I bought a 1983 Ranger from North Carolina. It had a blown head gasket, and must have got hot and vaperlocked. It has a broken rod on number 3 and a big whole in the cylinder wall. I am looking for info on block numbers and what blocks will work with my head. Are all 2.3 blocks the same???

 

Head gasket let water into the cyl and it hydrualiced, hence the hole in the cylinder, and broken rod. Any 2.3L block that has the provisions for your distributor, and mechanical fuel pump if so equipped should work, if you don't have a mechanical fuel pump you use a blockoff plate where the fuel pump went. The later blocks won't have the hole for a distributor or fuel pump.

 

any block from 83-88 will be a direct bolt in, and the blocks from 89-94 will work with swapping a few things around. avoid the 95-up blocks as there are a lot of things that were changed and a lot of missing things (like no provision for the distributor) but the easiest will be an 83-88 block, with the 89-94 being completely useable also (there are just a few things with those blocks that need to be dealt with to work properly)