'85 Ranger Restomod

[85_Ranger4x4]

Well anyway it did funeral stuff without missing a beat:



Been driving it and I think everything is going to stay together. Header collector leak persists but it is the side I am going to redo so it can just have a good time while it can.

So one thing I want to do is get the front efans to kick on when I turn the A/C on AND when the engine temp demands it. So it is either blow $300 on a efan controller or devise a series of relays to control the grounds of the efan relays (I have each fan on its own relay)



I snagged a relay block for all my other relays awhile ago, it didn't really fit how I wanted. But for this I think it will work great. I found a nice out of the way spot for it behind the driver side headlight, so I pulled the DS intake tube and overflow/washer bottle out and started prepping to get it laid in there there for real tonight.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Got the internals of the relay block wired up. Started fishing around with my existing efan wiring with the intent of reusing as much of it as I could. Kinda thinking I am pretty much going to start over. Everything is too short or not heavy enough for what I would prefer. Both fans are currently wired basically independently with their own relay and a shared trigger wire. Getting enough power to run both fans I kinda want a little heavier wire.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Got everything wired up plugged it in and threw power to it. Nothing. Anywhere. So I grabbed my testlight and got to poking around. Just nudging the back of the connector and I had power. So I looked closer:





So yeah, size does matter... thanks for the good work O'Reilly's. Both were boxed as my faithful CG31 pin.

So I redid it all and jumped the temp sensor:



And I threw power to the wire for the other A/C switch relay:



So for right now it is the same as it always has been, I need to tap into my A/C wiring to get signal power for my relay block. In that same motion I am going to try to capture power for an idle solenoid.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

After the head swap in started beautifully. Push in clutch, turn key and engine starts about as quick as it takes the starter drive to touch the flywheel.

After the relay install it sat for a bit, then I discovered I broke the oil line going to the oil pressure gauge and it sat for a bit more. So then I go to start it, starts hard, wants to flood, doesn't want to idle. Seemed to go thru fuel faster than usual too. So what the heck? I finally circle back to it tonight and see if maybe the choke is hung up or what the deal is.

Well thats a first...



I had only driven it maybe a hundred feet, checked coolant and filled the washer reservior while I was thinking of it so it wasn't warm by any means. Nothing got past that elbow and the drivers side snorkel was totally clear. Started nice after that again so we will see if my problem was my 5.0 trying to suck air thru a single 2.8 snorkel...

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Finally got it out for the first time in forever Friday night. With my sidekick with I put some gas it in and cruised the lake. They were having a Christmas in July thing and I thought he would get a kick out of the decorations and did. Had a guy yell "thats a Ford f'n Ranger!" like the cringy song at me which hit me as funny.

I cut out a new prototype for my grille guard the other day so I decided to stick the winch back on and see how plausible this is going look. Of course when I put the plate bracket back on it sagged down just enough it impeded anything going into my receiver so I pulled it back off and moved it up... with help.



Yeah, I broke it loose but he backed that screw out all on his own which made both of our day's.





Moved the vertical cutout for the bumper back 3/16" and knocked an inch off the bottom front corner and angled it about halfway back for the final design and I think that will do it.



Now I need to put my old grille guard back on so I can like tape a cutout to it and transfer the mouting holes for the headlight brush guards and get them added to the file too.

Cruise night was Saturday night, these guys were following me again...



Little guy switched over to me on the way home and it was fun. Cruising with the cruise on, A/C on and able to carry on a conversation at cruising speed was a hoot.

 

[BlackBII]

Cruise and AC in an old Ranger is the way to go! Are you making the grill guard to look like the STX ones?

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Cruise and AC in an old Ranger is the way to go! Are you making the grill guard to look like the STX ones?

Inspired by the factory winch mount but instead of being one welded assembly it will have bolt on headlight bush guards from the stx style grille guard and the winch will be receiver mounted so I can drop weight if I want to but it will kinda look like its all one piece when it is in there.

Better pics of the factory one here:

My 1985 4x4

My 1985 Ranger 4x4 with All original paint and interior, lunchbox locker, brush guard+winch, bed bar with lights, rear disc brakes, newer suspension components, and 64,600 original miles.

www.therangerstation.com

 

[BlackBII]

Awesome. With the headlight guards it'll look great

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Kinda getting scared I went for broke with the heads... and ended up broke.

Thing runs great, holds 18# of vacuum, smooth as a sewing machine, great power... can't ask for more that way.

Uses more oil than it did before though, I haven't had it on any trips or anything consistent but I don't think I would burn a quart a day like I was on the road before. A quart every 5-600 miles is a pretty low bar...

My wife pointed out it was smoking pretty good the other day. So I circled the wagons and got after it, #1 plug was dark but replacing the PCV with a "good" used one helped cold starting by a lot. My exhaust crosses, the the DS bank is the PS exhaust pipe and vice versa. Stupid sucker, I got it! Maybe the dual plane intake favors a cylinder for the PCV?

