my thing is with daily drivability the i6 just seems a little more what im lookin for plus ther reliability just seems better. i thought 4.6 but id rather have a 5.0 and turn it to a 347 stroker if im gonna go v8
If you need a reliable, daily driven vehicle - Use the Ford 4.0L
They're made to fit Rangers, all the parts are there to fit Rangers, and you don't need custom parts. It's a factory setup designed by teams of people far, far smarter than us (it's their bosses that make things frustrating to you, and it's generally due to part/assembly cost - you let engineers be engineers and they'll build some sick shit).
It's nice to dream about something like this, but just about any project (like a V8 and especially an I6) is really relegated to a toy or secondary vehicle. It will be down a long while until you figure things out and take it apart eleventy billion times (at least it seems that way), unless you're very good at this stuff and done it several times before.
It took me 2 months of weekends to shoe horn in the 302 in DeathTrap. Of course I never used a body lift (actually the mounts are crumbling). The long tube headers were required for a 3" body lift as well. But this was one little detail I somehow missed before I did it, and a 302 is a fairly common swap.
Do yourself a favor and source a complete Ford 4.0L V6 setup.