85 Ranger getting some teeth...

[85_Ranger4x4]

Yea, MANIFOLDS. Technicality... chock it up to more of a typo during a brain fart.

I'm still searching for how people got around the front driveshaft...

What's your projected date for dropping the motor?

As soon as the weather is decent enough to work outside again, probably start in sometime around March/April. I still have to pull the 2.8 too...

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

An operating room just opened up!

We have a bay at the shop open, if nothing else going to gut the existing powertrain and haul it home to put the new in this spring... hopefully things go well enough we can do it all here.

I noticed the other day when I moved the truck the lovely A4LD was leaving a bloodtrail in the snow, so it really is getting down to the wire to move on...

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

In pre-op, waiting to be prepped for the big surgery. Kinda sad, my usually tempermental engine behaved perfectly on the way over. Kinda almost sad to kill the thing I have nursed along for the past 10.5 years.

What I had to start with (minus the air filter housing obviously)

Looks kinda tough at the end of day one. Bumper, grille guard, alternator, battery, carb, radiator, power steering pump are all removed. Hard not to think "what have I done?" at this point.

Just got the airbox, throttle cable, temp/oil senders, shifters and t-case to go... then it goes into the main shop with the concrete floor to pull engine and transmission.

 

[baddad457]

The next thing you're going to wonder is "How will I EVER get this thing back together again?"

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

The next thing you're going to wonder is "How will I EVER get this thing back together again?"

I can see that one coming down the pipe...

 

[baddad457]

Ah, but the first time you fire off the newly built V8 that you built yourself (right ?) all those feelings will vanish. Like seeing your first born child for the first time.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Ah, but the first time you fire off the newly built V8 that you built yourself (right ?) all those feelings will vanish. Like seeing your first born child for the first time.

I hope so... but I didn't rebuild it. Pretty much just seals and gaskets It did get a new timing set, oil pump, pickup and driveshaft while I had the front cover/pan off though.

I did do it all myself though.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

I didn't get a as much time today as I had hoped. I did get the stuff I had removed stashed out of the way, and got back to work on it. I got the fuel line disconnected from the fuel pump, A/C / heater box removed and the starter out and the distributor out. Really all I can think of still holding it in is the shifters, mounts, driveshafts and t-case. Exhaust too, but it will be no match for a saws-all.

Not a whole lot of change picturewise after day 2.

And just to prove how stupid the PO was... that is the main starter wire BTW buried under the alternator and a bunch of speghetti in its natural state.

 

[COPPERHEAD85]

Ah, but the first time you fire off the newly built V8 that you built yourself (right ?) all those feelings will vanish. Like seeing your first born child for the first time.

Yep.....chub city baby!
Nothing like hearing that V8 with open headers crank for the first time.

 

[baddad457]

Yep.....chub city baby!
Nothing like hearing that V8 with open headers crank for the first time.

The most priceless engine firing for me was the second motor I built for the Ranger. This was a B303 cammed, ported E7 headed 302. My kid was about 15 at the time and a couple of his friends were over to help. When we fired it off and got the idle set, stuff started vibrating off the shop shelves from the pulses out the open headers. The look on those boys faces was priceless. None had ever heard a cammed, open headered motor idling before, much less witnessed the stuff shakin off the shelves from it.

 

[rednine4]

85 ranger 4x4, What did you end up using for the torque converter and flex plate? I have the exact same trans/housing and will be doing the same swap soon.. after reading page 8 of this post, I still was unclear on what you finally went with.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

85 ranger 4x4, What did you end up using for the torque converter and flex plate? I have the exact same trans/housing and will be doing the same swap soon.. after reading page 8 of this post, I still was unclear on what you finally went with.

The plan is a V8 C5 with a RBV 4wd tailhousing and a 164t flexplate.

 

[rednine4]

Thanks, any plans for which starter you will be using?

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Thanks, any plans for which starter you will be using?

Probably just a regular rebuilt Ford starter. The longblock is factory stock (not really high compression) and I don't have big plans with extravagant headers. I have a factory one I can use to test fitment... and if it actually works I might just run with it.

I haven't really got to that point yet, it is hard to tell what will or will not work for sure with everything still apart.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

I think most of the teardown is winding down. Driveshafts, t-case, exhaust are out. Pretty much just down to what little is physically holding the engine and tranny in the truck.

I can't say as I have improved the look of the truck much...

Got the exhaust out in one peice out the front, just kinda corkscrewed it over the axle. It is actually the factory exhaust out of a '97 4.6 F-150. The stupid looking tip was to direct the smoke/soot/whatever it wanted to spew away from the car parked beside me, which was usually my F-150.

I also got my carburetor today.