I have a 1990 4 Wheel Drive Ranger with the 2.9 Liter V6 engine. It has a 3" lift and 30" tires on it. I believe one of the heads is cracked or I have a gasket out. Water is going into the oil (fairly good amount of water). The engine has 150K on it. I am leaning towards replacing the engine rather than doing a head replacement. Obviously there is a huge price difference to do one vs. the other. I am of the opinion that if one head is cracked and I have it replaced then the other one goes I could have probably had the engine replaced for close to what I will spend to have someone replace both heads. My question is this I am fairly mechanically inclined but have never taken on a project this large myself. Is this something that a person can do themselves (Replace the heads) without tons of experience or woull that not be recommended. Secondly if I decide to replace the engine 1. Are there engines from later model pickups that are compatible with the 1990. (i.e. 1995 engine in a 1990 truck) 2. Would there be more involved than just replacing the engine if I went with the 4 Liter engine vs. the 2.9? I have heard that heads on the 2.9 have been a bit of a problem and with the bigger tires I could use the extra power. Anyway sorry to be so long winded. I thank you in advance for any help and advice you can offer.

 

these trucks are notorious for intake gaskets going out. also head gaskets. if you do a head gasket kit it would be well worth trying.

Matt

 

Either way unless you do perform much of the work yourself, you will quickly approach the value of the truck but if the lift and whatandnot is recent then it could be worth it. I dont really know any of the costs but going with a junker (high mile, old) engine is a bad idea, you could be in the same position again in short order after a lot of work.

 

Welcome to FTE!!!

I would bet on a cracked head, the most common cause of coolant in the oil. I have a link about replacing the heads in the tech info thread at the top of this forum. I posted a few pics of cracked heads in this thread...

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/s...d.php?t=434081

 

Appreciate the feed back. As I have been reading through some of the other posts I have noticed a mention that several people are talking about going to the 5.0 engine. Is this the 5.0 mustang engine? How does it bolt up to tranny? Obviously you must also do a computer swap for this, does anyone know what year pickups this can be done on, or is it possible on most all Rangers? Also there has been quite a bit of mention of the 302 what kind of success have people had with that swap?

 

Well the 302 swap is a good one but requires about 50-70 hrs of work. It won't bolt up to your factory tranny, and even if it could, it wouldn't hold up to the V8 power very long. It will require some customizing in the engine bay, you need to change the motor mounts. etc, etc, etc...

As for compatibility, the 302 will fit in any ranger with a few mods. Any year is a good one. most People tend to go with a carburated 302, to eliminate a lot of the electrical.

I don't really recommend getting the swap done by a shop, don't get me wrong they would probably do good job with it, but will cost you an arm and a leg in labour.

Bottom line if you are mechanically inclined and have some mechanically inclined friends, and don't immediately need the truck, the 302 swap is a good one. There are a lot of threads about this and we're all willing to answer some questions you might have. Keep in mind if you do this swap it will be tricky to pass emmisions depending where you live.

Madmike33