Need ideas for 1988 ranger xlt

Btw if I make a build thread its going to be called lunch money now hahaha

Ha ha lunch money is a sweet build name!


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tyguy12755 said:

Josh your right about the under 18 part and ik that sbc is goimg to catch me alot of flack on here but you have to admit its a tempting opinion on a tight budget . Everyone and their grandma has a sbc laying around ik where I can get a fresh rebult one for $500 thats cheper than I could get the head for. I would love to keep it all ford Ik where your coming from on that but on a "lunch money " buget I have to seriously look at the sbc as an option unless you have a 5.0 laying around for 500 haha

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On a tight budget no engine swap is tempting to me. What you don't realize is that's $500 for an engine and $1500+ (often way in the plus) for all the other stuff you need to make it fit and work. That's the problem everyone encounters doing an engine swap for the first time.

As said I've been there. My first truck was a 1984 Ranger that was passed down to me when I turned 16. It was a regular cab, long bed, 2wd, manual transmission truck with the 2.8L V6. This truck had belonged to my dad in the late 80s and early 90s before being passed around the family, and I'll admit that the motor wasn't exactly stock when I got it. Having driven faster vehicles since, I can honestly tell you that suspension improvements made that truck more fun than a bigger motor ever would have. The only thing that I would have gained from a bigger motor at that time was a higher top speed and larger speeding fines, it easily pegged the speedo got me plenty of tickets as it was.

As for the $500 5.0L. It won't be fresh built, but if you are patient and search it can be found. A 96-97 5.0L Explorer is practically a rolling swap kit for Rangers. Later models can be used as well, but you have to deal with PATS. My 98 Explorer donor is a good running roll over victim that I picked up for $500. Had I done a simple swap I probably could have had this running for about $1000. Granted the motor has high miles, but it was well taken care of. It's in good enough shape for me to drive while working on building the 5.0L based motor I want to replace it with, and that motor will be exactly what I want not a $500 fresh rebuild someone had laying around.

At this point you don't even know that the head is cracked. Until you get it pulled and inspected you have no way of knowing if it's a head, head gasket or something else entirely. If it is a cracked head, you can get one and do the whole job for less than $500. If it's just a head gasket you are looking at all of about $100 for a top end gasket set and head bolts.

tyguy12755 said:

Btw if I make a build thread its going to be called lunch money now hahaha

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Glad I was able to contribute something, even if it was unintentional.

I'm planning to do suspension work too because let's be honest the shocks are just a pile of rust and I set out a budget of $2500. With that I think I can get new shocks a lowering kit aka cutting the springs and don't worry I'm not slamming it just maybe 2 in lower if that. Then I think I'm leaning toward the t5 transmission which ik someone that will let me pull it out of a totaled camaro for $50. I also have some fab skills so I can make my own mounts.

I'm with JoshT on this one. Save your money. Put it towards college, or into a CD or something that will actually earn you money instead of losing it. I'm just speaking from experience, because I too have been in your shoes. I bought my truck for $3500 and over the last 10 years, I've spent 4 times that much on upgrades to make it do things that a truck was never intended to do. Don't get me wrong, I love my truck, but it's not a cheap or easy thing to accomplish, and the truck's not worth anything close to the amount that I've spent modding it.

You may have $2500 budgeted for the swap, but keep in mind that your new found power will be in a truck that's 25 years old, with 25 year old bushings, axles, bearings, body mounts, frame etc. It will start to wear those parts out pretty quickly, and you'll end up upgrading one thing after another in a chain of weak links. That's how things get expensive.

I also agree with JoshT that if you're going to spend money upgrading the truck, you should start with suspension, brakes, and decent tires. The truck will be much more fun and feel faster in everyday driving conditions than it does right now, and it's laying the foundation for adding more power down the road if/when you want to.

If I were looking for an engine swap into a squarebody, I'd focus on a 2.3T. They're sort of lightweight compared to the v6/v8 route, they're a super simple swap, they return better fuel economy than the v6 or v8 options and 300+hp doesn't take a ton of work or money. Plus, they're not a complex OBD2 swap like a 4.0 SOHC or EFI 5.0 would be.
Just my 3 cents.

When I got the truck the axle was bent so I put a new axle in wheel bearings brake pads and calipers and bushings

Dang if you had posted then we could have gotten you started on the upgrade path the right way. Would have told you to get the parts from a 95-97, that would have gotten you a dual piston caliper upgrade right off the bat.

