Ford ranger 2.3

[driveamerican]

Just a little rant about engineers. Why do they make a one piece intake that turns a valve cover gasket or injector into a physical nightmare everything would be so much easier if the intake was upper and lower. Still isn't as bad as what they did to the 4.0. I forgot to mention the EGR valve and the PCV valve on the 2.3 plus it's heated. Ok I am done

[FrozenMerc]

Because engineers don't give a rat's a** about serviceability.  They design for manufacturability, and if a design change or "improvement" saves 30 seconds on the assembly line, but takes an extra hour in SRT's at the repair shop, they will take the 30 second savings EVERY SINGLE TIME.  30 seconds is worth an entire boat load of money to the OE over a production run of potentially 100,000's of units.  An extra hour at the dealership is worth literal pennies.  Worst case they have to pay out a little bit more in warranty labor for a couple of years.

[galaxiex]

This ^^^

In almost all cases of crappy serviceability, you can blame the Bean Counters...

Make it "cheaper/faster" on the line, saves tons of money = more for the shareholders and executives.

EVERYTHING is built to a price point. Down to the penny.

Some engineers "might" care about longevity and serviceability, but they don't last long, and/or are overridden by the Bean Counters et-al.

[66FAIRLANE]

They will have cost saving targets tied to bonuses. So will do what it takes to save a cent or two on a part or process, real or not. I used to see it often when I worked for a tier 1 automotive supplier. An engineer would say we can save 5c a part by outsourcing......a couple of years later a new engineer would come along and say we can save 5c a part by insourcing. All bullshit on paper of course but so the merry go round begins. My own target was a $1 million per year. I used to think that if all these savings across the business were real then we would be making parts for zero cost in a couple of years!

[badcatt]

For the most part I totally agree. Manufacturing engineering cuts the cost of making said product, but occasionally something good for the owner/shop tech slips through. I used to own a 1989 Ford Ranger 2.3 5speed. A no frills little truck. On summer the heater core stared to leak. I did what any back yard mechanic would do, I bypassed it. Thinking it was going to be a PIA to replace (having done many on other Ford products). Well, when late October crept up I realized I had to fix it. I looked up the instructions in a Ford Shop manual; it read like this.
1 disconnect the battery,
2, drain the coolant,
3, disconnect the heater hosed at the fire wall,
4, inside the cab under the glove box, remove the cover plate, (1 Philips head screw)
5, remove the heater core,
reassemble in reverse order.
Less then an hour later I was done. Try that in a 1970 Mercury Cougar with A/C...

[frnkeore]

That job on a the last model T-Bird or a 2004 Crown Vic, will cost you more the the car is worth.

[shady]

Early ranger heater cores were amazing, although I never owned one with air. When my 89 SHO core took a crap, I cut the outside cover with a dremel, pulled the core from the firewall engine side, put the new one in and sealed it back up with 3m seam sealer.
Alternative was to pull the dash out.

[driveamerican]

I have never been so glad to finish something in my life. The valve cover leaked so bad the oil soaked wires were pushed off from crankcase pressure PCV valve plugged. I was sure surprised to find it still had a miss. I have to admit I chased my tail until I figured out that the coil was dead on just 1 cylinder total brain fart yes those 4 in one coils can miss on one cylinder. I guess the 20 miles of driving with the engine light flashing probably killed it. Then because I thought the wires being off was the obvious problem I never pulled the codes. Well it's not the first whippen I got but the old man purple skin and hose clamp cuts were bad on this one. Pull the driver steer tire and wheel liner for the PCV access still gets me. Thanks for the replies. Mark.

[gregaba]

After 50 years as an off and on mechanic that is the reason I have no engineer friends including my cousin who is a GM design engineer.
Greg