Just the new guy

[cckc135r]

Just wanted to say thanks to Malcolm for getting me up and going on the site and I look forward to reading other posts and maybe even trying to help out when I can.

I'm in the process of planning and gathering parts for my 1986 2WD short bed w/ an 87 5.0 and an AOD or C4. I have the AOD and it would be nice but I like the C4 more for racing.

Anyway, it's good to be on the board.

[cgrey8]

Welcome to the site...

So you are building for an all out performance truck? My conversion is into my daily driver that will stay being my daily driver even after the conversion. The old 2.9L had 267kmiles, never rebuilt, never gave me any trouble, and still ran when I pulled it into be dismantled. However it was old, compression was gone to $#!‡ so I wasn't getting but MAYBE 20mpg and no performance.

So I decided if I'm not going to get gas mileage, I might as well have performance and I wasn't about to spend the time to rebuild the engine when I could put a V8 in. I'm swapping in an Explorer V8. It'll be pretty much stock on the inside. The only engine performance mods will be MSD 6A box, Explorer headers, new FMS T5 tranny, and loosing the mechanical fan in lieu of 2-electric pushers on a DC speed controller. When it's all done, my goal is to have a fun, but economical daily driver that can still pass emissions.

Peripheral to the engine, I upgraded the 89 Ranger constant coil springs with 97 Ranger progressive coil springs to hold up better against the heavier V8 as well as gain some suspension performance. While I had the suspension torn out, I replaced the rubber suspension bushings with Duff polyurathane bushings.

For the back-end, I'm replacing the 7.5" RE with an 8.8" RE. The 8.8" came from a 93 Ranger with 3.73 LS (Limited Slip) and a sway bar which should add even more control. However I'm loosing the 3.73s and LS clutches in the RE and installing 3.27s for cruising and a PowerTrax Locker for traction. The clutches in the RE were pretty well shot. I could feel resistance, but I could overcome the clutches with my bare hands turning the axle hub. It took some effort, but still....if my hand strength can slip the clutches turning the hub, the clutches would be doing next to nothing on the road. And finally, I'm topping off the RE upgrades with James Duff traction bars (almost a necessity with Rangers). The traction bars are added, not for the dry pavement performance as much as for the rain. Even with my tired old 2.9L, taking tight turns on a wet road was challenging without having the inside tire slip and cause wheel-hop. The locker should help with that, but if both tires broke loose, the hop would be twice as bad not including the lack of rear-end control at that point.

So what all have you got going in yours?

[plowboy34]

Welcome, come in and have a seat.

You will love this place, one of the best site's as far as I am concerned. Just ask away and there are plenty of people here who can answer, and they know what they are talking about. The info on here just blows my mind at times.

I do want to say something of your tranny choices. If your going to drive the truck on the road very much at all I would go with the AOD, it will give you alot better gas mileage. It will not hurt you on performance that much, especially if you put a little money into it. They have AOD tranny's behind 650 horse engines. If your going to do nothing but performance with it I would then go with the C4. It is definitely a better tranny for straight out drag racing. So it really boils down to what your going to do with the truck.

[cckc135r]

My plans for the Ranger for the time being are to get the 5.0 installed and drive. Then upgrade as I go. I have an 87 5.0 from a cougar and that is also where the AOD came from. Plowboy, I think I'll take your advice to start with and install the AOD because it will get driven on the street.

Currently I'm active duty Air Force and you don't join the service to get rich. So time and money.....well they are lacking a little and I don't have a wife that supports this kind of hobby very much.

As far as plans go, the engine will get the standard re-ring and bearing for now and the B cam with an Edelbrock RPM intake and Holley 600 vac sec carb. I'm going to trade the heads for a set of E7 heads.

However, before any of this happens the RE will get changed out for an 8.8. I part time at AutoZone and can get one from there for not of a lot of coin.

From there comes the fuel system and battery relocation to the bed of the truck.

