99 4cyl 4x4 sluggish
 

I bought a 99 4x4 4cyl Ranger with 150,000 miles on it yesterday.265/ 75R16 tires lift kit, great shape. Starts fine,no knocks or pings. Oil and temp in good range. Auto trans. Very sluggish starting off and I have to floor it to get up to 45 or 50 to make it up a hill. When I stomp on the gas it makes like a whooshing sound under the hood kinda like all bark and no bite.
Any ideas where I should start? If I can fix this I'll have one sweet truck.

'99 2.5l makes 117HP and 149ft/lb torque, so not a power house in a 3,300LBS truck

But you may just have MPG gearing although that would be a surprise in a 4x4

On the drivers door jamb there is a sticker/label, it will have an AXLE code.
Have a look here: Ford 7.5 & 8.8 Inch Axle Tag & Door Codes

3.73 is the most popular ratio
3.45 gives better MPG at highway speeds, but less low end power
4.10 give better acceleration, but lower MPG at highway speed

But then there is this, how tall are the tires?
16" with a lift doesn't make sense

Stock tires on '99 Ranger 4x4 were 235/75R15 diameter would be 29"
If truck was lifted it may now have 32"
And say a 3.73 axle ratio
The 32" tires makes the actual axle ratio 3.38 now, so less acceleration

If you change both front and rear axle ratios to 4.10 the larger tires would make actual ratio 3.73 so back to stock, and speed would read correct, lol.

Whooshing noise could be that someone modified the air filter system.

Could be the torque converter is not locking up like it should, so engine is racing but power isn't going to wheels.

Holy crap! Where did you find a 99 4x4 with a 2.5L at?!?

I was wrong 2.3L
 

My mistake its a 2.3 L like I said I just got it 2 days ago,cut me a break! How about some advice instead of sarcasm BDog?

?

I am in no way being sarcastic.

I didn't know they made a 4x4 4 cylinder version of a 98-2001 ranger.

If it is a 2.3, is it maybe a 97? 98-2001 came with the 2.5L four cylinder.

If you had a four cylinder version that was factory 4WD, that'd be bad ass. Not sure of the existence of those though in that specific generation of Rangers.

No, not sarcastic at all.

I thought I read that 4cylinder engines were limited to 2WD in the late 90's.
Base model 4WD Ranger was 3.0l V6
But I am sure if the customer want it they would build it

the 4 banger 4x4s are hard to find but they are really sweet when you do find em

Man, that'd be my choice of power/drivetrain combos!

That'd make it really bad ass to slap on a 2.3T turbo set up.