- Joined
- Sep 12, 2025
- Messages
- 10
- Points
- 101
- City
- Seattle
- State - Country
- N/A
- Vehicle Year
- 1994
- Vehicle
- Ford Ranger
- Drive
- 4WD
- Engine
- 3.0 V6
- Transmission
- Manual
Alright, been meaning to start this thread for a while, finally getting around to it, so lots to catch up on.
In April of last year I picked up my truck for $3500. It’s a 94, XLT, 4x4, 5spd, 3.0, D35 front, 7.5 LSD rear, with a high top camper shell paint matched to the factory Cayman Green color (really more of a teal, which is one of my favorite colors). Bought it from a 16 year old farm kid about an hour or so north of me who had just finished putting new heads on it after a blown gasket. Did I overpay for it, maybe, but he seemed like a good kid who had dumped a lot of money and time into it, so I’m not too pressed about it. I did a good bit of research and combing through the tech library before purchasing and felt pretty confident that this would be a good platform for a project. Some pics below of the day I bought it.
As a bit of background on me, working on cars was not something I was raised around or have any sort of background in. Of my previous 5 cars, the only one I did work on was my 2002 AWD Astro that I had for a couple years in college. 1” suspension lift + 2” body lift, bigger tires, and a partially completed interior build out. I did a top end rebuild, but the day after I started it, I partially severed 3 fingers in a work accident and had to finish the rebuild with one hand (my non-dominant one) and 2 fingers. It ended with a spun bearing, rod knock, and enough glitter in the oil to make a drag queen jealous. That said, it was in rough shape when I bought it, and being young, reckless, and broke, I pushed it way too hard and neglected maintenance. I loved that van and wanted this truck to be what it never got to be.
Despite not having a ton of experience with cars, I am an engineer by education and trade, have experience in construction, manufacturing, building truck campers (for Enduro Campers), solar rotomolding (LightManufacturing), building skis (personal side project company), and am very mechanically inclined, so surely I should be able to figure this truck out, right? My alma matter has a motto “Learn By Doing” which is really better phrased as “Learn By Fucking It Up”
Anyways, I digress.
When I picked it up, it was dirtier and looser than a 2 cent whore on mardi gras. I’m talking 30+ years of cigarette smoke, over 20 degrees of steering play, and shocks & springs that were really more of a suggestion than functional. Throttle cable was janky and would get stuck. Also, the driver’s side valve cover gasket hadn’t been seated perfectly and was leaking a small drip of oil onto the exhaust manifold. Needless to say it was a bit of a sketchy drive home.
At the time, I still had a RAV4 on loan to me from my parents as a daily driver for the next year (or so I thought at the time, more on that later), which meant the ranger could be a dedicated project until that period was up.
I got right to work ripping the whole thing apart. Bed off, top half of the engine pulled, cooling system pulled, heater core pulled, blower pulled, grille and front clip removed, interior stripped to the firewall (carpet trashed, headliner fabric pulled, every trim panel removed, dash pulled, door panels, etc.) Some pics of it stripped in the back yard.
Got to work sorting out the interior. Every piece of trim, air ducts, vents, headliner panel, seats, dash, everything was fully scrubbed, deep cleaned, steam cleaned, sanitized and left in the sun for a week to sterilized and deodorized. Removing 30 years of cigarette smoke and grime was not easy but immensely satisfying (and something I was able to convince the gf to help with). With the interior out, I touched up any small rust specs in the cab with factory paint, fully redid all of the sound/heat insulation with kilmat, stripped the bubbling tint, and cleaned everything to the point that you could probably eat off it.
New headliner fabric, new vinyl flooring and insulation, new custom rear wall panel, and painted upper back wall panel. The front seats were out of a gen 3 (2004ish) and were in shockingly good shape. The rear jump seats were likely never touched. Both cleaned up with a steam cleaner to like new, and odor free too! Seatbelts got pressure washed which work like a charm to remove years of grime and stains. New waterproof leatherette heavy duty seat covers (a messy dog tends to wreck cloth seats). I built custom wood door panels with more sound deadening (speakers sound better and road noise is MUCH lower), as well as a false floor behind the seats to create a level platform for the dog bed with some extra storage. New (but pretty cheap) speakers all around, and a sweet tan leather steering wheel that my grandpa had sitting around. Being that this is now my daily and is used for long road trips, ski trips, and camping trips, it needed to be comfy as well as have personal flair that makes getting into it every day exciting. Pics of the interior from today below.
