Christmas miracle, it started

[Buggyman]

I have been rebuilding the top end of my 2000 ranger with 3.0 for the past month, working mostly after the kids go to bed till 2 AM then to get up early the next day. Finally got it mostly finished the other night and completed a few odds and ends, added fluids and fired it up today. At first it stalled, back fired, ran really rough while the exhaust was rich and smokey. I shut it off and started checking the basics and discovered that I had the firing order wrong. Swapped some plug wires around and it started back up and seems to run fine. I have insurance on it but the registration is expired so I only drove it around a parking lot down the street, so far no problems aside from an annoying squeak which I attribute to an old idler pulley. Thanks to everyone that answered my plethora of questions over the past month, hopefully it will continue to run strong for many more miles.

It has new head gaskets, pressure tested, cleaned and replaced all exhaust valves and seats (machine shop did this, they were trashed), new cam shaft synchro, cleaned a tun of crap out of the lower intake, remanufactured motorcraft fuel injectors ($30 each from amazon), replaced power steering pump to rack line that had a leak, new radiator and all new hoses along with a new thermostat, new fuel filter, air filter, etc.

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

 

[Mark_88]

x 2

 

[Grey_04]

awesome news, glad your back up and close to being a daily driver again..