gumby's ebay find

and so it begins....
i am currently on my 5th ranger. with the addition of my second child this year, my family has out grown pick-ups for daily transportation.
the ranger is being dismantled to try and recoup some of my mod money, and i am gonna start buildin this.

gonna take a lil road trip to pick it up the first weekend of october, then the fun starts.

rough plans have been layed out

suspension/brakes:
ranger torsion bars and leafs
bilstien shocks
12" front rotor upgrade
17" wheels with 275/55/17 tires

interior:
full length console
sport trac gauges

drivetrain:
manual tranny conversion
4.10's
torquemonster headers
undecided catback
undecided CAI
plenum spacer
1.7 roller rockers
undecided camshaft

lemme know what you think. im a lil bit of a 5.0 n00b so ill be absorbin as much info from you guys as possbile. spent most of my hotrod engine money on 2.3Ts. im not lookin for super fast from the mounty(thats what the tbird is for), but respectable would be nice.

opinions accepted

 

[CougarX]

If you go 1.7 roller rockers you'll need new, taller valver covers as well. Most of us go with 1.6 roller rockers to keep the power band down low for these heavy trucks. Also, if you're getting a cam then there is no need for 1.7 rockers because you can just chose your cam lift instead.

As far as I know a manual tranny swap has never been done on an Explorer 5.0L. The transmission control is integrated into the Engine computer. There has been some talk about having the transmission controls removed from the computer by tune, but no one has tried it to date I believe. You definitely want to find out about this first (talk to an SCT dealer,Henson or Bama) because you don't want to collect all the parts only to find out it won't work.

Ranger torsion bars won't be any more stiff then the Explorer bars on a V8. The V8 bars are the stiffest you can get I believe. I also don't believe rear ranger leaves will work on an Explorer. Even if they were the right length the rear of an Explorer weighs a lot more then a Ranger.

Lastly, you'll need spindles/knuckles and rotors from a 02+ sport or Sport Trac for the brake upgrade. These are the same spindles that came on the Rangers with larger brakes so you probably know this since you're a Ranger guy.

 

[gumby]

good info, and thanks!

i did not know the 1.7's wouldnt clear the stock rocker covers. i listed the cam last because i dont know how deep i will get into the motor just yet, i may be happy with the power level for a DD w/o a cam swap. maybe if a w/p craps out on me, ill slide a cam in while ive got the engine half apart.

the springs are pendin a check of the current spring codes on the mounty. i have sittin here a pair of #1 bars and the second highest rating ranger leafs. if they dont work, ill take the leafs back off and run blocks, but i hate blocks. i know explorer leafs are good for 1.5-2" lift on a ranger, so the reverse should hold true as long as the ranger leafs can handle the extra weight.

brake upgrade is a cake walk. i was plannin ranger spindles, but its good to know the sport tracs are the same. opens my options up.

i was pretty sure the 4r70w controls were gonna be integral to the PCM. there has gotta be a way around it, ill jus hafta find it

 

[chilly_moose]

Damn
Good find
Looks very clean, Thanks e-bay.

 

[gumby]

it is home!
along the way home sunday, i stopped and had a lil RBV meet at a buddies house

here is a shot of it next to my ranger from this afternoon

now to start moddin, we must first de-mod the ranger and make some $$$

tires are dismounted so i can have the rims blasted and powder coated. all the mods i have done to it are being removed and are for sale. the truck is already sold(stock) to a friend of the family(in-laws).

grabbed one of these at a junkyard(thanks cougarSE)

the spring code on my mounty is BF, so while i lower it i will swap in my set of #1 bars. the B bars will end up on the ranger. while i remove the RCD from the ranger, it will also donate its 4.10's to the mounty. the ranger will get the mounty's 3.73's and stock wheels/tires.

lots of work to go! stay tuned.

 

[CougarSE]

Hey looky its my white mountaineer!

 

[Gay-briel]

^hehe

and my trac, all in my driveway

 

[Turdle]

Ha ha--god job.

