I have a 93 ranger w/ 4.0 in it and I was wondering if there is anything I can do to add a little more go juice to it. Since I am driving these one for the next month and a half while my 250 diesel is being repaired might as well try to have some fun with this one!

 

Ive got a 94, 2.5 inch exhaust from Y pipe back, free flow cat and magnaflow muffler. Got a air intake for a 97 from street smart design, bolts right in but the upper rad hose is higher than on the 97 is the only thing. Put good spark plugs and better wires and they help. Running 235-65-15's on it pulls real well. Have 3:08 final drive and no problems.

The exhaust was built by a local speed shop, straight as possible minimum bend radius (over the axel) no it is not mandrel just has minimum radius bends. Supposedly you can run a little colder T-stat so the computer thinks its cooler out an it may let a little more fuel in. Guess there might be a chip available but I dont think you would need one. Mine is a 5sp BTW.

 

You don't need more fuel to get more power. The engine is already rich for emission purposes. I also think 2.5" is too large. I run 2.25" on my Aerostar 4.0L, and I have a lower gear ratio too. With that 3:08, you need more bottom end torque to support the take off from idle. The biggest power gain comes not from replacing the cats or increasing the pipe size, but rather from replacing the restrictive factory muffler. Make sure you system is at least 2.25" and you can go 2.5" behind the muffler to compensate for the bends.

For an intake, you really don't need to replace it, the primary thing, is do not use cheap paper filters, use Motorcraft filters, they flow better and they last longer between replacements. Oil impregnated filters will ruin your MAF sensor, and will not increase your horsepower or gas mileage. Only a plugged or restricted filter will offer real performance losses, the factory air filter will support twice the CFM rating of the engine at 1 psi.

 

Well I have no cats since they got clogged and a flowmaster stage two muffler and a 2.25 exhaust on it so far and that yields a good amount of sound and freed it up. The only downside of the truck is it lopes really bad worse then my diesel. So nothing more I really cold do for the air intake. I couldn't do an open element filter like the 6637 on my diesel?

 

Do the exhaust. No bigger than 2.5" pipes for a single pipe, 2.25" for duals.
Leave the stock intake...it takes in colder air than an open air filter ever will.
Look for a chip. You'll probably never find one anymore, but they are out there. I had to have one custom burned.
Get a rear sway bar if you don't already have one.
Lose the 3.08s and get 3.73s or 4.10s depending on what type of driving you do.
Mustang throttle body.
Port and polish the upper and lower intake.
New cam (Comp Cams has one)
All new valvetrain.
190 t-stat if you live in a hot climate, 198 if you live in a cooler climate.
Hurst short throw shifter if 5 speed, new valve body if automatic. New transmission would be even better, as the A4LD is pretty lame for performance builds.

Easier would be to lose the 4.0L and get a V8 such as a 5.0L or 5.8L. If you can hollow out the engine bay (give up heating and a/c), it's as easy as different displacement swaps come.

 

These are some pretty extreme mods, and some of the suggestions you gave are really bad, things. I'l start with the good recommendations, though I doubt you want to spend that kind of money.

The gears are a good idea, though they may penalize fuel economy. One must decide firstly how you want to drive this thing. If you want a race machine, and don't care about street legal, and don't mind if its a beastly monster, by all means, go all out. However, most people buy cars and trucks as daily drivers and to do practical work. This being said, my recommendations are much more modest.

The type of tuning mentioned above are used for say Nascar racing, but if you really pay attention to the race, you will see Nascar tuning only produces power at high RPM. Ever notice the that the drivers keep the throttle revved up and slip the clutch a lot when they take off from the pits. This is because the engine does not produce enough bottom end torque to get the car moving from a stop, and it instead needs to be kept revved up to sustain the power. You may have noticed the pit crew pushes the car to get it going. That is because the push gets it moving faster than the engine alone can do it. This kind of tuning is nearly undriveable on the road.

To drive on the street and produce an all around good vehicle, you need torque and you need it low down in the powerband. This kind of tuning require only minor relatively inexpensive changes to the vehicle, basically upgrading the things Ford decided not to do.

So lets go on with the good advise

Rear Sway bar is a good idea, though a heavy duty air ride kit may be a better investment. This reduces the lean that occurs when turning and prevents trailer shimmy. A recommended upgrade to the suspension.

Stock intake is the best, most aftermarket intake cause warmer air to be drawn in reducing the air density. Stick with Motorcraft paper filters, by far the best compromise between high flow, filtering efficiency, and filter life.

Lowering the gear ratios puts more torque to the wheels. This also compensates for larger tires if you have any. It also take advantage of an upgraded engine better.

