- Joined
- Apr 14, 2022
- Messages
- 18
- Reaction score
- 7
- Points
- 3
- Location
- floirda
- Vehicle Year
- 1998
- Make / Model
- ford Ranger XLT
- Engine Type
- V8
- Transmission
- Automatic
- 2WD / 4WD
- 2WD
(This will be a forum log of my 1998 ranger V8 5.0 swap using a 2000 v8 2wd mountaineer. )
--Story time skip to just read about the truck/SUV---
So I Picked up a 1998 Step-side Ranger XLT 248K miles 2.5L 5spd manual in Feb 2022 fairly cheap but it is super rough. I needed something to stop putting miles and grime/dirt heavy usage on our family SUV. Trucks here in the sunbelt have gotten stupidly priced for used (IMHO) Pandemic, chip shortage, cash for junkers, who knows. you'll see a you-tuber talk about how they picked up a almost mint xx car/truck for hundreds few easy fixes and Bam great running transportation, not me. I just know in 2018 I could barely, barely sale a well kept 2nd owner 2004 200K 6.0 diesel ford excursion limited for what busted not running, some no title trucks are going for today May 2022. Regardless happened upon a guy saying he was selling a Ranger and a 98 to top it off, so I jump on it, not doing my normal checks for a used car/truck. I mean it fired up no problem oil looked fine had coolant. Handed over cash put full tank of gas and drove it 50miles on highway 60-75mph no problem. It drove fine for 2 weeks (only driven 4 days of those two weeks to be clear). Became hard to start, I went through the motions of the normal problems and codes were all over the place Crank and cam sensors, miss fires, ect( being honest I threw parts at it since we had just gotten a new to us house and all my tools diagnostics wise were packed and scattered, and was in a rush to fix few things on our old house to sale before what I felt like was a crashing housing market). We have two other main vehicles so this wasn't going to be my daily commuter but it would have been nice seeing how it was a gas sipping 4cly. So it got left on side of house for a few weeks. Finally put new fuel filter and pump in as well as a fresh battery and it ran great for 2 days. At a red light it lost power but miraculously made it home never going above 2K rpms and really slow on take off. While checking fuel pressure and releasing the pressure I saw the fuel was pretty much white as soap suds. Pulled bed, opened tank again and saw what I felt was a lot of water dispersion bubbles. Drained tank, put 5 gallons of non ethanol fuel in and after a few hard starts it fired up. sounded fine, then minute or two in while looking at oil pressure and fuel pressure it abruptly stopped. tried to start again, no go not even a crank, wasn't battery engine wouldn't move. Popped plugs to see if maybe fuel or old fuel had hydro-locked cylinders, still couldn't turn it with starter or breaker bar at crank. Pulled starter to check flywheel ring no sign of it being broken so tried again with starter off. No luck. so I chalk it up as engine locked. WELP time for a engine swap once my local yard said a running long block 2.5L would be $1800 for a 160K mile engine or $1200 for one that was 220K miles. No thanks. truck sat for another month I even posted it thinking I'd never get time to find a good swap. contemplated 5.3's since it really does seem like every one is "LS swapping the world". Then I read about the explorer/mountaineer V8 swap. Looked on marketplace and only found 2 high mileage no title or very totaled mountaineers but turns out both were AWD. Few days later I happen to look again and found a 2000 Mountaineer listed but they hadn't listed anything other then "2000 mountaineer engine and trans good was in a wreck 240K miles". The wreck from pictures looked liked just a smashed bumper cover and pushed in passenger fender. After two tries we were finally able to meet up, I found a few issues but for the price and mileage not horrible, and hell AC worked if you tapped it with a plastic mallet which they threw in so what could go wrong, but what do I know I bought a ranger that barely lasted days thinking the same thing.
********So Here we are, 1998 ranger ditching the entire 2.5L drive train and a Complete donor, running (for now) 2000 2wd 5.0L mountaineer. I plan to take what everything I can from the mountaineer and swap into the Ranger. Why? for science! or just fun or so show my sons not everything has to be Ls swapped for it to be fun. a Tiny ranger with a refreshed 5.0L should still be enough fun to get in trouble with.
