35 front diff and an 8.8 rear end. this combination is strong enough to stand up to a mild v8, but your 400 horse idea i am not so sure about. A larger bolt in rear diff would be a ford 9" out of a 67-69 ford mustang, and for the front i dont know. I am not sure of your budget but what i am doing is taking a Dana 44 out of a 78-79 bronco which i have a few of and getting it shortened to fit under the ranger. The nice thing about that diff is that it is already set up for the coil spring type of suspension that is in the ranger already, but you will have to use the bronco radius arms and have them either shortened or the frame mounts moved back and fabricate a pan hard bar to locate the front diff. and if your worried about drive shaft problems, it all depends on how much you lift the truck and if it is an issue then take and get some bronco drive shafts lenghtened which will probably run you about $500. The most amount of money you are going to spend is on the engine and transmission/t-case. All the other components other than the conversion parts are reletively cheap and easily found at your local auto wrecker. And if you decide to shorten a Dana 44, make sure you only shorten the passenger side of the diff because the driver side is already short and cannot be shorter. It is definetly a worth while swap and is fairly inexspensive.

Tyler