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I can see the finish line. For now...


itwsntme

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I aopologize for the wall of text. But if you stay with me, it'll all be worth it. It really all started about 20 yrs ago when I purchased an extended cab 4.0 5spd Ford Ranger. I loved this truck. Life moved on and I sold the truck for something a little more fun to drive. A 1996 Mustang GT. It was sportier and faster and well I was an idiot. Fast forward to ~5 yrs ago and I came to need a little run around truck to pull my toys around. I didn't want a full size truck, but something that I could drive around and enjoy. I was able to acquire a 1997 short cab step side bed 4cyl 5spd ranger from a great friend of mine. He had bought the truck new and took decent care of it. I decided to pull the engine and go through the entire engine, drive train and suspension. Lowered with some drop I-beams and new springs I finished it up by installing a set of chrome 03-04 Cobra wheels. Although slow, it did it's job wonderfully.

While pulling the trailer I had grown tired of having to plan my trips around hills and if I wanted to keep the A/C on while trying to make it up a hill. So the decision was made to make the V8 swap. After looking around I was able to find a 2wd 1997 V8 explorer. The body was in decent shape and the truck ran great. Black with very nice grey leather interior. 85k miles on the clock, $900 later and I was driving it home. The plan was to pull the engine and drivetrain out of the explorer and swap it into the ranger. The day I get it home another friend of mine called saying he blew the motor up in his car and needed to find a vehicle pronto. I put a little time and parts into the explorer and sold it that weekend. The unintentional flip actually worked out very well. He got an amazing deal on the explorer and asked if I wanted his car with the dead engine as well as a room mates car that had been sitting in his driveway. After working out all the finances I was able to part out his car, fix and sell the second car and have a decent amount of money to start looking for another explorer.

After finding another explorer that I wanted to look at I decided to browse ebay to see if I could pick up a few used swap parts to expedite the process. I came across a gentleman who I don't think had ever used ebay before or he didn't know what he was selling. With 45 minutes left I placed my bid crossed my fingers and said a few prayers. With a winning bid of 636.50 I won a 1997 Eddie Bauer Explorer V8 AWD. The only potential problem was the truck was in NY and I live in GA. The seller was very polite and admitted his mistake and stuck with the $1.00 that he had posted for the shipping. Now I know a few of you still reading this are wondering why would I purchase a V8 explorer from NY when they are plentiful enough in the south. Well, the eBay seller had already purchased and installed a set of the Torque Monster Headers, had recently had the transmission and torque converter replaced by ford, a decent set of 18x9.5 TSW wheels with brand new tires and to top it off, it had a hard to find Explorer Xpress X-Charger installed as well.

While the Explorer was on its way to me, I stripped the ranger. Of the engine, tranny, ecm wiring and rear end. Sold the parts on craigslist and patiently awaited the arrival of the explorer. When the explorer finally arrived I drove it around for a few miles to test everything, gave myself the thumbs up and proceeded to strip the explorer. First was the rear end, I looked around online ordered a new driver side spring perch and bolted the entire rear end into the ranger. The rearend fit perfectly into the empty hole in the ranger and bolted up perfectly. I proceeded next to pull the tranny and transfer case to have it sent out and converted to 2wd. While apart, I had him check eveything and then he installed a shift kit into the valvebody. Next was the engine I pulled it then it went onto a stand for cleaning and checking. After pulling everything I thought I could use or sell I loaded the shell onto a trailer and hauled it to the scrap yard. Sadly and happily this is where it sat for sometime as I had a wedding to plan for. My wife, although she doesn't understand my obsession with cars or speed, does understand me. With her help, the motor came apart and was sent to the machine shop for a full cleaning and checking. Crank was good, block was good and the GT40P heads while dirty were good as well. A valve job later and a set of the Comp Cams heavy duty springs I was ready to start reassembly. I ordered a set of std bore forged flat top pistons and had everything needed to be sent out and balanced. While the motor won't see very high RPMs I thought it was money well spent.

I bought a cheap sandblaster off of craigslist and went to town on all the brackets and cleanable parts. Painted the block blue and started reassembly. I set the motor in, hooked everything up, said another little prayer to the car gods, turned the key and she fired right up. While running the break in, I checked for leaks and made sure she was good to go. There have been some small issues that arose, that were only my fault. I broke the shifter cable, snapped the handle off of the dipstick tube and mis-ran some of the vacuum lines. As promised, here she is all complete.
 

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win

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U.S. Military - Veteran
V8 Engine Swap
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You stole the darn thing! I'm SUPER jealous! That's an incredible price for the Expo, absolutely incredible.
 

itwsntme

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Thanks, I got real lucky on that one. The guy could've gone either way on the deal though. The body was beat to crap and the interior was destroyed. It looked to have been in a multi car pileup while hauling roofing tar.
 

win

Member
U.S. Military - Veteran
V8 Engine Swap
Joined
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Messages
335
Reaction score
12
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18
Vehicle Year
2002
Make / Model
Ford
Engine Size
5.0
Transmission
Automatic
WOW, a very graphic summary of physical condition.

Still, who gives a hoot about the "Explorer" parts, just the blower and headers alone made the thing a steal at the price.

The transport company probably thought you were nuts for having the thing shipped in from out of state -- little did they know what precious little gems were hiding under the hood.
 

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