my $300 DD

[mike A]

from one extreme to the next

I bought a 1997 ranger last week with the 2.3/ 5 speed. I only paid 300 bucks for it so I figured that would give me enough room in the budget to do more than little dinky things here and there. the motor was knocking pretty bad so yesterday I pulled the motor and transmission out. Everything looked great pulling it apart so that was good news to me.

got the motor out and on the stand started digging in to it and found the knock, it chewed up and spit out 2 rod bearings and there was another one that looked like it was starved of oil. (if I had to guess it probably had to do with the fram filters the guy constantly used on it.)

all my cylinder walls looked great barely a carbon ring at the top of the cylinder.

future plans:

• drop the rear about 2"
• maybe a turbo setup with roughly 10lbs of boost
• some nice pony rims
• going to do something with the seats most likely buckets with a expy console

picture time (really busy with this project over the weekend so not too many pictures)

the worst bearing of them all

ready to pull

my ex orkin truck

EDIT: I changed up the name of the build on it cause most of my friends started messing with me about going from my current DD to this (once its running)

my current DD

 

[mike A]

quick question, as i'm trying to get my budget set and parts list made, my crank has some cuts in the first and third cylinder, they're deep enough you can catch a finger nail in them, should I just replace the crank? a napa crank with all the bearings is like 180. so its not a huge deal if I have to replace it.

also my rods on those bad cylinders, what to do with those? have them honed or replace?

 

[LIMA BEAN]

quick question, as i'm trying to get my budget set and parts list made, my crank has some cuts in the first and third cylinder, they're deep enough you can catch a finger nail in them, should I just replace the crank? a napa crank with all the bearings is like 180. so its not a huge deal if I have to replace it.

also my rods on those bad cylinders, what to do with those? have them honed or replace?

Does the crank have any blueing on it from heat? If not its probably ok and just needs turned .10 .10. Mine was in the same shape when I got it and I just had it turned and checked out, I had a rockwell test on it too to make sure the journals didnt go soft. I also just had the machine shop recon ALL my rods. Is the napa a recon? it may already be turned down if so. Also since you had metal floating around get the block tanked to clean the oil galleys out and get a new oil pump.

 

[mike A]

Does the crank have any blueing on it from heat? If not its probably ok and just needs turned .10 .10. Mine was in the same shape when I got it and I just had it turned and checked out, I had a rockwell test on it too to make sure the journals didnt go soft. I also just had the machine shop recon ALL my rods. Is the napa a recon? it may already be turned down if so. Also since you had metal floating around get the block tanked to clean the oil galleys out and get a new oil pump.

my crank is blued on a few journals, mains and rod. I think im going to go with the napa crank to, just to be safe, if I use the Napa crank with the bearings that come with it, and have the rods recon'd can I use the bearings that come with the crank or will I need oversized bearings for the rods?

also, I have been toying with the thought of turbo'ing it, what issues might I have if I put the forged pistons for the turbo coupe now and have to wait on finishing up the turbo install?

 

[mike A]

due to cash flow issues and a tighter budget than planned the truck is taking kind of a turn instead of a turbo and all that i'm probably going to find a used engine go through it and put it in with major attention to detail and make it super clean.

on a side note started on a shackle flip.. going to be a step by once im finished. I know I probably should be more worried about the engine but hey this is free lol

 

[mike A]

shackle flip is done.. here is how I went about it..

ok first off things you will need to pull bed.
-t55 socket for bed bolts (preferably 1/2" drive cause the bolts my be frozen and you will need a lot of torque to break them lose)
-1/2" drive ratchet and impact
-breaker bar
-Philips head screwdriver

once you have all 6 bed bolts and tail lights there are 3 7mm bolts holding the filler neck in place remove those and pull the neck down

then all that's left is to unplug the taillight harness grab some beer and bribe a buddy into helping lift the bed off

get your air hammer and go to town. WARNING! WEAR EAR AND EYE PROTECTION
after a very long 2 hours of chipping away.. TADA!

flip it and put your bolts in

sitting on its own weight again

put a cover coat over the bare metal and sit back and reward yourself

I will be putting the bed back once I paint the frame.
enjoy

 

[mike A]

getting the frame ready for rust bullet slowly every night, hopefully by Friday its all ready. just going to do the rear half and possibly the engine bay. not so much for rust protection as for looks, we don't have too bad of rust issues here in ga

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

Nice job so far. looking forward to more pics. maybe you'll have time to wash it too

Richard

 

[mike A]

Nice job so far. looking forward to more pics. maybe you'll have time to wash it too

Richard

a wash will come when its running haha I have no where to park it where its not under trees

 

[mike A]

didnt get a whole lot done but the rear half of the frame is complete minus a few spots but its defiantly moving forward.

as for engine, as hard of a time as im having finding one in the bone yards i'm actually toying with the idea of a 5.0 swap.. I just want to keep my manual transmission

 

[mike A]

wow this thread is out of date.

I finished coating the frame, got the bed on, I have my engine ready to go in, all I need now is to get a clutch kit and the cherry picker from work, will try to remember to snag some more pictures and update.