It's kinda odd for a front axle beam to get bent on a 2wd thats mostly street driven. Was it in a wreck before you got it?

Im already ahead of you I wanted to do a swap eventually I was saving up $5000 to do it how I wanted it (the long way around like you said) but this cracked head thing sped up the process. Anyway my point is I have been reading these forums for a while and saw that the 95-97 calipers were dual pistons (I also did a brake job on a 95 so I kinda knew what needed to be done) and could go on an 88 with a 89 beam. so I looked at what I had to do to put them on from the handy dandy forums and thats what I did. I forgot to tell you guys that in the first post I actually forgot all about it until you mentioned it. It was like a year ago.

To answer your question no/yes it was my great uncle's truck he bought it new anyway one day going though his small town there was a wreck that happened right in front of him so he swerved to miss the accident and ran onto the curb at 40mph. Bent the wheel and the axle. He replaced the wheel but the axle was only slightly bent so he left it alone. I decided it would be a good project for me to work on because I didnt have a license when I got the truck. So thats what I did and decided to go ahead and replace the old and worn out stuff as well.

I went back and it was actually your post JoshT that made me go that route o.0 !!!!

JoshT
11-07-2011, 04:39 PM
Well normally it'd be a good idea to give more specs on the truck when making a post like this one. Since I'm in a similar situation to you (building first gen v8 and want brake upgrades) I did a little searching and found out what you have.

The stock brakes on a 2wd first gen (83-88 in case you wander) Ranger are just a single piston, pin type caliper, and work okay for a stock First gen Ranger. They might even be fine for a V8 swapped Ranger, people have been doing it for years. Like you though I want to upgrade brakes to go along with the engine.

So with our trucks you are really limited by the front suspension in it's stock form. As I mentioned the pistons are pin type and no other calipers will mount to the spindles in their place. About the only option there is to buy the best pads and rotors you can. That said there are other options but they require a little parts swapping.

For the 89 year model the front suspension design was slightly changed to where the ball joints are in the spindle rather than the beam otherwise they are pretty much the same. This change stayed through 1997, then Rangers changed to SLA suspension in 98. Those 89+ beams will bolt right in place of the 83-88 beams, as long as you also swap in the 89+ spindles and calipers. So now you're wandering why if they stayed the same does it matter (or maybe you're just wishing I'd get to the point) that they can be swapped. Well in 95 there was another change to the suspension design, or more precisely the spindles in brakes. The 95-97 were redesigned to hold bolt-on dual piston calipers, which is a major upgrade to the prior single piston calipers. The good news is that because they still use the same beam as all the 89+ Rangers they'll still bolt on to the first gen Rangers.

Quick rundown:
Option 1:

Stock Single Piston calipers
Good Pads
Good Rotors


Option 2:

89-97 I-Beam swap
95-97 Spindle swap
95-97 Dual Piston calipers
Good Pads
Good Rotors


If you decide on option 2 that will probably be enough to satisfy your need for better brakes, but that set-up potentially opens the door to bigger options if you decide you need/want them.

Personally I'm going with Option 2, plus a few upgrades. FWIW I'm building a '86 regular cab, short bed. It's going to have the drive train and EFI system out of a '98 5.0L Explorer, with later plans to turn it into a 331 stroker. While it's going together it'll be getting 3" drop beams, Explorer disk brake rear axle (axle over), along with 12" sport trac front disks (one of those bigger options).

Okay, so I'm confused about something here. When did:

tyguy12755 said:

I think it has a cracked head and want to make it a project what do you think I should do with it?

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Become:

tyguy12755 said:

but this cracked head thing sped up the process.

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Maybe I missed where you pulled the engine apart since yesterday, but there's no way to know if you actually have a cracked head without pulling the head and having it checked. So, did I miss something here? I ask because I will admit that I missed the post about there being other V8 Rangers at your school.

I'll say again at least verify the head crack before dumping the motor. You'll be a lot happier if you can take the time to plan out what you want, figure it out, and do it right the first time. Doing an engine swap on a strict budget as a knee jerk reaction to an unverified problem (with a more than a little peer pressure thrown in) is even worse than the fact that it is a SBC swap.

