Highroads Long Travel Trac V8 Swap

[01STrunner]

Plus anything I've ever seen that runs propane just sounds so bada**!

HighRoad this thing looks wicked fun! I'll be watching this thread for sure.

 

[HighRoad]

Motor and trans are out of the Trac.

Going to clean up the engine bay, remove the abs, heater/AC box and probably move the battery to the bed to make more room for bump travel.

 

[HighRoad]

I've had a change in plans. The stock efi/wiring was causing to many compromises so I am going aftermarket. Mass-flo efi with a Bauman quick 1 to drive the 4r70w. This will allow me to really clean up the engine bay, remove abs, clean up the front dress on the engine, fuel cell with hi flow pump, 28oz balance without modding the crank trigger etc.

My parts have all showed up so it is time to get on it!!

 

[Pjibs]

It's about to go off!

*cue fight music*

 

[MidnightRebel07]

Nice, keep up the good work man. I'm following this closely. We're looking for another smaller SUV for my wife and the '97 Mounty might just become a V8 donor for my Trac. Plus the SAS build is definetly gonna be within the next year and a half (I'm done with IFS !!!!!).

 

[HighRoad]

Nice, keep up the hood work man. I'm following this closely. We're looking for another smaller SUV for my wife and the '97 Mounty might just become a V8 donor for my Trac. Plus the SAS build is definetly gonna be within the next year and a half (I'm done with IFS !!!!!).

Thanks for the interest.

I may not have been clear. I am not putting a straight axle in the trac. I may narrow a straight axle to IFS width and put drive flanges on it to bolt CV's to to build stronger IFS........ Or use an IFS 8.8.

 

[HighRoad]

Played with the Heater/AC box to try and get a little more room in the engine compartment.

The Ranger Heater only box does not work I found out......Ranger box is the lower profile, but longer one on the left and bottom in the pictures below.

 

[HighRoad]

So, we modified the sport trac heater/AC box to delete the AC portion. Cut out the portion where the AC radiator (evaporator?) goes and blocked off/sealed with silicone and a sheet of aluminum.

 

[HighRoad]

Got the 347 back from the machine shop.

 

[MidnightRebel07]

That's engine looks cherry. Thanks for the heads up on the Ranger heater box not working, I was gonna snag one out of a junkyard truck in the spring to do the same thing. I already removed everything else for the A/C, haven't had time to do the heater box yet. What year box did you try?

 

[MidnightRebel07]

That engine looks cherry. Thanks for the heads up on the Ranger heater box not working, I was gonna rip one out of a junkyard truck in the spring to do the same thing. I already removed everything else for the A/C, haven't had time to do the heater box yet. What year box did you try?

 

[HighRoad]

What year box did you try?

I went to the yard and pulled one out of a 94' Ranger. Before I got it off the firewall, I had high hopes because it looked like it would work, but once I got it off and matched it up to the sport trac box, it is totally different.

So, I have a 94' non-AC heater box available for somebody that needs one for a ranger v8 swap or a 91-94 explorer........

 

[MidnightRebel07]

Ok, not sure what happen to my last post. Lol. I wonder if a Ranger box from a newer one would work? Gonna have to search the web for part#'s and pictures.

 

[HighRoad]

I wondered the same thing, although there can't be very many, if any later model rangers without AC? Pretty sure there are no late model expo's that would have a non-ac box.

In my case, it took less time to modify the box I had then to research and track down another box. Would be interesting to see though if there is a Non-AC box available that would work.

 

[HighRoad]

Well, I have not worked on this thing much, realized that I had not posted since January!

Anyway, the swap has been slow. I ended up going with mustang accessories so I could use the balancer I already had.........everything has to change. The mustang acces are longer, obviously, and this takes away any room for an electric fan with the radiator in the stock location. So, I am running a flex fan until I move the radiator when all the front suspension/engine cage gets re-done.
I went with a PSC power steering pump, res, and cooler. Getting fittings to fit the stock rack has been a problem, but it is coming together.

Anyway, today I decided to get out of the engine compartment and swap in the 4406 t-case. It went really smooth. Front driveline is the same as would be used in the expo swap, but I am having to figure out the rear. Going to make my own "hack and tap" to get rid of the slip yoke on the case and run it in the driveline.

Anyway, here are a few pictures of the engine install. Still a lot of little things to button up, but all the big parts are there.

 

[interscope8]

*sploosh*

 

[MidnightRebel07]

Any updates??? I just picked up a '89 F-250 for the fuel injected 351w/ C6/ 1356 to do a full drivetrain swap on mine since the motor and trans are on the way out. Would love to see some more detailed pictures of the engine bay, motor mounts, trans in the tunnel for clearances. I have a 3" bodylift and will be cutting out all the IFS stuff and crossmember so I'll have quite a bit more room to work with but it's always nice to see pictures for references.

 

[krispy97xlt]

I was really hoping this last post was an update from HighRoad. What an awesome project... Subbed.

 

[HighRoad]

Hey guys, thanks for the interest and sorry for the delays in updating this thread. Seems like I get around to working on the truck about once a year, lol!

Anyway, It was a long, painful road with the aftermarket fuel injection, but I finally found a faulty part in the new distributor that was making it run poorly. The truck runs great now, and I even drove it to work today!

Now that it runs well, I going after the little things like getting the speedo and tach working, etc.

The 347 sounds good, and motivates this heavy pig a little better than the old 4.0.

I'll try and get some pictures up shortly.

Brent

 

[MidnightRebel07]

Glad to see it's almost finished. Can't wait to see pictures of the rig and engine compartment to see how you cleaned all the unneeded things out.