Hey guys. I have been ignoring my Ranger for the past while (crap tranny's making me park it, swap another crap tranny in, park it). Anyways. Now I recently did something rash....I bought a 96 Explorer with a V8 and 166k KM's (100k miles) so now I am going to attempt to swap it into my truck and enjoy it with a real powertrain. I probably won't start the whole process for awhile, but I figure I will gather as much advice as I can first before I dive in (my $800 suggests that I have already dove in)

Since this is the project log orum I might as well do some shameless showing off (even though I think I had a thread somewhere here before)

When I got it:



skip ahead a bit





skip ahead more..what is this?!









So as a disclaimer, I am not completely mechanically inept. but I do feel like maybe I have gotten in over my head with this:



Whoop Whoop! It was in a front end crash so the Rad is gone, fan is bent. But other stuff looks to be in good shape. Tranny fluid is nice and not burnt and such so, we will see I guess

I blew a 4R55E and then swapped in a 5R55E (which the guy assured me was fine) but it has a weak sprag clutch so it takes 2-3 seconds to engage in gear, and also flares up between shifts. Lame. Also the 4.0L even with headers and a BBK throttle body seems sluggish. So I said enough is enough. I listed my truck for sale, but then a deal came up for a low km v8 explorer that has the same year as my truck, near unheard of in this small province. So I said what the heck, bought it, that brings us up to now. You now know the story of Dweano and his Ranger.

I will update this as I make progress but my newbness is showing and I have questions:

1: AWD is dumb, can I just unlock my (manual) hubs and it'll work in 2WD?

2. What will work for driveshafts? I have a one piece driveshaft in my truck already, I believe I read that I can swap a flange of something and it will work

3. The Explorer has AC and the Ranger does not. Which is easier, making Ranger AC or just deleting AC?

4. Motor mounts...I do not wanna spend more money, I can Frankenstein some between the Explorer and Ranger ones right?

I am still reading various resources and build threads so I am sure I will answer some of these questions myself

 

The exploder mounts will bolt to the ranger mounts,or did on mine anyways. I'd just delete the A/C, easier and more space/less drag on the motor. As far as driveshafts I think the ranger front and reas will bolt up fine with no changing to the awd case, and for sure work with the adapter and a 1356. I have a 4406 and had to get the rear shaft chopped down and the front I used a f-150 shaft. If you can I would just get a transfercase put in and get rid of the awd.

 

Thats what i like to hear. I guess I will delete the A/C. How hard is that? Just remove it all and get a different belt? Any electrical issues or wiring I need to worry about? I think I did see a sensor on one of the pressure lines. The driveshafts is good to know tho. I will stick with AWD for now until I can make sure the engine and tranny is all set up and has no issues and then I will worry about the T-case when I get the $$$ and time

 

More pics:

My beauty 31 Spline Explorer 8.8:



Awesome Explorer Seats and OHC!



Ok more seriously:





Fan is bent, may need to put in some E-fans, also the upper radiator hose hole (technical term) is wide open, got a bit of junk in there, will have to fix that

And what the crap is all this, I am already confused outta my mind



Oh ok...there is relays attached to this wiring mess, hmm...





Can maybe use these to replace the missing ones on my toolbox?

 

yeah just tear it all out. they make a idler pulley and bracket that replaces the pump. uses the stock belt

 

After talking to some people and reading I finally figured out only the engine harness needs to be swapped over. And two other harness's. Not that whole mess of things! What a relief, this will be easier than I thought

 

yeah just the engine harness. I didnt notice the front of the xploder frame before. I kinda lold. ****'ll buff out

 

Got a bit of progress done. Drove the Ranger to my old bosses place and his nice shop. And just dropped alot of cash at summit for headers and what not. Now we will see how much it costs I get nailed for living in Canada

and yeah I realized I don't need half that crap. Just the ECU to engine harness and then the 42 pin bolts up to the ranger. Then like...alternator and starter harness

 

Well home for thanksgiving and got alot of progress done: Here is my very helpful father with his very helpful tractor:



Starting to pull and manouver and see if anything is still attached:





SWEEEET VICTORY!!!

This is my first time removing an engine outta anything and by far the most ambition project I have taken on. Just getting to this stage feels good. Only bad thing is the tranny connector got a bit smushed but it should be ok

 

Update:

-summit is sending me a new adaptor

-I have the engine and truck at my bosses shop

-I got the old manifolds off (must've been done before because they came out easy, Thank Goodness!!) and I took the transfer case off the back. Hopefully with the shortened length the engine and tranny won't have to get busted apart. I also got the oxygen sensors outta the pipes. I will reuse the sensors but likely just make my own custom exhaust.

-the tranny fluid smelled a little burnt... not brutal. But not peachy, but hard to tell how bad it is because tranny fluid already smells terrible. The fluid was mostly red it seemed like so that is good. I guess I will see what happens...

-Sorry no pics. Just imagine an engine sitting in a shop on some tires...having headers on it instead of manifolds.

 

LONG OVERDUE update: random pics... I am super busy with school and family and life and what not. But I am slowly banging away at this project

No A/C for me:


Big 1 inch socket for taking off... something? Can't remember what it was now.



