3.5L ecoboost or bust

[retep88]

what happened to this thread?

I never said I was good at this whole blogging thing

I have a bunch of new tools, and I have been practicing, just not on the truck. I have been doing other side projects that make it easier to do stuff in the garage or keeps the wife happy and you ALWAYS want to keep the wife happy.

I bought a 3-point hitch for my tractor (it didn't have one) and made it so I could hook up my Engine hoist to it. Now I have a Tow Tractor?

All so that I can move Large Heavy object in my yard like the new bed that I have sitting on my trailer I showed a while ago.

The wife has been complaining about storage in the kitchen and pantry of the house and of course I thought "how can I solve this problem with my metal fabrication tools". So I built a sheet metal wall (a wood frame with a piece of 18 gauge sheet metal screw to the back all attached to the wall) that is 2 foot by 5 foot that she can hang her pots and pans from using VERY strong magnetic hooks (I call it the drug or weed wall). I also built her a shelf for the pantry.

I only post the shelf because it has been good practice in cutting/bending/welding sheet metal which I will need to fix Trans tunnel of the ranger.

Plus some vacations and other hobbies in there and that is where my June has disappeared too. The plan for this weekend was to pull the radiator out and build a bracket for the Power steering pump and a belt tensioner. Hopefully there will be pictures early next week.

 

[Ranger850]

Right on man. Life happens. Just keep us updated on any updates when updates get updated.

 

[retep88]

The best laid plans of mice and men....

This my friends is why you put cardboard or plywood or SOMEthing on your radiator why you are mocking up your engine bay.

It's not great, but it's not so bad that I am going to replace it. Just annoying because it's my own stupid fault.

The plan was to work on my AC/Power Steering set up, but I either never bought the bolts (most likely) or misplaced them for the AC compressor. So instead I finished off my mounting brackets for the Radiator

They were supposed to be black, but the can ran out before I could finish. These brackets were nearly Purple if I hadn't found the green paint. Then to finish off the evening, I welded up the cold side tube to remove another coupler (plus ordered a 90 degree bend to remover a couple on the hot side).

If I can keep this up, little progress here, little progress there, I might actually get the truck done

 

[retep88]

well I did something stupid...

I started mountain biking again. I used to go all the time when I was in highschool/college, but that was many years ago. We finally got some decent trails around me and I have been going with a friend from work (always ride with a wing man!). Monday I took a jump a little to hot. It kick my back tire up as I came off it and landed badly. Threw me over the handle bars. I manged to tuck and roll, but not before sliding down the back side of the jump on my back. I would have been fine if it was clay, but it was gravel and I am sliced to ribbons. Only need two stitches. One in my arm, the other in my knee. The rest is just really bad road rash. The wife has me confined to the house until I can lift my arm above my shoulder without wincing in pain and I don't think I am going to argue with her on this one. Hopefully it won't keep me out of the garage for too long.

P.S. Nothing broken, no concussions, just a lot of cuts and bruises.

P.S.S I think I want a 4 door bronco with the 2.3L and the manual. I would rather have the manual over the bigger engine. Plus the Mustang make 300+ horsepower with that same engine, I think a tune will make the bronco do the same thing.

 

[retep88]

One day you are stacking dimes, the next you have more filler on the tungsten then the part. I got another tube of the intercooler piping done and got rid of another coupler. This was a 90 degree one too so I am glad I could get rid of it; they tend to blow off. Of course this comes from experience with Uncle John's engines and they tend to run a little more boost

I had ordered the bend before I crashed and it had arrived while I was still laid up, but I didn't get to working on it till now.

I know this is a ranger forum, but I do have other toys that I like to go out and enjoy; mainly the tractor and the motorcycle. Well I had been itching to get out of the house and go for a drive. The tractor sort of satisfied the itch? But it's slow, topping out at a whopping 12 mph. The Motorcycle had been out of commission since midway through last summer when it developed an ignition problem. So I switched gears and started working on it. New coils, wires, and resistor caps and it runs like a champ. Of course I can't just buy regular old replacement coils though, they are stupid expensive even for the 'cheap' chinesium ones. So I did what the goldwing forums call the neon coil mod (use a coil from the dodge neon and adapt it to the bike) which required making a bracket to hold it. I am glad I did it and I am annoyed it took me this long to get it done. All the youtube/motortrend videos I watch have me feeling guilty and anxious to get the truck done. I really want to drive this thing and I really want it out of my garage.

 

[sgtsandman]

We like other vehicles too. We even have a forum for it. Send us some pictures!

 

[retep88]

My Goldwing after I went on a ride tonight. It's an 82 GL1100 aspencade, which just means it had all the bells and whistles, most of which I have striped off . I left the rear bags because they are supper handy to have and the trunk goes back on whenever I take the misses out. But the I ditched the fairing. It was too much of a sail and I am not confident in my riding enough to always fight it.

