the beginning of the end

So strange title well i thought it was appropriate since this is my first step to turning this daily driver to a worthy trail rig thus ending its dd days.

i will be posting whenever i acquire parts or do any work towards making this a better off road truck

my first task is bringing me a step closer to getting a snorkel on my truck I'm putting a intake box from a 1996 ranger/explorer since it has the intake right into the fender where i want it to run a snorkel system from unlike the 94 box at the back of the engine bay.

first my "stock" setup i got bored one day and thought i could do better than ford and replaced their stock square tube with some round dryer hose


and the 96 parts I'm replacing it with


i clearanced the part around the mas since mine was much bigger than the 96 one


this is my gasket to join my mas to the box on the throttle body side since it dosent line up as nicely as i would like

OMG the first cut into metal ever on my truck no going back now


i just used some heater hose plugs to cover up the unused hole on the tube connected to the tb and a heater hose connector to put the original hose to the new intake


if anyone knows if a 96 mas will not piss off my obd1 system and still work properly let me know I dont know how water proof my mas gasket is speaking of if you plan on playing with your mas be careful with that paper gasket they dont sell it at auto parts stores i dont know why. i had to use black gasket in a tube. I'm thinking about swapping the windshield wiper and radiator reservoirs from 96 just for looks.

one more question what color should i paint the intake if at all it just seems so boring under the hood my interior is Grey and the out side is black and chrome on the bumpers and grille