With the bed off I pressure washed and scrubbed as much as I could, replaced the fuel filler neck, and buttoned things back up. If only the front end was that easy.
Deep cleaning the heater blower was easy enough. Same with the coolant/washer fluid tanks, air box and piping, front clip, and bumpers. Battery tray was super rusty so it had to be pulled, wire wheeled, repainted, and buttoned back up
The engine, however, ended up being a can of worms bigger than I had anticipated. After pulling the plenum, fuel rails, distro, and all the other misc. parts needed to get the valve covers, I ended up also pulling the lower intake manifold, water pump, fan, thermostat, radiator, and every hose. The rad & heater hoses seemed fairly new, but the coolant was filthy, so I decided new ones were worth it after trying and failing to clean the grime from inside them.
The water pump and fan clutch were nasty so those got swapped too, as well as the fan getting the same spa treatment as everything else. During the water pump replacement, a bolt sheared, so the timing cover got pulled, and chain and gears were replaced (although the ones that were in there seemed fine so now I’ve got a spare).
I also rebuilt the distro, cleaned and rebuilt injectors, cleaning fuel rail, pressure regulator, mass airflow sensor, valve covers, and any other small parts I’d pulled. New tps, iac, pcv, plugs, wires, and coil. New throttle cable to replace the busted stock one and work with the new TB.
The upper and lower intakes were coated in oil buildup, so I figured I might as well try porting them out while I had them off. Actually bought a plenum off a 98 taurus with the separate throttle body as cleaning the stock one would’ve been a PITA. Porting went pretty well.
However, after porting, I decided I wanted to try and clean the dull oxidization off the aluminum. A little looking online lead me to a forum post where someone suggested soaking in toilet bowl cleaner. DO NOT DO THIS! The cleaner they suggested was 10% hydrochloric acid, and it actually dissolved a bit of the gasketing surface on my lower intake manifold, specifically the rear coolant passage cap and the adjacent oil gallery sealing edge. See below.
At this point, my parents told me that they would need the RAV4 back in 2 weeks (13 days of which I was going to be out of town) and I had to somehow get the truck back together and running in that time. I managed to negotiate an extra 2 weeks, since I work full time and can only work on the truck evenings and weekends.
As far as the intake manifold, thankfully I work with some insanely skilled welders (I’m an engineer for Delta Marine, a custom super yacht builder) and they were able to build the aluminum back up in the areas where it had been dissolved without distorting or cracking the port. They were too busy to machine it for me though, but a belt sander (for roughing) and some datum flat slabs of glass and granite with sandpaper on them worked like a charm and got everything back to normal.
Finally, it was ready to start putting it all back together, which actually went nearly flawlessly. Threw on a set of aftermarket headlights and clear corners, plus a new 3rd brake light, and she was coming together quite nicely. Fired up on the 3rd try, and got it driving a day before the deadline.
Since then, I have also done the following:
Later projects (maybe, if I don’t end up moving onto a sailboat):
In April of last year I picked up my truck for $3500. It’s a 94, XLT, 4x4, 5spd, 3.0, D35 front, 7.5 LSD rear, with a high top camper shell paint matched to the factory Cayman Green color (really more of a teal, which is one of my favorite colors). Bought it from a 16 year old farm kid about an hour or so north of me who had just finished putting new heads on it after a blown gasket. Did I overpay for it, maybe, but he seemed like a good kid who had dumped a lot of money and time into it, so I’m not too pressed about it. I did a good bit of research and combing through the tech library before purchasing and felt pretty confident that this would be a good platform for a project. Some pics below of the day I bought it.
