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Things I have learned.


Turbo-T

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I'm in the proccess of puting a turbo 2.3 engine in my '84 Ranger. It's been quite a learning exprience. The first thing I learned is that I shouldn't have listened to a lot of the experts who advised me. Here's what I now know;

Fuel tank: My truck is a 4X4 short bed. No other tank will fit. The old engine was carbed. The replacement engine is EFI. An EFI tank to fit my truck is almost impossible to find. I had to cut a large patch with the pump/sending unit hole in it out of an '85 EFI truck tank. I then cut a hole in the carb tank and glued and screwed the patch onto the carb tank.

Fuel lines: Again, switching from carb to EFI means changing the whole fuel system. And again my truck being a 4X4 shortbed created problems. Looked at a lot of trucks in the wrecking yards and bought 2 complete systems. My truck doesn't have enough room to mount the external fuel pump. I went with an '85 T'bird V8 in tank pump. Those nylon tube fuel lines had me stumped for a while. After a lot of asking and searching I stumbled across a discussion about pressing the fittings into the tubing. I still had to braze together a couple of metal tubing ends to connect the the nylon tubing ends together.

I'll have to finish this later. My hands are cramping from working on the truck for 6 days.
 


Dave R

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There is a difference in fuel lines between a short box 4x2 and a short box 4x4? The fuel tank I can kind of see but why would the lines be different?
 

Turbo-T

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The problem is with where the pump and filter are mounted on the frame. The short bed frame is shorter than a long bed frame. The external fuel pump would have mounted right in the middle of the tranny crossmember.
I learned quite a bit about the fuel lines. There's a website (I'll have to hunt for the address) where you can buy the fittings and they even have the original black nylon tubing Ford uses. There is a tool for pressing the fittings into the tubing but I haven't been able to find one yet. I think I can make one.
My most recent accomplishment has been the cooling system. How hard can that be? The metal tubing that connects the intake manifold, turbo return, and heater return is made up of 7 pieces of tubing brazed together. Today I got the cooling system sealed up and filled with water and it didn't leak. Well, not on the third try. It's starting to come together.:icon_thumby:
 

Dave R

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The problem is with where the pump and filter are mounted on the frame. The short bed frame is shorter than a long bed frame. The external fuel pump would have mounted right in the middle of the tranny crossmember.
Interesting and seems logical but, why not go with a slightly newer single, in-tank, pump system ('89-ish and newer) from a similar truck and just swap the whole system?
 

Turbo-T

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Again, it's a case of differences between my first generation truck and the second and third generation trucks. short bed 4X4 Rangers are hard to find. Later models of the same are even more rare.
 

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ya dave, you would be amazed at how different 1st and 2nd gen trucks are, I swapped a '92 engine into an '86 back in April. Both trucks were shortbeds, but just about nothing swapped over easily.
 

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About the only thing I tried to swap over from a 1st to 2nd gen was a tranny crossmember/transmission and a few misc. bits.

The fuel tanks are that much different between 4x2 and 4x4 short beds, or is it a generational difference that causes the most issues.
 

Turbo-T

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Let me put it this way. My 4X4 short bed '84 Ranger has been sitting in my driveway for almost a year. I have gone to 4 yards numerous times and haven't seen a shortbed Ranger period. I went to the local Ford dealer and asked about interchange and he said no other fuel lines will fit my truck. He also said fuel lines to fit my truck are obsolete and no longer available. I even fibed and asked for the same in a '85. again no.
Grab your J.C.Whitney catalog and look up Ranger gas tanks. It'll say "eccept 4X4".
 

Turbo-T

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I've spent the last 4 days sorting out the wiring harness for the EFI engine. The harness came with the engine. I bought the whole works out of an '88 T'bird. I thought it would simplify the electrical part.
I started by buying Ford Fuel Injection & Electronic engine control by Charles O Probst and reading them ( 2 books). Another thing that helped was I found a schematic for wiring the engine as a stand alone system. Thanks to Blind Chicken Racing.
I found out real quick that the listed wire colors were not neccesarily the color of the wires. I had to go back and learn the function of each connection and where it went to. I'm down to 5 wires to figure out what to do with.
We need a smiey for frustrated.
 

anupaum

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I've spent the last 4 days sorting out the wiring harness for the EFI engine.

I found out real quick that the listed wire colors were not neccesarily the color of the wires. I had to go back and learn the function of each connection and where it went to. I'm down to 5 wires to figure out what to do with.
We need a smiey for frustrated.
You're making progress, though. I had a similar situation with my truck's wiring when I went to the wide band O2 sensor. The wires coming out of the harness were not the same color as those listed on the wiring diagram.

Dave likes to point out that wiring isn't difficult, just time consuming. Good luck to you!
 

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its a bummer to hear....but it gets alot easier once you figure out theres more then one way to do a fuel line setup....and stand aloning a eec4 system is actually simple, though the tbird turbos have there own issues all the way around.


modifying the rear to take a b2 tank really adds to your range along with ending any sending unit issues. the outside trex pump would have really simplified your fuel system though. i have used your type of tank for a few efi v8 installations....like you found i just hang a mustang pump from a hose and use a hard copper wire support and run the return through a modded rollover valve or solder a dump on..real simple once you know what to do.


one thing about wire colors is they are sometimes totally different due to what was available on assembly.

sometimes the exposed ends are right and then factory spliced to running lengths.

i never stop being amazed at shit i see with oem wiring when i am building harnesses..

your lack of experience is what caused your percieved problem issues....and you seem to have that well in hand now.
 

Turbo-T

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Had a good day today. I finally was able to sort and identify the wires to the VAM. I also learned that the wire for the knock sensor goes through the plug that carries the temp and oil pressure guage wires. I'm almost ready to put gas in it and hook up the battery. that'll happen Saturday.
 

Dave R

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I had to go back and learn the function of each connection and where it went to. I'm down to 5 wires to figure out what to do with.
Feel free to ask, it's been a year or so since I've looked over the turbo specific wiring diagrams but I should be able to refresh my memory fairly quickly.

We need a smiey for frustrated.
I thought we had something close. Hmm, not really, the :icon_banghead: ones seems to have not made the jump.
 

Turbo-T

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Well, I've spent 2 weeks sorting out that blasted wire harness. First thing this morning I had the fuel pump running, then it didn't. Took me almost 2 hours to figure out the Ford relay I used failed. Looked at 2 more Ford relays and realised why they have fires under the hood. One relay had 3/4 in of bare wire coming out of it. I used a relay out of a Buick. So far the pump comes on and stops like it should. The engine cranks but no spark.
 

anupaum

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Ugh! That's frustrating!

Hang in there and sort through your problems one at a time. You'll get this thing running if you stick to it!
 

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