PlumCrazy's V8 Daily Driver Build

[PlumCrazy]

1997 Ranger XL (340k mile chassis)

-Explorer 5.0L (GT40 heads)
-289 manifolds
-Custom Y-pipe 2.5" Gibson exhaust
-SCT X3 tune (5 speed tune)
-Foxbody pan, Ricks motor plates, explorer accessories (fan included)
-4.0 single core rad
-Mazda M5OD-R2 5 speed (4.2 V6 top cover)
-Ranger 8.8 w/ 9" drums
-DJM 3" drop beams
-Splash front coils
-4 door Explorer rear leaves (axle flip)
-3.55 gears
-195/70R15 Yokohamas
-15x7 Fx4 Level II Alcoas
-Added factory cruise
-Functional AC

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Built this truck during my unintended hiatus from TRS.

Going to rewind a bit and make a thread to document what is already done and continue with future updates.

Quick snap shot:
Bought the truck from a good friend that was selling it as quick flip back in 2013ish (peep the F150 in the background that "Lightning" axle under my trail rig came from)

After a dozen wheel/tire combos and adding 4 cylinders under the hood this is how it currently sits

I was working on the truck last night and got to thinking this truck deserves its own thread. I have put over 140k miles on this truck personally and its been on of the most reliable vehicles I have ever owned. I will continue adding / updating these first couple posts as I sift through years of repairs and upgrades.

 

[PlumCrazy]

Picked up the truck with 200K on the odometer, but story was that my buddy bought truck as is with the head laying in the bed and the engine all rusted up from sitting for years after a head geasket replacement job was abandoned halfway through. He threw in a fresh-ish 2.3 with right at 100K miles on it from a rolled truck he bought on copart. He had plans to daily the truck for a bit and then build a budget drag truck out of it down the road.....but he is 6'6" or better and gave up on that during the 10 min drive to the BMV. lol He owned it long enough for his wife to name it "Perry" though..and that is its name to this day.

I was in need of a new DD because the CRX I had been driving was using more oil than a 2 stroke dirtbike, so we made a deal.

I drug it home and started going through it little by little as I drove it.

Obligatory Dingo photobomb

First I put fresh plugs, wires, and a timing belt on it.

Fresh rear brakes and cables (I need to do them again soon)

I snagged a cap from a local used car lot that was flipping a truck previously used as an underground utilitly survey truck

I also added factory cruise (Kind of a PITA for an XL 2wd it truns out due to no factory wiring provisions existing in the harness for it)…also swapped in a minty junkyard special leather steering wheel from an Explorer.

Also added bluetooth to a factory non casette/CD radio and converted all the backlighting to green. I put a tach cluster in around this time (subtle change is the orange FX4 needles on the black cluster)

Shortly after determined it needed a filler neck when it dumped fuel out whenever it was over 1/2 tank.

When winter rolled around it was time for snow tires. I still had a pair of WinterForce tires from the CRX that I stretched onto some freebie 14x7s

I ditched the explorer buckets my buddy threw in (power seats with out power hooked up) for an XL bench that Lee recovered on the cheap for me.
Ft: Dings as a pupper (Man.....Digging through old photos brings back some memories)

This seat actually cam out of my black SAS truck years before I ended up with the truck....

Dingo probably spent over 75K miles riding shotgun in this truck

My brother later reupholstered a different low back bench for this truck and the the gray seat went back to the black truck lol

Swapped to clear corner lights and beacon light

I snagged to 93-94 Splash mirrors and soaked them in satin black

At some point over the years I painted the cap gray (same paint was used to repaint the bumpers too)

Also went to 99-00 tails. I cut out the turn signal socket to run the extra bulb rather the rewire with a trailer plug like i did on my offroad truck

Not sure where in the real world timeline this is....but Dings is clearly getting thicker lol

Good friend of mine snagged this rare Breezer window for his SuperCab show truck (never seen another). He found out the hard way that 83-97 reg cab windows are different…so I ended up putting it in Perry

I also rocked a Super Duty third brake light delete for bit (made sense with the cap on 90% of the time)

About the same time I aquired a Mazda (later known as "The Mazda") that was abandoned on a buddy's jobsite for a few years and had no title. It became a beater trail rig and eventually donated many parts to my future trucks and many others across the nation. Most importantly were the 15x7 Eagle Alloys that I polished up and swapped onto Perry.

