1988 B2 Conversion using 2000 Explorer 302

[RangerSVT]

I'll know when i first start it , it'll throw a code quick and run irratic. I'll check it. Didn't you pull the motor down for a rebuild, or just gaskets?

SVT

 

[dSINtia]

Just gaskets. It was low mileage, running well and very clean. Didn't even take the timing cover off. Lower intake was off for a gasket change and rear main seal was changed but that's as far as I went.

 

[RangerSVT]

Good to know, i almost did a break in startup on it. I'll double check the timing...

SVT

 

[RangerSVT]

Updates. Hit the parts store this morning, only came back with a tensioner. The AC liquid line (between the accumulator and condenser) is a 3 day order. I did some parts comparing while I was there. The AC liquid line is the same from the 88 bronco2 as the 94 ranger. There will be only one custom piece to the AC system, and thats the hose that goes from the compressor to the condenser. I've got to get that modded. Don't feel like I did much today, but I'm getting down to the wiring and time consuming things. Since I couldn't get the liquid line, I cut, crimped, and soldered the old liquid line shut to seal the system...

Here is the tensioner installed with the belt installed...

Started on the battery cables. I'll be using these clamps, which I use on all my projects I work on, they are military style battery clamps, much better than anything found in the store....

Crimping heavy gauge wires just straight sucks. It corrodes after time and could get loose. This is how I make my battery cables. I first start with the lug, then measure and strip the insulation off the cable (which is premium 2 gauge)...

Use a little of this...

Put some heat and do a little of this...

And push the cable in and you get this...

A little tape...

followed by a length of heat shrink tubing, and the end result...

Do this a couple times, and you have the highest quality cable you can buy, or can you?

Here's the positive battery side. One goes to the starter, the other to the starter solenoid...

The starter solenoid. The amp wire had some exposed wire at the terminal, so I removed the small insulator at the lug, taped and heat shrunk the end...

Here's the starter to battery wire, including the starter solenoid wire...

Sealing up the end on the starter side. I threw my thumb in there to give you an idea just how big this cable is...

The completed cable...

Some pics wouldn't upload. On the wiring, I attached the diagnostic port wiring to the ecu harness at the ecu plug, since this was the easiest spot to attach and it is the only part of the harness thats inside the cab. Pulled some of the wires apart, soldered and heat shrunk the wires for the diagnostic port, then taped it back up. I got the ecu harness plug through the firewall. I cut off the original firewall grommet, had to enlarge the hole for the much larger OBD2 harness...

Here's the harness and ecu installed in the kick panel...

I mounted the diagnostic port as close to the original location as I could. I couldn't put it in the same location as late model vehicles cause of the way the lower panel removes for access to the fuse panel...

I also found in my collection the correct AC high pressure switch plug, which I have installed, but was getting too late (dark) to get it wired up. Not pictured (yet) is the alternator charge harness. The plug, luckily, is the same style and fits the new alternator, so I just removed the old output charge plug from the original alternator harness, and plugged it up. I took an old explorer alternator harness I had apart, and used the twin fuselink charge wire that goes from the alternator stud to the battery, in this project's case, the fender mounted solenoid. I also got the spacer installed between the transmission mount and transmission. I didn't take the time to fab a mount like I wanted to, I decided my time was better spent in other areas. I got most of the heater hoses run, just need to get a 90* hose fitting to complete the install. I took a couple washers with a round spacer in the middle to give me the 1.5" lift I needed for the intake to clear the firewall. Hope to have this done tomorrow so I can get it loaded on the trailer and get it back to Dave. I know he's waiting to get it back...



SVT

 

[RangerSVT]

Today's updates won't look like much, but I've been at it all day, again. I started with the trans cooling lines. I cut them in two pieces so they could be installed without getting bent all up. So I started by flaring the hard lines...

Stage 1 of the double flare process....

And the final stage completed....

Here's the two halves installed...

Then I got the AC low pressure switch wired. On the older system, the high side has a type of blow off valve to release high pressures. These blow off valves are made onto the high pressure hose manifold mounted to the compressor. The new style compressor has two pressure switches, a low and a high, due to enviornmental reasons, refrigerant can't be vented to the atmosphere, so the high pressure switch shuts the compressor off so pressure can't keep building to unsafe levels. I'll have to wire in a high pressure switch. I'll do that tomorrow when the line gets modified. Here's the switch wired...

Got the plug wires installed...

Now onto the boring, time consuming stuff, the wiring. I started with the 42 pin vehicle side plug, the pigtail, that wires into the B2...

Dave, prepare yourself for the next images, as they may be harmful to your eyes. I pulled it apart and deleted a total of 15 circuits that were not needed. Nothing looks worse on a decent wiring job than a bunch of wires that are cut off and not hooked up...

The retaining pin clips removed...

The pigtail harness is from a 98+, the engine harness is from a 97. There were some differences. One of which pin 26 is for the oil pressure sensor, which on the 98 pigtail is blanked out...

Here it is drilled and the wire installed...