As a bit of background on me, working on cars was not something I was raised around or have any sort of background in. Of my previous 5 cars, the only one I did work on was my 2002 AWD Astro that I had for a couple years in college. 1” suspension lift + 2” body lift, bigger tires, and a partially completed interior build out. I did a top end rebuild, but the day after I started it, I partially severed 3 fingers in a work accident and had to finish the rebuild with one hand (my non-dominant one) and 2 fingers. It ended with a spun bearing, rod knock, and enough glitter in the oil to make a drag queen jealous. That said, it was in rough shape when I bought it, and being young, reckless, and broke, I pushed it way too hard and neglected maintenance. I loved that van and wanted this truck to be what it never got to be.
Despite not having a ton of experience with cars, I am an engineer by education and trade, have experience in construction, manufacturing, building truck campers (for Enduro Campers), solar rotomolding (LightManufacturing), building skis (personal side project company), and am very mechanically inclined, so surely I should be able to figure this truck out, right? My alma matter has a motto “Learn By Doing” which is really better phrased as “Learn By Fucking It Up”
Anyways, I digress.
When I picked it up, it was dirtier and looser than a 2 cent whore on mardi gras. I’m talking 30+ years of cigarette smoke, over 20 degrees of steering play, and shocks & springs that were really more of a suggestion than functional. Throttle cable was janky and would get stuck. Also, the driver’s side valve cover gasket hadn’t been seated perfectly and was leaking a small drip of oil onto the exhaust manifold. Needless to say it was a bit of a sketchy drive home.
At the time, I still had a RAV4 on loan to me from my parents as a daily driver for the next year (or so I thought at the time, more on that later), which meant the ranger could be a dedicated project until that period was up.
I got right to work ripping the whole thing apart. Bed off, top half of the engine pulled, cooling system pulled, heater core pulled, blower pulled, grille and front clip removed, interior stripped to the firewall (carpet trashed, headliner fabric pulled, every trim panel removed, dash pulled, door panels, etc.) Some pics of it stripped in the back yard.
Got to work sorting out the interior. Every piece of trim, air ducts, vents, headliner panel, seats, dash, everything was fully scrubbed, deep cleaned, steam cleaned, sanitized and left in the sun for a week to sterilized and deodorized. Removing 30 years of cigarette smoke and grime was not easy but immensely satisfying (and something I was able to convince the gf to help with). With the interior out, I touched up any small rust specs in the cab with factory paint, fully redid all of the sound/heat insulation with kilmat, stripped the bubbling tint, and cleaned everything to the point that you could probably eat off it.
New headliner fabric, new vinyl flooring and insulation, new custom rear wall panel, and painted upper back wall panel. The front seats were out of a gen 3 (2004ish) and were in shockingly good shape. The rear jump seats were likely never touched. Both cleaned up with a steam cleaner to like new, and odor free too! Seatbelts got pressure washed which work like a charm to remove years of grime and stains. New waterproof leatherette heavy duty seat covers (a messy dog tends to wreck cloth seats). I built custom wood door panels with more sound deadening (speakers sound better and road noise is MUCH lower), as well as a false floor behind the seats to create a level platform for the dog bed with some extra storage. New (but pretty cheap) speakers all around, and a sweet tan leather steering wheel that my grandpa had sitting around. Being that this is now my daily and is used for long road trips, ski trips, and camping trips, it needed to be comfy as well as have personal flair that makes getting into it every day exciting. Pics of the interior from today below.
With the bed off I pressure washed and scrubbed as much as I could, replaced the fuel filler neck, and buttoned things back up. If only the front end was that easy.
Deep cleaning the heater blower was easy enough. Same with the coolant/washer fluid tanks, air box and piping, front clip, and bumpers. Battery tray was super rusty so it had to be pulled, wire wheeled, repainted, and buttoned back up
The engine, however, ended up being a can of worms bigger than I had anticipated. After pulling the plenum, fuel rails, distro, and all the other misc. parts needed to get the valve covers, I ended up also pulling the lower intake manifold, water pump, fan, thermostat, radiator, and every hose. The rad & heater hoses seemed fairly new, but the coolant was filthy, so I decided new ones were worth it after trying and failing to clean the grime from inside them.
