first time swap

[rangerdanger97]

I have. 97 ranger has 2.3l 4cyl motor with 5 speed trans. Im looking for some advise to put a 5.0 fuel injected motor & a 5 speed in ranger. Truck is 2wd. What brand of parts should i use that wont give me issues? I heard that set of try y headers from 65-66 will work is this true? I wanna run true duel exhaust with mac mufflers any body have any pics of this being done?

[cee21]

Howdy

First off, it does depend on how much your willing to spend. L & L products of some no brainier motor mounts that make it easier and set the motor about as low as possible. The also make a set of swap shorty headers, but a little over priced. James Duff makes some full lengths for this conversion. I would go with a T-5 tranny and you will need to upgrade your axle at some point to an 8.8". I have a set of explorer accessory brackets for sale, which move the whole thing in about 2.5" closer then a mustang set up does, giving you more room between you drive belt and radiator (which that will have to be upgraded). Where is the ecu located on a 97? It might take a while to scrounge around what you need, I know it did me.

[cgrey8]

Your easiest swap is going to be to take a 5.0L from a 96-98 2wd Explorer including EEC, wiring harness, starter, motor mounts, airbox, MAF sensor, accessories, and possibly a few other random parts. From there, drop it into the 97 Ranger. The Explorer and Ranger both hold the EEC in the same location in those years so there should be minimal wire-stretching involved. In fact, there's very little that will need to change as far as wiring. But I believe there will be SOME wiring particularly since you are going from an EEC and wiring harness that that wants automatic to a manual. There may be a wire or two in the plugs that also needs to change. But for the most part, the Explorer and Ranger harnesses are almost identical. I believe they'll plug right up to each other, but again...you'll need to confirm all wires before you go trusting the plug-n-play of it all.

The fuel lines should be plug-n-play with those years I believe. Although Ford did go to Returnless fuel lines somewhere around 99. The good news is if you need to revert back to a return-style fuel rail, just go to eBay and find Explorer fuel rails being sold. Or worst case replace it with whatever return-style Ford Fuel rail you can find. The fuel lines may not match up exactly anymore, but they do make adapters for that.

As mentioned, the Explorer EEC will be expecting an automatic transmission, but a simple re-tune of the EEC can fix that. If you take it somewhere that does SCT Ford tuning, they can tune it OR you can buy the equipment and software to do it yourself. Who knows, you can try driving it without the proper transmission connections and see how the EEC fares with that. It might be good enough.

If you go with a 96 Explorer 5.0L, you can use whatever typical headers you know will fit.

However if you go with a 97-newer Explorer 5.0L, it will have GT40p heads which have an altered plug angle and don't work with most headers out there. There's only about 4 sets of headers out there that work with them. FMS used to make Explorer headers and probably still make GT40p Mustang headers. Torque Monster makes a header specifically designed for Explorers and V8 Ranger swaps using these heads, but they are pricey. And MAC makes a GT40p header.

[rangerdanger97]

The ecu looks like its located at fire wall. I wanna try n use a9l computer n harness out of mustang is this possible? Also who makes a radiator for 97 ranger? I looking n only found one for earlier rangers. Other? I have is slave cyl set up. If heard of people using a 240z slave cylinder is this tru?

[cee21]

You can use a mustang harness and ecu, but the main wires that go to the ecu may need modification to hook up to the port. It would be easier for you if you could find a junked out v8 explorer, cause everything is located in the same places and is just a plug and play. And the ecu of the explorer can be tuned to what you want. Also just use a radiator out of an explorer of the same body style, should just fit right in. Also a 4.0 rad will cool just fine. Yes people have used those before, I just used my stock slave on my 84.

[rangerdanger97]

Could i use a a9l with 2wd explore harness?

[cgrey8]

Could i use a a9l with 2wd explore harness?

Not as-is, no for a host of different reasons.

• The Explorer EEC has nearly twice as many pin on the EEC as the A9L does.
• The Explorer EEC has the hardware built into it to control coil packs for an EDIS setup. The A9L can do EDIS, but not without additional hardware (EDIS8 module).
• The Explorer EEC also is setup to control a transmission. The A9L cannot do this.
• The Explorer EEC also communicates with the ABS system and the dash. The A9L cannot.

If you are intent on using the Explorer harness, then you would do better to use the Explorer EEC.

However if you want to use the A9L, you'll be better off starting off with 89-93 Mustang V8 harnesses (main, injector, and O2). This also means you'll need to retrofit all the sensors on the engine and install a TFI distributor. This is the route I went back in 2005 when there was very little DIY support for the Explorer EECs. Add to that, my truck is an 89. So much of the stuff already on my truck worked well with this setup and arrangement. The Mustang wiring harness was setup to locate the EEC in the same place my truck stored the stock EEC. At the time, reverting back to an A9L and a Mustang setup was a no-brainer.

But given what's available today, it would be a tougher choice to do what I did. The choice would be easy if I were doing a from-scratch V8 conversion using an Explorer V8 as the base going in a 95-newer Ranger. I would reuse the Explorer EEC, sensors, wiring harness, coil packs, MAF, air box, and anything else I could. The aftermarket knowledge and support of the Explorer EECs is available today thus there's no reason to retrofit backwards when you are working with an Explorer V8 setup going into a 95-newer Ranger.