1996 2 door flareside TRX KILLER!

[Blmpkn]

Sweet!

Making the exhaust is pretty close to being the next order of business for the ol gal. The muffler ended up being a bit smaller than I figured it would be lol.. hope it doesn't end up being too loud.

There can be plenty wrong with a Ranger, but somehow or another, it always seems to drive,

Cliche AF but... they just don't make em like they used to!

 

[Blmpkn]

Biggest progress day so far probably.

Got the mid length header (mostly) installed, not the easiest job but not terrible. Plenty of clearance all around the job requires removal of the alternator bracket and a bunch of other nonsense to wiggle it in there.. really wish ford would of separated the ignition coil bracket from the alt bracket as where the coils mount was the only bit actually in the way... but it is what it is.

Wiggling the alternator bracket around to fit the header caused some sort of coolant fitting to lose its fitment and dump a bunch of rusty crap coolant everywhere..

Well figure that out next weekend. For now.. I'm happy.

 

[Blmpkn]

Oh yeah... how do you like the look of these coils? The metal bits on bottom that make contact the alternator bracket have definitely seen better days... they seem to be turning into biscuits...

Might explain the slight miss? I've never seen a set so terrible looking lol.

 

[superj]

Cool looking header

 

[Blmpkn]

Cool looking header

I really would of preferred some longtubes.. but everywhere I checked said they didn't expect to have any stock of them until september.. and I'm impatient lol.

Either way... im happy with what I got. Nice thick flange, equal length primaries, hardware seems decent.. and the price was right. Excited to hear it sing the song of its people once I'm done!

 

[racsan]

on the 2.3 (my 94 at least) there is a “T”ed fitting on one of the heater hoses right above the alternator where a temp sensors goes, those connections are prone to leaks. After I got mine to quit dripping antifreeze on the alternator I took a 6” or so length of 1-1/2” pvc, sliced it in half and then zipped-tied it to the bottom of that line so if it did start to leak on me again it would at least go one direction or the other before dripping and wouldn’t be getting into the alternator. I will be curious to see what a header does for a 2.3 , always wondered if it would be a improvement over a stock manifold.

 

[Blmpkn]

on the 2.3 (my 94 at least) there is a “T”ed fitting on one of the heater hoses right above the alternator where a temp sensors goes, those connections are prone to leaks. After I got mine to quit dripping antifreeze on the alternator I took a 6” or so length of 1-1/2” pvc, sliced it in half and then zipped-tied it to the bottom of that line so if it did start to leak on me again it would at least go one direction or the other before dripping and wouldn’t be getting into the alternator. I will be curious to see what a header does for a 2.3 , always wondered if it would be a improvement over a stock manifold.

I managed to put eyes on where it all dumped from.. quickly.. and with a 'ill figure that out later' attitude since I was so giddy about the header lol.

It was right near the very bottom of the alternator bracket. Water pump mabey?

As far as effectiveness of the header.. the limas seem to respond really well to changes with the exhaust/intake.. so long as you can deal with moving peak power further up the tach...

 

[Blmpkn]

Almost done collecting exhaust pieces.. almost. Still waiting for my 3" 45° elbow to show up but that should hopefully be it.. ooh.. need some new poly/rubber hangers... but yeah.. light at the end of the tunnel and all

Got lucky and found a donut flange kit on ebay for 60$ IIRC.. I would of liked to go with the fancier ball&socket setup but every one I found available was above 150$ no thanks.

what I envisioned as being a cheap exhaust has now run me $481 if anyone is curious at least itll never need replacing!

total spent so far on truck & everything else is $2,216. Hoping to be under 3k by the time it's honest-to-goodness road worthy.. it'll be close but I like my chances at the moment.