Bad advise:
Don't get a chip. The 4.0L is prone to ping and detonate. A chip will make this worse. There are some pretty good programs out there, but most of them mess with the emissions systems and fuel management and increase combustion temperatures. If you do get a chip, make sure it is emissions legal. This is not just to make the tree huggers happy, it actually produces more usable power and a stable torque curve, as opposed to one that is overly peaky. Even if it does produce good results, the return is not great enough to justify the cost. Ford did their homework before they came up with the factory tune.

Exhaust You can go up to 2.5", but a free flowing well designed 2.25" system will produce better torque and a wider powerband. It also improves fuel economy by ensureing good exhaust scavenging at the rpm range you normally drive at. Dual 2.25 would result in the gutless wonder of the neighborhood, why don't you just put on a 3.25" exhaust instead, because thats seriously how large a dual 2.25" is. Dual 2.25" is good for a 7.5L engine, nearly twice the displacement of your V6. Simple mathematic calculations about airflow and theoretically perfect engines verify this information, dual 2.25" is way to large, in fact dual 2" is questionable. Go with the single exhaust, you will get better results. It also costs less.

Mustang throttle body is not a good suggestion unless you get one for cheap. It will not give a significant return unless other modifications are performed to take advantage of it.

Port and polish is a really bad idea. Contrary to popular belief, a port and polish is more restrictive than a rough intake. Air flowing over a smooth surface forms a boundary layer, which slows the air flow and causes the fuel to precipitate out of the mixture, a rough surface like the factory on is not restrictive and creates enough turbulence to allow good atomization, which in turn results in better combustion. This is scientificaly verifiable, I have even seem vehicles where a polished intake was the only modification and it resulted in a power loss over factory. Most people who polish their ports never bother to compare them to unpolished ports and attribute any power gains they got with the polish, and not with the other modifications they had performed.

New Valvetrains are tuned for high rpm use. I have already mentioned why this is bad for street use. If you were building a drag racer go for it, otherwise pass on this one.

Stick with the stock thermostat. A thermostat with a heat range other than recommended may result in fuel management issues, loss of fuel economy and excessive carbon build up, which in turn can cause pinging and detonation.



In additon to the above mentioned recommendations, I recommend these upgrades, depending on how much you want to do and what kind of tuning you are aiming for.

High velocity ports. This you can do with the traditional JB weld. You actually make the intake ports smaller and remove any unneeded restrictions. This results in an even broader powerband and corrects the already overly large valves. Great for leaving those ricers in the dust at the lights.

Remember when tuning that just because your intake and exhaust flow better, doesn't mean your engine will. You want the exhaust and intake to acheive ideal velocity at certain RPM ranges, and you don't often want that range to be around 5000+. Figure out what you want, and then get the upgrades that will support that kind of tuning.

 

Ok...having been away from this forum for a good two months, I'm happy to see that there are still plenty of people full of themselves around here. Baselessly attacking other's suggestions is a bit immature, don't you think?

Ever looked at a Ranger manual? 3.73s and 4.10s are available as stock ratios, in '93 and even today. Crazy...must be too low for the truck, huh? 3.73s for highway running, 4.10s for city driving. It's not a hard concept.

Odd...I drive my truck every day without problems. Works just fine. "Undriveable" is way above what a 4.0L is capable of with the aftermarket available to it.

Odd...plenty of high-HP, high-powerband vehicles on the road that are considered quite nice. Low-RPM torque and high-RPM power will always be a tradeoff, though I'm sure you know that.

Oh this should be fun.

And much more expensive. Cheaper and easier to install a rear sway bar. Bigger than stock, of course. Excellent upgrade, I've never looked back.

Hmm...I said that too.

Just a minute ago you were ranting about how the gears could hurt a "daily driver".

Ever worked with performance vehicles? The stock tuning program is entirely too bad to be used for real power. Of course the engine will ping, if you're an idiot and run 87 in a 93 tune. Never had pinging problems.

Pipe size is the dominant factor. Dual 2.25"s will not cause a low end torque loss like a single 3.25" will. Much more important is the backpressure caused by cats and a muffler anyways.

Ever been to a junkyard? I think I got mine for $10.

Outta tell all the engine builders out there that. Not common to see a built engine without a port and polish. But hey...that's just experience from my engine.

No...new valvetrains are for not beating up your cam and causing valve float. Performance valvetrains are "tuned for high rpm use".

Which is a 198*, one of my reccommendations. 190* is considered normal in hotter climates, and is high enough for the engine to be in open loop while still keeping good oil pressure.

Because that's not restrictive...

Won't be too large when the engine is modified.

