Goodbye 2.3 4 cylinder...

[94 splash]

lookin really good wish i had the funds to swopp out my last one..

 

[Black P-38]

Thanks!!! It will all come together one piece at a time and even though it's work I'm havin' fun doing it. Of course, the MOST fun will be driving it... YEAH!!!

Mike

 

[HOT_ROD_CAR]

Looking good!

 

[Black P-38]

THANKS...

Well my plans have changed and my mileage wont be as good BUT...

I just bought a 1998 Range Rover 4.6 motor with 82k miles which will reside in the engine bay of the "Silver Bullet" in place of the Buick 215. The factory specs are 225 hp @ 4750 rpm and 280 ft lbs @ 3000 rpm. Not bad for a stock pushrod motor. Oddly it's the same size as the current Mustang GT at just 281 cubes. It won't likely be as fuel efficient as the 215 but it should be impressive. It is all aluminum and though heavier than the Buick version is just 375 lbs complete compared to a small block Chevy at 575 lbs. I was feeling the budget crunch of late and felt my original plan would be too expensive. I compromised with a "salvage" motor that will be emissions compliant and easy on my budget... So I'm no longer dabbling on the "Dark Side"... more of a grey area... hehehe!!!

The good news is, the Rover variant will bolt right up to my newly fabbed mounts in the same position as the 215. It also uses the same bellhousing so all my test fit and fab work was time well spent. It will require a 1/4" block to bell housing spacer plate to work with the Rover crank flange. I'll post pics when it arrives.

Stay tuned...
Mike

 

[HOT_ROD_CAR]

So I made some progress today guys, here are some pics of my mock up project...

Block, bell and T-5 united...

Package going in...

Heater box mod...

Temporary aluminum cover in place...

Firewall clearance, no hammering of the seams necessary...

Lots of room, 15 inches from front of block to core support...

T-5 right at home...

Floor cutout...

Shifter in place...

I'm liking this look!!!

Side shot...

Well, the oil pan they sent me was the wrong one so that will wait for another time.
I feel I made some decent progress today. The trans crossmember, not pictured, is a piece of
1 1/2" square steel tube, .095 wall thickness, set into the frame rails. I still need to fab an adapter for the 22* Camaro mount before I finalize the install.

So, looking good so far!! I installed a 351 Cleveland in my Ranger. Here's the website...

http://home.mchsi.com/~ckimmel/wsb/html/view.cgi-home.html-.html

When you get to the site, click on "photos". Check it out and let me know what you think.

 

[Black P-38]

WOW!!! Holy Crap I can't believe it fit!!! I bet it was alot of work but man is that thing gonna fly!!!


I'll post more pics when I make some progress...

Mike

 

[Black P-38]

Well I got my Rover 4.6 all aluminum V-8 Friday and today did the first test fit.

Here's a few pics...

Check out the near perfect fit of the passenger side factory header... just a slight clearancing of the upper frame rail needed.

I think I can make the drivers side fit as well.


...and a couple of the updated look...

Looking good so far,
Mike

 

[Black P-38]

Wow, haven't been on in awhile, too much work and not enough truck time. I have managed to get the 4.6 bolted in, made a bracket to adapt a Camaro A/C eliminator pulley to bolt to the drivers side head.

Got a Rover alternator mounted, figured out the serpentine belt routing and length and installed it, got a new aluminum radiator, fabbed the mounts, installed it and bolted the original Ranger fan guard to it.

I discovered with the shorter distributorless front cover and water pump of the Rover serp setup I have enough clearance to mount the stock Rover viscous clutch hub and mechanical fan, just waiting on the fan.

The radiator is mounted behind the core support with easy access to the filler neck. All I had to do is cut a 1" square opening in the support on either side of the rad to allow the wiring harness to clear the radiator, it looks almost factory.

The radiator is a two row with one inch tubes, no trans cooler and is Chevy style, (drivers side upper, pass side lower), and measures 19 1/2" high, 26" wide and 2 1/4 thick. Got my upper and lower rad hoses on too.

I haven't got any pics of the progress yet but will post some as soon as I do.

Been researching the Megasquirt II EFI controller and hope to be implementing it soon along with the Ford EDIS-8 crank trigger ignition. Thats about all I have to report for now...

Mike

 

[Ozwynn]

what you doing with that 4cyl?

 

[Black P-38]

Probably sell or part it out... It's a '91 2.3 dual plug head DIS motor with a blown head gasket between two cylinders, still ran.

Here are a few pics of my more recent progress...

As you can see this little V-8 is compact enough to allow the install of a 2.25” core radiator in the stock location and still clear the factory Rover fan and viscous drive with room to spare.

I have to say I am impressed with the way the 4.6 fits in the Ranger's tight quarters, leaving easy access to spark plugs, no oil filter conflict and several inches of hood clearance. It required NO firewall clearancing, not even any bending over of the standing seam between the firewall and floorpan.

I was easily able to fit an inexpensive “off the shelf” radiator and get this...
that upper radiator hose... it's the stock factory 2.3 replacement from the local auto parts store!

All in all, so far, it's been one of the easiest swaps I've ever done.

Stay tuned for more!
Mike

 

[Ozwynn]

don't need it now, the truck i was eying sold yesterday.

 

[almostclueless]

Gotta say, like some of the craftsmanship I see there. Good on ya!!

 

[Black P-38]

Well, here are some updates...
I pulled everything back out after that first test fit, decided to replace the timing chain and gears along with the water pump.

I wasn't able to locate a true roller type for this application so I shopped for Rover replacement pieces along with a factory Woodruff key which have been installed.

I removed the pan to have a look, observing the crosshatch still visible on the cylinder walls, pristine looking cam lobes, babbit still on the rods, polished looking journals etc.

As I rotated the crank to get a better view I saw 4.0 stamped on a counterweight and after some checking verified what I have is in fact a 4.0 with a 4.6 intake tract.

Now that I'm over the initial disapointment... I am working toward getting the motor buttoned back up and into the truck.

Once that's done I'll be able to continue putting everything else together to the point of starting and tuning.

Obviously the economy hasn't been helping the cause and I'm up against the clock with a DD turning over 208K...

I have mounted the 36-1 trigger wheel to the back side of the harmonic balancer, thanks to a friend of mine, (Thanks Terry!!!), who machined a flat around the balancer hub and machined a centering bushing/mounting flange from scratch which I fastened with (4) 1/4-20 button hex head cap screws.

He also machined a billet aluminum plug with mount tab to replace the no longer needed cam position sensor.The EDIS 36-1 system operates off the crank trigger wheel and VR sensor and doesn't require a cam position sensor.

I fabbed an aluminum bracket that mounts the Ford EDIS VR sensor approx .040 away from the tooth surface of the trigger wheel, removed the Rover coil packs from the factory bracket and modified it to accept the two Ford coil packs and have done some preliminary exhaust design and layout work.

The exhaust is simple, compact and effective, consisting of a 2 1/2" crossover pipe from the drivers side header merging with the down pipe from the passenger side header through a Magnaflow stainless Y into a single 3" Catco convertor, 5' of 3" 13g tube, a Walker Dynomax Thrush welded muffler, a few more feet of 3" tube and out a Pilot Motorsports stainless, resonated, angle cut, rolled tip. If it sounds like I think it will, it'll be a cool tone for a Ranger... ; )

That's about it for now but I hope to have more to report and PICTURES soon...

I wish I was driving it last week!!!

Mike

 

[v-8power]

When you get it fired up you should put a sound clip on here so we can hear it also.LOL

 

[bikerboy]

Looks like a pretty cool swap. Def need some videos of it when its complete!