Idling down the hill into town on my way to work this morning I check my mirrors, its rolling smoke out of the left pipe. I can't see anything out of the right. Actually fired it up just now as I was getting the grille going (in the daylight for a change) and it was lightly smoking out of the left pipe as it was sitting there. Well crap.

Going to pull the carb tonight and see if the intake is full of oil, if so maybe my "good" spare pcv isn't so good after all. While the carb is off I can check to see if an intake bolt backed out or something too.

After that it gets ugly fast I think.

Pull the intake and see if I have a leak and it is pulling oil out of the lifter valley. Second best hope but with it smoking at idle and holding both good vacuum and a smooth idle the odds ain't great.

After that... I think I am down to rings. Dad is thinking my tight new valves are not playing nice with my less than tight/new shortblock and the rings ain't hacking it. Even to even I should have lost compression, e6 heads have bigger chambers than e7's

Of course we all know valve seals can shift too, so that merits inspecting too.

Befoer all this the only visable smoke would be when it was idling for really long periods, hot starting and when I downshifted on the highway. Classic valve guides/seals.

 

[Uncle Gump]

Just put a 2.9L in it...

Seriously... that sucks.

 

[Curious Hound]

All that work. Maybe it will be something simple.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Just put a 2.9L in it...

Seriously... that sucks.

2.8 is still on the corn crib. It had enough blow by it would push the dipstick out and spray the exhaust manifold with oil but it still didn't smoke much...

All that work. Maybe it will be something simple.

It seems like every year before the roundup something "oh my gawd" comes up and it turns out to be something minor.

I hope this is one of those. The thing feels so ready otherwise.

I pulled the pcv back out, it is covered in oil. Let it hang out and fired the truck up. No smoke. But this thing has made a hobby out of screwing with ne too.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

And after running it awhile longer after supper it started doing it again. So that rules out the PCV for this.

For giggles I plugged the PCV valve and stuck my vacuum gauge into the oil fill cap breather, about 2lbs of pressure all the time. I couldn't get it to show any vacuum. By no means replicating cruising down a hill at 50mph but it is the best I can do in my driveway. Kinda rules out the intake leak.

Getting down there and soaking it in... I am not totally positive it is oil smoke. Smells more rich than anything? If so I have an app for that. Smoke is a nice non committal gray color. I do know it isn't coolant.

Wouldn't it be kinda funny if the prior PCV fixed the oil burning and left me chasing my tail with it running rich...

Dang I wish I had a Sniper, and while I am at it a crate motor too.

Not going to commit to anything but rich sounds better for the night than the alternative.

In other news the parts to reroute my exhaust have an ETA of saturday...

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Definitely oil smoke.

Will probably jump from 10w30 to 10w40.

Will slip off the valve covers again and check to make sure a seal or three didn't wander off on me, PITA with the double springs because I can't see the seals very well at all.

After that I might as well throw intake gaskets at it in between there and hope I don't end up worse off than I am now. I fought coolant leaks the last time I did this.

I did get to thinking, when I first did the swap I did have an internal intake leak. The oil filter relocator setup was a mess with leaks for awhile in the begining so there was no good way to track oil usage. I don't remember it smoking at all but it held good vacuum but leaked enoughbit pinged under a load. I also lived in town and rarely ventured in the country, even with a 3spd I don't have as positive engine braking as I do now either. So I really can't hold the good vacuum to mean anything.

Nothing else I am out $20 and if it works I won't know if it is the intake gasket or thicker oil.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Decided to pull the carb off to check for oil in there and maybe peek around a corner to a intake port or valve.

Kind of a bust, no smoking gun. It would be well drained but the intake was wet and just smelled of fuel. Nothing gooey like oil. Didn't think there would be but there is only one way to find out. Couldn't see around a corner to anything and I don't have a borescope so that mission was a bust too.



But... what the heck?!



x2



Can't really see it in the pics but it looks like the gasket totally missed the port. It didn't in theory but it kinda did. For some reason the E6 heads have a pocket above the port so there is no way that gasket could seal the exhaust crossover. My old E7 heads do not have this pocket.

E6 heads



The top of the gasket just straddles that pocket so it can bridge an exit for the exhaust crossover. Kinda thinking this may be the weird exhaust leak...



As I was poking around my E7's most of the old intake gasket was still stuck to them, the hole for the crossover was eroded pretty bad for no more miles than they had on them and I very well could just be seeing what I want to see but the bottoms of the intake ports look kinda soggy. Was my old setup sucking oil too? Very well could just be fuel too, hard to say.





Anyway, I don't really like the idea of my intake manifold having two drains straight into my exhaust exactly right beside the carb so intake gaskets are now beyond debate, they gotta be replaced.

I stuck the carb back on and I can feel the exhaust leaking on both sides.

Shoulda caught it but I gotta do everything in the dark of the night, I doubt I was on the top of my game. Right after I put the intake on last time I learned about blocking the stupid crossover and it is supposed to help hot starting and I kicked myself at the time for not thinking about that while I was there. I see there are intake gaskets that don't have holes for that.

And I think I am done with Ford Racing intake gaskets.