What did you do to your Ranger today? (Part Deux!)

[CamTheHedgehog]

The oil filter has a bypass valve which bypasses nearly all of the oil at flows higher than idle, so it should not matter. A plugged oil filter will only result in no filtering at all, it will not cause a reduction of pressure/flow that the engine experiences.

Good to know. I knew filters had the bypass, obviously, but I never knew they were open so often. I was under the impression the valve only opened if the filter was clogged, or at really cold starts when the oil is really thick.

 

[snoranger]

For the first time in her life, she gets to sleep inside:

I’m staying at the new house tonight and I haven’t brought all my crap here yet. I figured that there’s room in the garage, I might as well park in it.

 

[Rick W]

The oil filter has a bypass valve which bypasses nearly all of the oil at flows higher than idle, so it should not matter. A plugged oil filter will only result in no filtering at all, it will not cause a reduction of pressure/flow that the engine experiences.

I actually never knew that. I assumed all the oil flow through the filter all the time.

 

[JoshT]

Drove it home this evening and somewhat compared the gauge and engine RPM. That is actual rpm from ECU not guessing from the gauge needle. It looks like on 10w-30 I'm running about 10# per 1k RPM. Not good, but the engine would survive there for a little while. Thicker oil (or an addative) will be going in this week to see if it makes a difference. Rebuild before the Septenmber G2G is still the plan.

I guess I digressed into academic thought, theory and possibilities, for the sake of theory and possibilities….

Well I was referring directly to the post that I quoted when I said I wasn't sure what you were getting at. Particularly this part:

Question: if you add up all the gas back-and-forth to the parts store, the cost of all the gauges, and ten cents an hour for your time, could you just have bought an engine by now?

I've got maybe $60 in parts between the two gauges and installation material. If I were wanting to permenantly install a gauge I'd probably be in the $100 range on the gauge alone. These are more than adequate to give the information I wanted to know. It would be noce if I could have been more confident and avoided the second mechanical gauge, but I feel like I have a good cheap setup for testing future issues.

If not doing this, my time would likely have been spent sitting in front of a computer watching dumb stuff on youtube. I'd rather have spent it tinkering with the truck over at the parent's house. Seems to help encourage dad to get up moving around some too and not just sit in his recliner all day.

The back and forth was a good excuse to take the F-100 out for a spin. Finally got the brakes working well enough to drive and they seem to be staying that way for now. I drove it more in the last two days than I did all of last year. Hopefully I can get this engine bandaided long enough that I can wrench on the old truck some as I build my replacement engine. Got a few sheetmetal parts to replace among other things.

A replacement engine, you're looking at 2500-3500 for a reman short block. Closer to 6k for what I'd be looking for in a long block. I don't plan to buy a replacement, I plan to build one. For my goals I can probably do a stock rebuild on the bottom end, cam upgrade, and either aftermarket or porting work on the stock heads. Going to start looking for a head porter in the next weekto speak with. Probably get the spare engine on the stand and start disassembling in that time frame too. I have no idea how long I'm going to be waiting for the machine work portion though.

 

[CamTheHedgehog]

If not doing this, my time would likely have been spent sitting in front of a computer watching dumb stuff on YouTube.

Hey..... How'd you know??

 

[Rick W]

Drove it home this evening and somewhat compared the gauge and engine RPM. That is actual rpm from ECU not guessing from the gauge needle. It looks like on 10w-30 I'm running about 10# per 1k RPM. Not good, but the engine would survive there for a little while. Thicker oil (or an addative) will be going in this week to see if it makes a difference. Rebuild before the Septenmber G2G is still the plan.



Well I was referring directly to the post that I quoted when I said I wasn't sure what you were getting at. Particularly this part:



I've got maybe $60 in parts between the two gauges and installation material. If I were wanting to permenantly install a gauge I'd probably be in the $100 range on the gauge alone. These are more than adequate to give the information I wanted to know. It would be noce if I could have been more confident and avoided the second mechanical gauge, but I feel like I have a good cheap setup for testing future issues.

If not doing this, my time would likely have been spent sitting in front of a computer watching dumb stuff on youtube. I'd rather have spent it tinkering with the truck over at the parent's house. Seems to help encourage dad to get up moving around some too and not just sit in his recliner all day.

The back and forth was a good excuse to take the F-100 out for a spin. Finally got the brakes working well enough to drive and they seem to be staying that way for now. I drove it more in the last two days than I did all of last year. Hopefully I can get this engine bandaided long enough that I can wrench on the old truck some as I build my replacement engine. Got a few sheetmetal parts to replace among other things.

A replacement engine, you're looking at 2500-3500 for a reman short block. Closer to 6k for what I'd be looking for in a long block. I don't plan to buy a replacement, I plan to build one. For my goals I can probably do a stock rebuild on the bottom end, cam upgrade, and either aftermarket or porting work on the stock heads. Going to start looking for a head porter in the next weekto speak with. Probably get the spare engine on the stand and start disassembling in that time frame too. I have no idea how long I'm going to be waiting for the machine work portion though.

