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Need parts opinions, blew up my engine...


turbo91xlt

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Oh, I told redhurricane, but I pulled the engine last weekend and found the rod bolts on the #3 cylinder broke causing all sorts of trouble... only real stupid sucky thing is it put a hole in my ultra rare 4x4 2.3L aluminum oil pan right behind the starter... so aluminum plate, screws/nuts and ultra black it is!
Just a heads up, that oil pan is the same aluminum pan found in all '89-'94 (possible up to '97 but not 100% sure as '95 is when they redesigned the blocks) 2.3 rangers 4wd or 2wd & '91-'93 mustangs. So lucky for you it's not rare at all haha.

The only part that is 100% unique to a 4cyl 4wd ranger are the frame mounts for the engine :icon_thumb:

 


scotts90ranger

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I could have swore when I looked at the 4x2 and 4x4 oil pan when I did the swap the clearance for the passenger side axle pivot bracket wasn't there in the oil pan... Either way I'm going to try to do some grinding this weekend to see if I can get a plate to put over the holes in the oil pan, it's rained about a foot over the last 2 months so the junk yards are a mess, and there isn't much on craigslist...
 

scotts90ranger

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I meant to get a picture of my oil pan while I was in the garage tonight... I'll venture out there in a little bit...

I found another wrench in my spokes tonight, I was taking off my turbo outlet to get prepared for the bigger one I got last week in the mail, which broke 4 of the 5 bolts on removal, and have a broken stud for the turbo in the manifold... but that's not the big problem, the turbo bearings are shot, way too much side play... Now I gotta get back into my turbo engine storage crate and dig out a turbo, I think there's 1 or 2 in there...
 

redhurricane

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define too much side play- is the wheel making contact with the side of the housing? If it's had time to drain most if not all of the oil out of the center section the journal bearing will feel very sloppy. In my opinion, no signs of contact= usable CHRA.
 

scotts90ranger

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No signs of contact (that I can tell without pulling the exhaust housing off, will do that next), but it does move about .050"... It's been sitting since August 9th I think, so it's had some time to drain back :). I'll pull it apart and see if there's any signs of contact, and look for my spare turbo, I know I have at least one spare... I'll get to that next week though...

That said, here's some pics of my oil pan, if someone else has one to compare to I'll definitely go looking for a replacement instead of trying to bandaid this one...:




The last one shows the damage the rod did before it found it's home up in the cylinder... There's some pretty impressive damage to the rod :)
 

redhurricane

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fill the CHRA up with oil and see if you get a noticeable decrease in side play. If there's no signs of contact, I would run it.
 

turbo91xlt

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Don't have a picture of my 2wd pan but it was identical to my 4x4s.



The pan you posted looks the same. :icon_cheers:
 

scotts90ranger

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Hmm, I'll go searching for an oil pan then... would rather not have a hokey fix. Do I see a hole about like mine in the side of your pan? :)

I'll try putting some oil to it, and maybe dig for my spare turbo to compare it to, will do that tomorrow I think...
 

scotts90ranger

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Ok, oil pan on order, should be here next week, maybe I'll get off my rear and get the bottom end assembled by then.
 

scotts90ranger

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Got the bottom end together the other day, got the head on tonight, grabbed a turbo from work (It's a T3 with an Air Research cold side and a Turbonetics logo on the exhaust outlet housing, was apparently sized for a 5.7L or 8.1L generator on natural gas... my estimation is it should work ok for me :))

Next step is to extract the broken turbo stud, I needed the head mounted to the engine to do that so it was more solid... I don't have any work bench space right now to do the work on...

Assuming I can replace that stud and get the turbo mounted up, I might be able to drop the engine in on Saturday! It'll still be a little bit before it runs since I'll have to make a new 3" exhaust but things are finally starting to come together...
 

scotts90ranger

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I know, I'm slow but I do have excuses :).

As of tonight at 9:30PM pacific time it now runs! And I have a working tach!!! Thanks for the tip on splicing the drivers side and passenger side signal wires together, worked like a charm.

The only 2 things left before going on a drive is securing the wires for my new LED driving lights and hopefully wiring them up, and more importantly connecting the linkage for the wastegate as right now it is just loose, didn't feel like climbing under the truck tonight.

So far everything looks good to go. For now I skipped the upgrade to 3" exhaust as I need to get some breakin miles on the thing before my trip at the end of April, if I get ambitious between now and then I'll get the 10' of 3" pipe and a 45* elbow to make the new exhaust and spend an afternoon getting it done.

Oh, and if I get a spare 30 minutes very soon I'm going to do something silly and connect my parking brake... I have a plan on making the pieces to connect the two halves just need to do it...
 

Hagan

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I know, I'm slow but I do have excuses :).

As of tonight at 9:30PM pacific time it now runs! And I have a working tach!!! Thanks for the tip on splicing the drivers side and passenger side signal wires together, worked like a charm.

The only 2 things left before going on a drive is securing the wires for my new LED driving lights and hopefully wiring them up, and more importantly connecting the linkage for the wastegate as right now it is just loose, didn't feel like climbing under the truck tonight.

So far everything looks good to go. For now I skipped the upgrade to 3" exhaust as I need to get some breakin miles on the thing before my trip at the end of April, if I get ambitious between now and then I'll get the 10' of 3" pipe and a 45* elbow to make the new exhaust and spend an afternoon getting it done.

Oh, and if I get a spare 30 minutes very soon I'm going to do something silly and connect my parking brake... I have a plan on making the pieces to connect the two halves just need to do it...
Glad you got it running again. It took me like 2 years to do my 5.0 swap.

Where are you going in April?
 

scotts90ranger

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Christmas Valley, been going there every april with the guys for like 6 years now, it's where I rolled my Ranger in 2011 I think it was.
 

redhurricane

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Let me know how that turbine outlet works out for you. I really enjoyed it.
 

Hagan

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Dang that's a ways out there. Are you driving the Ranger or using your F350 to tow it? I was there once as a kid.
 

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