Hi all. Longtime Ranger enthusiast, though I haven't personally owned one since I traded in my 92 XLT many moons ago. I was recently talking to my father-in-law, who owns a clean 2001 Ranger Edge automatic with a Vulcan V6. The truck is in good shape but the engine is on its last legs (over 193k IIRC). We were spitballing, and I mentioned the 88-95 SHO V6 would bolt up to the transmission (5R55E maybe?) with some massaging (flexplate and torque converter mix-n-match). We spent the evening doing what-if scenarios, but I came away from it with a nagging idea that this could be a fun but involved project. There's a fair amount of SHO V6 cars in the area at wrecking yards, so I think I could get the donor parts fairly easily.

Concentrating on the electronics end of the question, I know the Vulcans of years ago were EEC-IV, but what variant of EEC is the 2001 Vulcan found in the Ranger? Still EEC-IV? Looking here, I see that I'd have to deal with PATS and the fact the speedo OSS feed comes from the transmission. Given how involved the electronics are on a 2001 Ranger, I'm almost thinking a piggyback ECU approach might work best, where the SHO EEC-IV ECU handles the engine, and the native ECU modules and associated ecosystem stay in place. I know there would be a lot of involved fab work, including accessory mounts, motor mounts, exhaust, fuel lines, moving the motor from East-West to North-South orientation, unexpected clearance issues, etc.
Thanks everyone in advance,
RangerBob