I'll be researching the tech sections and any YouTube vids or other forums for specific but. Lucky you guys (TRS) have a awesome lay of a tech section and google constantly leads me back to past threads which is so refreshing after learning more about drifting/cars modding to have more to talk about with one of my son I found alot of forums just shutdown and move to a Facebook page and those are not as easily navigated or laid out as forums and threads are to me anyhow so thanks Again for that to the staff those who've done these great tech write ups!
--Story time skip to just read about the truck/SUV---
So I Picked up a 1998 Step-side Ranger XLT 248K miles 2.5L 5spd manual in Feb 2022 fairly cheap but it is super rough. I needed something to stop putting miles and grime/dirt heavy usage on our family SUV. Trucks here in the sunbelt have gotten stupidly priced for used (IMHO) Pandemic, chip shortage, cash for junkers, who knows. you'll see a you-tuber talk about how they picked up a almost mint xx car/truck for hundreds few easy fixes and Bam great running transportation, not me. I just know in 2018 I could barely, barely sale a well kept 2nd owner 2004 200K 6.0 diesel ford excursion limited for what busted not running, some no title trucks are going for today May 2022. Regardless happened upon a guy saying he was selling a Ranger and a 98 to top it off, so I jump on it, not doing my normal checks for a used car/truck. I mean it fired up no problem oil looked fine had coolant. Handed over cash put full tank of gas and drove it 50miles on highway 60-75mph no problem. It drove fine for 2 weeks (only driven 4 days of those two weeks to be clear). Became hard to start, I went through the motions of the normal problems and codes were all over the place Crank and cam sensors, miss fires, ect( being honest I threw parts at it since we had just gotten a new to us house and all my tools diagnostics wise were packed and scattered, and was in a rush to fix few things on our old house to sale before what I felt like was a crashing housing market). We have two other main vehicles so this wasn't going to be my daily commuter but it would have been nice seeing how it was a gas sipping 4cly. So it got left on side of house for a few weeks. Finally put new fuel filter and pump in as well as a fresh battery and it ran great for 2 days. At a red light it lost power but miraculously made it home never going above 2K rpms and really slow on take off. While checking fuel pressure and releasing the pressure I saw the fuel was pretty much white as soap suds. Pulled bed, opened tank again and saw what I felt was a lot of water dispersion bubbles. Drained tank, put 5 gallons of non ethanol fuel in and after a few hard starts it fired up. sounded fine, then minute or two in while looking at oil pressure and fuel pressure it abruptly stopped. tried to start again, no go not even a crank, wasn't battery engine wouldn't move. Popped plugs to see if maybe fuel or old fuel had hydro-locked cylinders, still couldn't turn it with starter or breaker bar at crank. Pulled starter to check flywheel ring no sign of it being broken so tried again with starter off. No luck. so I chalk it up as engine locked. WELP time for a engine swap once my local yard said a running long block 2.5L would be $1800 for a 160K mile engine or $1200 for one that was 220K miles. No thanks. truck sat for another month I even posted it thinking I'd never get time to find a good swap. contemplated 5.3's since it really does seem like every one is "LS swapping the world". Then I read about the explorer/mountaineer V8 swap. Looked on marketplace and only found 2 high mileage no title or very totaled mountaineers but turns out both were AWD. Few days later I happen to look again and found a 2000 Mountaineer listed but they hadn't listed anything other then "2000 mountaineer engine and trans good was in a wreck 240K miles". The wreck from pictures looked liked just a smashed bumper cover and pushed in passenger fender. After two tries we were finally able to meet up, I found a few issues but for the price and mileage not horrible, and hell AC worked if you tapped it with a plastic mallet which they threw in so what could go wrong, but what do I know I bought a ranger that barely lasted days thinking the same thing.
********So Here we are, 1998 ranger ditching the entire 2.5L drive train and a Complete donor, running (for now) 2000 2wd 5.0L mountaineer. I plan to take what everything I can from the mountaineer and swap into the Ranger. Why? for science! or just fun or so show my sons not everything has to be Ls swapped for it to be fun. a Tiny ranger with a refreshed 5.0L should still be enough fun to get in trouble with.
I'll be researching the tech sections and any YouTube vids or other forums for specific but. Lucky you guys (TRS) have a awesome lay of a tech section and google constantly leads me back to past threads which is so refreshing after learning more about drifting/cars modding to have more to talk about with one of my son I found alot of forums just shutdown and move to a Facebook page and those are not as easily navigated or laid out as forums and threads are to me anyhow so thanks Again for that to the staff those who've done these great tech write ups!