I am building a ford ranger for the 2006 racing season, I have never built a truck let alone a Ford Ranger. I need someone to tell me how to beef one up or what I can do to the 2.3 to get zoom,zoom,zoom.

thanks to all, picks to follow!!!!!

 

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So, a Ranger for racing, huh? We have quite a few racers here, if you look around a bit in this forum you'll find a fair amount of info.

It's a little difficult to get into specifics without knowing the rules of your racing association. What will they allow? Is it to be mostly stock, or can you stroke it? Forged pistons? Bigger valves, head work including porting? Cam limitations? There are just so many variables...

A track I used to run ministocks at allowed stock blocks, crank, rods and head only, pistons could be aftermarket forged flattops but not Ross or Wiseco, any cam allowed, larger valves allowed but you couldn't touch the ports. We could mill the head and deck the block as much as we wanted. Stock steel flywheel, but it could be lightened, aftermarket street-type headers, two-barrel Holley 500 cfm carb only.

Of course there were many other details, but that's about the gist of it.

Another consideration is of course your budget. If your rules limitations are similar you'll want to start by boring the block to new forged pistons, gapless rings if allowed, reworked bushed rods with full-floating pins and good bolts like ARP, and a good balance job. The pistons sit down in the block at TDC, and you can take about .040-.060" off with reasonable safety (as I recall...it's been a few years!) but whenever you deck the block you run the risk of getting the deck too thin and creating problems later. Talk to your machinist, what I like to do is pre-assemble it to check the deck height and then take it back apart and mill down to a zero deck.

I've seen guys take .100" off the head, but I've seen some failures from that much milling as well.
If it's allowed, you'll want to get rid of the hydraulic lifters and convert them to solid.

A good resource is the Esslinger Engineering catalog, both for parts and their tech section. Check out their website, racing 4-cylinder Fords is all they do.

http://esslingeracing.com/index.htm

Also check out Racer Walsh's website.

I've just scratched the surface, but stand by...I'm sure there will be some other guys with some good recommendations for you. And perhaps some corrections on my possibly out-dated advice!

 

I'd use that old standby for most problems: Throw money at it.... heh.

2.3s are rock solid. Wind 'em up, and let 'em go. As noted above, you have to find the rulebook you'll be racing with, and follow it. The main ingredient thogh, is cold hard cash. Once you know the rules, you can get a lot out of doing most of the work yourself.
tom

 

I'm assuming you're doing a carbed buildup?

Honestly, you can leave the short block assembly mostly alone. It's been proven with turbo engines that the stock bottom end is good to at least 400 hp. All you need is some ARP rod bolts, and well the factory cast pistons in the naturally aspirated engines probably have to go too because they suck.

Of course, for racing you'll be looking for extended high RPM durability...so maybe you should go with the best stuff you're allowed.

Also, on the 2.3L most of the power is found in the head. Factory heads don't flow for crap, so you gotta either spend some time porting one, or drop $1000 and just get an Esslinger aluminum head. For racing, if you're allowed to use the aluminum head you would probably be ahead to just get one of them. They flow nice, and already have reworked chambers and are set up for big valves.

 

Thanks guys....more ????'s to come ,I'm sure

 

well whatr year ranger if it the old body (twin I beam front suspension) you will have some work ahead sometime the 500 is to much for a 2300 we have had better luck with the 350 holley or a "390" motorcraft carb (off a 400M) and the best is a pinto carb redone by earl parker
fly wheels get a stock flywheel from a 1.9 escort (sometimes 10 puonds lighter than your stock one) ... adjustable cam gear
and we shav .125 off the heads up to .175 with no problem (unless you break a timing belt then its bent valves) use a tfi dist good for 10,000 rpms and get rid of the durasparks box.. (I raced pintos)

 

"turbo" Other than the pistons, there is no difference in the short block or head. I can't tell you how many people get ripped of from that. Dump the gapless rings, you're only throwing money away. The head can be milled to the intake bolt holes. Put studs in first. One trick is to bring the pistons out of the hole .015 to decrease the quench area. Always check piston to valve clearance. Do a complete blueprint and balance. Piston can be either KB Hyperutetic or forged, depending on rules. It can save you later grief by using the billit aux shaft. You can get billit flywheels down in the 9 lbs range.
Most of what you do will be dictated by the rules that you're going to run. Another parts site that may help is www.powerbyace.com

 

What kind of racing are you doing, like offroad pre-runner, or on track racing? Well" either way Racer Walsh has alot of good 2.3 stuff, stroked 2.5 blocks, with forged internals and such. Good luck!