And here's the circuits that was removed, which is almost half of the wires from the pigtail...

The pigtail finished, wrapping it up...

Now for the dissappointing news. The original engine/ecu harness also contains the main power as well as several circuits for the interior cab, so I had to dissect the harness completely and remove the circuits one by one...

These are the plugs in the engine/ecu harness that attach to the driver side fenderwell, which fead the interior with power and various other circuits. I had to trace each and every circuit by hand as the manuals I used had conflicting info. Even after verifying the circuit from the same pin location at the ecu and the corresponding sensor, it was still a different color code. Combine that with 26 year old wiring, and the insulation is slightly discolored, making ID'ing even more of a time consuming task...

Here is the remaining harness that will be used. Can you guess how long this took?

This is the same harness, but on the passenger side, where the fuel pump and EEC relay are located. The WOT relay is in a different harness, which stayed in the vehicle...

Here is where I stopped. I've got every circuit finally ID'd and ready to attach the pigtail to the harness. There are a few things that I would have done differently, but to do it, I'd have to pull the new engine harness out to do some rewiring, something that I just don't have time for, and would take me about 2 more days to do....

I've decided to use dual 10" E fans to kool this setup. I used this same setup on SVT and it has kept it kool, within 5 degrees of the thermostat. Sitting in traffic it would get a little warm, around 205-210, but otherwise was good. If this doesn't work, I'll have him get four smaller fans to cover more surface area...



SVT

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

Drilling the pigtail...do you just remove a little or ?

 

[dSINtia]

Wow... Not sure I would've been able to pull this off if I had had the time to do it. I've got the right man... Incredible stuff really. Sorry you had to pull that pigtail apart. It was from a 98+ and I had repinned it but I missed a few I guess. Glad you ran through it and I agree - much cleaner.

 

[RangerSVT]

Drilling the pigtail...do you just remove a little or ?

As far as the blanks, yeah, 1/8" drill bit just at the surface. The rest of the plug is ready to accept the pins/wires. As far as thinning the circuits, Dave and I talked and he's decided to do a baseline, so all non-essential circuits were removed from the pigtail. Again, if i had more time, I'd go through the engine harness. I completely redid an engine harness and ran all basline circuits through the 42 pin connector, including the trans' functions, and I've got over 50 hours just into that harness, which is for the supercharged V8 jeep I'm building. Anyways, with the basline on this one, I'm tuning the ecu for the baseline...

SVT

 

[RangerSVT]

The project continues. Started where I left off with the wiring....

Doing as much soldering as I do, you gotta keep solder on hand. This is my 3rd tube of solder on this project. I'm down to 2 tubes, I need to get some more...

Here is the completed harness taped up...

I put a couple of pieces of chinese loom on the long straight pieces. This loom is braided nylon, so its rub resistant, it tightens when its pulled...

Here is the harness with the 2 pieces installed...

So something that hadn't crossed my mind when building the motor mounts was the height of the motor...

So, after doing some more measuring, I decided to lower the passenger side another inch. This would give me more clearance for the exhaust (but the top framerail may still need to be clearanced to fit the pipe in), and give me the clearance to close the hood. So now, I've got to fab the motor mount. Here's the motor sitting where it needs to be....

And with the hood finally on, checking for clearance...

So with that (almost) out of the way, I have the upper radiator hose installed, but it presents another problem...

So we have a couple options. I can fab a new upper rad hose that uses 2 couplings, one at the radiator, and another at the thermostat, and tube in the middle, relocate the battery, or get a CAI that routes air behind the battery. Cause of the MAF, using the original air intake tube won't work.
Got the harness installed, checked the wiring, and verified the CEL circuit was connected properly as I had to guess which wire it was. The wire I thought was the CEL circuit, was the correct circuit, so after pulling the harness back out to make the final circuit connection, I installed the harness in the engine bay for the last time. Only thing left wiring wise is the TPS sensor plug needs to be extended about 6" (I have another plug that I'll be using so I only have one solder joint in that circuit, rather than 2, and the overdrive switch. The rest of the wiring is completed. I need to pull the instrument cluster out to adjust the tach to read the V8 signal, but thats it on the electrical. Tomorrow we are expecting rain. Going to work as long as I can in the morning, then once it starts raining, I'll head to town for parts...

SVT

 

[dSINtia]

The harness looks great SVT... super clean work. Boy, talk about tight... going to have to get a little creative with the intake and upper radiator hose. Looking forward to seeing how you manage this one.

 

[Elutheros]

I ran into that same issue with the stock intake hose and upper radiator hose even though my radiator sits 3" lower. After I finish up my wiring I'm going to deal with it. Will be watching to see how you work it out.

 

[RangerSVT]

Well, bad news for today. Rain moved in early. I had just enough time to get the AC line off the truck and finish fabbing the motor mount, and that was about it. So I went to town for parts and get the AC line made. I got some vacuum plugs, heater hose coupling, and tomorrow I'll have the AC line done. It rained literally all day here today, it was a light rain, but it was steady. Just enough that I couldn't work on the B2. So, til tomorrow, stay tuned...

