gcextreme

Truck Project

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So 2 years ago i picked up a 2nd Ford Ranger, a 98 ext cab 4x4 3.0. The previous owner said it had a bad engine..i got the truck for $500.

I found a good engine from a 97, got it and the tranny and tcase for $400.

Over the past year and half i have slowly been saving up and buying parts to rebuild the 97 engine before dropping it in.

This is my fist big auto engine rebuild and engine swap. Ive done atvs and motorcycles and riding mowers before.

Anyway over the last few weeks i have sunk about $400 into new parts and gaskets for the 97 block. I just pulled the bad engine out and hopefully this weekend the rebuilt one will be going in.

The white ranger will be my winter beater and my gorgeous red one will be stored for the winter, no more snow and salt for it.

Turns out the white ranger had 2 stuck valves and 2 bent pushrods.

Heres the white ranger.

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My red one.

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Makes me wish I still had 1 or 2 of my Rangers around. Nice to have a winter rat

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Had a 94 5 speed and it was a great running truck.. The only thing i did not like about it was the tail end was really light

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Had a 94 5 speed and it was a great running truck.. The only thing i did not like about it was the tail end was really light

Mine felt a lot lighter with a 302 in it LOL. Had to keep bags of sand in the back so I didn't just spin when I was in a hurry.

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My red one will eventually get a 5.0L V8 302 put into it. Right now the engine has 75k miles and the tranny has 40k miles.

So no need to swap yet.

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Mine was a 4 banger with 8 plugs.. Had a problem with clutch and had to replace the slave cylinder and oh boy was i in for a surprise.. Had to pull the tranny just to get to it..  Jaybird i had to do the same thing. When i was in Oklahoma and driving it i had so much trouble in the snow...lol  

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Mine wouldn't move in the snow after the V8 swap. 280 hp on skinny 14" tires but it sure was fun to drive.

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You want skinny tires for snow and ice..all the weight is pinpointed at a narrower spot.

My big tires actually suck on ice.

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Love the red one! You should look into wrapping the white one. I wrapped a faux Raptor this past weekend...cost about $600 for all the material and 2 days worth of work. 

 

 

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Mine wouldn't move in the snow after the V8 swap. 280 hp on skinny 14" tires but it sure was fun to drive.

My old f150 with 300 inline 6 banger and 5 speed 2 wheel drive will take me about anywhere in any weather the only thing I worry about is the thing falling apart driving down the road from all the rust. It only has 250,000 plus miles so I hate to retire it the motor would probably get another quarter of a million miles if the body would hold up.

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Glen - I have a set of plug wires from a 3.0 sable we did an engine swap in -found them in the back seat when we got the car back as he had to take the intake off for some wiring and forgot them - it they are any good to you they are free - just pay shipping

 

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Moody Blue-

Yeah the white one has too many dents and scratches to wrap. Im going to bedline the whole thing...its just gonna be a winter beater lol.

Dokota-

Thanks man...but i dont need them. Dont think they will work anyway. The taurus/sable 3.0 and ranger 3.0 were the same but the spark plug wire lengths may be different depending on where the coil pack mounts.

Plus i already have like 3 wire kits lol. Thanks for the offer tho man!! I appreciate it.

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no problem - I am cleaning out the sable stuff - extra vw stuff and hopefully soon the 03 ram and stuff for that.  also found a set of bumper pads from a 93 dakota today - this stuff just finds its way into corners

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LOL  - hey just jack up the radiator cap on that one and drive this under it!

usually my vehicles sell in days - this one has been a month!



 

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I started to get jealous with all that talk of V8 powered Rangers, then I remembered my DOHC 2.3 Ranger is averaging 25 mpg mixed driving. It's my work go to truck and I'm never in that big of a hurry to get to there anyways.

 

Six bundles of firewood from Speedway carried all the way to the rear of the bed supplemented with packed snow from the driveway solved any winter traction issues for me last season.  

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My 3.0 auto with a shift kit, custom tune, and 33x12.5 tires gets about an average of 15mpg. But considering that i only drive maybe 10k miles a year, im not to worried about mpgs. My wifes grandam gets about 28mpgs and my motorcycle gets about 45mpgs.

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My 3.0 auto with a shift kit, custom tune, and 33x12.5 tires gets about an average of 15mpg. But considering that i only drive maybe 10k miles a year, im not to worried about mpgs. My wifes grandam gets about 28mpgs and my motorcycle gets about 45mpgs.

 

My wife gets 28-30 in her Cavalier and I get 13-14 in my F-150. Truck has more room so it always goes on road trips and even just to get around town. Cant wait to see how much I lose with the new lift installed and my upgrade to 35's later this year  :mellow:

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jealous of everyones milage - old truck gets 12-18mpg - new one with same engine, axle ratio gets 8-12 from what I can tell so far (towing- highway).  when I had the dakota it did worse than the gray one!  dads new hemi gets in the low 20's highway with the multi displacement - not an option on the 2500 though.  great project glen.

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Thanks

I went ahead and threw a coat of high temp grey primer on it.

Going to paint it all gloss blue and then do the valve covers white.

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I was in the high teens, low twenties with the AOD when I could keep my foot out of it. What fun is a V8 Ranger if you can't play with it.

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gas and insurance prices help that in later years Jay - that and the price of tires LOL.   I supported the local (and next counties) in fines for years before I figured that out.

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Looking good. I still get the occasional speeding ticket but other than that I try to stay low key. No more clouds of burnt tire at every intersection.

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