Okay, between the S10, the Ranger, the Dakota, etc. which (if any) have a significantly better 4 cylinder engine than the others? Depth of aftermarket support might factor. All the stupid-cheap Rangers I see have blown engines in some manner. Can't find any Mopars to speak of and the Chevys are all beat to crap.
Any specific reason for limiting this to 4 cylinders and not any of the other small truck engine offerings?
rslifkin said:Any specific reason for limiting this to 4 cylinders and not any of the other small truck engine offerings?
Trying to stay apples to apples to start with. I might go up to a six of some kind but let's start with the fours.
I mean you can get the duratec in the rangers which has a large aftermarket compared to the others. note 2.3 rangers from 01-11 but the best years are from 03-11
Toyota.
I've owned several Toyotas, a couple Nissans and an S-10. The Hilux / Tacoma have been the best built and most reliable for me.
Your mileage may vary.
If you care at all about the acceleration im all about a Duratec Ranger.
Other than that i lean heavily to the AMC 2.5 in the Dakota. It's got a fair bit of torque and gets good mpg in a truck that is a comfortable size and handles shockingly well. Reliability wise I'd say it's identical to the jeep 4.0 except with 33% less cylinders worth of stuff to go wrong. I had to repair a seized valve on one but it was due to a bad injector. Other than that I've almost never worked on them aside from normal things like a water pump here and there.
Every single one is a bit of a bucket of crap. Toyota and Ford are probably the least horrifying crap.
I have never seen a Ranger with a dead SOHC, but several Rangers with rods hanging out of a Duratec.
S10s with the 2.5 run forever, which is good because that is also how long it takes to get anywhere. The 2.2 is also a force of nature but it is a little more problematic, but nothing a replacement head gasket every 100k or so can't fix. (Being a pushrod engine, head R&R is easy) Dakotas with fours are generally crap, not because of the engine, but because that generation of Dakota is generally a precorroded POS.
What about Nissan, etc?
The KA24 is fine unless you beat on it like a drifter who thinks his hardbody is an S13.
We had a 22RE Truck and a 2TR-FE Tacoma. I can't recommend the Taco any less. Ran fine, no issues, but the rest of the truck sucked. Clunky yet mushy controls, geared too high for 4wd, crappy interior.
I bought a 1986 Toyota RN Truck (22R) used in 1992 with 106K on it. I drove it to work today with 373K on it.
The early Dakota 4-cylinder shared parts with the Daytona an such turbocharged motors, so if you wanted to go down that rabbit hole aside from the Ford turbo Limas it's probably the most OEM reliable way to get real performance out of them. Unfortunately the early Dakotas were made out of the metallic equivalent of a cross between meringue and saltine crackers so there is no such thing as a nice one anymore.
The 2.5L S10 had a swap upgrade path with some big marine 4-cylinder as well, though I don't remember the specifics. I think there's an ARCA racing motor built on it too.
One of my delivery drivers at work just junked his still running 2.5l Ranger at 470k.
That gets my vote.
It actually has a pretty big (but often not cheap) aftermarket thanks to circle track racers, and the 2.3 turbo.
Man, Im glad i don't live somewhere with rust. I don't even think I've seen a rusty Dakota in person. The few I've been around were holding up great.
A friend of mine has a 2000? Frontier with a KA24DE. Had almost 300k miles. It was the shared friend truck so lots of use, little maintanence. Never had failed to start or haul whatever we threw in it. It was in NC so had minimal rust. Great little truck.
Ford/Mazda MZR?
It is the same 2.5L used in the Ford Escape/Fusion/etc...
Mazda F2!
NordicSaab said:Ford/Mazda MZR?
It is the same 2.5L used in the Ford Escape/Fusion/etc...
The Duratec 2.5 was never in a Ranger. The 2.5 used was a Lima.
The 4 cylinder Frontier was such a dog. I drove one several times and felt like I was going to get run over on Highway 65 around Springfield, MO (really hilly).
I always liked the Rangers best among small trucks, but don't have much experience with anything else.
bigeyedfish said:The 4 cylinder Frontier was such a dog. I drove one several times and felt like I was going to get run over on Highway 65 around Springfield, MO (really hilly).
I always liked the Rangers best among small trucks, but don't have much experience with anything else.
Really? I've owned my 98 Frontier since new (4x4 4 cylinder), and that's not my experience. Fast? Not by a long shot, but if you beat the snot out of it, it will keep up with traffic just fine, even in the Canadian Rockies. I've been beating the snot out of it for 21 years and 331,000 km, and there's still lots of snot left in it! Bulletproof reliable.
I should have given a disclaimer that I only have experience with one example, so there is always a chance something unknown wasn't quite right. It belonged to my sister-in-law, and she took pretty good care of it, but she wasn't the first owner. It couldn't drive those hills above 60 mph. She got rid of it when the transmission let go, but I can't remember how many miles were on it. The rest of the truck was in really good shape - no rust on an older 4x4 in Missouri is a bit uncommon.
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