3.0 sho in 4x4 99 ranger

[14TR]

Now that I could see it was sitting where I wanted, I put the exhaust manifolds back on. Stock SHO manifolds but swapped left to right. As you can see they fit quite well. Tight, but still plenty of clearance near the steering shaft, which was my biggest concern. The engine mounts on the chassis side are still on in these pics, but they are going and I’ll fabricate custom mounts right from the chassis to the block, using some poly bushings. Before we get there, I’ll now remount the trans and transfer case, and see how far off the trans mount now is from where it was stock. My guess is the trans mount holes just need to go back an inch. That’ll be fine as we can adjust the mounting holes. If it’s not too much distance, we can get away without modifying the driveshafts either.

once that’s all mounted together, we can measure for the mounts and fabricate them in place. I still have work to do on the engine itself, so once that’s complete the engine is coming back out anyway

 

[pjtoledo]

I would put a spreader bar on the chains to get the load more vertical at the bolts.
I fabed a couple plates using 2 bolts each and bent to provide a vertical loop.

it will be interesting to see where the tranny needs moved to, front or back.

 

[14TR]

I have a load leveler for the lift but for the life of me I can’t find it. My garage has been a mess for months now. Just too much crap in too small of a garage,

 

[98SHOanger]

i left the stock configuration on exaust manifolds had plenty of room for custom y pipe to hook into original ranger exaust system but my engine sits up higher and forward starter is easy accsessable .. i would recomend getting transmission hooked to motor before making your final decision on where to mount motor

 

[14TR]

Absolutely. Trans got hooked up the other day and the engine reinstalled. The previous pics were just to see if it was possible to get the engine to sit where I wanted regardless of a transmission.

 

[14TR]

But as it turns out, I was able to cheat on this a little lol. As I’ve mentioned several times before, I’m not encumbered by the need to have the intake flipped etc on account of the truck being race only. So I knew I was going to cut some portion of the firewall to facilitate the throttle body and at least some portion of the intake peeking through. Well, I figured if I have to box it in by means of a “doghouse”, I might as well take advantage of that and get everything accessible and have the engine right where I want it

 

[14TR]

The engine is being supported underneath with wood blocks for the moment to ensure it’s level and fairly centered (the factory engine is not truly centered, it’s not supposed to be). I have the trans mount crossmember in, but not the mount itself. This configuration pushed the engine and trans back approximately 1.5” which is perfectly ok with me. I have enough room to play with on the driveshafts as it sits so I don’t anticipate needing to shorten or lengthen them either. Now the next step is fabbing the engine mounts and the trans mount.

 

[14TR]

Part 3 is up!

 

[14TR]

Not a lot new this week after getting that last video up, but I did powder coat one of the valve covers as a test for what I wanna do color scheme wise for the engine. Didn’t turn out perfect, but I can live with it

 

[14TR]

Quick update as I haven’t made much progress lately. I got up to my nephews house where the parts SHO is (the 3.2 auto I referred to earlier in the thread). I was able to get it to fire up by removing the fuel lines at the engine and swapping in a temporary portable fuel setup I put together. I checked the oil first of course, but other than that, the engine fired right up! Revved nicely, and as far as I can tell over a loud exhaust leak (the entire under car is rotted, so that includes the exhaust)no odd noises etc coming from the engine!

This is good news as it means while the half torn apart 3.0 that sits in the ranger now is great for mocking up the mounts etc, I can then drop in the 3.2 with barely any modifications at all and have the ranger running and moving under its own power! A small update, but progress just the same!

 

[superj]

Nice

 

[14TR]

A little tease

 

[14TR]

I have a race in two weeks, and a Ranger that’s not running yet!

but some progress has been made at least. The 3.2 has been pulled from the rotted parts SHO. I ran it for a few minutes prior to the pull, so I know it runs, and seemingly well! I swapped out the stock steering column for a cheapy race column from Speedway Motors. It came DD and the Ranger column is single D, so I simply ground down the one side and made it fit. My larger concern with the column was mounting it rigidly, so I came up with the idea of making brackets to replace the tiny ones that bolt to the collar that comes with the race column. I made them significantly larger so it allowed them to mount to muffler clamps which attach it to the roll cage bar that crosses the firewall. The bracket then provides a several inch drop via slots so the angle of the wheel can be adjusted once I get everything in place. They came out a little uglier than I hoped, but I had to bend them with a sledge in the vise rather than in the brake as I had intended, but it’ll do the job just fine, and once the aluminum plate dash is back on no one will see it anyway.

 

[14TR]

Didn’t make the race at last weekend, but did attend just to spectate. I have two more races to aim for. The last weekend in August, and the middle of September. With any luck these should be doable. Here’s a little update

 

[bobbywalter]

keep going!!