Welcome to the forum

"Power" comes down to 2 things
Weight of the vehicle and engine, the power to weight ratio, so lighten the load and you have more power

And the amount of air a 4-stroke engine can use on every 2 RPMs, a 5 Liter engine has more power than a 2.3 Liter because it can use more air every 2 RPM which means it can use more gasoline for more power.
Air:fuel Ratio for gasoline is 14.7:1
If you add more fuel you get a flooded engine not more power, so you have to add more air and THEN you can add more fuel, thats how turbo or super chargers work, they FORCE more air into the engine, making a 2.3 Liter engine use 4 Liters or air every 2 RPM

Nothing magical about any of this, simple physics, 14.7:1 for gasoline, can't change this
Lighten the load or add more air

You have a 2.3l SOHC Lima engine, also called the Pinto engine since it was first used in the 1974 pinto and last used in a Ranger as 2.5l in 2001, 2.5l is a stroked 2.3l

These were also used in Mustangs for many years so Mustang forums are a good source of information for add-ons

Also look here: Ford 2.3L Performance - Route 66 Hot Rod High

 

Scrap the water pump driven fan and get an electronic fan setup. Less drag on the engine.

scrap the ac pump

97 mustang ford racing preformance wires fit our trucks. (Though very long)

Accel makes coil packs for our trucks that are high preformance.

can do the dual plug igniton mod to make use of the exhaust stroke plugs

get yourself a CAI

do the throttle petal trick... go under dash and add a zip tie or two to your throttle cable for better response

regear to 4.10 rear

uninhibit the exhaust system, high flow cats and a straight through muffler helps

​​get better spark plugs

of course nothing beats making sure it's running right in the first place
​​​ lol

ask me if any of these sound appealing.

 

Just a heads up on the dual spark plug system
Both spark plugs in each cylinder fire at the same time, both fire on power stroke and both fire again on exhaust stroke, there is no alternating
They fire on the exhaust stroke because they are being timed by the crank, very first spark system ever invented, now called a Waste spark system, because sparking on exhaust stoke doesn't help or hurt, just a function of the timing setup
No not for emissions, lol.

So "spark plug mod" doesn't do anything, doesn't hurt or help

On some 1989 to 1994 2.3l using the older EEC-IV computer and ICU module, the Exhaust side spark plugs were used for startup, intake side didn't start working until engine was started, above 400RPMs, 1995 and up used both coil packs so all spark plugs for startup and driving

Dual spark does give better performance, been used on many engines for that reason, just need to have room in the head for an extra spark plug
Swirl design and 3 or 4 valve setups made better power than dual spark plugs so it's not used much any more.
On airplanes, dual spark systems were for safety, they were two separate spark systems, and either could be used independently or together