okay 70 miles on the truck so far.
Everything works flawless, shift linkage needs some fine tuning, but I think this setup will work!
If you are considering a 5.0L conversion for your ranger based vehicle.....
DO IT! FIND A WAY MAKE IT HAPPEN
Tomorrow morning she gets exhaust.
The drivers down pipe will be slightly modified to fit better (higher up), clearancing the oil pan. A dual inlet single outlet (3") muffler will be added with a 3" pipe right out the back, tucked up as high as possible.
Now for the pictures. First the trans mount, welded, painted, installed. Transfer case installed. You can see I used the stock explorer exhaust hanger bracket, this kind of thing will save me $$$ at the exhaust shop
Here is the 96 Mustang AOD floor shifter with OD button installed. I had to make the plate for the floor and the mount for the shifter. You can see my original 88 carpet is about ready for the dumpster so I did not mind cutting. You can also see my new Autometer Phantom water temp gage (oops broke the old one) One gage left to go (oil pressure) then they are all Phantom white face. I will be building a center console (fiberglass, fabric) this summer to house the gages, shifter, drink holders, etc:
the wires are for the OD button, not hooked up just yet. You can see my ARB switches and CB in this pic too..
Here is the temporary bracket I made to hold the shift cable in place at the trans, so far so good! this sucker was easy to build but took some time to design
Here are the new gage faces installed, OH BABY CUSTOM CITY:
as you can see I went SVT tach and Racing speedo
And now a few shots of the exhaust, remember the drivers pipe is temporary, just to get me to the exhaust shop, it is hanging about 3" too low and almost touching the oil pan = no good. Will be fixed tomorrow:
Dual cats, will be removed, this is where the muffler goes
Here she is just before the hood and grill installed, shops a mess to excited to clean now:
Another shot of the shop where all this magic happens, many snowy nights and long weekends spent here:
All buttoned up, washed again:
And for my next projects, patiently waiting in line:
Boat is next, hahahaha wake tower upgrade this summer.
The green Ex is the one I rolled, will get stripped to bare chasis and then crushed.
Blue Ex is my new builder for a daily driver, will get front end cut off, the drivetrain from the green Ex installed, then a new front clip (hopefully sport trac)
The BII will be getting full body work, a finished interior (carpet, console, some paint) and then finally new Ford Blue paint.
Coming up next:
Custom exhaust, emissions compliance and testing, some more miles, then finally WHEELING!!!