alright, so here's the story.. I bought a 1998 Ford Ranger XLT extended cab 2wd with 162k.. on the 3 hour drive home, it took a crap on me and spun a rod bearing. had it towed to a mechanic who said he'd clean swap for 400$ if we got the motor. well he haven't had any luck finding a good lower mileage 3.0 to swap into my ranger. so my mom pulled out the receipt for a motor my dad got in Ohio when we lived there.. (351w ) lol anyways, my mom called them and they have a re-manufactured 3.0 for 1200$ with a 1yr unl. mile warranty. my dad was looking around on ebay today, and was saying he found like 15 3.0 SHO motors from taurus's for like 600$ with 50-150k miles. he said it'd be cool if we swapped one of those into it.. regardless, we have to get a new motor anyways, so I'm trying to see if anyone has put a SHO in a 4th gen ranger. I've googled it and searched other sites but all I've found is it takes a lot of custom modifications, i.e headers, intake, tranny, etc. I know most of you will say to stick a 302 in it, but I'm not going that far out of the way.. besides, I'd probably have to convert it to a drag truck if I did that

what I'm getting at, incase you don't feel like reading all of that.. have any of you stuck a SHO 3.0 in a ranger, and did it require a ton of modifications or squeezing in there. any comments/answers will be appreciated. thaaaanks.

 

I have never seen it done in a ranger before, but I think it would be a sweet swap. Its never going to be easy to take a transverse engine and mount it inline. I believe I have read in the past that it can be bolted to a T5 trans, but if your looking for 4wd its going to be even harder.

 

I dont agree.
the taurus and the ranger share the same 3.0l motor, 1 is just side mounted for fwd. but the block is essentially the same.
that said, the SHO is a different engine entirely, so while it "should" share the same block pattern as a standard taurus, and it "should" bolt up to the trans the same way, its always possible that ford did things special due to it being an SHO. (I believe which was designed by Yamaha, but not 100% sure of that)
I say go for it.
I honestly dont see it being that difficult of a swap to do, as I think that simply due to cost effectiveness ford would make the blocks the same, which includes how they mount to the trans.

 

"The SHO engines share a common bell housing pattern with the following Ford engines: the 2.3/2.5 L FWD HSC I4, the 3.0L FWD/RWD Vulcan V6, and the 3.8 FWD Canadian Essex V6.

Due to the engine's unusual and aesthetically pleasing appearance as well as its compatibility with common Ford RWD transmissions, such as the AOD and T-5, it is sometimes transplanted into other vehicles. Its distinctive intake manifold is bilaterally symmetrical, so it can be rotated 180 degrees (making it face "backwards" on the engine, relative to its original installation orientation) to ease the engine's transition from transverse to longitudinal mounting."

Sure enough it has the same bellhousing bolt pattern as your 3.0 trans. I think the next biggest thing to look at is the wiring. I would guess you would need the engine harness and PCM since the 3.0 SHO only went until 95 so you have a difference between OBD 1 and 2.

 

my truck is a 2wd automatic, so I'm gonna stick with that. I read that the intake manifold was able to be rotated 180 degrees and such.. but I don't know if I'll still have ac, ps, etc etc. I found the harness and computer for the same motor we're looking at on ebay. so worst comes to worst, I'll order that too. I've been wondering about gearing and such, but, I guess I can just go for the swap, and the worst I have to do is switch up some things. thanks for your input guys. any further input will also be appreciated (:

 

Here's a vid of a RWD SHO:


Meaning it's possable mount a certain tranny for RWD conversion.

 

the SHO motor is a different engine al-together

it is basically all yamaha built

the bolt pattern on the bell housing is totally different

and so are some of the internals

 

vid wont load.

 

also, I read that the bellhousing from a 3.0 vulcan is the same as the SHO.. so if can get my hands on a transmission that was bolted to a vulcan, would that work? and how do I know if my truck is a vulcan or not? lol stupid question :O

 

the ford taurus sho is front wheel drive

 

i wouldnt waste the time trying to make a 3.0 sho work, wiring, motor mounts, etc. if you want more power get a 4.0

 

nope, bellhousing is the same. it wouldnt really matter if its side mounted or front mounted.
if you think about it for a second, do you honestly think Ford is going to make 2 entirely different blocks around the exact same motor ?
there is nothing different between the Vulcan in the standard Taurus and the Ranger. they are the exact same block.
that said, read this and it should clear it up a little:

 

so are you saying itll mount right up to my 4r44e tranny?

 

everything should simply bolt up... its the wiring thats going to be a PITA. It should work and i think that it would be really awesome.... you could also swap in anything you want, anything will fit with some modification and wiring as long as the years are the same.

 

thank you for your input kind sir
where in nc are you located?

 

If memory serves correctly isn't the yamaha motor used in the sho a 3.2?

 

nope.
they made a 3.0 for a few years, then a 3.2, and then went to the current 3.4 v8.

 

The 3.0L was 220hp/200tq and was from 1989-1995 and came only with manual trans, the 3.2 was 220hp/215tq and was from 1993-1995 and came only with automatic trans. The 3.4 V8 was from 1996-1999 and again only came with auto. They made the most 3.2, then 3.0, then 3.4. the auto that came with the 3.2 had VERY high failure rate

 

Sorry for replying late, Im In Roxboro just north of Durham.

 

ah, to far :P
lol.
I'm a few miles below rutherfordton.. which is on the border of north and south carolina.

 

yep, Ive gone through there once or twice.

 

you in for whatever the nc meet might be?

 

the only one ive heard of is in Gastonia. id like to go.... but i dont know my work schedule and I wish that it were closer

 

do tell about the one in gastonia?
thats closer to me than going up into the mountains.

 

lol, its listed on RPS

Gastonia Meet: Aug 7, 2010

Where: Biggerstaff Park, Dallas, NC. Its about 1 mile off of US-321 just north of Gastonia.

Google Maps Image of Biggerstaff Park

When: August 7th, 2010. First Saturday in August.
Time: 2pm until...

There are 3 lakes in the park. Im going to try reserving the shelter on the east side of the western lake, which I believe is pretty large. If I cant get that one, Im going to get the 2 shelters on the west side of the eastern lake.

This is going to be a cookout type thing, similar to the Greenville meet. I think there are grills in the park, but Im hoping that by that time we may have a Gas/Charcoal grill that I could bring.

We have 2 options for food. I have a Sams Club membership, so I could could get chips, burger patties, buns, etc and then people could just chip in to pay me back at the meet. Or we can pool some money after everyone arrives, and go to the new Ingles for food. I think it would be cheaper to get everything from Sams Club, but thats just my opinion.

Now we just need people to say who is coming, and how many.