running question

[prpleranger]

have i mentioned i built the 302 for a drag car im running metrec rings and its blueprinted and balanced, due to a few financial setbacks i had to run stock ported heads and that small cam basically just stuff i had laying around. i had planned on running afr 185 heads and some sort of power adder turbo or supercharger and i have everything i need to back half my truck for some more clearance the traction problem is not an issue at all, well it wont be soon enough

[MalcolmV8]

That explains this part of the signature you have "forged eagle crank & rods forged speed pro coated pistons" and stock heads
What compression ratio are you running since you plan on a power adder?

[v8ranger]

I like the drivabiliy of my truck. The crank and pistons are all thats stock in my engine. I dont race it. Is there better cams out there? I have no doubt there is. There is always a better cam than what you pit in a car or truck I have lots of low end power and thats all I want, its a truck, I dont what to hit high RPM's or speed, its a truck lol. If I want speed I will buy a car the is built for that. I guess im just getting old lol. speed doesnt intrest me anymore, but some tire smokin power off the line, now thats what I like. Maybe in a couple more years I will be driving an electric car because I dont want power anymore. But god I hope not... lol.

[prpleranger]

yea it killed me to put close to stock heads on it but my 17 month old comes first and i kinda needed to get it back on the road, ill try to post some pics if i can manage to use a dig camera for a bit... i was asked for pics a while back and still havent gotten around to taking any
i think i decided to go with a 92 jet and maybe a different powervalve because now that i can keep the engine cool the headers barely get red if at all its mostly further down into the wrap and as for the wrap im takin it off and wraping my heater box instead

as far as compression i have no clue the heads are shaved a good bit and im runnin flattops.

[cgrey8]

This is what I did to my box:


It works great. And if you clean the plastic box, it'll stick and not peel off.

[prpleranger]

lookin at that did you have to trim or cut a chunk off? mines untouched adide from where the bottom lip started to melt

[cgrey8]

Yep, I had to take a chunk out. It isn't quite as obvious in that pic above unless you are familiar with what the Ranger AC box looks like in stock form.

This is what the stock AC Box looks like:

Notice the stock heat insulation pad that was stapled to it that's hanging below the box right now.



And here's what I did with it...

I hacked chunks out of the box little by little until the valve cover just barely cleared as you see here:


The notch cut has minimal restriction to air flow as compared to pics of other people's box mods. Also notice the notch I cut in the top bolt hole. That allowed me to pull and install the box very quickly to test alignment. The notch didn't hurt the fit or the bolt's ability to hold at all. It worked great:


And here you can see the notch in the bottom bolt hole:

[prpleranger]

wow mine is no where near that tight i can put tall valvecovers on and might still have room but i burried mine in the frame as far as i could and welded my mounts but honestly i believe i kept the same driveline angle somehow because the trans is bolted to the stock location crossmember all i had to do was cut an inch out of my driveshaft and the best part was my ranger slip yoke was the same as the aod and t-5, and for the record im much happier with a 5 speed not a fan of automatics but thats just personal opinion

[cgrey8]

I used L&L 2wd mounts. They locate the engine pretty far back in the engine bay but it could probably have gone back another inch as you can see in below. And I thought they located the engine pretty low in the engine bay too. There's a finger's thickness between the bottom of the dual-sump oil pan and the crossmember. Without modifying the crossmember, I couldn't imagine having the engine lower. But I still had to make a plate to go between the tranny and the tranny crossmember. The tranny mount was 2-3" shy of reaching the stock crossmember. The plate made up the distance quite nicely.

My truck was stock 5 speed and I prefer having a manual. So keeping it a 5 speed with a T5 was a no brainer. I never even considered an automatic and I haven't regretted that decision once. The effort of getting the tranny to work with the stock equipment was just a matter of making a plate for an 83-84 Ranger external slave cylinder to work with the stock clutch master and hydraulic line.

[prpleranger]

i had to make a plate on the cross member as well but it was like 1/2" off or so the studs on the mount hit the side of the cross member i used l&l mounts for the bronco 2 because i had them from a previous project honestly i think your oil pan is closer to the cross member than mine i think i could almost pull the pan off but i could be dreaming... my truck sits so low its hard to get a jack under it without picking up on the fender lol as far as the automatic i went with what i had and at the time i had 2 aod's sitting on the floor and a ragged out 5.0 it ran for 6 months then the trans blew and i got mad so the engine followed. but my truck was orig a 4 cyl 5 speed


on another note i pulled some plugs and they are all nice and clean and look to be a tan color if i remember correctly thats what they are supposed to look like

[cgrey8]

My truck is a supercab. I wonder if that would account for the differences?

Here's a pic of my 6"x6" tranny plate before I painted it:


The 2 holes in the top are where the tranny mount bolts to the plate. The 2 holes below are where the plate bolts to the crossmember. That should give you an idea how far off the crossmember was from the tranny mount. The notches in the sides are for my socket extensions to land on the bolts that hold the tranny mount to the tranny. I could've used normal wrenches, but I wanted the option to use a socket wrench so while I was in the mode of making plates using the drill and grinder, I went ahead and notched clearance for a socket extension. I made that plate and the external slave plate at the same time. Here's the external slave's plate on the bell:

[prpleranger]

my truck is an extended cab as well but the back of my heads are right on the firewall i actually had to persuade the firewall to move back a little with a bfh, i wish i would have taken pics im regrettin it now but i just wanted to get it together lol im off on fridays so ill try to take some if its not raining.

[87sc302]

Cgrey,
Mine is a xtended cab also but instead of using a plate for tranny mount I cut the rivets that hold the cross member and there were existing holes in frame that allowed me to move the member forward no plate needed no frame drilling only new bolts to hold crossmember in place.

[cgrey8]

I didn't have that option. The amount I would've had to move the crossmember forward would've run the crossmember brace into interference with the parking brake assembly. The plate was the easiest way, and as you can see, it was only 4 drill holes and some grinding. 6-one, 1/2 dozen the other...however you can get-r-dun.

[plowboy34]

Oh to back half the truck, I want to and the boy doesn't. Usually leads to a heavy (heated) discussion.... I guess it is his truck but I just hate it when you can't mak'em hook up, I love the hook and launch feel.

prpleranger, glad to hear the kid comes first, to many dad's could care less and that just makes me angry. My hat is off to you.