I want to make my ranger a bit faster....

[ponygirl6807]

So I was racing my buddy in his s10 and he beat me, which means I need to make my ranger faster. lol Where should I start? On a low budget so no M90s in my near future lol Cheapest throttle body I found was like $300, any small things I can do to give it a little more get up and go?

 

[Anime]

It'd be helpful to know what you have right now to give you more specifics.

Generally, a quality cone filter (K&N / S&B), and cat-back exhaust (Dynomax) will help acceleration and give a good bang for the buck in terms of the performance you gain for the money spent.

The BEST place to start is general maintenance though. A motor that is running in top shape will give the best performance. Old, worn spark plugs, spark plug wires, vacuum leaks, etc. will cause a drop in performance. A cooling system with old coolant or old soft hoses and leaky clamps will not keep the motor at the optimum temperature. A poorly cared for fuel system with partially clogged injectors from using crappy gas and a partially clogged fuel filter that's never been changed and a stock fuel pump with hundreds of thousands of miles of wear and tear isn't going to deliver the fuel needed when you hit the gas.

Gears also play a big part, if you have high gears and big tires, it's just not going to be fast, that's physics. You need the right size tires to go with the gears if you want it to be fast, or you can spend lots of money on gears if you want to run a certain size of tire.

Perhaps the cheapest thing you can do is take EVERYTHING out of it that you don't need. Taking out a few hundred pounds of dead weight can really help acceleration.

 

[McCormack]

These are the things that I did to my Ranger that gave me a worthwhile performance increase, especially in low end torque: Throttle cable mod; Manifold hot water bypass mod; 180* thermostat; MAF mod; Removed airbox snorkel and drilled extra holes in box; Electric fan; Bumped timing a couple of degrees with tuner.

 

[RangerX]

Ponygirl, it would help if you mentioned which engine you have...

 

[Blacksheep Josh]

I would go for:
-cone filter
-flowmaster exhaust with a turndown
-shift kit

Those are the three "major" things I have done to my 01 and it regularly stomps out friend's like model rangers. The shift kit probably helped the most, just firming the hell outta shifts and quickening gear changes.

 

[Red FX4]

The only thing I have found to provide significant improvement in power without tearing the engine apart is a tuner that reprograms the computer. Tuning it to a higher octane gasoline provides the most improvement. The right program is important also. They are not cheap but are in my opinion the best value compared to the ratio of power improvement per dollar spent. Power is not free and some mods are costly while not providing much gain.

Some mods make it sound better but doesn't make it go faster.

 

[ponygirl6807]

Thanks for the input... here's more details on the truck

Thanks for all the input! My truck is the 4.0 5spd and I have 31 inch tires with 373 gears. Its got a 4inch rough country lift. Motor is unfortunately stock right now. My lack of exhaust is a power killer right because it just stops right after the cat. lol I'm trying to decide on an exhaust system at the moment. I want something loud and not ricey sounding that gives me power. Thinking dynomax. I just did the fuel filter and air filter the other day and they were pretty crappy lol Plugs, wires, and intake are getting done this weekend. I'm hoping little things will add up, but i know I will still want to make it faster as the money comes lol Any and all input is welcome. I'm kinda new at this and I'm trying to do as much of it as I can myself

 

[corkey]

old drag race secret,,

if your just going to race it, and not drive it all the time, doing gears will make it faster

Re-gearing the diff to a higher number ratio, like a 4:10 or 4:56 will sure help the rpms go up faster, which means quicker take off, but at a loss of top speed and highway usability,

 

[RangerX]

Ziptie mod on the throttle cable. Being a 94, I'm sure your cable has some slack in it.

Also, if you haven't found it yet, take a look in our Need for Speed sub-forum.

 

[Anime]

Make sure you don't use gimmick plugs. I'd suggest stock Motorcraft Platinum plugs if it's a stock motor.

The loud mufflers are the straight-through ones, but I think the Dynomax Super Turbo is the best fit for the 4.0L OHV, due to the low-end torque, and it's also super cheap and has a lifetime warranty. You can get a 2.25" Dynomax Super Turbo muffler at Advance Auto Parts for not much money, or buy a whole catback system if you want the pipes to go with it. If you just want the muffler and have it dumped in front of the rear axle, you could always buy the cat to muffler pipe for it, put the muffler on that, put a turn-down pipe out of the muffler, and that'd be low and deep but kind of loud due to the lack of a rear pipe and the amplifying effect of the bed.

 

[ponygirl6807]

Again thanks for the input! Right now my truck is my daily so I don't know about gears. I don't do too much highway driving but I don't want to kill the driveability of the truck. My original plan for exhaust was to throw something together just to pass inspection so I bought some pipes and was going to use an old muffler and bring it out in front of the axle. Inspection has been delayed so I have more time to fix things the right way. I'm still planning on bringing the exhaust out in front of the axle but I want to get a good muffler that give me a throaty sound, the louder the better. It sounds pretty awesome right now... Only problem is that it's not legal and it's a dog. lol

 

[Anime]

Gears are a little expensive and involved, but that's most of the reason it's slower, that and the larger tires are also heavier. 4.10 gears would be an improvement, but it'd be a lot of money for the small gain in acceleration.

The Dynomax Super Turbo is low and throaty, but it's not as loud as some other mufflers. However, if you use the short mufflers like the 17731 you can get at Advance, it will be sort of loud, espeically if you dump it in front of the axle or do a side exit.

You might also consider welded mufflers, either a Thrush welded muffler (same company that makes Dynomax, Advance Auto Parts stores have these in stock too), or a Flowmaster. Listen to audio clips online and see if there are any you like the sound of. Of course, they will sound lower and louder in person, but you can get an idea of the different sound of each muffler design. Make sure you like it, because if it's going to be loud, you're going to hear it all the time every time you drive.

 

[Brett Meldahl]

I saw an immediate, noticeable increase in torque and more so in top end (i found where it is governed at) by installing a $20 hoodscoop and plumbing forced air. Did it all for under $35 and an hour of time.

 

[Brett Meldahl]

I saw an immediate, noticeable increase in torque and even more so in top end (i found where it is governed at) by installing a $20 hoodscoop and plumbing forced air. Did it all for under $35 and an hour of time.