I recently replaced my stock exhaust manifold with an exhaust manifold from at 1994 Ford Ranger. After searching all the local junkyards, I was unable to find a 91 or later Ranger manifold. I was hoping to get a 93 or later model, but I've heard that a 91 or greater will work. Anyway, I called some other junkyards here in NC, and I found Roper's (800-222-7931) in Grover, NC, which had a 94 Ranger manifold. They wanted $100 for the manifold, and that included shipping. I was hoping I could get it for a little less than that, but I had been looking for several days without finding a manifold, so I decided it would be worth it.

Sean and I got the old manifold off with relative ease. We went slowly and carefully so we wouldn't mess up any bolts. We used about a whole can of P&B Catalyst, which penetrates rust quickly and effectively. (You can find it at Wal-Mart.)

The manifold arrived the next day after I ordered it, and we proceeded to install it. It was a direct bolt-on, and was a breeze to install. Just bolt it up. The only thing that doesn't bolt up is the EGR pipe. The EGR threads/hole on the Ranger manifold were in a slightly different location than they were stock on the Mustang manifold. We tired to heat the EGR pipe with a torch and bend it, but that did not work. We ended up capping off the open end on the manifold and the throttle body. The car runs fine without the EGR hooked up, but the check engine light stays on about 90% of the time.

The improvement from this manifold makes the swap definitely worth the trouble! It widened the power band. The car now starts to pull around 1400 or 1500 rpm, and the high end rpms seems to be about the same as they always were. 1st and 2nd gear pull really nice now. The manifold seems to mainly affect 1st and 2nd gears, but the other 3 gears are better. 5th will actually accelerate pretty well when stomped on a flat highway.

I am working on creating a FAQ here at the bottom of this page for others who are considering this swap, so if you have any questions, email me at srvblues00@yahoo.com or post a thread in the 2.3L forum at http://forums.stangnet.com.

I have put several thousand miles on the car since the swap, and I haven't noticed any difference. I usually get about 27 to 29 mpg on the highway, and on the last trip I took I got about 27.5. It's possible it changed the mileage, but it's hardly noticeable.

So far, the car is running fine without the EGR hooked up. I've been having some idle problems, but those existed before I did this manifold swap. At first, the check engine light stayed on for about 90% of the driving time, but after several thousand miles, it hardly ever comes on anymore.

I found out the hard way (lots of experimentation aka trips to the hardware store) the the EGR threads on the manifold are not standard pipe thread and they are not metric. I could be wrong, but nothing fit. It's somewhere between 5/8ths and 3/4ths. I capped the hole on the manifold with a end cap that threads on, which I bought at Napa for $1.99. They said it was a hydraulic cap or something like that. It threaded on perfectly. For the top hole on the throttle body, I took the old pipe, beat it with a hammer until it broke near the end, and then I bent the end over and hammered that flat. It created a fairly tight seal.
NOTE: I have since learned that the thread size is 3/4" pipe thread.