Truck got lowered on some DJM beams and splash coil springs (I think this is around the time I lost all of my photos when my phone was stolen....this is also when I was in the middle of putting the supercharger on my offroad truck)

I picked up some fabricated drop I beams at a junk yard from and explorer…only to later find out that they are Explorer/Bronco 2 specific ( they may fit a 4x4 TTB Ranger). I found out they were too long and the camber was all off after stripping and painting them.

The rear got a ranger 8.8 from a show truck that had 44s on it previosly.....I welded flip perches on and geared with 3.55s (gears out of the previously mentioned "OBS Lightning" axle that was under a 4x4 6cyl truck) and bolted in with some 4 door Explorer leaves

I added a factory fog light valance and fogs….wired up to a factory switch in a somewhat hard to find bezel (no 4x4, defrost, or rear wiper…just fogs and 12v plug).

**I'll add more photos if i ever run across them**

Cat fell apart and clogged the exhaust

So it got deleted on

Cheapo tail pipes only lasted a winter or two, so it got a turn down boogered on for bit

and rebar hanger when the side of the cat ripped out

Eventually it got a cat back Gibson stainless exhuast

The next winter I rocked some 17" Crown Vic steelies, Ranger dog dishes, and Blizzaks (Photo at Watkins Glen Raceway during a winter trip to the Finger lakes)

The following year I threw some fresh WinterForces on some Bart steelies

Then the next year I cleaned up some Explorer wheels (AKA mini Lightning wheels)

The final round of winter wheels this truck ever saw (actually back on the truck now) where some heavily pitted FX4 Alcoas stripped and painted white

For summer time I always ran the Eagles with some fresh Yokohama 205/70 tires

Don’t remember when but at somepoint I bumped into the hitch on a Navigator at a red light...ended up going to a smooth chrome bumper and painted to match Splash grille. Photo taken a the Longaberger HQ

Lil 2.3 powered Perry did a lot of work for a lot years for me

Over 2000lbs of laminate flooring....

Spring clean up

Moving

Multch time

I picked up 3 of 4 Weld Scorpios...to this day I am still looking foe a 4th (never seen another set)

Also ran some 15x8 Alcoa Jeep wheels with 295s in rear for a summer or two

Then I snagged these discontinued 17x8 Amercian Racing wheels...I hate black wheels.

After many hours of stripping and polishing...they look half decent

 

[PlumCrazy]

Stock piled some parts for a while

2.3 out

When i did this swap I used the 95 Explorer style intake tube and MAF housing, Ricks swap plates, a single core 95-97 Ranger 4.0 rad, 289 manifolds and a custom Y-pipe, Foxbody dual sump pan, Canton remote oil filter, and 4.2 F-150 M5OD-R2 (gears and shifter tower swapped into OBS M5OD case to get 7/16 bell housing bolts and mechanical speedo drive). I did have to make my own AC hoses because the Explorer stuff just didnt fit well/at all. I also had to swap over to 4.0 Ranger fuel lines from the filter up to mate to the 5.0 rail. (2.3 rail has the lines at the rear of the engine.)

Made an EGR delete plate (later found an OEM one in my parts hoard, but oh well)

I wanted cast aluminum valve covers because i never have luck with stamped steel. I got some Mustang covers, but the oil fill was directly in the way of the intake, so I welded the explorer filler neck to the stang cover

Had to weld a few nuts on a few exhaust studs

victory!

Originally had some OBX (Torque monster knock offs) to use with the GT40P heads, but the two piece driver side fit like poo and i knew would leak in no time

Explorer pickup

Fox oil pickup

Fox pan, Moroso oil filter adapter, clutch cover bolts and my go to exhaust gaskets

support rails for stamped pan

had to swap the whole 4.2 gear set because the aluminum shift forks are wider than the SBF forks

But the shift tower is in way better spot

5.0 in (featuring my favorite hoist "The Duece")

Fan clearance with the single core 4.0 Rad

Decided to go to GT40 heads and run 289 manifolds then build the rest of the exhaust

Y-pipe:

I had to turn the Explorer fan diameter down a little to clear the radiator....

