Is there anything I can do to my 1990 2.9 V6 to give it a little boost? Will a better flow muffler help?

 

To increase performance on a 2.9, just increase it to a 4.0 ha ha. I'm full of myself tonight, sorry. I'm just in a good mood for some reason. Unforturatly there's not much out there for the 2.9. A high flow muffler won't hurt, but you won't get much more than a nice rumble. I believe I've read on here that someone does offer a performance cam shaft for the 2.9, but can't recall who. There's old school of port and polish the head, maybe shave it a little to raise compression. I know your looking for some cheap bolt on's, but there really isn't any. Gears will allways add some snap to any engine, maybe try an electric fan to free up a few ponies. For the newer v6 engines, they have headers, intakes, catback exhaust, under drive pulley's, chips and programers, larger tb's and injectors, but when it comes to the older engines like the 2.9, the aftermarket seems to ignor them. I would try a good flowing muffler, maybe look on ebay and see if you can find a maf adapter and cone air filter for it. A good tuneup and some synthetic motor oil like mobil 1. If your budget allows a set of 4:10 gears would do wonders, that would be your biggest bang for the buck. Maybe some of my buddies will have some idea's, just hang tight. Welcome to the site by the way, were sure glad to have you. I'll snoop a round and see if I can find anything else as well.

 

I have some good news for ya buddy, I found some bolt on's for your 2.9. Jet does make a chip for your engine, also JBA and pacesetter both make headers for the 2.9, cam craft makes a performance cam. You can have your throttle body ported for better throttle response. MSD has a performace ignition box and coil to upgrade the ignition. There's also rollor rockers from, I believe it was crane cams.The guy I talk to recomended porting and polishing the head with a cam and the headers will give the motor quit a bump. Even with just headers, a free flowing exhaust, open up the intake, port the throttle body and an upgraded msd ignition will make a big difference a long with the jet chip. Like me, he also recomended the 4:10 gears if you don't allready have them. Of course, you don't have to do everything at once, but it does give you some options to work with.

 

The 2.9 is one of those engines that you should just be happy it's running good. Going down the performance road on this one will cost a lot of money and yield small gains.

 

Yes sir I agree, to an extent, I think gears can help the performance of any engine, as they don't add hp , but help you make good use of what you have. These v6's will never be race cars. It might be in my head, but I thought the 2.9 felt stronger than the 3.0. I was rather impressed with the 2.9 in an 88 ranger 4x4 with a 5 speed and 4:10's. It wasn't bad in my old 87 bronco II either, seemed pretty peppy for thier size. I talked with a guy who got a pretty good bump with the 2.9 by port and polish, plus shaved heads and a cam with headers, he got up to a whooping 170 hp. Thats around the power range of a 4.0 ohv. It really doesn't make any sense to dump alot of money into these motors for the return. I could see a good muffler for a nice rubble and some gears to make use of the torque, but there's where I would call it a day and just have fun with it. If you wanted more, I would sugest a 5.0 swap.

 

The early 2.9s had a bigger TB, direct swap.

TTDCSB40