Ok, surgery time, but a question or two first.

[scotts90ranger]

if you swap to DIS it's seriously only like 6 wires to add to the stock harness, just look through the diagrams to tie in to key on power or ground and it's fairly straight forward.

like I said before, swap your throttle body onto the turbo intake, it should bolt up, but also be sure to add the IAC from that too, the newer ones have a diode in the IAC itself where the older ones had it in the harness.

 

[mini274]

its more than likely the T3 a/r .60 compressor and an .48 on hot side... thats wat most the merkurs came with but i would check if it garret on the compressor housing it is if not it will say IHI

 

[Silver talon84]

Ok, ill check for the name when I get a chance. Pretty sure it said garrett when I looked at it last, but you cant be too sure.

Scott: Id love to swap to dis, but its not a major thing to do untill I get the motors swapped, and atleast running. The next couple of steps will be to drop the truck, and then rotate the intake, to put in my intercooler I have.

 

[mini274]

you dont have to rotate the intake to get an intercooler in their at least i didnt...

or some people run the hot pipe across the motor and through the cooler then up into the intake but def gut the upper

 

[Silver talon84]

Ok, I kinda had an idea that I could still intercool it. But it just makes sence to keep the piping to a minimum and keep the air-path away from the hot engine. And a good excuse to buy a nice new intake too!

 

[scotts90ranger]

the problem with doing it later is the front housing and crank sensor...

nothing wrong with the distributor setup, will work fine...

 

[Silver talon84]

Well, by later, I meant like this fall/winter project. If I can get this going this summer, and get my gutted and rotated intake on there. The only thing holding it back from bigger boost will be the origional internals. So a fresh build with the engine out of the truck, would give me the room I need, and a chance to do the cam and valve train also.

 

[red85]

Great thread! I will be using much of what is in here to finish up my buildup!

 

[Silver talon84]

Ok, got the merk motor pulled today. We were hoping to get the ranger motor pulled too, but we got hung up a few times today. Tear down and dis-connecting went pretty straight forward without any major problems. The top two bolts holding the tranny and engine together were a huge PITA!!! Then we couldnt figure out for the life of us why the engine wouldnt come off the tranny. We could get it about 3/4th of an inch off, but that is all it would come. No matter if we lifted the engine or not! So a quick phone call to my dad and we were soon back on track. We jacked the tranny up some, and then lifted and rocked the motor some more. What had us stumped for a few hours was the fact that the oilpan was hitting the front subframe, and wouldnt allow it to move any more forward off from the tranny. We didnt have to remove much to pull it either, so that was good. We ended up breaking one power steering pump line, but nothing else luckly. The engine lifted straight up out of the engine bay, with just a little rubbing on the radiator and core support. Then mounting the engine on the stand was a little bit of a challange because we left the flywheel on, and had to space out the bolts for the stand alot to get it to mount right.

Other than a few sore knuckles and muscles, everything went well! Oh, and Im uploading some pics, and ill post a few up. Took almost 50, but wont bore you with most of them!

 

[Silver talon84]

Here is a few teaser pics. I guess im going to have to go and make a build thread now about the turbo swap. Im going to be a little more carefull about the ranger engine getting pulled, no more just thrashing to yank it out of there. The ranger parts will be labled and better pics taken to make sure the donor motor goes in nice and easy!

And the ranger in her new home! I hope that she doesnt get cumfy there, as hopefully in a few weeks she will be terroizing the streets!

 

[Silver talon84]

More good news! I have a 88 turbo coupe la3 computer and large vam coming today by a local guy with a few t-birds. Now I just need to pull the ranger motor out, and swap in the large vam into the intake housing, and get a swap header, and Ill be in buisness! Man, I cant wait!

Another question. I know the t-birds are like what, 3400lbs or so, but what would my little ranger weigh in at? 2500lbs, 3k mabye? Just curious.

 

[scotts90ranger]

my 4x4 ranger with 31's and the turbo engine is 3700lb with me in it and a full tank of gas... yours will be around 3200lb

 

[Silver talon84]

Hmmm, ok, thought they would be slightly lighter than that. I know the turbo engine is a bit heavier, but was hoping the truck to be under 3k lbs. Guess i'll have to go hit the scales once I get the swap done, and just see how heavy she is!

 

[scotts90ranger]

mine was 3200lb when it was a 4x2, N/A with me in it and most of a tank of gas and my in bed tool box (maybe 50lb)... the truck by itself is going to be under 3000lb.

 

[Silver talon84]

Is yours a short or long box? Would that make much of a difference? Mine is a shorty.