After A 4 year Hiatus.... I'm about to be back, and have questions

[dasfinc]

It's been a long while since I was in the Ranger scene with my old truck:



But I'm picking up a low mile 2wd 99 extended cab with the step side bed on the cheap with a knocking 3.0 under the hood for an excellent price, and am going to line up a 99 donor explorer.





So I'm extremely familiar with the swap already, but the main issue that I never solved before parting out the project was the tuning options...

SCT was near useless and I used a 'sniper' tuner to get around the limitations at the time, but could never get the truck to stay in 3rd gear past ~5500 or so due to some kind of hard safety in the ECU.

Are there any tuners out there that have a good SCT baseline tune for us yet?

Also, I assume Torque Monster are the only header options still?

 

[win]

Headers are a major challenge.

Al's Headers may have shut down production of them, Ford Performance Parts headers are long out of production and OBX's copies of the Torque Monsters are nearly has hard to come by as the "real deal" from Al's.

There are rumors that Robert, the designer of the TM's is considering getting back into the game, but his availability was worse than Al's so that too might be a long shot.

All three options do show up on the used market, but that's a hit and miss, anything but a sure fire source.

 

[dasfinc]

Headers are a major challenge.

Al's Headers may have shut down production of them, Ford Performance Parts headers are long out of production and OBX's copies of the Torque Monsters are nearly has hard to come by as the "real deal" from Al's.

There are rumors that Robert, the designer of the TM's is considering getting back into the game, but his availability was worse than Al's so that too might be a long shot.

All three options do show up on the used market, but that's a hit and miss, anything but a sure fire source.

Does anyone have a reliable method of contact to Robert?

My inlaws own a machine shop, and I'd love to get a group buy together in a manner that could actually help amp-up production.

I've emailed OBX directly, but doubt I'll hear from them :-(

 

[dasfinc]

Welp; picked up the truck and the donor.



Donor is a 2000 2wd V8 with grey interior.

The Ranger is getting the drive line, front bumper, rear axle, and bucket seats out of the donor.

The Toothy grille is off of my old 1998!!!

 

[Conor Knoxx]

looks very similar to what I just started Dasfinc. What year is the Explorer? (I have the a 99 Explorer so far, but not the Ranger yet - though "2000" is my first choice.
I figure I'm going to be painfully slow, so I'll be watching your thread with great interest! lol
Are you converting to manual transmission as well?

 

[chvlfrk]

>>>>>>

Welp; picked up the truck and the donor.

Donor is a 2000 2wd V8 with grey interior.

==================
NICE find! Those 2wd 5.0 Expos are hard to find........What'd ya give for it if ya don't mind the askin?

 

[dasfinc]

Pulled the engine and trans and (Surprise) Transfercase today.

Truck has 2wd hubs and no front axles... Turned out it also has a front Diff and Xfer case............. Oh well, This means I'm going to manual swap instead of auto since I still have to source a trans.

 

[chvlfrk]

Hmmmm.....

Pulled the engine and trans and (Surprise) Transfercase today.
Truck has 2wd hubs and no front axles... Turned out it also has a front Diff and Xfer case............. Oh well, This means I'm going to manual swap instead of auto since I still have to source a trans.

===================
So the Expo is AWD, but somebody swapped 2wd hubs onto it? Strange!

Is it a true transfer case or a dummy?

Don't forget to snag the hood hinges off the Expo before you scrap it, makes for a nice mod on the Ranger, no more hood prop.

 

[dasfinc]

===================
So the Expo is AWD, but somebody swapped 2wd hubs onto it? Strange!

Is it a true transfer case or a dummy?

Don't forget to snag the hood hinges off the Expo before you scrap it, makes for a nice mod on the Ranger, no more hood prop.

The front diff is completely wrecked (makes awful noises trying to hand spin it, and the Xfer case input still spins both sides.

I think someone many moons ago had an AWD explorer with bad wheel bearings and a dying front diff with little money made an executive decision to go 2wd...

Thanks for the reminder!!! I'll pull those off right now!

I paid $675 for the truck, as it was actually a running and driving explorer with a V8 and leather.

Had I known it didn't have a 2wd tail shaft I probably would have offered another $100-150 less to be honest, but it gives me an excuse to do the M5odR2 swap. My wife is fully on board for that as she hates driving automatic.

I only paid $300 for the ranger and it only has 86k on it.

 

[2Krngr]

Awesome build and another manual swap, will love to see the progress..

Does anyone have a reliable method of contact to Robert?

My inlaws own a machine shop, and I'd love to get a group buy together in a manner that could actually help amp-up production.

I've emailed OBX directly, but doubt I'll hear from them :-(

I emailed OBX a while back and they did respond. They simply said "the headers are not available".

I'm not sure why, but it has to be either TM pursed an issue of them being copies, or they just didn't sell many at all.. And although there are droves of V8 explorers out there I bet they didn't sell many at all, so they canned it from their production.

The part number and link was pulled from the obx website earlier this year, and I doubt we will see anymore ever shipping from OBX...

I am just sticking with the oem cast ones for now as they are a little better than the oem flattened tube ones. I don't have any desire to make headers, the 2wd 98+ frame is real tight on the driver side, but I am open to trying some mustang or other headers that I could modify a bit to work, but pics are so deceiving when trying to get a feel if something might fit...

I saw on some other forums that guys were using these Southwest Speed universal swap headers in a ranger gt40p swap and they fit, but of course there were no pictures of them in a truck...

https://www.amazon.com/SOUTHWEST-HEADERS-260-351-WINDSOR-NOSTALGIA/dp/B019NQ5R54/?tag=959media-20

 

[dasfinc]

I actually heard Back from OBX, they said they were 30-90 days out because they were back order.

Side-note: Soooooon -

 

[2Krngr]

I actually heard Back from OBX, they said they were 30-90 days out because they were back order.

Side-note: Soooooon -

Wow, that's great news if they are indeed not actually discontinued!

What's the sizes and offset specs on those wheels?

 

[Blacksheep Josh]

I'm curious about the picture in the first post. Said it was a Supercharged 5.0? Which supercharger and how did you adapt it to the intake? Custom made plate or premade? Also wondering how you kept temps down.

Thanks!

 

[dasfinc]

Wow, that's great news if they are indeed not actually discontinued!

What's the sizes and offset specs on those wheels?

I'm not super optimistic about OBX coming back after asking around, I guess they've been 'coming back' for like a year...

I'm working with the Mfg. of the FRPP ones to see if I can't bring them back righ now actually. I've started a small Facebook group and will setup a store for swap parts as well, we've lacked a good vendor for these things forever!!!

The wheels are stock 2013 Mustang GT wheels, I'll have to run spacers, but they look pretty hot on the ranger IMO

 

[dasfinc]

I'm curious about the picture in the first post. Said it was a Supercharged 5.0? Which supercharger and how did you adapt it to the intake? Custom made plate or premade? Also wondering how you kept temps down.

Thanks!

Was the Explorer Express kit that has long since been out of production sadly.

I used a Taurus Efan and a 4 core rad and never had any heat issues thankfully.