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The Blackwidow Ranger


RangerFabWorks

The O.G blackwidow67
TRS Forum Moderator
Supporting Member
V8 Engine Swap
TRS 20th Anniversary
Joined
Jan 31, 2009
Messages
5,290
Age
33
City
Lexington, North Carolina
Vehicle Year
1990
Transmission
Manual
just thought i would show off my progress. truck is an 84 ranger. i am the 2nd owner. bought it for 200 bucks with 67,000 miles on it. motor was a tired 2.3 but ran real nice. drove it till 78,000 miles when i revved it, and ultimatley distroyed the motor. so, i just did most of the body work an paint and it now looks like this
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so i didnt want to scrap the truck. but a rebuild kit for the 2.3 is too expensive for me, plus i always wanted to do a v8 swap. so out came the old 4 banger
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so now looking at this everyday
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[/IMG] im trying to descide which way to proceed. mind you, im 18, self employed, and dont make the most money in the world. so a 302 is outta my price range. than the idea of a turbo 2.3 crossed. nah too much time, money, and everyone is doing that. so what to do. IVE GOT IT. i got that spare 350 with the rebuilt th700r4, why not use that? so i look throught the post and see this is not an uncommon swap and can be done fairly easy, and fairly inexpensive. ah ha. now ive got my drive train. lets begin.

so cleaning up the engine bay- this is what ive come up with so far
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so thats where shes at. the engine is a 72 chevelle, 250 horse block. but with a little performance goodies, she'll be 325 at the crank respectively. so i know with the performance goodies, a 302 swap is the same cost. well thats how things go sometimes. but anyway heres my engine before i start working on it
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and so far, the only mods needed were notching the heater box, because i want the motor set back as far as possible
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stay tuned, project blackwidow is commensing. waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
 
Very Nice - I wondered what would be under that cowl hood - LOL . . .
 
Lookin good, so what type of exhaust are you going to run? Super sleeper quiet exhaust or loud so everyone knows your coming?i'd go supersleeper quiet, and put a Y pipe on each side of the exhaust, and have caps or whatever you wanna call them on one end of the Y pipes, and then just exhaust pipe leading into your mufflers. Uncork'emfor loudness, cork'emfor sleeper mode.
 
I'm not a big fan of Ford with Chevy stuff... however... it is gonna be a sweet build when done and freakin fast too. the engine bay looks super clean after you painted it. How did you prep it for paint and what paint did you use?
 
i sandblasted the engine bay. then took a propane torch and melted off all the original tar on the inner fenders. then i used a laquer based primer, then i shot it with duplicolors laquer paintshop black. the stuff premixed in a quart. i shot it with my devilbiss 1.0 touch-up gun.

for exhaust, im thinking 2 1/2 duals into some moroso spiral flow mufflers exiting out the back. but have a secret switch hidded to activate my electric exhaust cut outs. waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa haaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
 
damn!!! that truck si so nice and with tha engine its going to kick some a**
hope to see more pics soon!!
 
I just had the idea to put Cragars on my ranger the other day. But now looking at yours I think they look better on the boxier body of your '84 than my '93. Were those 14 or 15 inch?

Good luck on the build!
 
there 14 inch rims. but cragars look good on anything. will be upgrading to 15s and some wide meats in the back when i get her back together. and thanks
 
update. picked up some 66 stang seats to get rid of the "family" bench seat in it. buckets are saaaaweeet
 
im waiting for the other one. i just have the one right now, and its all ripped up. you dont wanna see that. but when i do more work, i will post pics
 
I wanted to throw a 350 in my B2.....Now that you're doing this, I just might have to. :icon_thumby:
 

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