Some shop companions for my truck:



This tab was in the way for header clearance so it got removed (look for it in the next pics):



Header clearance:





Just in case you forgot what a 5.0L looks like:



The collectors on the headers where 2 inch...disappointing because I based all my exhaust buying on them being 2.5 inch...so...another order to summit:



Here you can see some work I did to make it work for the Ranger, bigger starter wiring, engine plates, headers, oil pan:



Draining coolant:



Coming out:



From here on out I accidentally messed up a setting on my phone so...garbage pics... and here is the 4.0L OUT!



See!

 

Look into the fuel delivery systems being compatible. I read somewhere in some project log about the 5.0L fuel return not being compatible with Rangers fuel pumps for certain years. It might have been about 90s 5.0Ls to 2000+ Rangers though. Just look into it, I've never done this swap so I'm not well versed in the subject.

Looks great though! Always liked your truck and the front end swap.

 

What headers did you buy for it?

 

I used Hedmann 88400's. I think they will work. Fuel systems are plug and play I believe. RangerSVT on TRS did the same swap and it was all good. I have a 96 Ranger and the V8 is outta a 96 Explorer so...I think it will be all good.

 

Yeah both should have 45psi return style systems. Not that its a huge deal. On my 98 I left my 65psi returnless stuff on it and ran a return line. That way I get lots of fuel flow

Looking at those headers I am not sure if they will work or not. Usually the headers are a touchy subject when it comes to a v8 swap

 

Phew...what a day. Putting in the 5.0L was tougher than I thought. I really didn't want to bust apart the tranny and engine so I did it together.

As you can see it was TIGHT:







Belt routing pic:



BUT IT IS IN:





Clearances:









And now...the casualties:





and the worst:



Lotsa pics for you guys!

The cross member is still quite strong. I couldn't even flex it even with a chunk cut out. But I will definitely weld up some flat iron on the top and side to reinforce it ....stronger than new! So don't worry. I know some people will think it was stupid. But it was the only way it would work. Unless I ripped it out and tore off the intake. But I was getting my boss to help me and didn't want to waste his time. So...trimmed up the cross member and it slipped right past...BARELY. It was tight tight tight. As you can see there was some casualties. The tranny tube was the worst. I will have to take it off and straighten it out or get a new one.

Alignment:

As you can see it is as far back as it will go. Tons of room in the front. Not alot in the back I will probably move it up an inch or two for final fitting. Even furthest back the tranny cross member wouldn't line up. I think I will redrill the tranny crossmember holes an inch forward and reattach the tranny crossmember. It also looks sloped back. According to RangerSVT i need to lift up the tranny two inches, which makes sense to me. I will make a spacer with some slots to move things around.

Also...the headers... the passenger side is almost on top of the frame. But the drivers side is about 2 to 3 inches away from the frame rail. I understand that the drivers side has the steering and what not so it should be over. But I am just wondering how to determine alignment.

The way it is now the tranny fit in the tranny cross member (left to right, not front to back)

So I guess I am should make new plates an inch over? Or no? What do you guys think with alignment? Definitely move it forward an inch or two. I have to to clear the passenger side exhaust I think.

Questions:

Grounding...what should I do? On the 5.0L I upgraded the starter wire to 4 gauge. But there is no ground. The 4.0L had a power and ground wire to the starter. So obviously the 5.0L just grounds to the block. Should I just run a big 4 gauge ground to the block somewhere? And ground the battery to the body, and engine to body? All bigger wires or what?

Also would running the alternator straight to the positive battery terminal instead of the solenoid be an upgrade?

Any other comments or recommendations...are welcome!

 

Double post

 

Nice build! Wish i was local to you, cause i'd love to take that 4.0 off your hands.

 

What happened to that rad support?

 

The 4.0L is actually already sold! So...this better work. The rad support had a run in with a plasma cutter. I recklessly decided to trim it to make everything fit. My 5.0L was just too wide. Don't worry I will weld it up and reinforce everything once I am done so it is structurally sound

 

One thing that might have helped a lot was to peel the upper intake plenum off. I lowered mine in no trans/no upper intake and it dropped in like a 4.0 would have

As for your wiring. Just run a good ground from the battery right to the block. Dont forget to run a smaller wire to the fender or rad support for your chassis ground

 

Yeah I should have taken the upper intake off before I even tried to put it in. I don't know what I didn't...I am going to put on an intake spacer anyways so it wouldn't have been more work. Geez. Hindsight is 20/20 I guess hahaha. So ground from battery to block, battery to frame? That'll be good?

Does anybody know about universal ground wire kits? Basically from what I have read you have a bunch of ground wires all over and it supposedly increases the electrical system performance and what not.

 

Yeah that would work. Your current battery cable should have a frame ground on it but if you want to run off road lights or anything then a heavier frame to battery ground would be good.

The more you can tie everything together with ground straps the better but then again after a few its not going to get much better.

 

Yeah makes sense. Common grounds and what not. I have some left over cable. Might as well connect everything

 

I would do battery ground to block, frame, core support. Then do a frame to cab, and a frame to bed strap.