Hi all, I'm looking at buying a ranger from a friend, he has a 1988 xlt, 2.9l with the 5-speed, 4x4. Any info at all on the '88 2.9, issues? Reliability? Power? Etc, would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

The '86-'88 2.9l had the weaker heads, prone to cracking if overheated, '89-'92 heads were redesigned and stronger.

All 2.9l were prone to leaky valve covers, but that could be any Ford, lol.
Also a bit of a design fault was the oil supply for the valve train, it's pressure was dependent on the cam bearings wear, so as the miles went up the valve train got noisier, never seen a failure based on this, just noisy.

That being said there are alot of 2.9l's still on the road, it has reasonable power for a small V6.
The 2.9l block was the base for the 4.0l, which means a 4.0l will just bolt in, to replace a 2.9l

 

Thanks for the info. I was planning on driving it until the heads cracked and then figured on swapping it out for something else. Any suggestions on what to swap it out for?

 

being an '88 if you swap go 5.0. more aftermarket parts base to support it and they are reliable and plentiful in scrap yards. Wish i could do the 5.0 swap myself but emissions down here is way to difficult to even try it.

 

4.0l would be the logical choice for swap since it just bolts in.

For a more involved project a 4BT Cummins swap would be nice, power and MPG