Oh while on the engine subject yet again. I'll second stmitch's 2.3 turbo idea. It'll be different than the other Rangers. It could be faster depending on what's done to theirs, and yours for that matter. It'll handle better. It'll get better gas mileage. It'll fit and install easier. It's much easier to convince the parents of sticking a 4 cylinder under then hood than a V8, they don't need to know it's got as much or more power than many stock V8s. It's a win all the way around. Oh, almost forgot, there's also the reactions you'll get when your buddies want to play.

You:

Them:

You:

tyguy12755 said:

I decided it would be a good project for me to work on because I didnt have a license when I got the truck. So thats what I did and decided to go ahead and replace the old and worn out stuff as well.

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That definitely makes a difference. Good shocks, and sway bars on both ends would make it even better. Those look like 14" wheels in the first pic, with a stock sized 215/70R14. Pretty close to what I had on my 84. I can tell you that moving to a 16" wheel with around a 225 or 235/55R16 tire will make a world of difference in handling of the truck, later model 16" stock aluminum wheels look good on them too. Unfortunately, I didn't get any pics of them on mine until after I totaled the truck.

tyguy12755 said:

I went back and it was actually your post JoshT that made me go that route o.0 !!!!

Personally I'm going with Option 2, plus a few upgrades. FWIW I'm building a '86 regular cab, short bed. It's going to have the drive train and EFI system out of a '98 5.0L Explorer, with later plans to turn it into a 331 stroker. While it's going together it'll be getting 3" drop beams, Explorer disk brake rear axle (axle over), along with 12" sport trac front disks (one of those bigger options).

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I was useful again! Just an FYI that's not quite accurate anymore. Still the same truck, still the same motor plans, still doing the drop and rear axle. The "bigger option" though... it got bigger. Now requires that a minimum of 17" wheel is used.

No I didn't pull the head I'll tell you the eliminating I did it started to overheating on monday( lost warter without running ac) out of the blue so I started to do some diagnoses the fan clutch still had good pre load so I eliminated that (in my head anyway) so I let it cool down added water and started it back up got all the air out of the system the just watched in the radiator bubbles started coming out and ik I had the system full. So I immediately though head. But when I checked the oil it was clean and very little (basically zero ) milky substances in the radiator. So I backed up on what I originally thought and did somemore checking and found a slight leak under the water pump. I hoped that was the issue so I replaced it. Made no differece still overheating after about a mile. So again I looked in the radiator still bubbles. Pressure checked my water system no leaks. Then I did the glove test and it failed. Also lost lots of power.

Is there anything else that could cause this? Its throwing me off that there is no water in oil and/or no oil in water. Also checked thermostat and it was opening up and flowing good but I still replaced it anyway still have the same problem.

tyguy12755 said:

Is there anything else that could cause this?

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Yes, a bad head gasket. The 99 4.0l in my sig has had head gaskets go out twice with no sign other than the same symptoms you described. Never had coolant in the oil, the gasket was blown out between a water passage and the cylinder. Heads checked both times and no cracks, and no warpage.

I'll try to drop the engine issue with this. You really need to check the heads before assuming the worst. Might just need head gaskets which is about a $100 job if you have a torque wrench and use good gaskets. If you need a head you can still come in at less than $500 for everything, and have it back running quick.

Ill definitely check the gasket ill check all that before doing anything I just wanted to get some direction for what to do if it is the head. I even thought she might just be mad at me so I took her to the car wash and pampered her. Even gave her the clear coat protection, eventhough the clear coat has been gone for a long time, just to show her shes special still no luck just some armor all and elbow grease wasted. Haha

Run a compression check of each cylinder and then put a vac gauge on it before you go pulling it all apart. If nothin else it'll give you good a idea of what's goin on.


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First, that's a sweet looking truck! Glad that you would like to make it as good as you can on your budget.

So, this may sound like stuff your gram pa would say, but I'm going to try to help you anyway. I wanted to build up a hot V8 all my life, but never committed to do it because other things were a priority, like getting education, raising a family, paying the bills, putting money where we needed it instead of where I wanted it. Now that I'm a lot (A LOT) older, I am finally doing the V8 thing--not even a "high HP" engine, just a reliable 300 HP daily driver--and it ain't cheap and it is time consuming!
The concept is called delayed gratification. I'm still not sure this V-8 is a smart idea, but I'm in the middle of it and have to finish the job. That truck of yours will suck a lot less money out of your pocket and still be sweet to drive without all the HP mods and not spending all your time and bucks on the truck will allow you to do other stuff which will pay off for the rest of your life. Then, someday when you have the $$ and time, and patience to do a project like this, you might get to do it.