You'll love the Mounty--

 

[gumby]

not much for pics, but i swapped the torsion bars out tonight.
went from B's to #1's and am runnin them w/o the torsion bolt installed. total drop 1.25" front, no change in ride quality. the lower control arms and CV's have a VERY slight up hill run.

slipped a 1" block in the back.

no one will probly ever notice, but it looks good to me and the geometry is still good. to me it is more important to maintin proper geometry for handling than to be super low.

gotta order my new tires. wheels are probly done by now....i saw them on the rack.

4.10's goin in tomorrow....

 

[gumby]

longest day of gear swappin evar. swapped front diffs(plus removed the locker from the ranger diff) between the two trucks, and swapped rear gears(plus removed the locker from the ranger carrier). alone.

definitely worth it though. this fat pig really likes the deeper gears

sad but true quote of the day:
"if you have 3 vehicles but none of them are driveable, you might be a redneck." - my wife :scratch:

 

[gumby]

mmmmmmmmm wheels and tires

of course i put them on, would you expect otherwise?? it got dark outside, though so you hafta deal with garage shots.

and what is that that i spy with my little eye??

yup exhaust! MAC catback. 2.5" DI/3" SO
hopefully i can get it put on tonight/tomorrow....

 

[gumby]

here are some day shots. everything is all buttoned up exhaust wise. i like it alot. the MAC has some drone, but that was expected with a chambered muffler.

 

[MountaineerGreen]

Lookin good! That RCD will be a hot item if you sell it....

 

[gumby]

oh, its for sale, oh yes.

as soon as i get it cleaned up and some decent pics of it, there will be a thread.

 

[Charlie]

Looks good!

 

[gumby]

time for a lil update i guess.

i added an A/C interrupt switch and my MACH CD player

also finished up swappin to a full console

in the upper corner of that pic, you can also see part of my sport trac gauge cluster, and my ranger steering wheel.

when i grabbed that full console from the yard, i also snagged an OHC. hopefully i can get that installed this weekend.
i ordered my EE rear sway bar, and front bushings this week as well. expected delivery on the 27th....oh, and i got a hold of a pair of 12" knuckles, so as soon as i buy some rotors ill take care of that too.

 

[gumby]

ok, ive got a small confession to make. if you notice most of my previous pics are from the d.side of the truck there is a reason for that. when i did my initial quick drop, the truck leaned almost a complete inch to the left. it was hacked, and i tried to swap the leaves, but quickly concluded it was b/c of the differing amounts of preload required in the front. along with removin the torsion bolts, i took advantage of the sagged leafs and only used a 1" block. that left me with really soft rear springs.

so my mission today was to remedy this quick hack drop, and fix some ride issues. i built a modded rear leaf pack from a set of ranger leafs and my stock units. other than the main leaf, the ranger leafs are longer and thinner than the mounty. i took the shortest leaf from the mounty pack and added it to the bottom of the ranger pack givin me a 5leaf pack with a slightly higher rate than a stock 4dr pack and better ride due to the thinner, longer leaves.

you can see there that i have also added an EE rear bar, and swapped to a 2" block. the higher rate gave me 1" of "lift." its not really lift so much as correcting my original sag issue.

i found out my shackles were spent, so i fabbed up a set to replace them

now for the front in order to gain the adjustability i needed to level the truck out i picked up a set of drop keys from AIM. i know everyone "flips" their keys for free, but i dont like the idea. i dropped the $40 and got keys, and im glad i did.
they look great. the machine work is good. and i dont hafta worry about the key sittin in the guide block the wrong way, or the dimple on the backside of the key.

the black one is the stocker. you can see the rotation of the key way.

so now as soon as i get a chance, ill add a couple pics of the new ride height. wont look much different though cause the new ride height is the same as the d.side old ride height :

next up is to shorten the rear endlinks. the swaybar is very close to my IRS diff cover, and actually touches over bumps if the truck is loaded.

 

[gumby]

heres a couple fresh pics from today. didnt wanna play out in the rain too long, but you can see the ride height is even side to side now, and my new tint on the front windows and windshield.

she is sittin at ~31.25" at all four corners over 29" tires. im not gonna go any lower than this w/o a laundry list of custom parts including upper arms and coilovers....

 

[Sams01XplrSprt]

nice mounty u got there gumby

 

[steven2]

the f150 had a 5sp with the 302 get you that trans and the computer from a 96 and you should be good