SVT

 

[dSINtia]

Too bad about the weather... The forecast for the rest of the week looks better. Good luck and we are excited to see more!

 

[RangerSVT]

Updates...
Since I couldn't use the heater hose hardlines, I had to come up with a way to run the heater hoses a different way. Due to the FEAD bracket, access to the water pump heater hose outlet would be challenging without a premade hose. I ended up using the premade hose that connects the water pump outlet to the hardline. From there, a 90* fitting was used to connect to standard heater hose. Notice how tight things are in this area...

Here the hoses are connected...

Tucked away nice and neat. It had to be for the AC hose, upper radiator hose, and air intake tube, which all fits in this area...

Got the two vacuum plugs installed, one in the front, one in the back, which you can't see...

Next was the TPS plug, got it extended and plugged up...

Next, the airbox. I had a thought of using spectre polished tube, since you can get it in assorted bends and straights to basically route it where you need it. While that would have worked, and would have been pricey, I decided to try for the stock look. So I started looking at what I had to work with, and I came up with something. I'll be using the stock box, the explorer elbow. I modified the box cover to accept the MAF housing, which I unbolted from the explorer box cover. I started by cutting off the round tube the intake tube attaches to...

I then mocked up the MAF in place, marked and drilled the mounting holes, ran a few pieces of insulation tape to seal the cover to the MAF housing, and bolted the MAF to the cover...

Inside the cover...

Next obstacle, the low pressure switch is in the way...

I pulled the switch, and installed the cover. By pure luck I was able to reinstall the switch, though it is touching the cover, but its not pushing against it. You can actually remove and install the cover without removing the switch, but you have to push down on the cover to install and remove it...

The cover, intake tube and MAF installed. Don't you just love a stock look?

Next up, the remote oil filter housing. These are the bolts on the right that they come with (5/16). I upgraded the bolts to the ones on the left (3/8), the housing is already drilled large enough to accept these...

I was very limited on where I could mount the housing, the hoses are only 30" in length, and its a little bulky. The only place that really was protected was right behind the bumper, so I made a bracket that ran right behind the bumper that mounted between the framerails...

Here it is mounted. I would have installed the filters, but Dave picked up the wrong filters (FL820S), the housing accepts FL1A style filters, so I'm gonna swap them out when I pick up the AC line tomorrow...

Next up, the kooling fans. After test fitting them in the truck, I pulled the radiator to get them mounted. I had these fans in SVT. The 3rd gen ranger and 1st and 2nd gen ranger/B2 core supports are slightly different. I was able to mount them flush with the top and bottom of the radiator in my ranger, but on this radiator, they hang over just a bit. I didn't care for this, but didn't really have a choice, so they were mounted hanging over the top and bottom equally...

I also reused the connector from the old fan setup, allowing quick removal if necessary...

I was able to install the radiator with the fans mounted to the radiator. Here is the clearance with the fans installed...

Next up the lower radiator hose. The stock lower hose fits the radiator, but the water pump end is slightly larger on the 5.0. So I decided to stretch the hose to fit the water pump. Here I'm stretching/molding the hose to fit it by using an exhaust pipe expander, I opened it up, then sat it in the sun for a couple hours. Didn't really get hot enough, so I used my heat gun and put some heat to it. I'm letting it sit overnight so it will hold the new size. My original plan was to cut it short, and use a reducer to connect the pipe to the water pump. Decided to use this method. The hose is in great shape, looked fairly new, so replacement will be a few years down the road. I may fab up a replacement setup so Dave won't have to mess with this later. Dave, PM me about this...

Next was hooking up the trans kooling lines. The upper connection was too tight and contacting the power steering pump bracket, so I installed a 90* fitting at the radiator to get more clearance, the lower fit without issues...

The trans end, however, was different. The line had a couple kinks in it that I didn't initially see when I got them from the junkyard, so I cut out the bad spot, which was near the end of the line at the trans, and flared and installed a union to join the line back together. This ensures a trouble free repair that can withstand the line pressure...

Flaring one of the lines...

Replacement piece installed...

Moving onto the upper radiator hose. Using the stock explorer upper, I trimmed off pieces off both ends...

Then installed the hose...

Almost. I also had to take a piece out the middle. I'll get a coupling to join the two halves back together. The loom thats installed protects the hose from rubbing the air intake tube, and since it's no longer in the same spot, it'll be used to cover the coupling, for cosmetic appearance...

And here is the engine bay as it sits. Only thing thats left is the overdrive switch, the driveshaft needs to be shortened and installed, the lower radiator hose installed, and the AC line installed. Once I install the correct oil filters and fill all the fluids, this will be ready for a first start...

SVT

 

[win]

Its amazing how tight things get with the 5.0. Cannot imagine trying to use any other FEAD yet I know its been done.

The BII is looking great, you've done an outstanding job on the challenge!

How big are the electric fans?