CA legal 5.0 swap in 1987 Ranger advice needed

[alsalp]

So stick with OBDII then?

 

[Shran]

I'm curious why you can't do a Turbo Coupe swap. It's the same engine you have now. Could you not just do it and say that you added turbo parts to your factory engine? That's not even stretching the truth that much. I guess I'm just not sure how they'd even know what happened without being told the details.

As far as using an Explorer donor... I think using any V8 Explorer would involve about the same level of difficulty. I'm not real familiar with them but I seem to remember that the later years had better heads but more complicated electronics with PATS and whatnot.

 

[Snoranger]

I'm curious why you can't do a Turbo Coupe swap. It's the same engine you have now. Could you not just do it and say that you added turbo parts to your factory engine? That's not even stretching the truth that much. I guess I'm just not sure how they'd even know what happened without being told the details.

As far as using an Explorer donor... I think using any V8 Explorer would involve about the same level of difficulty. I'm not real familiar with them but I seem to remember that the later years had better heads but more complicated electronics with PATS and whatnot.

I believe (I’m not 100% sure, I don’t live in California so it doesn’t really matter to me.) the engine has to come from the same class vehicle. So the engine would have to come from a light duty truck. As long as it’s the same year or newer.

 

[Shran]

That is how I understood things too, also not in CA so not in-the-know. I just figured that since his Ranger has a 2.3 and the Turbo Coupe has a 2.3 and they're basically identical other than some internal changes, there would really be no way to tell that it's anything other than a factory engine with turbo parts added to it. EEC-IV doesn't report VIN numbers or anything to my knowledge so they would have to actually pull the kick panel and read the configuration tag to ever know that it has a Turbo Coupe computer installed. Are the smog guys really going to go that far?

I would also be curious to know why an F150 would not be considered a light duty truck. That would be the ideal candidate for this swap, really. Late 80's F150 harness would be an easy conversion. I'd just be concerned about all the other smog equipment though since a lot of those had smog pumps and all that garbage. If they'd let you use an F150, you could put a 351W in it............

 

[alsalp]

In addition to blowi

I believe (I’m not 100% sure, I don’t live in California so it doesn’t really matter to me.) the engine has to come from the same class vehicle. So the engine would have to come from a light duty truck. As long as it’s the same year or newer.

YES! Also it needs to visually stock. No turbos unless it came from a light duty truck. Cannot come from a passenger car. No power adders to the stock engine either.

 

[fastpakr]

Have you seen that in writing re not mixing light duty truck and passenger cars? I know you can't use powertrains out of heavier (non-passenger) vehicles because they have lower emissions requirements, but I can't remember seeing anything in the past about a truck not being able to use passenger car equipment.

 

[Josh B]

The 150 falls into the full size category

 

[Snoranger]

Have you seen that in writing re not mixing light duty truck and passenger cars? I know you can't use powertrains out of heavier (non-passenger) vehicles because they have lower emissions requirements, but I can't remember seeing anything in the past about a truck not being able to use passenger car equipment.

I just looked it up. It must be the same class based on GVW.

 

[alsalp]

Another question I have is when 5.0's are swapped into 4cyl twin I-beam trucks are heavier springs required? v8 100 lbs heavier?

 

[Dirtman]

Use 4.0 springs. 5.0 is not that much heavier than a 4.0 that you would notice. On a 2.3 definitely...

 

[alsalp]

Now that is useful! thanks

 

[87xlt5.0]

I have been running 4 cylinder front springs on 1987 5.0 extended cab Ranger for about 17 years with no problems.