[cripplecreek]

These were basically rebadged Mazda trucks.

Some certainly were. My dad and I had nearly identical ones but his had a Mazda engine and mine was Ford.

[RangerM]

Was yours a diesel? IIRC, that was the difference.

Although, there was much shared then. Is it possible you and your Dad had the same motor, with different heads?

(Sidenote) My 1993 Ranger was sold as a Mazda, but in that case it was Mazda selling a Ford product, not the other way around.