The first mod however will be a set of 17" 1994/95 Cobra wheels coming in mid September.

So I guess I'm a firm believer in one mans trash is another mans treasure for now. This helps keep the happy home and me in something to do. I've done this type of swap before just not to a Ranger. In the past I've done an S-10 and a 2 WD Toyota that turned out pretty nice. I'm looking forward to doing the Ranger and working you guys.

[cgrey8]

Both S-10 and Toyota swap SBC350s?

My stepfather is a die-hard Chevy man, however he's NEVER had good luck with any of his Chevy trucks, noew or used. He's rebuilt them time and time again, but things just keep happening to the engine or tranny and they never run as good as he hopes. But that never stopped him from preaching that I should've gotten an S-10 so it would be easier to drop a V8 into.

However I've never talked to anyone about Toyota swaps. I know next to nothing about them.

As for your Tranny, go with the AOD for sure. I'm not a big fan of the automatic. I prefer manuals. However everything I hear about the AOD is that stock, they are crap. But they CAN be built to handle whatever you want to give it. That's why Plowboy was saying you have to put some money into them.

What's throwing me though is your choice of the B-cam. Why not the E-cam? The E is street legal (if that's a concern for you) and it seems to have the most area under the torque curve in the RPMs you need it for both cruising and performance.

You also mentioned you are trying to get your hands on some E7 heads, what heads are on the engine now just out of curiosity? I don't know much about the V8 cougars.

I see you are also going with a carbed setup. If this is ultimately going to be a high performance truck where emissions are hardly a concern, then that should work out fine. However if you are in an area that will need to pass smog tests OR you are a tech-head that likes the idea of interfacing with the ECM using a laptop to make timing and fuel delivery tweaks, you'll likely need to go EFI. It's not THAT much more difficult. You just need to know the things to look for and those details are available throughout the forum.

[cckc135r]

At this point I've chosen the B cam because of the heads that I'll be running. I didn't want to go too big on cam selection until I can step up to a set set Rousch 180's or maybe a set of AFR's

I'm also not very up to speed on pedestal mount rockers and how adjustable they are. I have my eye on a set of early 289 Hi-Po heads with adjustable rocker studs that have had some port work done to them. If I can get those then I'll step to an E cam. I've been told that the 289 heads flow just as well as a set of GT 40 heads with the port work that has been done.

All this is still a little ways off as I'm still trying to undo about 3 years worth of neglect on my Ranger from the previous owner.

With that said, I may be able to find some deals on things between now and then.

Currently I'm working on a custom gauge panel for the Autometer set up I have since I'm into metal work a little. I've already had a few failed atempts but I think I may have it right on this one. I also hope to buy the next 2 tires for the cobra 17"'s shortly.

Is there a way to post pics....you know like before and after type things?

[cgrey8]

Posting pics is a matter of either sending them to Malcolm (the forum admin) or hosting the pics from your own website location.

However, most internet service providers that you pay for (as opposed to the freebies) will give you 10-30MB of website space to host your own website. Nothing says you HAVE to use it strictly for html files. I use the space my college gave me to host pictures that I reference within threads. If it ever fills up, I'll have to then use my space on my ISP to post pics to the forum.

If you are not really "network" savvy, you may find the process of logging into your site and pasting in pics cumbersome the 1st few times you do it, but once you do it a few times, you figure out how to stream-line the process to make it a few seconds work when you want to expose pics to the internet. Most ISPs will post instructions on how to get into your website space (generally FTP).

As a suggestion if you do figure it out, make sure to create folders and put your pics into intelligently named folders. Otherwise you end up with a huge mess of un-organized files you can't move because they are being referenced from threads that need them to be there. If you do move them, they will just show up in the threads as red Xs. Note how the 2nd entry to this VERY old thread has pics that have been moved or deleted and don't show up anymore:
viewtopic.php?t=8&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=15

Hope that helps...