 

[scotts90ranger]

You're putting a fair amount of effort into things but have good plans! My current daily driver was technically totaled when I got it and it was road worthy for $600, with everything over the last 4.5 years I think I'm still under $2500 in it including totaling it again

Curious if you'll notice much difference with non restrictive exhaust, the Ranger manifold/header isn't really known to be too restrictive, I haven't put too much thought in it, I push for mileage not all out performance so mine doesn't go over 5k much, rarely even 4k...

 

[Blmpkn]

You're putting a fair amount of effort into things but have good plans! My current daily driver was technically totaled when I got it and it was road worthy for $600, with everything over the last 4.5 years I think I'm still under $2500 in it including totaling it again

Curious if you'll notice much difference with non restrictive exhaust, the Ranger manifold/header isn't really known to be too restrictive, I haven't put too much thought in it, I push for mileage not all out performance so mine doesn't go over 5k much, rarely even 4k...

That's not bad especially considering it was totalled.. again.. haha. Certainly beats the payment on a brand new bronco lol.

i would of liked to get it on a dyno to get a baseline before I started jacking with it.. but with the shape it was in when I got it I'm sure nobody would be willing to strap it to their machine

As soon as its road worthy I'll be finding a shop that's willing to waste their time on such a low-output rig though.. considering the miles it has on it I'll be happy if my modifications bring it back to its factory 114hp or whatever and probably dyno it a couple more times.. once more when I get a big cam put in it.. and then once it has a fresh motor (or at least fresh rings and a worked over head)

All it needs is 170whp to beat one of those dumb $100k TRX ram trucks down the 8th mile.. that's more or less my performance goal with the thing.. should be reasonably attainable. Then I can have myself a cheap laugh by getting a vanity plate for it that says TRX KLR those guys will LOVE that I'm sure.

 

[scotts90ranger]

Well, since it doesn't take anything to total anything anymore especially something 25 years old... when I first got it it had a bent I beam and a white door on a red rig and a blown rear slider so I was out $100 in parts and sold the white door for $30 at a $5 loss from the red one I bought . Second was just the fiberglass front thing with the headlights and a bumper, was out $300 on that... the rest has been tire size experimenting...

I like your plan, different goals but all in good fun! I'm contemplating adding a turbo to my '97 just cuz I could probably throw it together with what I have on hand, just to gain a little extra power and efficiency...

 

[Blmpkn]

Well, since it doesn't take anything to total anything anymore especially something 25 years old... when I first got it it had a bent I beam and a white door on a red rig and a blown rear slider so I was out $100 in parts and sold the white door for $30 at a $5 loss from the red one I bought . Second was just the fiberglass front thing with the headlights and a bumper, was out $300 on that... the rest has been tire size experimenting...

I like your plan, different goals but all in good fun! I'm contemplating adding a turbo to my '97 just cuz I could probably throw it together with what I have on hand, just to gain a little extra power and efficiency...

I had considered going the turbo route with this truck. It's easier than changing cams and crap.. cheaper too.. i just knew it would be a slippery slope for me lol. Don't wanna pay for 93 octane either

 

[Blmpkn]

Got my FART CAN placed & welded into the exhaust today.. and got the everything hanging at the height it needs to be

Got a hole drilled in the collector and a bung welded in for my pre-cat o2 sensor.. went a little wild with the welder though . I welded the bung to the header with the plug in it.. once it was cooled the plug wouldn't come out without an impact

I'm hoping that simply running a tap down my bunghole will work well enough... got no choice now but to find out lol. I'll lighten up on my trigger finger for the one I gotta burn in post-cat.

One more 45° elbow to kick it out the side behind the tire, putting the last bung in, a couple rubber hangers and the exhaust is DONE! Well... done until it doesn't leak oil everywhere.. once the mighty 2.3 keeps its oil to itself I'll wrap the header

Also removed the mechanical fan. Mo powa!

TRX killer coming along nicely

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

The tap should do the trick.

 

[scotts90ranger]

Yeah, your problem is that plug looks stainless, they gall when you look at them wrong... if MIG welding those bungs for the most part just leave them empty from my experience