2.8 Engine Rebuild

[drgrcr]

A little over a year of gathering parts of ebay the engine in the Ranger is getting rebuilt. It was in fair shape, the bore was straight enough that it could have been honed and a rering would have put it back in shape. But....I wanted a little more spunk. So here is what it is getting,

.030 over bore

Decked the block to get the clearance .040

Cylinder heads, Found a set of 78 Mustang II heads (non exhaust cross over heads) moderate porting, larger 2.9 valves, milled too 38 cc's, added cooling holes for improved exhaust valve cooling.

New stock camshaft and lifters

Ported intake manifold

Took the engine apart and checked the cylinder head cc volume found 44 cc's that with .040 deck clearance, .050 head gasket thickness equated to 8 to 1 compression. New compression will be 9.5 to 1.

Replacement Speed Pro piston were .050 shorter than the original removed pistons, so when the block was bored I had the block decked .060, when the pistons were installed and the deck height checked again, it was found at .040...should have been .030. Be a little short of what I was wanting for the static compression ratio but I am mostly looking for improved fuel economy with a little upper rpm hp improvement.

I was concerned that after milling the block and manifold that I would have a drastic intake port misalignment, I had an old manifold that i cut the top part of the port off so I could see how bad the ports were mismatched, to my surprise every thing matched up. great!

If everything keeps going like it has been should have it back in the truck before Christmas. Stay tuned...

 

[jhammel85]

Looks and sounds great! I like seeing rebuilds of the stock motors

 

[wildbill23c]

Sounds pretty expensive to me LOL. I have an empty 2.8L engine block sitting on a pallet in my shed, that I was hoping one day of putting the guts in it and getting it running but as my life has gone it will still be sitting on that pallet after I die.

 

[small ranger]

Looks GREAT! But why a stock cam after all that work? I'm just asking, no harm intended

 

[drgrcr]

Stock camshaft....was $40 on ebay. I have been shopping ebay for over a year to keep the cost down. Machine work has been the big cost.

Some of the savings

TRW Pistons $60 (Speedpro)
TRW Rings $20
Timing Set $12 cost more for shipping....
Rod & Main bearings $40
Gasket Set $90 never did catch these for good price
Lifters $40
Valve's $80 this was for a full set of 2.9 valves

this is my second 2.8 build for my self, I have built several over the years but they were for customers and just a stock rebuild. I put one together for my son first car (truck) it had a Crower cam and headers, other than that it was a the same as this one. He drove that truck all through high school and 2 years of college. That truck took a beating....lol.
He broke the tranny twice (4 speed) after the second time told him if he broke it again he was getting a auto....

This one is a auto. It will be getting a 3.73 gear change this summer and a A4LD overdrive (with all the updates)
Ya I know...why? it is what I do. And I will drive this truck for a long time, it is great truck for parts chasing and an occasional road trip.

 

[jhammel85]

Nothing wrong with that at all. saving monday and working with what you have. Sounds good to me!

Is the transmission a refurb or did you just rebuild it?

 

[drgrcr]

The trans in it now is the 3 speed version of the A4LD. The A4LD overdrive that is going in needs rebuild, and there are several upgrades that I am gathering before it will be rebuilt.

The gears will be changed before the trans is swapped, I have them and the current 3.08 gear with the P22575R15 really kills the....fun.

And yes I will be rebuilding the trans.

As a added bit of info, for anybody changing cylinder heads from the truck heads to early style car heads. You have to get a set of plugs for a 73 Capri with a 2.8. The first set of plugs I got for the heads I am using were to short. The end of the plug was recessed into spark plug hole about 3/8'' so, I looked them up on Autozone web site and what I was sold was what was listed for a 78 Mustang II, but they are wrong. Started checking on their site and found the correct length with the 73 Capri. Wonder how many incorrect plugs were sold?

 

[small ranger]

cool. I was just asking cause I recently put the medium comp cam in my truck with stock pistons and offy intake, and the ruck runs really well. I definitely understand wanting to save a few $$$ tho

 

[drgrcr]

Engine is back in the truck, going together nicely, and then the installer (me) injured and old hernia repair.....ouch. So I enlisted my grandson to help finish it. Any minute now. Going to see a surgeon Monday.

 

[wildbill23c]

As you get older you realize that sometimes you just can't do things that seemed easy enough to do on your own earlier in life. Not to mention a great grandfather and grandson time as well.

Sounds like your rebuild is about ready for life here pretty soon.

 

[drgrcr]

It's alive! runs a lot better, will actually burn a tire when power torque it. Had a problem with a leaking front oil seal, it looked liked it caught on something and tore the seal. Remove the fan & fan clutch, fan shroud, belts, water pump pulley, and of course the pulley, popped the damaged seal out, used the Ford seal driver and put the new seal and it has been fine since....just one of those deals..

Next up is better muffler and tail pipe.

The idle quality is really nice, just sits there and purrs really smooth.

 

[kennyjames]

I had the bottom end rebuilt under warrenty cost $5460.00 the crankshaft alone was somewhere around the $1200 mark from memory good luck MO

 

[arizonadirtslinger]

How much did the machine work run I'm rebuilding my 2.8 soon hopefully I'm thinking of boring it .080 over and having the heads cleaned up I wanna see how much na power can be squeezed out of a 2.8

 

[drgrcr]

Machine work for cylinder heads
Valve guides $60
Harden exhaust seats $60
Valve job $80
Surface heads & cc $80
total $280

Block

Bore $80
Deck $100
Vat $60
Install cam bearings $40
$280

Total for machine work $560

Just remember it is a 2.8. It won't run like a V8, With that said I am very pleased with the way it runs. Mine has the dura spark conversion with a 1.08 carb. The carb has an electric choke system that works so cold starts are good and drive away are painless.

These little motors got a bad reputation because of the feedback carb. computer controlled distributor. If anything went wrong with the system the computer would set the system into a limp home mode and the power and fuel economy would suffer, and it didn't take much to fail it.

Good luck with your project!

 

[wildbill23c]

Machine work for cylinder heads
Valve guides $60
Harden exhaust seats $60
Valve job $80
Surface heads & cc $80
total $280

Block

Bore $80
Deck $100
Vat $60
Install cam bearings $40
$280

Total for machine work $560

Just remember it is a 2.8. It won't run like a V8, With that said I am very pleased with the way it runs. Mine has the dura spark conversion with a 1.08 carb. The carb has an electric choke system that works so cold starts are good and drive away are painless.

These little motors got a bad reputation because of the feedback carb. computer controlled distributor. If anything went wrong with the system the computer would set the system into a limp home mode and the power and fuel economy would suffer, and it didn't take much to fail it.

Good luck with your project!

I've had 2 trucks with the 2.8L V6 and overall haven't had much complaint mainly complaints toward the ford garage that couldn't work on it properly and messed up far more than they fixed. If I only knew then about the dura-spark when I had my 84 Ranger I'd still have that truck. However knowing it now I know that if something goes wrong with my 84 B2 how to go about fixing it. I also picked up a Ford Shop Manual for the 84 B2 off ebay for $24 so I have that nice reference book now as well.

Glad to hear you got your engine back together and running good. Hopefully it will give you many years of service now as well.