"V8SPNKR" 1997 Ranger SVO 2.3L Turbo *CAUTION* (LOTS OF PHOTOS!)

[ShotnVA777]

So why remove any of it? Honest question. Clutter? Wouldn't it just be easier to leave it?

Yes, mostly clutter! As when u run a LA3 ECU on a OBD2 Ranger, you're still using a A LOT of the STOCK Rangers wiring harness as well. I'm not running ANY emmisions, knock sensor is unplugged and CUT OFF the LA3 harness, etc!

Its not all about looks (though MOSTLY - who wants a bunch of useless plugs dangling everywhere?!) I ALSO know theres a lot of useless SHIT, that im NEVER going to use that just really needs to go (IE: ANYTHING that has to do with the A/C/headlight plugs, etc.)

Figured its a good time to do it before the INITIAL install, since the motor is out of the truck/car and I'm just "dry wiring" everything. We tore into a cpl of wires coming off the PCM when pulling it threw the firewall and the old "duct tape" and "wire cover(s)" wrap was looking AWFUL! I couldn't put it on this "new", clean motor like that! That's just wrong!

BTW!!! I found a 97 "donor truck"JUST LIKE MINE (even year!) except with the tan interior (what I need to match my Mustang Seats!) And its an Automatic! BOOOOOOOOO!

BUT, it still runs! So im going to drop the turbo motor into my original project truck (since the motor is halfway out already AND its the 5 speed w/ 6 puck). But I'm going to change COMPLETE interiors and put my MUSTANG seats in the Turbo truck... Then between the 2 8 plug motors, I have a decent, automatic, stock, BRIGHT RED Ranger and my "Race Ranger"!

Sounds like a PLAN IN MOTION to me!!!

WILL POST PICS OF MY WIRING SO FAR (HOPEFULLY GET SOME HELP) AND OF MY SOON TO BE, NEW, STOCK 97!!!!

 

[adsm08]

Knock sensor isn't for emissions. It's so the computer can adjust stuff to keep the engine from knocking. Knock+engine=damage.

Also, please tell me those wire nuts are not staying.

One other thing, and since you say that the knock sensor IS cut out (meaning you did it already), the part you pictured asking if it is a knock sensor is not a knock sensor. It's an intake air temp sensor. Kind of important for the computer to figure out how dense the air coming in is.

 

[ShotnVA777]

Knock sensor isn't for emissions. It's so the computer can adjust stuff to keep the engine from knocking. Knock+engine=damage.

Also, please tell me those wire nuts are not staying.

One other thing, and since you say that the knock sensor IS cut out (meaning you did it already), the part you pictured asking if it is a knock sensor is not a knock sensor. It's an intake air temp sensor. Kind of important for the computer to figure out how dense the air coming in is.

Its a 1988 NA Mustang Intake Manifold though...? If I cut something wrong out, not that hard to splice in!



SEE.... and no, lol, no wire nuts are staying, gotta pick up some solder this afternoon, im ONLY dry fitting everything RIGHT NOW!

Here's where I've gotten so far, HOPEFULLY the pictures will give a better understanding???

If ANYONE knows if something CAN get cut off, is not hooked up right, there's a loose wire somewhere there shouldn't be, etc.... Please let me know!











This one has a ground tapped in or SOMETHING????





















I PRAY I have the right two cables hooked up to the coil?! These were the only two wires in the harness, both end up at the dizzy and chasing pin numbers seemed to lead me to this setup?







SUPPOSEDLY, these all go to a ground is WHAT I'VE HEARD, but I could be COMPLETELY wrong!



I know there's an alternator plug on here somewhere as well? Right? And I would guess an EGR plus a bunch of AC stuff? I know the "rectangle", weird shaped plug is for a test right?



AND THIS IS WHERE WE STAND.... LITTLE HELP PLEASE!

 

[adsm08]

Well I'll be. That is the first time I have ever seen a knock sensor in an intake manifold. Usually they are bolted to the block or the head.

 

[ShotnVA777]

Well I'll be. That is the first time I have ever seen a knock sensor in an intake manifold. Usually they are bolted to the block or the head.

Yea, its kind of weird lol... ONLY 88/89 2.3L NA Mustangs have them there from what all I've seen!

