Frankenstein's Monster!
 

Gentlemen, I have a question. I have a 1998 manual 4 cylinder 4x2 ranger and a 2000 automatic v6 4x4 explorer. I want 1 v6 4x4 manual vehicle. Which way can I go? Make the explorer stick? Or make the ranger 4x4 and swap motors? Is either feasible? My preference would be upgrade the ranger.....

Nope, you would be better off selling what you have and buying what you want, It would be cheaper in the long run.

You're missing a few thousand dollars in parts.

In that case
 

Ok well, this is more of a hobby project anyway. Since that's the case would you rather build on the ranger or build on the explorer? I have trophy truck aspirations with 1% of the money, 2% of the knowledge and 3% of the dedication to build one. I just want to build some fun. Would you build on the automatic 4x4 or manual 4x2?

Build the Explorer, since nothing from the Explorer will really work with a 4x2 Ranger since the frames are different.