Shes a solid driver hut a little beat up on the body. Bright sapphire metallic single cab. I'm wanting to maintenance EVERYTHING in the drivetrain and powertrain before I leave for Colorado in a month. 16 hour drive. I plan on doing oil change, trans oil change, diff oil change, coolant flush, and I'm gonna have the tires checked. I just wondered what kinds of oil I need to use or should use for trans and diff. And if there is anything I should check for or he aware of please let me know guys

 

Welcome to the forum


What year Ranger?

What engine size?

Manual or automatic?

2WD or 4x4?

Ford made Rangers from 1983 to 2011, and now again in 2019 so guessing what you have is out of the question, lol

 

It's a 97, bright sapphire metallic single cab. 2wd 5 speed 2.3. Seems pretty solid as far as the test drive, I have yet to put Amy actual miles on it. 141000 miles

 

1997 was the last year Rangers came with the 2.3l SOHC Lima engine, it was first used in the 1974 Ford Pinto, good solid engine, 10w30 oil should be fine with 140k miles
It is dual spark plug and yes BOTH spark plugs fire at the same time, for better performance, no alternating
You can test if all 4 spark plugs on one side are working by unplugging one coil pack, then start the engine, if its not misfiring then all 4 are working, now plug back in the coil pack and unplug the other one to test the other side.

Rangers got the 2.3l DOHC Mazda L engine in late 2001, totally different engine but it will come up in Google searches using "Ranger 2.3l" so heads up on getting wrong info, lol.

The manual trans is an M5OD-R1(M5R1) and believe it or not you use ATF in it, yes automatic transmission fluid in a manual trans
Capacity is 2.8quarts bone dry, so refill might only take 2 quarts, Ford Mercon V ATF is specified
This is a very good transmission, used from 1988 to 2011 in Rangers
The 2.3l Lima with the M5R1 is probably the best combination for reliability of any Ranger made

Its not a power house, but never designed for that, light loads with 4cyl MPG was the market, but it is 1970s technology so the MPG is not like it is now with 4cyls

Look here and then at your drivers door label: https://therangerstation.com/tech_li...le_codes.shtml

You can see what axle you have, the 8.8" or 7.5", both hold about 5 pints of 80W-90 gear oil, neither used a gasket from the factory, just some RTV on cleaned surfaces
If you have an L/S axle then you need to add 4oz friction modifier

 

That makes me so happy to hear that I got the good combo for reliability. As long as it makes it over the mountains to get me to Colorado then I'm gonna cherish this thing. Thanks for all the valuable information, and glad to be a part of the forum 😎

 

Clean the MAF(mass air flow) sensor before your trip and every year, its easy to do, after the first time, lol.

MAF sensor measures the WEIGHT of the incoming air, this is important since the air/fuel ratio is a WEIGHT ratio
Gasoline's ratio is 14.7 pounds of air to 1 pound of gasoline
14.7 grams of air to 1 gram of gasoline
14.7 molecules of air to 1 molecule of gasoline

This is why 200mpg carbs or pre-vaporizers were Hooey, its a WEIGHT ratio

Air weighs more at seal level than at 2,000ft, weighs even less at 4,000ft
warm air weighs less than cold air, i.e. "hot air rises" why? because its LIGHTER than cooler air

So in mountain driving you will get the best performance with the best air/fuel mix
You will notice a power drop in ANY engine at higher elevation, because of the lighter air less fuel can be burned so less power can be generated
If you go to Denver most cars are turbos just to compensate for the 5,000ft elevation

I also forgot to mention your upstream O2 sensor, the one in the engine bay on the exhaust pipe
These use a chemical reaction to measure Oxygen in the exhaust, and the chemicals get used up, Ford recommends 100,000 mile replacement, I say 150k miles is fine, lol
But yours is due, older upstream O2s will cause engine to run slightly Rich as the chemicals fade away, so MPG goes down a bit, its not a sudden drop just slowly drops
New O2 will pay for itself over the next 150k miles in fuel savings

The downstream O2, behind Cat converter sees cleaner exhaust so tends to last 2 or 3 times as long as upstream, but up to you, its there to test if Cat is working, doesn't effect performance short term


I also forgot to mention the 2.3l Lima timing belt, it's recommended change time is 80k miles, so yours should have been changed at least once already, but 2nd change is coming up
Not hard to do DIY, loads of info out there
The 2.3l Lima is a non-interference engine, so NO engine damage can occur if the timing belt breaks, but engine will stop running when it does, so just a heads up