Nonetheless, I was able to swing by the harnesses "donor" car today and take pictures of EVERY empty plug and EVER plug I cut off!

Come to find out, that BIG plug (32 wires), DID NOTHING but controlled all the stuff IN the car, ride control controls, electric seats, all types of "crap"!! It was cut right at the passenger door, where everything runs down the pass. side of the car, to the back, or up into the dash. It was all peeled back to about 2-3" (JUST IN CASE i ever need to splice sonething in or wire something back up!) and taped up, that opened up the ENTIRE rest of the harness to be fiddled with and look at what else could be taken out. I ended up cutting a plug or two off that went to ride control and some loose wires that I had just clipped off for the drivers side headlights...? Lol. ..

ALL of the grounds seem to be in order and I'm not touching anything else. I'm going to try and roll with it from here! I'm in the process of taping it all back up and I left myself ATLEAST 3" wire on EVERY wire/plug that was cut out of the main PCM's plug, because ya really never know! That said, its ALREADY looking SO MUCH better and not like a cobweb of freakin wires! Now just need that dang LA3!!!

 

[ShotnVA777]

I'll post up the pictures tomorrow or some time that I took tonight while working on her! I'm too tired right this second to hit buttons on a phone!!!!!!

★I will just edit the "Turbo Porn" into this post" - CHECK BACK!

 

[ShotnVA777]

So, "2.3t Ranger Porn"!!! I stripped down the wiring harness of plugs and wires that I KNOW I don't/didn't need for this setup! It ALREADY looks a TON better, but will look EVEN BETTER, after I wrap the now taped up wires with all NEW black/red wire covers! Itll also match my future MSD stuff
...

Anyways... I figured I would share how much more "ORGANIZED" it looks, with a TIGHT wrapping of 5 rolls of electrical tape SO FAR! I also am leaving photos of the plugs that i left purposely (that I wasnt sure went to WHAT! (PRETTY MUCH ALL THE PLUGS LEFT, EXCEPT MAYBE 3!!! lol!!) Im just winging it now, but ive stayed true to the LA3 wiring harness and gave myself ATLEAST some ROOM to splice in wires - if I DID (which, from what im seeing, i should be FINRE!) The 88 Intake Manifold kind of screwed me up at first as wwell!!!

★ANYWAYS!!!! ENOUGH WITH THE BS TALK, ONTO THE PHOTOS THAT CAN EXPLAIN MUCH MORE THAN I CAN TELL!!! IF ANYONE WANTS TO CHIME IN ON WHAT PLUGS/WIRES DO WHAT, THAT WOULD BE GREATLY APPRECIATED!★

★★ ALSO,IF YOU HAVE ANY INPUT ON ANYTHING, JUST POST IT UP, WHETHER GOOD OR BAD!!















































.

 

[ShotnVA777]

BUMP!

Can someone tell me ATLEAST what these two "plugs" are???

They look like relay plugins to me....? IF they ARE indeed that... What for?

 

[ltbenji]

It looks like one of them is the fuel pump relay....if it is it would go on the passenger side.

I don't remember which one was which

 

[ShotnVA777]

It looks like one of them is the fuel pump relay....if it is it would go on the passenger side.

I don't remember which one was which

Better than nothing! I left pretty much all the MAJOR plugs under the hood there, so THAT SHOULD BE ONE OF THEM! I did however re-tape EVERYTHING!

That said, I stripped out quite a few wires too (IE: EGR shit, headlights, ride control BS, Octane BS, etc...) You know, ALL THE COOL GOODIES that come on the 87-88 T-bird Coupes!!! Lol!

Im still trying to figure out this 1 or 2 solenoid(s) though, i believe its for EGR though, so I should be able to just dump it and cut IT out as well!

Here it is... If someone knows wtf it does, that would be great!









Hmmmmmm..... More schematics it is!

 

[ShotnVA777]

still have not figured out what those "two in one" solenoids go to!!!!! Uuuuugggghhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!

 

[ShotnVA777]

OK fellow "Rangerer's"... ESPECIALLY the wannabe Turbo guys that use the stock LA3 and don't want to go with a Stinger Setup and spend OUTRAGEOUS amounts of money like me........... YET!!! LOL! I'm just piggybacking off of my ORIGINAL wiring, to run the LA3 as if it was still "stock" in a Turbo Coupe.

