Just wondering what would be recommended to replace performance wise on my 1986 2.9L to increase acceleration in higher RPMS (3000+)

A 2.9 will never be a powerful engine or a great gas mileage motor.
The best gains can be made by simply gasket matching the upper intake, lower intake & heads
If you want real power swap in a 5.0
If you want fuel mileage swap in a 2.3 4 cyl

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1988 Ranger STX, custom built flatbed, winch, 33x 10.5 BFG mudders
1974 Suburban (AKA "the sub") lockers front & rear, 383 cu in not even close to stock motor, snowplow 37 x 12.5 HUMMV tires, 4.56 gears
1952 M38 (CJ3) Jeep - my newest project - 289 ford, hardtop, got it with not one wire in it. Hope to have it driving this year

Cold air intake definantly helps along with mid grade fuel and synthetic oil.the main thing ive noticed that will do some help without ripping the engine out is air flow and air temp amongst many other things and getting rid of the a4ld trans if thats what u got.but like the previous post the 2.9 will not be a speed demon but u can defiantly get so more hp and torque with the right stuff

cold air intake isnt going to do anything since the intake heats up the air before it gets to the cylinders, really dosnt do much with freeing up flow. you are not going to get much out of a 2.9. ive had three now and ive tried different air set ups, different fuel, and changed oil regularly never synthetic but seriously these are ball less motors and will never be as fast as you'd like. sorry to just completely shoot down the guy above me but sometimes you just gotta face the facts.

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1986 2.9, 5 speed, 4x4, B2 - sold
2003 3.9, auto, 4x4, dakota - totaled
1998 5.2, 5 speed, dakota - current project

B2 Build Thread:http://www.fordrangerforum.com/proje...o-2-build.html

Dakota Build Thread:http://www.fordrangerforum.com/proje...ct-thread.html

2nd dakota Build Thread:http://www.fordrangerforum.com/proje...time-hoon.html

No worries on shootin me down like i said i know it falls under the gutless category but i was just stating thats what made mine noticeably different was the intake along with a few minor tweaks here there.they only come stock with 144 hp and the only way you would see any rediculous speed is if u drove it off a cliff and straight to the ground if its high enough.i just rebuilt mine after i sent it to the machine shop for all new sleeves and pistons along with the other stuff and some tweaks to the intake throttle body heads and just port matching gave me an even better increase ( which i only wasted time with on the 2.9 cuz i know somebody that works there so it was gnarly cheap).