The 5.0 in lincolns and mercury's are gonna basicly be the same too, I know some purists might jump me now and talk about cam duration, double roller chains blah blah, nothing you can't swap in. But the POINT is, you might get a better deal on the engine if buying used if it's "just a lincoln" instead of a sexy mustang it came out of...same engine either way.
Not true.
The EFI 5.0's all look the same but there are internal differences.
The "HO" Mustang engine has forged pistons up to 1992-ish
and is balanced for the heavier pistons.
The Lower EFI intake manifold is the same, but the upper,
though cosmetically identical from the outside has a different (smaller)
internal volume.
the HO also has a different cam and different heads.
The HO came with the E7T heads, basically the HO uses
the F-150 heads
And the cam is obviously different
Now, I've been at a big U-pull-it junkyard during a sale and tried to tell some group of idiots that they were pulling the wrong engine... some people believe that ALL Lincoln Mk7's got the HO engine... NOT TRUE!, only the "LSC" Mk7 did.
And the "Tells" on an early EFI HO engine are the "shorty" tube headers and cast aluminum valvecovers.
I recommend an HO engine not because it's the "Best" for a truck
but the best foundation to build upon because of it's forged pistons.
The early Hypereutectic piston engines had some "issues"
by the time they got to the 5.0 Explorers they were better at making hyper-eutectic pistons... and the explorer engine's had even better heads.
But all that being said if I wanted a V8 in a Ranger I'd go looking for a '95-96 5.8 engine (roller cam)
AD