[cckc135r]

Yeah, I'm one of those folks who turn the computer on and it works. I can remove and installed software and hardware with no problem and use some advertized features of some programs but that about where is stops.

I do have to admit that the idea of my own site sounds pretty cool. Thanks.

[plowboy34]

Hey cckc135r, I know I probably shouldn't say anything of your non supporting wife of your hobby, But...LOL I presume your not out at the bar, or chasing other women everywhere, if you are then this is useless. If your not you need to inform her you could have alot worse hobby. My wife does get a little aggravated with my Hot Rodding expenses at time but as she say's she knows where I am and what I'm doing. She has a few friends who don't know where there husband is half the time and she knows how lucky she is. Just a thought I would throw out there for you, sometimes people need a little different way of seeing things. Hope I didn't meddle to much.

[Elect666]

Can I get an AMEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
That is what I'm Talking about. Plowboy34 is dead on.

[cckc135r]

plowboy34,

You are right about that. And when I'm in the shop she knows exactly where I am. I may just have to use that one. I even like the twist. To add to this I'm a home body, don't like big crowds, don't really like going to strip bars because there is no reason to get hot and bothered about someone I can't have even if I wanted, I don't drink and would rather spend time with my family or out in the shop working on the Ranger.

Wow, with all that said you guys should know that I lead a pretty dull and boring life but a good one. Good one in the fact that I do what I love to do, I'm in the air force and work on KC-135's and I hot rod my Ranger.

Thanks for the twist, I'll try it next time I need something expensive.

[cgrey8]

I'm not married and I get the same flack from my fiancee. I don't know how many times I've heard "Why don't you just buy another truck instead of wasting your money?"

I keep trying to explain to her that having a hobby like this is theraputic. As frustrating as it may be from time to time, it's still enjoyable, and I'm banking on the outcome being worth my efforts.

In addition, I've never been big on racing and super high performance. My main interests are practicality. I enjoy having a project like this where I want performance AND fuel economy as well as a truck that will pass as emissions legal. Now stack ontop of that the added challenges of making something work where it was never designed to work...but will with a little effort. Mix all those together, and you have projects like this.

It's cheaper than a shrink, and much more productive...

[plowboy34]

LOL.....Hey Chris, you better make sure she understands this could be a lifelong thing. My wife loves to harrass my dad, when we first got married at 18 years old she griped to him about my Hot Rod expenses. He told her not to worry I would out grow it. Now 23 years later she keeps asking him when am I going to out grow it....LOL. As I said before though she is cool with it. I will tell you guys another trick to use on the woman of your life. When I had my V8 Pinto I took her out on a back road, taught her how to use the B&M shifter and let her "FEEL THE POWER" ....She liked it, and that also helped with the Hot Rodding expense....LOL. It actually led to a little more spending. She found a Mustang II with a 302 in it and had to have it. Of course I had to put some goodies on it so she could woop up on some of them boy's, and she loves it. Just thought I would pass that info on.

Hey Malcolm, bet you never thought you would have marriage counseling on here did ya....LOL

[plowboy]

hey cckc135r i might have some wheels and tires you might be interested in they are the 17 - 9 cobra wheels (not fms ) but a nice set of knock offs i have 3 wheels and 4 tires the tires are 245-45-17 kelly charger hps (like brand new) i got them off the car that i got my motor out of it was hit in the pass side front tire so it broke that wheel but the tire that was on that rim has a few shallow cuts in it but i wouldnt worry about running it the wheels look pretty good some of the chrome on the inside of the rim is kinda flaking but a nice set if you are on a budget im goingto run welds so i dont need them might be able to send a pitcure if interested

[plowboy34]

Oh Yeah, I also wanted to say THANKS for serving in our Military. I appreciate my freedom and don't take it lightly. Keep them 135's in the air...we need'em.

And I don't think you have a dull life. Sounds good to me, a good family, Hot Rods, and a job...not everyone has that....only the Lucky Ones as far as I'm concerned.

Again...THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU