Ford Ranger Mods So Far...

[beatr911]

Yeah the 3.0 is a holdover from when the older 4cyl motors just had no poop at all and the 4.0 was not offered yet. It was in production and used in other vehicles and was relatively cheap to produce to offer the V6 option to the many that wanted it. 26 mpg is a pretty good number.

These days the duratec 2.3 4 cylinder makes about the same power as your 3.0 V6, and much more efficiently, so they discontinued the 3.0.

To boost your mpg consider changing your rear axle ratio. Entire rear axles are plentiful and pretty cheap for a good used one. Rangerstation.com or .org or whatever has a good listing of all the available axles for these rigs.

Mine has a 3.73 but could stand a little higher ratio on the freeway. Fully loaded, going up my twisty 17% grade driveway in 1st it will just barely pull it from a rolling start under 1300 rpm, so I may just stick with it. Wish I had a dual range trans, one for haul mode and one for MPG mode.

[TestDrive]

Originally Posted by beatr911

For fun and aerodynamic profit, google "aerodynamic pickup". Fluent has a nice image of the aerodynamics of a pickup that show the pressures and flows. Good information for cleaning up a truck. I'd post the pic but the file is too large and I'm not savvy enough to figure out else to get it on this post.

Regards

Is this the image you're talking about?
Found it at Fluent NEWS - Fall 2004 - Streamlining Pickup Trucks

Here is a large pdf of the issue in which it appeared.
http://www.fluent.com/about/news/new...i2/04v13i2.pdf

In the hunt for the above, I found
an interesting post about AERODYNAMIC MODS
(lots of pictures and links)
in a forum at moparts.org

Cheers.

[beatr911]

Good links. The one I was refering to was the color picture in the first article.

Good info on the other links! Gee, maybe Ford was ahead of it's time with the aerodynamic late 90s F150. Get one with the v6, 5speed, lower it, airdam, underbelly tray, sloping canopy and one could see 30+ mpg fwy. Using only some of the more important aero features, a truck that looks and acts like a truck should still be able to see about 27 in a full size.

As there are so many trucks on the road seems maybe there should be a forum for trucks. One exists for motorcycles, trucks are as well very different than cars.

[TestDrive]

Originally Posted by beatr911

As there are so many trucks on the road seems maybe there should be a forum for trucks. One exists for motorcycles, trucks are as well very different than cars.

Sounds like a great idea to me.

[FunkSkunk]

Yeah I know all about Ford 8.8s ... I've got one under my Jeep YJ! It's regeared to 4.56s and is rolling on 37" MTRs. (it's the play toy that sits in the garage most of the week) Good tip though!

[meemooer]

the 3.0's couldn't get out of their own way back then, or in recent years. The Vulcan engine is just junk. powerband is just way off to make it useful

[whokilledthejams]

Originally Posted by FunkSkunk

Yeah I know all about Ford 8.8s ... I've got one under my Jeep YJ! It's regeared to 4.56s and is rolling on 37" MTRs. (it's the play toy that sits in the garage most of the week) Good tip though!

Originally Posted by meemooer

the 3.0's couldn't get out of their own way back then, or in recent years. The Vulcan engine is just junk. powerband is just way off to make it useful

Not that I'm actually adding much to the discussion, but my brother used to have a '95 Ranger, that he also called the Danger Ranger. It's funny how that works, isn't it? Of course, his was a 2wd, 4cyl, 5-speed, so it wasn't hard to get decent FE out of it.

[greenitup]

I have a 97', v6 (it struggles enough, imagine if i had the 4 cylinder) and i get 30 mpg (it says i should get like 18 mpg), all city driving. (i am aiming for higher though)

And i haven't modded it yet, still adjusting the "nut".

[beatr911]

Excellent numbers from a v6 Ranger!

My 2.3 manages 29 mostly freeway so aerodynamics plays a big role. BTW power is actually not bad as long as I'm not overloading 1000lbs over the recommended weight+towing capacity. Of course I'm trying to hypermile as much as possible as well.