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Range98
Well-Known Member
Okay so I did this swap awhile ago and have since sold my truck 
so I'm posting this before I forget any details of the all the mods I did. Also I'll be starting a new thread for my next project which will be a ground up build of an 88 ranger. But ultimately I'm hoping to answer questions to others possibly doing a similar project. First off I'll run through everything I did and I'll post some pics after my rant. So first off my truck was a 1998 ford ranger xlt with the stepside bed. My donor vehicle was a 1997 mountaineer.I rebuilt and cleaned the block, ported the heads and manifolds and replaced all the gaskets and seals. Now for the exhaust... I didn't have room in my budget for torque monster headers and I wasn't going to choke my engine with those stock explorer tube headers so with the help of my brother we fabricated tube headers using 1 and 5/8 inch tubing and into a 3 in collector. We ran the exhaust out through the wheel wells and then outside of the frame rails and bologna sliced them off in front my back tires. Now I know many of you will get on my case but I deleted the four wheel drive components on my truck. I dropped the front diff and switched the front spindles to 2wd explorer spindles. I bought a 2wd tailhousing and tail shaft and switched those in and then had a new driveshaft made. My followed the tech article for the swap for the most. Helped a lot overall. I'll gather all my pics I have and will post them in a little bit.
so I'm posting this before I forget any details of the all the mods I did. Also I'll be starting a new thread for my next project which will be a ground up build of an 88 ranger. But ultimately I'm hoping to answer questions to others possibly doing a similar project. First off I'll run through everything I did and I'll post some pics after my rant. So first off my truck was a 1998 ford ranger xlt with the stepside bed. My donor vehicle was a 1997 mountaineer.I rebuilt and cleaned the block, ported the heads and manifolds and replaced all the gaskets and seals. Now for the exhaust... I didn't have room in my budget for torque monster headers and I wasn't going to choke my engine with those stock explorer tube headers so with the help of my brother we fabricated tube headers using 1 and 5/8 inch tubing and into a 3 in collector. We ran the exhaust out through the wheel wells and then outside of the frame rails and bologna sliced them off in front my back tires. Now I know many of you will get on my case but I deleted the four wheel drive components on my truck. I dropped the front diff and switched the front spindles to 2wd explorer spindles. I bought a 2wd tailhousing and tail shaft and switched those in and then had a new driveshaft made. My followed the tech article for the swap for the most. Helped a lot overall. I'll gather all my pics I have and will post them in a little bit.
