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Hi all, I'm a long-time lurker on these forums, but I just started posting recently. I was digging into some old saved data on a custom one-off SHO V6-swapped Ranger GT that Ford was showing off in late 1989, and I ran into some questions from way back that I'm hoping someone can help with.
First question is: all of the data I've seen in the past has Ford placing the intake plumbing entering the engine's runners near the firewall. Every picture I've ever seen shows that, but I ran across a Facebook group with some scanned older magazines, and lo and behold, one unidentified picture shows a whole different setup, where the intake plumbing enters the runners at the front of the engine. The truck is also missing the "Ranger GT" decal at the top of the windshield. You can match up the windshield wiper arm motor, the build plate, and some random tubing in between, enough so that you can tell you're looking at the same Ranger engine bay in both photos. Not sure what magazine it's from -- any ideas? Any old-timers out there with memories to share about this?
Interestingly, the September '89 Sport Truck article, one of the most in-depth I've seen on this truck, has this to say, "In a SHO Taurus, the V-6's powerband is one big sweet spot, giving silky acceleration right up to 7000 rpm. In the Ranger, the engine is a little balky below 2500 rpm, comes on like mad between 3000 and 5000 and starts to cough above the five-grand mark. The engineers aren't sure what's at foot yet, but they suspect either the induction or fuel systems. Once the engine is dialed in, the Ranger could be even faster." Maybe they tried a front-fed approach at first, when the first photos were taken, and had to go to back-fed when all of the other photos were taken, or the other way around?
The group, called the "Ranger GT Club", can be found by searching Google for "sho ranger" and looking under image results.
Second question is: the same Facebook group has a scanned blurry photo of a single-page article I believe is from Super Ford Magazine, circa 1989-1990, entitled "Wild Thing". Can anyone out there identify for sure what month/year it's taken from? I've looked at the available online subject indices and Ebay listings but have come up empty. I can see it's by longtime Ford writer Donald Farr, and the byline is signed "SF", but that's all I can make out.
Full disclosure, I've posted this to other forums elsewhere to see what kind of info I can come up with.
Thanks everyone for any help,
Bob
First question is: all of the data I've seen in the past has Ford placing the intake plumbing entering the engine's runners near the firewall. Every picture I've ever seen shows that, but I ran across a Facebook group with some scanned older magazines, and lo and behold, one unidentified picture shows a whole different setup, where the intake plumbing enters the runners at the front of the engine. The truck is also missing the "Ranger GT" decal at the top of the windshield. You can match up the windshield wiper arm motor, the build plate, and some random tubing in between, enough so that you can tell you're looking at the same Ranger engine bay in both photos. Not sure what magazine it's from -- any ideas? Any old-timers out there with memories to share about this?
Interestingly, the September '89 Sport Truck article, one of the most in-depth I've seen on this truck, has this to say, "In a SHO Taurus, the V-6's powerband is one big sweet spot, giving silky acceleration right up to 7000 rpm. In the Ranger, the engine is a little balky below 2500 rpm, comes on like mad between 3000 and 5000 and starts to cough above the five-grand mark. The engineers aren't sure what's at foot yet, but they suspect either the induction or fuel systems. Once the engine is dialed in, the Ranger could be even faster." Maybe they tried a front-fed approach at first, when the first photos were taken, and had to go to back-fed when all of the other photos were taken, or the other way around?
The group, called the "Ranger GT Club", can be found by searching Google for "sho ranger" and looking under image results.
Second question is: the same Facebook group has a scanned blurry photo of a single-page article I believe is from Super Ford Magazine, circa 1989-1990, entitled "Wild Thing". Can anyone out there identify for sure what month/year it's taken from? I've looked at the available online subject indices and Ebay listings but have come up empty. I can see it's by longtime Ford writer Donald Farr, and the byline is signed "SF", but that's all I can make out.
Full disclosure, I've posted this to other forums elsewhere to see what kind of info I can come up with.
Thanks everyone for any help,
Bob
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