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Flex fuel swap to non flex fuel


Campbell

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I have a 98 ext cab & a 2000 same as 98 ,same options basiclly the same truck just diff yearsI have a2000 3.0 FF and want to put it into the 98,non FF,No pats on 98 , I have the ecm and engine wiring harness from the 2000 ,no wiring harness for 98,My question is What do i have to do to make this work,or can i just use the engine wiring from the 2000 and computeI know the injs need to be put in ,will the wiring harness plug into the 98,what mods do i needto do,any help will be esspecially helpfull.
 


RonD

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Welcome to TRS :)

Only difference that matters on flex fuel 3.0l engine is the fuel injectors
You should use the 1998 computer and wiring, so leave it as is

Take 2000 3.0l engine out, put the 1998 3.0l engines lower and upper intake with injectors on the 2000 engine
Put 2000 3.0l in the 1998 vehicle

That will solve injector issue, and 1998 wiring will be plug and play since its the same intake

You will also need to use the 1998 Cam sensor and synchro on the 2000 engine
1998 and earlier were 3 wire Cam sensors
1999 and up were 2 wire
Different types of sensors not interchangeable


2000 computer does have PATS, so if you use that computer in the 1998 you will have to deal with it.

If you want Flex Fuel then you would be best to get 1998 Flex Fuel Computer, you would then need the Fuel sensor from the 2000, by fuel filter
And you would still use 1998 intake but swap injectors only


Flex fuel engines did have different heads but obviously they work fine with gas only, or there would be no "flex", lol
And you can run E-85 using gas only heads with no issues, so not really a big deal either way.
The larger injectors on Flex fuel engines is because air:fuel ratio is different for gasoline and E-85, you need more E-85 injected, so injectors were larger to keep duty cycle in range.
Any fuel injection computer has to "know" the injector size(and fuel pressure) it is operating, i.e. when it opens one injector for 100milliseconds then XX grams of fuel will flow out of that injector.
Computer bases ALL it's Calculations on this, this is called the Fuel Trim
If you use wrong size injectors then computer will set Lean or Rich codes because its Calculations will be off, there is either too much or not enough fuel flowing out during that same 100ms

So you swap injectors to match computer you are using, your 1998 computer used standard gas only injectors
 
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HundeWasser

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Welcome to TRS :)

Only difference that matters on flex fuel 3.0l engine is the fuel injectors
You should use the 1998 computer and wiring, so leave it as is

Take 2000 3.0l engine out, put the 1998 3.0l engines lower and upper intake with injectors on the 2000 engine
Put 2000 3.0l in the 1998 vehicle

That will solve injector issue, and 1998 wiring will be plug and play since its the same intake

You will also need to use the 1998 Cam sensor and synchro on the 2000 engine
1998 and earlier were 3 wire Cam sensors
1999 and up were 2 wire
Different types of sensors not interchangeable


2000 computer does have PATS, so if you use that computer in the 1998 you will have to deal with it.

If you want Flex Fuel then you would be best to get 1998 Flex Fuel Computer, you would then need the Fuel sensor from the 2000, by fuel filter
And you would still use 1998 intake but swap injectors only


Flex fuel engines did have different heads but obviously they work fine with gas only, or there would be no "flex", lol
And you can run E-85 using gas only heads with no issues, so not really a big deal either way.
The larger injectors on Flex fuel engines is because air:fuel ratio is different for gasoline and E-85, you need more E-85 injected, so injectors were larger to keep duty cycle in range.
Any fuel injection computer has to "know" the injector size(and fuel pressure) it is operating, i.e. when it opens one injector for 100milliseconds then XX grams of fuel will flow out of that injector.
Computer bases ALL it's Calculations on this, this is called the Fuel Trim
If you use wrong size injectors then computer will set Lean or Rich codes because its Calculations will be off, there is either too much or not enough fuel flowing out during that same 100ms

So you swap injectors to match computer you are using, your 1998 computer used standard gas only injectors
okay i know this a older thread but i just came across this im having the same thing as this guy but reverse i need a motor for my 99 but my 99 is flex fuel and i found a motor out from a 2000 but we are unsure if the motor is flex fuel how would that work? would we have to get into the motor at all?
 

RonD

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The 3.0l engine itself won't matter(from Ranger or B3000), just the intake and injectors are different
 

HundeWasser

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The 3.0l engine itself won't matter(from Ranger or B3000), just the intake and injectors are different
so if it is flex fuel i dont have to change anything right? and if it isnt then i take the intake and injectors from my 99 and put them on the 2000 motor right?
 

RonD

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You are changing years, most of the computer wiring is on the intake's of any engines
So you swap intakes over for the wiring match ups, for any engine swaps if they are different years
Or you can go thru each wiring connector and sensor to make sure they all match up
But you know the 1999 intakes will match up to 1999 wiring harness, so.......................

In the case of Gas Only and Flex Fuel, you need to match Injector size to the Computer, the 1999/2000 Gas Only Computers are programmed for smaller injectors, Flex Fuel computers are programmed for larger injectors

So two reasons to swap intakes over

If the 1999 is Flex Fuel then its intakes will have Flex Fuel injectors that the 1999 Computer needs, so if you swap them over then what the 2000 engine has doesn't matter, could have been Gas Only or Flex Fuel

In 2001 and up Ford Rangers Ford reprogrammed the Computer's for the 3.0l, so Gas Only and Flex Fuel used the same size injectors
And they also dropped the Flex Fuel's Fuel Type Sensor by the fuel filter, the $650 sensor, lol
 

stmitch

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Intake manifolds are no different between flex/ regular gas. The only hardware differences (assuming year and vehicle are the same) are the fuel injectors.
 

Droz23

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okay i know this a older thread but i just came across this im having the same thing as this guy but reverse i need a motor for my 99 but my 99 is flex fuel and i found a motor out from a 2000 but we are unsure if the motor is flex fuel how would that work? would we have to get into the motor at all?
Read this to late Bro. I just donated My 99 Flex Ranger 3 weeks back for a 2022 Ranger Tremor. 211k, ran fine. Bullet proof. get 5+ HP on E85. I only know this bc the old AC units would rob 5 and you can really tell on a 3.0L. Tank of E85 brought it back to normal or a little better.
 

Rozann

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how can I tell what kind of engine I have? cant find any numbers on it anywhere. i dont think my truck will ever run right until we know what kind of engine we put in it. and what about the pcm do I need a new one? this is so frustrating its driveable but gets like 5 mpg now
 

RonD

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how can I tell what kind of engine I have? cant find any numbers on it anywhere. i dont think my truck will ever run right until we know what kind of engine we put in it. and what about the pcm do I need a new one? this is so frustrating its driveable but gets like 5 mpg now
The 3.0l Vulcan engine had a unique cooling system set up at the top front of the engine and very easy to see


Just above the water pump
Two elbows one with a sensor on it
 
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