V8 Ford Ranger
 

Whats going on! im not being a troll and i am serious about this build. someone told me about a 2002 ford ranger with a 4bt diesel out of a kubota tractor. i know diesels are nice and all im just not sure what to do. pretty sure im set with the v8 instead of the 5.9 cummins and so forth. so here is my situation, 2008 4x4 sport ford ranger and a whole-lot of cash to spend on a motor. i have been checking out the prices of motors and i can get a fair price for any motor, just takes some looking. i found a ford lightning motor and tranny or a v8 5.4 expedition motor and tranny. only problem is im running the 4x4 and not sure what to do. not as simple as the rwd only rangers without transfer case. any help would be awesome. im posting late because of work.

please get back to me.

-S.

Put a V8 in there and let her rip!

if you want to do a 5.4 you are going to have a ton of modification just to make it fit correctly.

You need to get organized. First state your goal. To me it sounds like you want a V8 Ranger with the 4x4 still functional.

Great. Step 2, figure out your budget. You say you have a ton of money. Is that $3k? Is that $20k? Ok.

Step 3, let's go back and revisit Step 1 and be more specific. With the budget I have I can afford a X motor. I'd really like a Y motor. However, does Y motor come in a 4x4 option or are you going to need custom stuff to make it mate to a tcase? If X doesn't equal Y, you either take the X or save for Y. Simple right?

Step 4, determine HONESTLY what you can do yourself. Are you going to be capable of installing a motor by yourself? Do you have the know-how and the access to the tools to be able to modifying body panels, the frame of the truck, mounts for the engine, mounts for the transmission, etc. by yourself? Again, after figuring this out, you might have to revisit Step 2 because having someone else do custom work is not cheap.

I'm not trying to sound like a dick, but you listed 2 options in your original post (4bt, 5.4L) both of which are full customizations, so it's going to take tons of work to get them operational. Just look at zabeard's 5.4L install.

The tried and true 5.0 swap has the most information and seems to be the easiest to install, but again, it's still going to take some work. Sounds like you really need to just sit down and plan out what you want.

Also remember that 2008 Ranger is a lot different than a 2002 electronically. The 04+ have a bunch of digital features (like the gauge cluster) that make it very difficult to swap older motors into them.