My feeble attempt to lighten your spirits. Sounds like you’re diagnosing it well, working with the team for feedback, going systematically and making progress, etc. but wouldn’t it be nice if it was just done and you could be having fun it it in stead of getting ready to have fun with it.

No criticism (ever), just food for thought and poking fun. Mirrors a lot of my endeavors over the years. I think it’s called life.

On a personal note, I truly admire you for the way you work with your dad. I’ve prayed and will pray again for you folks. I’m jealous too. Good man.

 

[Rick W]

Hey..... How'd you know??

You don’t have to watch dumb stuff. I watched Godzilla. Landmark entertainment! At least until
I dozed off….

 

[97RangerXLT]

Used it to haul all of the exes crap out of her storage shed so I can put all of my crap in the storage shed in preparation for selling the house

Also rolled 200k today

AJ

 

[scotts90ranger]

Since the '90 Ranger is in the shop and I went to an auction and found something I actually needed today it helped...

So far I set the new jack stands to the front frame height at ride height, removed the tires, removed the coils, removed the radius arm bolts and set some short jack stands under the lower balljoints at close to the right height and taken several measurements for reference for the new radius arms...

I've also found the following during the measurements:
-passenger side rear axle to front axle is 1" shorter than drivers side
-passenger side beam angle is around 8 degrees while drivers side is like 2 degrees...

that explains A LOT of the characteristics of the suspension on that thing... it likely all stems from hitting a tree that was in the ditch in the snow with the passenger side tire at like 10mph like 8 years ago... I thought I got things straightened out but I guess not...

 

[scotts90ranger]

I didn't take a pic of where I ended up for the night but here's the current shenanigan's... First pic is the makings of extended radius arms, next is my new jack stands set to the height of the framerails and last is the Ranger sitting on said jack stands ready for the radius arms to be removed... I ended the night with the radius arm crossmember with radius arms attached along with the drop brackets and everything removed from the Ranger... next step is to jack up the transmission/transfer case and do some measurements side to side and vertical to make sure I don't screw that up for making a new transmission crossmember with radius arm pivots included...

Oh and along with the drivers side outer U joint being rusted and sticky the wheel bearings are loose, have to deal with one to get to the other so not a big deal...

 

[JoshT]

but wouldn’t it be nice if it was just done and you could be having fun it it in stead of getting ready to have fun with it.

Absolutely. Was supposed the be an "easy" drop it in and go project. Then enjoy for a few years while I collected parts and decided how I wanted to build the engine.

Now I'd be happy just to not think about it for a few weeks while I get some stuff done on the others.

 

[CamTheHedgehog]

that explains A LOT of the characteristics of the suspension on that thing... it likely all stems from hitting a tree that was in the ditch in the snow with the passenger side tire at like 10mph like 8 years ago... I thought I got things straightened out but I guess not...

Yep. That'll do it.

 

[ekrampitzjr]

Had a busy Sunday changing parts to be preventive. The truck just turned over 150,000 miles and was still on its original radiator, fan and viscous clutch, and alternator. In addition, the turn-signal relay failed so that the signals would work erratically, then stop (the emergency flashers worked normally). All of the above were swapped, but I saved the old parts just in case, since they still functioned.

The alternator was a new Motorcraft. The relay was aftermarket. The fan was Motorcraft, but the viscous clutch was aftermarket, and I bought the special tools for that job cheap from RockAuto. The radiator was an aftermarket all-aluminum replacement, no plastic on the sides. The coolant was all Motorcraft Gold.

The radiator was plug-and-play except that I had to trim the fan shroud top and bottom to be able to attach the shroud properly. I also put Teflon tape around the ATF line threads as a precaution. After bleeding the system of air, which took about half an hour of running, I had no evident leaks (good thing, as I made a mess with spilling some coolant anyway). Running around town put the temperature gauge at exactly where it normally had been, just below halfway between C and H.

There is some fan noise at low engine speeds until the engine is warmed up. The new viscous clutch is a little stiffer than the old one, and trimming the shroud probably contributed to the fan noise.

I got about 3 gallons of coolant out and put about the same in, including siphoning out the overflow tank and refilling it, so I got most of the old stuff out.

If I had to, I could put everything back as it had been except for buying a replacement fan shroud.

Fun fact: today I stopped at the dealer to get concentrated Motorcraft Gold to replace the stash I used for the job. The concentrated stuff is nearly $30 per US gallon now. Premixed Motorcraft 50/50 is just under $20 per US gallon. The generic aftermarket gold coolant at the auto parts stores seems to be available only premixed, not as concentrated.

 

[superj]

I am waiting to hear back from the junkyard on the fx4 shifter and i ordered this, to look cool from behind. Its cheaper then the motorsport one but still looks cool

 

[scotts90ranger]

Didn't have much in me yesterday but managed to get the transmission crossmember off and a jack stand under the back of the transfer case at about the right height so I can fab up a replacement with radius arm pivots... still gotta get the rivets off that hold the brackets to the frame, project for another day.