Family Heirloom

[YungCholesterol]

Hey all!

Fairly new to forums in general but recently inherited my late father Ron's '88 Ranger XLT and am planning to put some work into her over the coming months as finances allow.

She's got a leaky 2.9 / auto and not much has been done on her save for spark plugs and oil changes. Was Grandpa Howard's grocery getter bought new and probably sat for 5 years in between the 80k he put on her and the 99k currently on the Odo.

I like the sound (literally + figuratively) of an SN95 5.0 swap but I am both untrained/inequipped for welding or fab so I welcome any insight or tips on powertrain swaps and potential snares. My goal is just to honor the memory of Howard and Ron in restoring and upgrading the family truck, and I'm open to ideas!

Peace and blessings

 

[RonD]

Welcome to TRS

Looks like a nice clean 1988 Ranger
Transmission is an A4LD just FYI

A 1996-2001 Explorer V8 swap doesn't require welding or fabrication, but alot of wrench work

1990-1994 4.0l swap is much less work and you can use current transmission as is
2.9l and 4.0l used the same block

But I would just keep it stock, if you do pull the heads replace with the 1989-1992 version, the 1986-1988 tended to fail
Requires different valve covers

The 2.9l lifters were fed oil thru the inside cam bearings so as the cam bearing aged, bigger gaps, the oil pressure to the lifters/rockers went down so they tended to "tick", doesn't hurt anything at all just annoying, lol

A4LD was used thru 2011 as a 4R and then 5R version in Rangers, so a good reliable automatic, but it IS an automatic, so when there is an issue it tends to be a BOAT(bust out another thousand), lol
So check fliuds and change filter when it needs it, or just before it needs it(crystal ball is handy )

 

[YungCholesterol]

Welcome to TRS

Thank you for your time, man! I will most certainly use this info in my decision-making

 

[dvdswan]

Sharp looking truck. Welcome to the site.

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

First, welcome to the site. Second, about the only time a 2.9 and A4LD don’t leak is when there’s no oil/fluid in them, lol. Comes with the territory (there are ways to remedy this). Properly cared for, it will do well.

So, there’s many ways to go about this…

Lot of it depends on how involved you want to get or your skill level. Or your willingness to improve your skill set and/or your budget. I’ve gone multiple different ways with my trucks. My 88 I’m keeping the 2.9 and auto, but doing upgrades to engine, transmission and the overall truck. Keeping it stock-ish, I’m calling it a resto-mod. My 89 I lifted (5” suspension and 2” body, 35” tires, etc) and did the 4.0 OHV swap. My one 2000 is getting the Explorer 5.0/auto/AWD swap and being built sleeper-ish. My 92 that got wrecked I was just tweaking a little, did some transmission stuff and was trying to decide how involved I wanted to go with it, but I was enjoying what the transmission work did for me. That was basically a shift kit (Transgo) and a few valve body mods (I would highly recommend going through the trouble with the A4LD, made a huge difference and it’s more an exercise in patience and cleanliness than anything).

So really you need to decide exactly what you want out of the truck, or at least a general direction. Do you want to keep it as original as possible? Do a resto-mod where you upgrade things but keep it as close to stock as possible? Do you want it lifted? lowered? Go fast or just cruise? Budget friendly or pull all the stops? Something you’re willing to take time to build or something you want done right away? All of that and more plays in to deciding what to do. Most of my projects I spent a couple years collecting parts. Most of them I did a few things early on to get it moving in the right direction and then spent time collecting what I needed and enjoying the truck as-is at the time.