Anyone else have a 2.3l Duratech Ranger?

[hat_man]

Hello again.

My old Ranger with the 2.3l Lima was a great truck that I was able to get 30 MPG out of at it's best. I tweaked the engine in places and did minimal body mods and had a blast along the way.

Now the new truck has the 2.3l Duratech and I feel like I'm starting the learning curve all over again. I'll be doing the usual "air muffler" removal and IAC and MAF cleaning and synthetic fluids over the next few months. Mud flap removal and some lighter tires (the current ones from the previous owner are 36lbs each ) and wheels as long as I like the look of them. Might swap the ones from the old truck and see if I like how they look. A grille block of some sorts will be on the list also. It already has a soft bed cover.

What I am looking for is some insight on the 2.3l Duratech and anything anyone has had success with. Ford seems to like OEM electrical stuff so I'm assuming Motorcraft coil pack and standard plugs unless someone has already had success in that arena. Injectors upgrades would be a possibility but that'll be another question for another time.

I've read the sticky list of mods numerous times when I was modding the old truck so I'm pretty familiar with what on that list can be accomplished. That and I know it's a truck and not an Insight or a CRX that'll return 45+ mpg. I'm sure I can hit 30 mpg again but I think there's still room for improvement.

Any information you have about the 2.3l Duratech will help.

Thanks

[19bonestock88]

I’ve had a couple Rangers (one Lima powered and one Cologne powered, both 2wd and manual) and while I never owned a Duratec, I’ve followed a couple of builds...

Most people do intake, exhaust and tune... the Duratec trucks have an electric fan that comes on with AC(supposedly), and a tune (SCT) can enable it to be used like in a car and you can ditch the clutch fan... just the three above(and keeping speed reasonable) should get you to the 30 mark...

From there, consider doing a 4/5 drop to cut drag and improve handling(unless you go off road)... rear gearing change should be considered as it would help highway mileage a lot and not really hurt power at low speeds (shift down as needed)... you’ll still have plenty of passing power(especially tuned even on only 87 oct), even with 3.29 gears...

Honestly if I had your truck I’d be shooting for 40mpg, as it *should* be doable with aero-modding and such

[hat_man]

I would love to do a 2/4 drop (coils and an axle flip) and I am pondering a rear gear change.

http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...tml#post566155

What type of intake and exhaust changes are you talking about? I'm not a big fan of the K/N deal and would rather have a WAI of some kind. Right now it has some sort of exhaust on it I haven't seen before. It looks like a rectangular "pillow" shape with a tomato juice size can before it. Very different than my old truck that had a standard CAT and oval muffler. The tail pipe is the same twisted mess on both trucks. Four 90° bends if I remember right. I wonder if an exhaust like the ones the Lightning Ranger's had (45° from behind the muffler headed out the side) or just a custom mandrel bent pipe nicely flowing over the rear axle and straight out the back would help.

[19bonestock88]

When I made the intake for my Saturn I used a ported version of the stock airbox and basically made the tube from the airbox to TB as smooth as possible... I didn’t wanna draw excessively warm air but to mildly raise IATs... plus you might be able to vent PCV to open air and get that oil gunk outta your intake tract...

As for exhaust I’d just do a “lightning style” exhaust with a freer flowing muffler and as nice of bends as you can... 2.25” should be big enough... I had a setup like that on my 4.0L with a Thrush Welded muffler and it sounded great and gave a few HP...

You really should consider a tune though, getting rid of that clutch fan will be a biggie, as far as boosting mileage... plus, I hear that SCT’s 91 octane tune for the 2.3 really wakes it up... of course the X-cal isn’t too cheap...

[hat_man]

Aren't "tunes" expensive? And 91 octane is about 40 cents a gallon more. I drive about 600+ miles a week. Might be quite a long ROI. I have always wanted to do the E-Fan from a Taurus or something else. That would eliminate the fan clutch. Those things are a huge parasitic drag.

Someday a tune maybe in order (87 octane) but not just yet. Too much "low hanging fruit" to be picked first.

[19bonestock88]

Look under your hood... the Duratec trucks are supposed to have an e-fan stock, that is only used with AC on... a tune can unlock its full time use and other things included...

Your long commute would be the best possible reason to do an 87 oct tune(the programmer also would likely have a 91 tune), as it would help with ROI, what with you going through 20-25 gal a week

[spacemanspif]

If the 2.3 d’tec is the same as the one that came in the Focus you can get a balance shaft delete that drops rotational mass and increases oil capacity slightly. Supposed to make it rev easier and since the engines are internally balanced the shafts aren’t a necessity; they are there to make it really smooth vs just kinda smooth. Tom at Focus Power Tuning offers free retunes as long as you stay N/A and member Focus AK had a custom economy tune done by him. I am thinking of getting one for my new-to-me Focus that is replacing my wagon. Other wise go barn-door sized air dam and get rolling since you already have a tonneau cover.

[19bonestock88]

The Ranger d-tec is similar to the Focus d-tec except the head is more similar to the 2.0 head and lacks VVT... Yes a balance shaft delete would help by removing rotational mass, not sure if it would help mileage (considered a similar mod for my Ecotec) but would help high RPM power a bit...