I was wondering what are the best ways to increase performance, without swapping engines

 

Welcome to the forum.

If money is no object then yes, 3.0l Vulcan engine can be bored, stroked, turbo or super charged to put out some impressive horse power.

Fuel injected Rangers all came with Cold Air intakes(CAI) and tuned exhausts which are the easy cheap add-ons, which is why Ford added them, lol.

Switching from mechanical radiator fan to electric cooling fan will free up 2 to 3 horse power and give better MPG.

People have reported larger throttle body can increase power but never seen dyno numbers proving that, but never looked that hard either, lol.

 

What is your rear gear ratio. Lower gears help, but also require more fuel,mine is a 4:10 and the truck is pretty fair in the 0-60 mph range. You have to ease out on wet pavement or it will spin from a stop.

 

Underdrive crank pulley and e-fan are great places to start to free up some power. Swapping to a 98-01 'Ram' upper intake or newer composite upper intake will improve mid range torque and all around performance.