I have a 90 ranger 2.3 (which I drive everyday) and an 88 ranger 2.0 ( bad motor). I am to understand from sources that the ford 2.0 is an under bored 2.3 of which the internal parts will not interchange but most of the external parts will. I bought a 1923 ford tract T roadster kit and had an older 2.3 super up to put in it with a C4 tranny. I want more chrome on it and don't want to close in the engine so I decided to put a SBC 350 with a 383 stroker kit in it. The problem I have is that I am restoring my 90 ranger and have decided to install the souped up 2.3 in it with the 5 speed manual. I am having a rough time trying to align the fly wheel ( has new ring gear and resurfaced) from the 2.0 onto the 2.3 It just does'nt seem to align up enough to bolt it on. Any suggestions. The 2.3 I had done specs as follows and ought to be a neat little build for my 90. Bored 30 over has roller cam lift of 270/270 with duration of 218/218 at 0.50, it is printed and polished using factory headers and efi intake with a racinwalsh 2" carb to efi adaptor and sports a holley 500 ( part # 4412s) intake and heads are ported and polished. If I can get the flywheel to mount ok than I can put the new clutch kit on and get it ready to install and dyno. Any help would be appreciated.. Also I am new to this board Thanks, lil red ranger

 

Welcome to FTE Red! As for the 2.0L, that wasn't available for long after Ford took over from Courier model. The 2.0L was Jap as I remember while the rest are from Lima, OH. I believe you'd at least have to swap bell-housings & have issues with the slave cylinder. The oldest Rangers had external while Limas hook up to internal. I think far & away the easiest fix is to get a 2.3L tranny. There are a lot of wiser gurus around this Ranger crowd who'll pipe up shortly.

 

Thanks for the reply, I was using the 88 with the 2.0 for parts for the 90.
The built up motor is 2.3 (carb) and the motor in the 90 is 2.3(efi) trannies from both are the 5 speed with overdrive. The throw out bearing for the 90 is not the same as the 88.
I have never done this before so I have had to inquire and fight my way through it thus far. The only thing wrong with the 90 tranny is that it jumps out of OD when you let off the gas so was hoping to use the 5 speed out of the 88. From what the bone yard interchange says is that the ford 2.0 and 2.3 tranny shold bolt on. The flywheel is my main problem for now as I had a new ring gear put on and the resurfacing done I could keep the flywheel out of the 90 and get it done but money is invested in the 88 flywheel already.
Bummer if it does not work
lil red ranger

 

Have you looked into The Ranger Station - Your Ultimate Ranger Resource tech section? Lots of good stuff there & I'd trust that & those guys & the guys here a lot more than a junkyard's say-so. Also, the M5OD tranny probably not that hard to rebuild. I tore down a Nissan 5-speed to find out why it jammed the car in the street a few years ago. Not frozen shift rail as the pros said. Busted a small gear & bits of that got caught. Never bothered to rebuild it with 2 identical mint spares though.

 

There are threads here at FTE about M5OD DIY rebuilds scattered about too.

 

The 88 2.0 rebuilt flywheel does fit the 2.3 rebuild motor I am putting in the 90
lil red ranger.