Engine Swap, Good or Bad???
 

Dudes, I'm a gun slingin redneck, and I got a 4 Banger that has over 200,000 miles on it, still running strong in an 85 Ranger. I'm thinking of taking it out and dropping a 351 Torreno engine in it. Anyone have an opinion on it?:-X01

seen it done alot but if you do it change the rearend to or you will have problems

Hmmm, considering the 351 was probably from the 70s and was built for smog, I think the 7.5L will take it...unless you lop 2 tons of trailer/cargo behind it or peel out too much.

Stock v8s from mid 70s are about as powerful as today's v6s, mind you.

or...
 

You could always drop a EFI 302 in there from a mustang or something, you'll get about the same gas mileage as the 2.3L, if you're conserned about that, and more power, plus there's quite a lot in the aftermarket for them if you care about that. Plus, because the 351 is much heavier so you'll probably end up needing to replace your front springs, however the 302 is only about 100 lbs. heavier than the 2.3L, therefore, you could probably get a way with only replacing the shocks and not the springs as well.
Plus, the (I think) the 351 you're talking about is a Cleveland, you're most likely going to run into clearance problems, the engines is taller and wider than the 351W (which will fit easily). If you still want to use the 351C, you could probably still do it if you were to swap your stearing for a rack-and-pinion setup for a newer explorer or something and get a taller hood or a (3") body lift. Although, no matter what V-8 you put in there, I highly recommend doing a 3" body lift because it is probably the easiest way to aleviate most of the clearance issues you run into when doing a swap of this sort. Also, if your truck is 4WD, your going to run into trouble with clearnace with the front axle, and you'll also need to get and adapter to connect the tranny from the torreno to the transaxle in the truck. Another clearance problem you might run into is with the oil pan and the crossmember that goes under the engine. The easiest way to cure this is, preferably, with a dual sump oil pan (or a rear sump), fortunately I think you can Ford Motorsports sells dual sump oil pan kit for just about every V-8 Ford has ever made.
Umm... I think that's every thing