I 3D printed an adapter to use the 97-03 F150 shift boot and bezel over the Ranger carpet cutout

Some things I learned.. The OEM Explorer fan clutch is the most compact (aftermarket Hayden pushes the fan forward too far)

I also upgraded the truck to a bluetop box and borgeson steering shaft at around 300K miles

I have had 3.31s and a trac-lok (fresh clutches an axle shafts included, but not pictured). Currently the 3.55s and small tires (205/70-15) are running 3k RPM at 80 and thats not ideal for long trips. The low first gear is less than ideal for a street truck and I rarely use it, but with 3.31s it may be usable...or just make 2nd gear take offs worse. lol

 

[PetroleumJunkie412]

As always, you never fail to disappoint.

 

[PlumCrazy]

Updated this thread through ~2023ish

 

[PlumCrazy]

So when I did the 5.0 swap I used Ricks plates and Anchor 4.0 mounts....after a year or so the mounts have sagged probably 3/4".

You can see here the upper half of the mount is nearly bottomed out

I recently-ish drug home a roller frame to donate crossmembers and such to another project. It still had motor mounts (3.0 rwd). I was planning to swap both OEM mounts into this truck, but turns out the 3.0 pass side mount uses the lower holes in the frame in has a different dowel configuration.

You see here how much nicer the OEM mount sits

Green is where a 4.0 mount goes...

I was able to swap the DR mount over and it really made a difference. The upper rad hose stopped rubbing the fan shroud (which caused another issue to be covered later) and the fan clears the rad by a bit more.

 

[JMcFly]

I really like those 17” alloys. I need to find a set

Is there a model or part number for those wheels?

 

[PlumCrazy]

I really like those 17” alloys. I need to find a set

Is there a model or part number for those wheels?

I thought I replied to this a while back....but obviously not haha.

There a American Racing Baja 172 (AR172), but long ago discontinued in both black and polished. They exist in a lot of other bolt patterns.

 

[PlumCrazy]

Not long after replacing the driver mount....I started smelling coolant and got a belt squeal.
Turns out I should have looked closer at the new found hose clearance I gained by the shroud.

I was able to replace the hose and just clock it a little differently and gained 1/2" of clearance.

Also the airbox clamp gave up when i moved the intake...so had to snag one from a parts truck.

Fan clears the rad by more than ever now too

Also while I was digging around at the junkyard getting some 3G wire harness I figured out what my coolant fitting came from lol Clocked just right and using a pipe bushing it fits under the coil mount perfectly

Looked identical to this 4th gen 3.0(?) Ranger

 

[PlumCrazy]

Found a bunch of random pictures on my laptop and updated a few posts

 

[PetroleumJunkie412]

What is the air box? I have need of one exactly like that

 

[PlumCrazy]

What is the air box? I have need of one exactly like that

Factory 95-97 Ranger body side and the MAF half/intake tube from a 95-97 5.0 Explorer

 

[Curious Hound]

What is the air box? I have need of one exactly like that

Try 4th gen 4.0l. Also, my 96 Explorer box seems to be the same. I can swap the back half (with theMAF mount) onto the 4.0l box I used for my snorkel.

 

[Curious Hound]

Factory 95-97 Ranger body side and the MAF half/intake tube from a 95-97 5.0 Explorer

Yeah. That's a more eloquent way of saying what I said.

 

[PlumCrazy]

Yeah. That's a more eloquent way of saying what I said.

It may be all factory 97 2.3 box with only the 5.0 MAF... I honestly don't remember now. I know I compared MAF part no.'s so it may even be the same MAF from 2.3, 4.0, 5.0 lol

I know I used whatever part no. MAF was correct for a 5.0, but I know I didn't get a MAF with the engine....I either sourced one from my stash of 2.3/3.0/4.0 stuff or got a junkyard special lol

My 4.0 supercharged setup is a second gen Lightning MAF and I hogged out the factory 4.0 housing to fit it