DEAL Of a lifetime

[onecrazyfuq]

I got a killer deal for my 95 xlt, cost me 2000. it was in mint condition even with a compelete audio system jsut for good measure, had it for 3 months, blew the head gasket, 2500 dollars later and a 66,000 mile engine and here we stand today

 

[410Fortune]

for $2500 I would have a V8 in this sucker
Sorry for your misfortune, it cost you $2500 to have the engine replaced with a low mile OHV? Dang thats alot!
Hows it running now?

 

[410Fortune]

Stay tuned!

After further testing I determined the leak in the head gasket or head is alot worse then I thought, this sucker is using a gallon of coolant a day.

After weighing our options about removing the heads, replacing the gaskets and having the heads milled (if they could be saved) we decided to go a different route, so yesterday we bagan pulling the engine......
8 more bolts and its out, 2.5 hours worth of work so far (4 exhaust bolts and 4 bellhousing bolts left).

I am picking up a 96 ranger 4.0L with 82K on it today for $400....

Benefits:
New engine has warranty
new engine has half the miles
gives us an opportunity to clean the engine bay 100%
all new fluids

PLus it gives us an entire engine full of spare parts.....

Should be running again TONIGHT hehehehe
Oh and the EGR code is gone, it was a faulty DPFE sensor, I tested the valve, the vacuum lines and checked for carbon in the EGR tubes, leaks in the EGR hoses.....new sensor at Autozone was $42

 

[Hokie]

Definately a good decision in my book!

 

[410Fortune]

woweeeee

Okay the engine is out, it fought us the entire time! Thats what I get for opening my mouth saying oh man we'll have it out in an hour!

the exhaust bolts would not budge, I tried PB blaster overnight, I tried heat, I tried everything, a 3' breaker bar only rounded them off. So.......we unbolted the exhaust manifolds from the block and literally pryed the engine out of there (the manifolds have to clear 4 studs sticking out from the heads)

it was a battle but the engine is out and the new engine is being prepped and ready to go in. Should be running tonight! There are clear signs of coolant leaking from OUTSIDE the heads on both sides, so I can only imagine what the heads and gaskets look like inside...I have never seen an external coolant leak from the heads....yikes! We will be tearing this sucker down soon.

Some pictures:

finally out, what a PITA:

donor:

HATE THESE:

The truck sans hood and grill (we are installing a trans cooler as well):

I will be removing thos bolts now....likely with a sawzall (hating these bolts)

Good news is both the 96 Ranger and the 97 Explorer have the 8 bolt crankshaft, so installing the flex plate from the 97 will not require new parts. I was under the impression the change took place in 97, but apparently not. The ranger engine is from a stick.....

 

[Hokie]

As always, I am amazed at your work/wrenching efficiency

 

[410Fortune]

Project is complete We fired it up around 10:30 pm last night. We spent 5 hours yesterday on the truck.
I had the firing order screwed up on the passenger side for a bit that created a bit of a scare (backfiring, rough idle) but we got it sorted out and it runs like a dream.

We spent some time cleaning up the new block, I removed th eoil filter mount and cleaned it, remounted because it was a bit crooked from the junk yard. We removed the engine mount plates from both sides of the block. I learned a while ago when stabbing an engine to a tranny thats already in the truck you need to remove the engine mount plates so you have the room to manuever the engine into place. We literally had the trans stabbed to the block and flexplate in about 20 minutes.

I had to cut all 4 bolts for the exhaust manifolds, the sawzall is your friend.
I struggled with one bolt for the rans cooler lines bracket a bit but eventually got it in place.



Today I am installing a transmission cooler, then put the grill and hood back on, road testing and fluid checking.

This truck is like a crunch wrap supreme........good to go
I think we spent about 3 hours Wed night, 2 hours thursday night, about 5 on Friday night and 5 yesterday after work (yes working on a Sat) not bad!

Let the mods begin!!! James will be installing a full center console (had one laying around) the rancho rear shocks and his stereo, the truck needs an alignment. The truck also has 5ea door dings on the passenger front door, I believe a paintless/dentless place ven get these out cheap if we remove the door panel for them........other then that and a small crack in the windshiled this truck is 100%
Truck: 138,500 miles, new engine: 87,000, pictures coming

 

[410Fortune]

Truck has been running for over a week now, perfectly no more issues

Both the 96 and the 97 blocks used a 8 bolt crank, so swapping the flywheel out for a flexplate was a snap

Some pictures from the engine swap out:

One way to get to know your new vehicle inside and out:

You could say the old block had some issues, no its not algea:

ready for power wash:

Cleaned up the new engine and dropped it in, working fast so not many pics:

Something is missing:

Not anymore!:

plumbed:

leftovers:

done and done:

 

[Hokie]

 

[Dan Whitaker]

A good thing about the pics is I will be replacing my headlight assemblies next week so I now know I will have to remove the grill to access them.

 

[Hokie]

A good thing about the pics is I will be replacing my headlight assemblies next week so I now know I will have to remove the grill to access them.

Yeah, its a piece of cake to get the grille off and get to the headligh assemblies.

