My new project - 03 Ranger 5.0 Swap

[97Ranger3.0]

Some of you guys may have seen thread on my 97 4x4 "build" on here. I still have that truck and it is great, but I've really been wishing I had more cab space, and a less sluggish truck lol. I also don't feel that I need 4x4 anymore and want the simplicity of a 2wd truck. I've also been itching to have some sort of fun project, so I thought building a 5.0 Ranger would be a great first project like this for me since it's mostly a bolt in swap.

I've been looking on facebook marketplace for maybe a month or so and finally found what I feel is a great candidate for this project. It's a 2003 XLT 4 door, 4.0 auto. This one is overall in pretty great shape and very rust free. I like that it is a 4 door (although I need to fix the cables so they actually open correctly lol). I like that it has power windows and mirrors, and the interior is in really good shape. Also a funny coincidence it happens to be the same color as my 97.

The plan is to eventually find a donor 5.0 Explorer for this truck, and also do a 5 speed swap with the m5od-r2. Until then there's some minor cosmetic stuff I need to take care of and a bunch of TLC needed.

First thing's first I got rid of that ugly ass hood scoop someone stuck on there.

This 192k mile 4.0 leaks oil out of just about every possible spot. Supposedly it had valve cover gaskets replaced, but when I inspected the truck before buying, it appears that it also may need a rear main seal or oil pan gasket. I don’t want to put much money into this 4.0 since it's coming out eventually. So I figured I'd throw a new PCV valve in it to see if maybe the old one was just clogged and maybe this was contributing to the oil leaking from just about everywhere. The old one was definitely gnarly so we'll see if this helps at all.

I also noticed that the trans dipstick was loose, and upon further inspection it was not even seated in the transmission and just hanging around the engine bay lol. So I fixed that this morning. There is definitely a combination of engine oil and trans fluid underneath the truck just about everywhere, and one or possibly both are leaking onto the exhaust and making it smoke when you drive as it burns off. I'll have to drive it for a bit now that I've fixed these two issues and see if it has at least improved before the eventual swap.

I somehow didn't notice this until I got the truck home though lol

I'm guessing that this side drum brake was locking up or something so someone just capped the line instead of actually trying to fix it . I did think the brakes weren't great when test driving it but I would've just guessed they were worn, not that I was only using 3 of the 4 brakes! So new brakes plus fixing this line and a fluid flush is on the list. And the truck needs outer tie rods and new front bearings as well.

Otherwise, the truck runs and drives fine and I drove it home about 2.5 hours away with no issues. Another thing I'm considering is whether I want to go with either a 3" spindle lift and 31s or maybe try a 2/3 drop and some larger wheels, although I'm not usually a huge fan of how extended cabs look lowered. Either way I'd also like to swap in the Chevy 64" leaf springs like I did in my 97.

Now to find a good donor Explorer...

 

[97Ranger3.0]

Between fixing the transmission dipstick and replacing the PCV valve the truck no longer smokes while driving so that's good. The truck desperately needed new front bearings and tie rods, so I just went ahead and installed new brakes, bearings, inner and outer tie rods.

I should've removed the drum on the side with the brake line removed before ordering new drum parts because it was worse than I thought

This is after removing the drum. There were no shoes or hardware inside. Just the exploded wheel cylinder. I'm honestly very curious as to what happened. I did come prepared with new wheel cylinders, but the backing plate was pretty mangled and needed replacement which I was not prepared for lol. So I decided to just say F it and go for a disc brake swap.

In the meantime I fixed the cable ends for the rear doors. You could open the doors by pulling on the cables but the handles didn't pull the cables enough on their own. But now it all works like it should!

After a few weeks my Mustang brake parts showed up. Not gonna need this anymore!

Passenger side installed.

I bought the Currie CE-6013E hose kit I saw recommended on here. Unfortunately the mounting tabs that are supposed to come with the kit were missing from mine. I reached out to Summit about it and they said they'd get some sent to me but they haven't arrived yet and I didn't want to wait any longer to fix the brakes so I just made my own.

They're not pretty but they'll certainly do the job.

And here's the other side complete. It was getting late so I decided to not set up the parking brake, so that's a project for another day.

Side note about the Currie hose kit. In my opinion, I don't see the kit being worth it. I was disappointed to find that it's just Dorman brand hoses. I believe you could get those hoses, some retaining clips and make your own mounting tabs a lot cheaper. Also considering the fact that the banjo bolts in the kit are the wrong thread, and if you get unlucky like me and your calipers didn't come with the banjo bolts then that's another expense to consider. Anyway, here's the part number to the brake hoses from the Currie kit if this helps anyone.

 

[97Ranger3.0]

Looking for some advice regarding the Mustang parking brake.

From what I had read on here and seen in YouTube videos, you're supposed to hook the factory e-brake cables up, measure the distance between the flange on the caliper where the e-brake cable should lock into vs where that same point is on the Ranger cable and make a spacer right? So initially I did this, the driver's side was 2.5" and the passenger side was 3". With this, the main cable had a decent amount of slack when the parking brake wasn't engaged and when engaged the parking brake didn't hold really at all (some movement on the lever on the caliper but not much).

So I went back and added 1/4" to each spacer, so 2.75" on the driver's side, 3.25" on the passenger side. This took a lot of the slack out of the main cable when not engaged, and it took a bit of effort to hook up the cables to the calipers. The parking brake improved but I'm still not feeling that it's as good as it should be. I have to put the pedal all the way to the floor for it to do any real holding. I don't have a lot of hills around me where I can really test it, but when I put it in drive or reverse with the pedal to the floor, it'll hold the truck from moving (it didn't with the shorter spacers) but when I give it even a tiny amount of gas the truck moves.

Then I thought, well maybe that's not a good test because the 4.0 does have a decent amount of torque. So I drove the truck up on ramps, put it in neutral and mashed the parking brake. Sometimes it would hold, other times it would slowly roll off the ramp.

Anyway, before I just keep making longer spacers, I'm hoping someone might have some insight into this - if I should try something else or just make longer spacers. Or even just tell me that the parking brake will just never be that good with this setup if that's the case

 

[rubydist]

At the other ends of those rear cables, where they meet up with the single cable that comes back from the pedal, there is an adjustment bolt/nut arrangement. You can tighten that another quarter inch and it should all be fine.

 

[97Ranger3.0]

At the other ends of those rear cables, where they meet up with the single cable that comes back from the pedal, there is an adjustment bolt/nut arrangement. You can tighten that another quarter inch and it should all be fine.

No adjustment on this one..