Pulling intake and valve covers

[87-ranger]

Hello fellas. I pulled the water pump today, in hopes of replacing due to a leak. For those of you not familiar, my 87 sat for 8 years. When i pulled the pump, i also pulled the t stat. I was amazed to see the condition of the t stat. This also made my decision to pull the intake and valve covers. I am sucking air from somewhere because when i cover the throttle body, the truck stays running. Anyhow, what should i be looking for when i pull these two items? If it looks too bad, im just going to look into a 4.0 swap. Already found a local one for $500.

Thanks guys. Btw, everything i have inspected is corroded from coolant-less water sitting for 8 years.


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[87-ranger]

This is how my morning started. Cracked heads?

 

[87-ranger]

Doing a little research online, and finding that heads from WP are about $200 a piece, and thats what everybody is going with. For $400, i could almost pickup a 4.0 on craigslist locally.

Thoughts?

 

[dave2575]

I would definitly go with the 4.0 swap if you can find a solid 4.0 with its wiring, ecm, air filter box, ect... Im sure you already know there is a good write up in the tech library about how to go about doing the swap.
look in conversions. www.therangerstation.com/tech_library/index.shtml
Oh, I'm sorry but are you saying that you can find World Products 2.9l heads for $200. each?
If that is true can you PLEASE P.M. me with a link to where you found them. PRETTY PLEASE

 

[87-ranger]

Lol. I thought i had read somewhere that they were $195 a bank. But apparently i was wrong. But my question still remains, is it going to be cheaper to do a 4.0 swap and lot less headache in the long run?

 

[dave2575]

Will it be cheaper to do a 4.0 swap? No, that is unless your blessed to find a dirt cheap donor (0-$200) with everything that you'll need, or a really nice old lady who'll just give you her good old ranger. It would be cheaper and allot quicker to do a 2.9 head gasket and/or a possible head replacement, but when your done you still have a 2.9 with a flawed head design and possibly another future HEAD ache. IMHO it would be well worth your time and extra money to go ahead and do the 4.0 swap. But that's just my opinion.

 

[87-ranger]

What other costs are there associated with a swap? I have found a couple of local motors for around $500. Ive been doing some reading, and it sounds like the 4.0 just bolts up, with some wiring. I understand i would have to find a wiring harness as well.

Is there anyways to bulletproof this motor?

 

[fyre82]

IMHO, if it ran good when you parked it, and it ran ok except for the crud and air leak I would go with the old adage of "if it works, don't fix it."
Cleanup, repair, change fluids, tune and go, see what happens
But, if the inside of your valve cover looks like that throttle body, or the oil does, another story, unless you could write the moisture off to condensation.

 

[87-ranger]

It ran weird. Rich most of the time. Has an oil leak around the valve covers somewhere. Rough idle every now and then, but its hit an miss. It has fresh plugs, wires and a cap.

 

[adsm08]

I would do the 4.0 swap.

I had a very nicely built 2.9 in my Ranger, lots of power, fun to drive, all that stuff. Swapped it out for a 4.0 because I needed an engine for my BII.


Now I can't wait to put a 4.0 in the BII.

 

[87-ranger]

What kind of budget were you working with?

 

[4.0B2]

Look at my forum name.....