Jamie, whats the plan for the old 4.0? Going to tear it down and see if the just the gaskets are bad? Build a monster 4.0? If you crack into it let me know. I've got limited experience with engine tear down/reassembly and would love to learn more.

 

[410Fortune]

tear down yes
rebuild a 4.0L no way, the cost = too much only to bolt it back to a weakish 4r55e, that $$$ would be better spent on rebuilding a 4r70w and dropping in a V8 (entire V8 truck can be had for $1000-1500)

So yeah V8 when this trans goes...

I just happen to have one laying around hahaha

 

[toypaseo]

The truck also has 5ea door dings on the passenger front door, I believe a paintless/dentless place ven get these out cheap if we remove the door panel for them........other then that and a small crack in the windshiled this truck is 100%

The PDR place might be able to work them out using a hot glue, suction cup, and slide hammer. That worked great on my Paseo where there was no access to the back of the panel

 

[410Fortune]

thanks for the tip Toy Paseo!
The truck is almost 100% now

James got his front windows tinted.

IN order to try and fix th efuel pressure issue (dropping to 0 within a minute of shutoff) we had earlier replaced his fuel pump with a unit I had lying around from a 96 truck.

It didnt work, it didnt fit the tank right so his fuel gage wouldnt read below 1/4
The other day we dropped the tank again to fix this and installed his OEM 97 sender with a new Napa pump.
All went well except we dropped the tank off of the jack and it caused a leak in the fuel line! YIKES! The leak was in the high pressure side where the braided line meets the gas tank. This fuel line assembly goes all the way from the fuel filter to the gas tank..

I had to pull the lines off my rolled parts truck and install new lines onto James 97

That was a CHORE! We had to drop the tank again, along with the gas tank bracket, the t case skid plate, the fuel line heat guard, and all the retainer clips...it was a PITA but we got both lines replaced in two days...

The truck is running 100%, no leaks!

Now we have a vibration under braking in the front end...thats the next project to tackle.
removing the ABS fuse makes little difference, it still vibrates wildly under hard braking

His alignment is also off, the t bars have sagged.
We ordered some Warrior shackles and also picked up some torsion bar bolts.

Lifting it this weekend, and then alignment

 

[techieman33]

I'm curious to see what you find out about the vibration, mine does the same thing, and it's worse going around a corner.

 

[410Fortune]

vibration is either the 4wd kicking in, the ABS, alignment, or wraped rotors/bad brakes.

hahaha does that help?

James and I did a bit more work on his 97 recently, we performed a torsion twist and warrior shackles. This turned into a MUCH bigger job then we expected:

First we measured the truck on level ground with the tires pressure even and a half tank of gas:

AS you can see the front fenders were within 1/2" of each other at 140K miles
The torsion bars have sagged (apparent from alignment)
We set the tape on the front fenders right at 34" (before)
We set the tape on the rear fenders right at 33" (before)

We placed tape on each of the 4 wheel wells at a predetermined distance so we could have an accurate before and after measurement, and a way to level out the truck exact with the torsion twist.

We got started by jacking up the rear of the truck and supporting it by the frame as pictured. I also added another jack stand at his hitch just for safety (not pictured):

Then remove the rear wheels, droop the rear axle fully and remove the shackle bolts. The drivers side was a cake walk, took all of 15 minutes to remove the factory bolts and shackle and install the new warrior shackle. A small pry bar is used to line up the leaf spring with the lower shackle bolt

Shackles:

Then we moved onto the pass side (Not fun):
trying to remove the bolt:

Even with a 4' breaker bar they would not budge
My best guess is that the exhaust on this side of the truck has effected the shackle/leaf bushings and we were unable to get them to move. We tried heat, we tried everything they would not move.
We ended up cutting the bolts with a grinder and sawzall
We ended up using my ball joint press to push the factory bushing with bolt pieces out of the leaf spring and out of the frame.
We then contacted Ford and ordered the new bushings. FYI Ford does not list a bushing for the frame insertm instead they say you need a new frame (WAJ)

Getting the metal bushing sleve out of the leaf spring is next to impossible UNLESS you have an air chissel:

My teeth rattle just looking at this:

pressing in the new bushing:

Finally all said and done in the rear we get:

A full 2" of lift, this is after driving the truck to let it settle

Then we move to the front for a simple torsion twist using new 100mm long bolts as recommended on this forum. IMO 100mm is WAY too long, I cut about a full inch off these suckers:

(bolt was cut more after this picture, they are about 1/2" longer then the factory bolts when all is said and done, they do not hang down below the t bar protector bracket, and there is still plenty of adjustment left

Kevlar torsion bar "Wear" pad......nice work Ford!

Updating the 95-97 trucks to the 98 style with the replaceable pad would require cutting into the frame and mods to the torsion bar adjuster bracket...no thanks! New adjusters are $40-$50 each...

We didnt get any pictures of the t bar twist because there are plenty on this forum already

The front of the truck was lifted a full 1-1/2" on one side and approx 1-1/4" on the other to level the truck out at 35-1/4":

 

[isenegger]

how hard and what is envolved in changing the torsion bolt