--------------------------------------------------

Bear River, I've been down this road before... I've got just a little bit of experience with Rangers, 4.0Ls, and performance. If you want to play tuner, that's fine by me, but don't insult my intelligence and suggestions by calling them foolish, ridiculous, or a waste of time. You do what you want with your vehicle. Let them make the choices for themselves.

 

Well i 've read through alot of discussions in the past about what you should or shouldn't do. Here is my imput as I have been tinkering with cars and trucks for awhile. I own a 93 with a 4l. my mileage is over 150,000miles and it still runs fine.

I have been using syntheic oil since 10,000 miles, change it at 10,000. put in a K&N air filter at the same time and clean it once a year, no problems with oil contaminateing anything as I oil it from the outside of the filter. Simple to understand as the oil is suck into the filter from the engine running.

I did remover the cats and added a Dynomax with 2.5 from the cat back. Replaced the muffler twice and switched to an Aero Muffler( out of Utah). It sounds OK at highway speeds but is too noisey for city. I have since ordered a resonator to use after the muffler to get things quite again. Maybe some of the mufflers would have worked better but we pay a premium for parts up here.

I have 3.08 gears and installed the Power Trax Locker 2 years ago as I live in the North and need the extra traction. No I haven't had any problems with it and I travel 90% highway miles as I use the Truck for work. We have the worst road condtions with snow, and Black Ice. Sure it chirps a bit around corners but it works!!

I use the NAPA High Temp Thermos Stat(198). Ford's don't last as long. I have had an electric fan since nearly new, I switched to the Taurus lately with the variable speed control available from DC Control which works both high speed and low speed fan. They have an excellant web site with their technical info.

Most of the maintenance items have been replaced with either stock or NAPA reman parts. I have used other stuff before and had to replace it sooner than latter so I stick with the better parts.

Yes I have the overhead temp, 200amp alternator, optimum batery, rear anti sway bar, NAPA ceramic disc with slotted rotors, 3rd set of motorcraft shocks, etc.

Anyways that's my story and if you have any questions please feel free to ask!!

 

The 4.0 ohv respond verywell to an under drive pulley, e-fan combo, gears will help any motor. If your truck was an obd II , then you could get the bama engine programer, they really turn up the wick on a 4.0.

 

im still rolling over zachs post, i think u missed a sentence, but ill let you look for it!

this is a friendly room, and everyone here can get along. i would like to remind everyone to stay friendly and if u disagree with what someone says, so what.... just dont get on a personal level. this post is running just fine so keep it up

Matt

 

I have learnes a few things about intakes since buying my mustang GT. An intake that includes a tuner by bama chips and benespeed for the 05-08 mustang is good for 30 - 36 additional hp. To many times on this forum we have discused the pro's and con's of an intake. While talking with Doug from bama and other mustang builders, to get the most out of an aftermarket intake you need to retune for it. Air fuel ratio is so important. When I installed my intake I also retuned with bama and have allways been impressed with the difference. A lot of folks on here have just slapped on an intake and have been disapointed because thier neck wasn't snapped off. I'm here to say taht if you want the most benifit from an intake, get a retune. The real ticket is an intake, exhaust and retune. Also 4:10 gears are an all around good gear for all situations unless you need to cruise at a 140 mph. It works well in the city, country, dirt roads or highway, I would have no less than a 3:73 in a ranger, there's nothing like torque to the wheels. Mpg doesn't seem to suffer as I get 22 mpg around home with a 4x4, actually 4:10's can help mpg if you do alot of stop and go driving. Ford has really pushed the 4:10's over the last few years in the ranger because of the overall benifits. The udp is another good way to get more usable torque to the wheels, fter my pulley install, I could feel the difference. A tb swap can be good for 1-3 hp, but the biggest benifit on about any engine is increased throttle response. Even cleaning up or porting your stock tb can help in this area. There is also a hotter cam and headers available for the 4.0 ohv if you want to get real serious. The real secret to getting a performance bump on the 4.0 with bolt on's is in the retune, it makes all the difference in the world.

 

I remember before I left...let's see what was that, two months ago. Wendell, you saying you were going to keep that GT stock. Yeah...see...we all knew better.

 

HA HA, that was stock for now, now was over a month and a half ago !!!!

 

I think the important questions for the original poster haven't been asked yet:

How much performance do you want and how much are you looking to spend?


There are great opinions from all on FTE, but there is no reason to get carried away if it is more than the user wants or more than they can/will spend...

 

Well if I was going to throw alot of money into this I would invest in a 12 valve cummins to put in there heh. No my diesel is just down to october and I was wanting to do a little cheaper mods under the hood for a little extra power not alot of money because I am alot more into makeing a 3/4 ton diesel go faster :-p. Thanks for all the suggestions it nice to see there is alot that I really could do but I don't want to throw more then a 100 or 200 dollars at it.