I have a love/hate relationship with this bike. For cheap thrills there isn't much better, but I am SO scared to crash it . I ended up in the ditch once; kept it upright the whole time, but that was once too many for me. I nearly sold it then. I think one of these days I will swap it out for a convertible, but I have to finish up a ranger first

Speaking of ranger. I need to build a bracket to hold my power steering pump and a tensioner. I am going to copy the bracket of the transit, but I will have to shrink it down since I have pretty tight space claim. I know what I need to mount, I know generally where I want to mount it. But I don't want to spin hours screwing around with it in the garage. Turns out you can get a hobbyist license of Fusion 360, a 3D modeling program for free. My plan is to get a rough design made up in Fusion that can save me time out in the garage. I'll have to take a bunch of measurement unless someone on here has a shrink wrap of an ecoboost I can use, but I think it will save me time in the long run.

 

[retep88]

It snowed in Iowa today. It's all melted away now, but I took that as a sign that I should do my winter prep. Which included parking my tractor, draining the fuel out of the carb, and tarping it outside. This gave me time to reflect on how crappy this year has been... Hot rod power tour and drag week were going to be near me, I was going to get the ranger running and drive it to those events. None of those things happened. So I spent my evening getting my tractor ready to spend another winter outside because a ranger is taking it's spot.

Turns out there are very few straight edges on the front of the Ecoboost engine. I got the Pump modeled, but the engine was proving difficult, so I decided to cheat a little. I had a small hope that I could use the power steering bracket from the transit. I can't; not the way it was intended, but it will still make it easer to make my own bracket.

 

[RegularGuy]

Any ideas as to what retep88 should be getting for mpg when their project is complete? The 3.5 is rated for 17 city, 23 hwy at 5,500lbs.
The 3.5 high output, 15 city, 18 hwy at 5,700lbs....

Their ranger, in it's stock form comes in at 3000lbs but are swapping in a heavier engine and transmission. Assuming retep88's truck has a 4.10, there will also be a wider range of gear ratios, the old 5 speed M50D-R1 being 3.72 - 0.79... the new 10-speed 10R80 being 4.69 - 0.63 (might want to do some rpm calculations for 10th gear)

Based on what I'm seeing here, I'd expect at least 17 city, 23hwy with the weight difference but if someone knows some real world figures, I'd like to hear them

 

[fastpakr]

Bumping this up - any progress on the build lately?

 

[cschannuth]

Any ideas as to what retep88 should be getting for mpg when their project is complete? The 3.5 is rated for 17 city, 23 hwy at 5,500lbs.
The 3.5 high output, 15 city, 18 hwy at 5,700lbs....

Their ranger, in it's stock form comes in at 3000lbs but are swapping in a heavier engine and transmission. Assuming retep88's truck has a 4.10, there will also be a wider range of gear ratios, the old 5 speed M50D-R1 being 3.72 - 0.79... the new 10-speed 10R80 being 4.69 - 0.63 (might want to do some rpm calculations for 10th gear)

Based on what I'm seeing here, I'd expect at least 17 city, 23hwy with the weight difference but if someone knows some real world figures, I'd like to hear them

I averaged 20 in my 2012 F150 in mostly hwy driving. If he behaves himself he should get 25 on the hwy. That F150 with the 3.5 was the fastest truck I’ve ever driven (until I got the 2.7 eco-boost). It’s going to be insane in the ranger.

 

[Jim Oaks]

It snowed in Iowa today. It's all melted away now, but I took that as a sign that I should do my winter prep. Which included parking my tractor, draining the fuel out of the carb, and tarping it outside. This gave me time to reflect on how crappy this year has been... Hot rod power tour and drag week were going to be near me, I was going to get the ranger running and drive it to those events. None of those things happened. So I spent my evening getting my tractor ready to spend another winter outside because a ranger is taking it's spot.

Turns out there are very few straight edges on the front of the Ecoboost engine. I got the Pump modeled, but the engine was proving difficult, so I decided to cheat a little. I had a small hope that I could use the power steering bracket from the transit. I can't; not the way it was intended, but it will still make it easer to make my own bracket.

View attachment 50303

How's the swap coming?

 

[Ranger850]

Man, I wish there was some news on this build. bump

 

[Crockedflyer811]

Hey just joined
Someday I'd like to do a swap like this with a dual clutch automatic trans make it preform kinda like a Porsche 911 turbo s or a ford gt but it might be asking a bit much out of a ranger lol
I'm really curious to know how the build is going

 

[bobbywalter]

hmmmm..... forgot about this one.

but i see the main problem....and it is typical. you are not making use of all of the real estate in front of the core support .....and for me....that is not what a core support for a 3.5 ecobost should look like.... should be a few various shapes and styles of tube...

you grind down and custom screen the grille to open it up for max room.

the amount of time and need for custom part is greatly reduced when you give it what it needs and fit up the sheet metal and stuff later...or delete it altogether.