The water pump and fan clutch were nasty so those got swapped too, as well as the fan getting the same spa treatment as everything else. During the water pump replacement, a bolt sheared, so the timing cover got pulled, and chain and gears were replaced (although the ones that were in there seemed fine so now I’ve got a spare).
I also rebuilt the distro, cleaned and rebuilt injectors, cleaning fuel rail, pressure regulator, mass airflow sensor, valve covers, and any other small parts I’d pulled. New tps, iac, pcv, plugs, wires, and coil. New throttle cable to replace the busted stock one and work with the new TB.
The upper and lower intakes were coated in oil buildup, so I figured I might as well try porting them out while I had them off. Actually bought a plenum off a 98 taurus with the separate throttle body as cleaning the stock one would’ve been a PITA. Porting went pretty well.
However, after porting, I decided I wanted to try and clean the dull oxidization off the aluminum. A little looking online lead me to a forum post where someone suggested soaking in toilet bowl cleaner. DO NOT DO THIS! The cleaner they suggested was 10% hydrochloric acid, and it actually dissolved a bit of the gasketing surface on my lower intake manifold, specifically the rear coolant passage cap and the adjacent oil gallery sealing edge. See below.
At this point, my parents told me that they would need the RAV4 back in 2 weeks (13 days of which I was going to be out of town) and I had to somehow get the truck back together and running in that time. I managed to negotiate an extra 2 weeks, since I work full time and can only work on the truck evenings and weekends.
As far as the intake manifold, thankfully I work with some insanely skilled welders (I’m an engineer for Delta Marine, a custom super yacht builder) and they were able to build the aluminum back up in the areas where it had been dissolved without distorting or cracking the port. They were too busy to machine it for me though, but a belt sander (for roughing) and some datum flat slabs of glass and granite with sandpaper on them worked like a charm and got everything back to normal.
Finally, it was ready to start putting it all back together, which actually went nearly flawlessly. Threw on a set of aftermarket headlights and clear corners, plus a new 3rd brake light, and she was coming together quite nicely. Fired up on the 3rd try, and got it driving a day before the deadline.
Since then, I have also done the following:
- New fuel filter and pump
- Full cooling system flush and clean (x3, it took a long time to run clear)
- New tie rods and ball joints
- Front pads
- Manual locking hubs
- New front springs+1.5” Delrin spacers
- New rear spring pack (explorer pack + a ranger main leaf with the eye’s cutoff)
- Bilstein 5100’s all around
- Black “riveted” fender flares (FB find for under $100)
- Sway bar bushings
- Motor & Trans mounts
- Fluid changes for diffs, transfer case, transmission
- New shift bushings and stub shaft
- 31” toyo at3’s
- Fixed the bent and dented rear bumper with a BFH
- Installed trailer hitch and pigtail
- Camper build out (separate post shortly)
- Extended radius arms + trans crossmember (currently fabbing)
- Swap in Moog CC824 springs in front (currently have CC870 with spacers)
- Extended front & rear brake lines
- Install drop axle pivot brackets
- Drop pitman arm
- 33” tires, preferably on some black offroad steelies
- Chase down loose wiring for fuel and temp gauges (pretty sure it’s at the firewall or behind dash)
- Pull bed and fix leak at top of fuel pump (only leaks when full and on a slope of sloshing)
- Locks & ign. Cylinder (mismatched currently)
- Paint touch up on drivers door around lock
- Drop shackle and remove stock lift block in rear (possible rear hanger flip too)
- Rock sliders
- Install factory fog lights
- Swap in venting rear windows
- Spare tire + mount (didn’t come with one)
- Brush guard (have one, need to mod it to work)
- Body mounts (have them already)
- Exhaust (came without cats, cracked muffler is annoying)
- Intake (maybe snorkel as well)
Later projects (maybe, if I don’t end up moving onto a sailboat):
- 64” chevy spring swap w/ nicer springs
- Hydroboost conversion
- 31 spline 8.8” explorer axle
- D44 knuckle swap
- K-link steering + electric power steeing (really like BBII’s build)
- mTDI swap w/ biodiesel conversion
- Beefed up aftermarket M5OD
- Dual transfer cases
- Flatbed + custom built camper
