3.0 sho in 4x4 99 ranger

[1991 Blue danger ranger]

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

man the green powder coating is amazing! just read your entire thread and i am very impressed with this build, suuuuper cool. is the sho motor from a taurus? and if i might ask, how much is it to powder coat things? im hoping to do a supercharged 4.0 sohc swap into my 91 4.0 ohv, and a powder coating job would be amazing for the supercharger & valve covers. tthanks!

 

[14TR]

man the green powder coating is amazing! just read your entire thread and i am very impressed with this build, suuuuper cool. is the sho motor from a taurus? and if i might ask, how much is it to powder coat things? im hoping to do a supercharged 4.0 sohc swap into my 91 4.0 ohv, and a powder coating job would be amazing for the supercharger & valve covers. tthanks!

thank you for the compliments. The engine came from a wrecked SHO my buddy had at his shop 10-15 years ago. He pulled the engine before junking what was left of the car. The powdercoating is something I did myself. Several years ago I bought one of the cheapy powdercoating guns from harbor freight and a free electric oven that my nephew was throwing away when he remodeled his kitchen. I’ve had other things powdercoated in the past by professionals and had good experiences, but it was pricey. DIY has produced results that are between 90-100% as good and it obviously costs far less. I think 1lb of the neon green powder cost me $25 with shipping.

 

[14TR]

I had to order a Chiltons manual on EBay hoping it contained the actual wiring schematics for the right year(s) SHO and shockingly, it actually had them! So harness is in the midst of a wire diet. I also decided to raise the engine and push it forward slightly. I liked the lower center of gravity, but this location allows me to not have to modify driveshaft length front or rear and reuse the stock trans mount without modification. It also means my design for engine mounts have to be reconfigured, but it’ll be worth it. Hoping the engine front to rear tilt comes out ok, as a slight backward tilt will be necessary.

 

[14TR]

Got the passenger mount mocked up and the driver mount in cad but ran out of time to get it cut out. Anyway, here’s some pics of the passenger side mount going together

 

[14TR]

Both engine mounts 100% done. Now the engine, trans, transfer case, and both driveshafts bolt up 100%. Any fabrication for the drivetrain is completely done! Thank god lol

 

[14TR]

Finally was able to get the remote oil filter setup together. The biggest issue was, believe it or not, finding a threaded male union that is M20x1.5 on both sides.
I ended up having to order a hydraulic bulkhead connector for $30 with shipping. Cut off the long side, clean up the thread that I cut, then drill out the pass through hole as it was only about 3/8”. I took it up to 1/2” which is greater than or equal to the smallest orifice in the fittings/filter head anyway. Once that was done, the hoses were routed to the remote filter head location on the driver side inner fender. This is a good spot as there will be some protection from flying rocks etc provided by the inner fender itself. It also give enough vertical clearance I can get a larger than stock filter in there such as an FL1A or larger

 

[14TR]

A little sneak preview

 

[14TR]

Been concentrating on transmission control for the 4R44E. There are provisions in the SHO ECU to handle the shifting that I’m fairly confident could be simply wired into the Ranger transmission, but I know without a custom tune there were complaints as to the shift strategy even in stock SHO applications, never mind in this Ranger swap.
So I developed a simple “manual” electronic shifter for the trans using an arduino setup. I bench tested it with a few leds in place of the shift solenoids, and it worked flawlessly. Biggest issue was writing the code, but I have a LITTLE experience using arduino so it wasn’t too too bad.

So this will be stand alone from the engine. No feedback regarding RPM, TPS, etc. so no failsafes at this point, but think of it as an old school auto trans with a full manual valve body, just you’re shifting with a button on the steering wheel instead of moving the shifter. Line pressure is controlled by a small potentiometer on the dash, though I imagine anytime it’s racing it’ll be set at or near 100% and left there. I’ll get up a video soon

 

[SenorNoob]

I have often considered the same thing. I think an automatic with manual control would offer the best of both worlds. Plus how hard would be at that point to make it paddle shift?