'85 Ranger Restomod

[85_Ranger4x4]

Ripped the exhaust pipe to-be-replaced out of it.



I splurged on the header reducer and snagged one that already has a bung for an O2 sensor in it in case I ever sneak up on a Sniper or similar down the road. Most only require one sensor to operate. Part hoarder coworker at work had a couple plugs that come in new cats stashed away and was kind enough to share one with me.



I need to get the one end of the pipe swelled (Hedman and Walker has different tape measures apparently) and it took all sorts of contortions to get to get the pic so everything isn't exact how I want it but this is what I am going for. Exhaust is about an inch ahead of where the boot will go for the front driveshaft with good clearance.



So yeah, it may or may not need an engine but it just might have functional 4wd without a hour long front driveshaft wrestle session.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Got to thinking, it is going to be a bit while I run back and forth piecing the exhaust together, while I don't have gaskets there is more to swapping intake gaskets than just swapping intake gaskets so I attacked that tonight.

Seems like I just left this party...



#1 did have the weakest seal, the gasket did have what looks like a good crush though.



Intake didn't have any signs of oil, valve looks the same as the rest... no real smoking gun anywhere. I only ran maybe two tanks of gas thru it so it didn't get a ton of run time and it was cold (aka not smoking) when I backed into the garage. BUT I wiped my finger on the bottom of the port, turn up your smell-o-vision because only that port smelled like oil.



Very scientific? Not really. None of the others smelled of oil though.

Exhaust leak doing exhaust leak things.



All the stress cracks in the quality casting in the bottom runner going to #1 are highly encouraging too.



Boss guy in charged stopped by to check on progress, he is missing his truck. Its been "sick" a lot lately and it is bothering a guy...

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Kinda getting over headers.

I literally have 4 hours wrapped in trying to get the ball socket pointed a direction that will work AND trying to get it to seal. Shine a light beside it and see if I can see light on the inside. Well it feels ok, just what the heck is going on up there? So out comes the camera phone...



Oh, well that ain't gonna work. Loosen the nuts wiggle it over here so it seals and whoops, too much... the pipe hits something. Loosen and wiggle it over there... well now it isn't sealing again.

Rinse the mud falling off the truck into a guy's eyes and repeat.

Anyway, I got it marked.



Driveshaft looks a little bigger than it is, it has two layers of huge heatshrink on it from my failed attempt to seal it back in '19 when this debacle started. If I gotta dimple too it so be it, this is pretty much as good as it is going to get.

Installed that stupid thing 4 times tonight.

 

[BroncLander]

Great build. Love how you took it right from the very beginning

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Intake is back on, carb is back on, dizzy is stabbed in it, coolant is back in it, all the electrical/vacuum stuff is hooked up and the first three segments of the exhaust are welded. Even got wild and stuck the grille guard on it.

If it had a full exhaust I would have started it tonight... soon.

And I am not crazy about the Mr Gasket intake gaskets. They have no spine to them and like to sag plus being for "stock" heads the ports are plenty big. PITA to get them to stay put, I am hoping I fixed the smoking and didn't just shift it to a different cylinder.



Thinking about it tonight I might start going from the rear to the front for the exhaust next to minimalize things get out of alignment

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Its together and it runs.

Runs better than it ever has... as long as I have the vacuum advance on the ported vacuum port. If not idle is all over surging, exhaust sounds weird and the cruise surges like heck.

So we gots a vacuum leak. Sprayed everything I could with brake cleaner and couldn't get any signs of anything. So either the intake gaskets that wanted to sag sagged on me and screwed it up or the carb mounting gaskets were reused one time too many and is leaking on the back where it is hard to spray with a dying can of brake cleaner.

So I am going to throw a pair of gaskets at it tomorrow. If they don't fix it I am not sure how big of a hurry I will be to do intake gaskets again...

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Blew $20 on carb mounting gaskets to no avail.

The thing runs like a sewing machine with the advance hooked to ported vacuum. Set at 9* base and has 30* advance at 2200 rpm on ported vacuum so I can't really say something is wrong with the advance. I can plug the hose and it runs perfect, plug it into he dizzy and it is all over the place.

I did cut about 3/4" of the brake booster hose off. Hard to say what if anything changed but the cruise works tonight.

Gonna ponder on this. It has great power, runs 190*, holds a solid 18lb of vacuum and idles perfect as it is. There is a different sound to the exhaust but I read blocking the crossover can cause that.

 

[Josh B]

Awesome man

 

[BroncLander]

A propane torch, with fishtank tubing connected and finally a 2ft piece of brakeline will allow you to poke around with non ignited gas and source the vac leak. It's been the most helpful thing I started doing for finding vac leaks.

And just thinking outside the box for a second, are there any vac operated systems that aren't part of the fuel/air delivery system? Perhaps there's a vac leak that isn't affected by sucking in combustible gas?

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

I had everything capped but the brake booster and either ported of manifold vacuum ports as I bounced between the two of them.

On ported everything seems legit. Smooth idle wherever i want it, great vacuum, carb adjusts perfect, vacuum operated cruise works etc.

 

[Curious Hound]

I had everything capped but the brake booster and either ported of manifold vacuum ports as I bounced between the two of them.

On ported everything seems legit. Smooth idle wherever i want it, great vacuum, carb adjusts perfect, vacuum operated cruise works etc.

You're in over my head, man. Make sure your TPS has good voltage, IAC isn't sticking and clean the MAF sensor.

 

[Blmpkn]

You're in over my head, man. Make sure your TPS has good voltage, IAC isn't sticking and clean the MAF sensor.

He has a MAP sensor cmon..

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

You're in over my head, man. Make sure your TPS has good voltage, IAC isn't sticking and clean the MAF sensor.

I can't find any of that, is that the problem?

He has a MAP sensor cmon..

What does the GPS have to do with anything?

 

[Uncle Gump]

I can't find any of that, is that the problem?

it appears it IS the entire problem...

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Well I checked my teardown pics, I had the vacuum lines how they are now before I ripped the heads off. So that good.

The new carb gaskets and trimming the booster hose fixed the vacuum issue and the idle mix screws work perfectly as does the cruise.

Extra exhaust noise in one exhaust pipe... I think one of the 11yo glasspacks is giving up on me. I wonder if the crossover in the intake softened it so it wasn't as noticeable before. The pipes did sound different especially after the last roundup but they are routed different too. Sounds weird at idle which had me scared I forgot a chunk of Emory paper in a intake port... but it runs awesome and flat out sounds like a blown glasspack in full battle rage.

Drove it to town yeasterday, it was like 85*, instead of running 200* like usual it was running 190* (with a 190* stat) so I like that.i noticed screwing with the engine just sitting and idling it rarely kicks the efans on.

I dont think we cured much with smoking... which is ok. I have gained leaps and bounds in other areas, I am happy so far. Needs more testing and commuting is hard to calculate vs straight highway running.

Car show tomorrow...