M90 Supercharger

[Steven Jackson]

I recently became the owner of a 98 ranger with the 4.0 engine, 5 speed 4×4. Eaton says it can use an M90 Supercharger. Now, i also own a 97 grand prix GTP, which has the 3.8 with the M90 from the factory. does anyone have any clue if it will bolt on without some type of adapter or spacer?

Topic

[Coty Miller]

This is complicated, because if you do adapt the engine to work, you have to take into consideration if the engine can take it with out being built, will your bearing, rods, pistons, piston rings, head gasket and injectors take it? A stock engine can take some form of boost with modification, but how much PSI can it take? How much does the M90 make?

Last of all the engine will not run properly without a tune or a computer replacement as your computer is not designed to run with a supercharger, so it cannot use it to it’s full potential, and or may cause knocking…

That being said, all you’d need is the M90’s kit for bolting onto the engine…

EDIT ==============

Well I looked it up, and without spending to much time it looks like you’ll have to upgrade your fuel rail and injectors, buy or make an adapter plate and then after investing in a proper tune it should run fine without the need to build the engine…

Larger fuel rail and injectors are needed of course because more air is pointless with out more fuel banana:

Though I wouldn’t do it by how I just said, If I were you I’d do your research if you plan on keeping the truck… just incase there were complications…

[Steven Jackson]

i believe, and dont quote me on this, that the stock M90 off the 3.8 with the factory GM spec pulley makes around 5 to 6# of boost, but since the compression ratio is only 8.5:1 rather than the normally aspirated engines 9.4:1, it only makes 240 HP compared to the 225 from the regular engine. thats brand new. the SC and 3.8 have 250K miles, while the ford 4.0 has almost 180k, so i am doubtful on the state of the engine hardware. i think both could do with a good machining and rebuild, personally. as for a tune/computer replacement, i have no experience on that aspect. i dont have the training or the experience to know where to go on that, and i had not even thought of that until you brought it up. as for bolting it up, i believe i may be able to mill an adapter on my own based off of the porting map of the output side of the supercharger and the intake port on the fords engine.

as well, dohc-kindaguy, i salute you sir. you are certainly more knowledgeable than i in this matter, and i thank you for your advice and guideance.

[Coty Miller]

oh I just edited my post lol…

But yeah as I added after I edited it looks like it’s fairly common to do… just adapter plate, fuel injector upgrades and of course a tune… tuning is simple on modern cars, it’s all done with a “chip” upgrade… So it’s as easy as plug, play, and go.

[Steven Jackson]

while we are on the subject of fuel injectors, how large do you think would be necessary to get an optimum burn? i couldnt see having to go up more than a notch or two to get an ample gain in horsepower, but im not sure what fuel injectors are rated in(degrees? again, please dont quote me on that), and if i was correct on my current M90 output of 5 to 6#s, that really doesnt seem like all that much to push into an engine…. my idea is a sort of 98 ecoboost 4.0 ranger with a supercharger rather than in the turbocharged V6 ecoboost F150s of late. and, if you happen to know of any decent priced tuners or have a certain one that you had good luck with, just as a starting point that would help a lot too.

[Coty Miller]

Well I’m going entirely what I know from my subcompacts here, but as for a tune you can get SCT’s tuner it costs around $400, kinda steep, I’d go on their web site and make sure that their tuner works with your truck… Also from what I understand you can normally get 5 pounds of boost out of stock injectors… any more than that and you’ll need stage 1 injectors…

But this is fully engine dependent…

[Brian]

Several people have had positive experience with putting a Turbo on their “Rangers” just as long as they don’t put too much boost on them, the engine itself should be fine if in mechanically working order. (Especially the 2.5 Ltr. SOHC 4-cyl. everyone is always looking for more power on those.) I have a ’98 Mazda B2500 that one day I am going to put a 5.0 V-8 in once my 4 banger goes out… if it ever goes out! It would be cheaper to find a “Junk Yard” V-8/ tranny combo and install that instead of putting an expensive supercharger and or turbo on an already old engine. IMO. (I could be wrong though.. I have not priced everything to the penny as of yet, a crate engine would be too expensive for sure.)

Okay I am copying off something else I found but this may help I hope…..:
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” Eaton M90 supercharger on Ranger 4.0 sohc
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This is the kit by candmnovelties.com, modified to accept a 94 T-bird blower. The kit is well made and went on with only a few minor issues.

Haven’t done any tuning on it yet, but it is definitely stronger! There is a hill near work that the truck used to not quite be able to take at 60 mph in 4th (it would pull down a couple of miles per hour), and with the blower I was able to take it at 60 in 5th (pretty much foot to the floor). According to my dyno data from earlier, the n/a engine put 210 lb-ft to the rear wheels at 2700, so that suggests that with the blower its something over 260 lb-ft at 2250, which would be very good. I hope to get it tuned and back on the dyno in the next couple of weeks.

Thanks, guys.

The kit comes with a belt, but since I modified it to use the 94 blower, (and since the 94 blower has a slightly larger pulley than the 89-93 blower), I needed a slightly longer belt to make it work. just went to the local auto parts store, told him I needed one 1/2″ or 1″ longer, and in 2 minutes he was back with the right belt.

I haven’t made it to the dyno yet, but have got the closed loop part of the tuning pretty close to dialed in. After a couple of more tweaks, you won’t be able to tell it from a stock truck in how it drives (until you get into the boost!) Hopefully, we’ll get to the dyno this weekend or next week.

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[Steven Jackson]

well, the M90 i already have, i am just looking for a way to mount it up and get it to run properly on the truck. it has the 4.0 SOHC V6 5 speed manual with 4×4. i would love to put a 5.0 into it, or maybe even a 5.4(my dad has always had an idea to put a big 7.3 powerstroke into one as a joke and reinforce the frame and suspension, but that just seems like overkill to me). the injectors would probably be upgraded to run a little bit more fuel, and then a tune to get everything else worked out.

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