I've ONCE AND FOR ALL figured out these two NON-USED "Solenoids" for MY setup! Finally.

After speaking with my "Guru", Chris, we've came to a conclusion... and here it goes!!!

Ready????? GOOD!

First... let me show you the "thing(s)" I was talking about, the wire colors and so forth. Be sure to look closely at wire colors and the way it is "setup", per say....



This looks to be a Purple or Black wire, with either a green, yellow or white stripe on it. Along with another wire, that looks to be either a faded white wire with a red stripe, or possibly yellow with a pink... Hell, ONLY GOD KNOWS!!! (and me - hehe!)



Plug number two on this BS OBVIOUSLY has a PURE RED and PURE YELLOW wire... shouldn't be too hard to find! So I did....



NOW, lets take a look at these CRAZY, CRAZY wiring diagrams for the LA3... ALL the "goodies" that came WITH the 87-88 T-Bird have pretty much been ripped out, no A/C either! So, you can pretty much take the two wiring schematics I'm about to post and "visually" delete out any "Ride Control", "Boost Control", Knock Sensor Stuff.... etc, etc...... A LOT WAS CUT OUT, ONLY THINGS LEFT ARE WHAT I NEED!!!





NOW, with those seen and everything.... can you find it?! No one else could for some odd reason. After I DUG INTO the wiring harness again and looked AGAIN, it ALL MADE COMPLETE SENSE!!! Believe it or not, I was correct on my assumption that I posted previously....



THAT'S THEM ^^^^^^!!!!!!!!

Now, one is the "EGR Control Solenoid" (my EGR is blocked off, so I can COMPLETELY delete that out of the mix (THIS IS THE RED AND YELLOW WIRED PLUG)! I'm not sure if I need to put a resistor in it's place, but I left enough wire for both in the "wrap up" of everything in case something needs to go back in or something. DOUBTFUL! Here it is...









NOW, the OTHER one is EITHER a "Converter Clutch Override Solenoid", which it SHOULDN'T HAVE due to it being a 5 Speed and NOT an Auto!!! So THAT can be deleted as well, for MY application.

It could ALSO be a "Boost Control Solenoid"... and AGAIN, this is NOT going to be used in my setup!!!! I will be using my OWN setup to flip from 10ish-20ish PSI, on the fly....

SO THATS THAT!!!! Here's the OTHER "unknown" solenoid!!! LOL! Not really...







HERE'S YOUR (MY!!!!) RIPPED OUT SOLENOIDS!!!!!





I LEFT THE RED WIRE, SHRINK WRAPPED AND CAPPED OFF, SO THAT I HAVE A "SPARE" "PWR" JUST HANGING AROUND, READY TO BE TAPPED IF NEED BE! EVERYTHING ELSE WAS CUT BACK, SHRINK WRAPPED AND TAPED UP!

Here it is and NO, THAT'S NOT THE SAME YELLOW WIRE!!! IT'S FOR SOMETHING ELSE, AS YOU WILL SEE!





FRICKIN' DONE WITH THAT BS!!!! THANK GOD!!!!!

ANY QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS, please post away! But I think I've FINALLY GOT IT!!!!!

 

[ShotnVA777]

Now, ALL I NEED is this other 97 Ranger ($400). I'm buying it this weekend!!! And....

A WORKING LA3 to pair with this motor!

 

[tsi617]

Enjoying this little build.

Sent from my XT1080 using Tapatalk

 

[ShotnVA777]

Enjoying this little build.

Sent from my XT1080 using Tapatalk

Thanks man! This is REALLY just about MAKING A TURBOED RANGER! Nothing TOO special, hell, I'm running the motor on its "stock shit", but I'm ALSO beefing it up.... A LOT!

So, no.... I won't have a Stinger Tune on this truck and that's fine with me! I'm in this for the LEARNING process of building MY OWN turbo motor "from SCRATCH" - in a sense!

I've never even done a MOTOR swap on one of MY OWN vehicles, so this is ALL new to me and I'm just trying to take it ALL IN for when I build my 2.3L Turbo 89-92 Mustang LX, WHICH WILL HAVE EVERY SINGLE GOODIE THERE IS!!!!!!

So... Again, just learning the motor and everything for future projects of Turbo Lima's!