Kyle M's Ranger Rebuild

[Kyle M.]

Thanks everyone!

Looking great! you decide to do the shortened bed? i didn't see it in the posts but i may have skipped past it.

Thanks! I am going to bob the bed, I think I will dig it when it is done.

 

[Bray D]

 

[Iron Ranger]

For the tranny crossmember, how about making a fresh one out of 1"x3"x1/8" square tubing? It's actually really easy and even easier now that you have it bolted to the bottom of the frame rather than the outside bushings.


Either way, very cool!!

 

[Kyle M.]

Yeah, IDK yet, we will see what I come up with.

Anyone know what a good frame height is to run 35's...I wanna set ride height so I can start on my radius crossmember. I was thinking 25" at the lowest point, too high?

 

[Bray D]

Mine's at 23. You know what it looks like/how it performs.

 

[Kyle M.]

Got my X cab frame looking pretty lonely...

got a HUGE nasty mess going on....need to do some scrappin

And slid the axle under the truck....

Gonna get the motor and rear axle in this weekend, then on to the radius arm crossmember. As far as ride height, I'm gonna put the rear axle on, then level the frame and call that a starting point.

Thanks for lookin!

 

[fx2prerunner]

lovin the progress

 

[Bray D]

Eff yes.

 

[Kyle M.]

Thanks guys! I don't wanna dissapoint!


Bray, hows your build coming? Wonderin if you put on your fender flares yet.

 

[Bray D]

Nope haha. I held em up there and didn't like how it would look. To cover up the factory holes, I need to mount the flares to where there would be 1 to 1.5" of fender that would need to be cut. I like my wheel gap as it is now. I'd be more willing to put them on if I got some 37's or something.

I've still got the flares though, I guess I'll put em on if I start getting tickets for it (I've gotten 2 warnings).

Got my bender put together. Need to build a rear shock hoop so I can lower my rear end a bit, its got a slight rake now. I've also got material to build another crossmember and a t-case skid. Rear traction bar will mount to that new crossmember. I'm hoping to do that stuff in the next month or so.

Its hard to work on it when everything works so well haha. We're hitting the Badlands again on Aug 14th and 15th.

 

[Iron Ranger]

I know I've said it already a couple times, but I gotta try one last time......................



























V8 swap? You're at the perfect point to do it and your very broad and very helpful knowledge of Mustang motors would do the trick. ???

 

[Kyle M.]

I know I've said it already a couple times, but I gotta try one last time......................



























V8 swap? You're at the perfect point to do it and your very broad and very helpful knowledge of Mustang motors would do the trick. ???

LOL, very tempting, but it just isn't in the budget right now and my motor still runs great...maybe next year!

 

[Iron Ranger]

Gotcha!!! I'm just saying that with the engine bay 100% exposed, it would make it a lot easier.........

And to all of you out there who is swapping a mustang EFI 5.0 into your truck, Kyle here has a bunch of knowledge about the inner workings of the EFI. He helped me with mine and it paid off!!

 

[Bray D]

NOOO! Don't do the v8 swap. You've got one where it belongs, in your Moostang. Big engine = big trans = big t-case = big axles. All just for a larger tire that will allow you to do the 5% of obstacles that you can't do on a small tire rig. Not worth it IMO.

 

[fx2prerunner]

V8 swap is just for the wow factor, most (not all) guys with a V8 are not making any more power than the 4.0L