Corey and Elise's 1983 V8 Ranger build - aka - Project Interceptor

[85_Ranger4x4]

Not bad to get to... just the front belts are so tight there is not much room to work. Especially with the bypass hose, most of the battle is getting it off and back on again.

I had just a plain gasket, I tried just glue, tried another plain gasket and then a gasket with glue on both sides lasted almost a year.

 

[CoreyTilton]

yeah i hear that.
i also have a 93 f150 that i left efi. but did one of those edelbrock performer intake manifolds, bbk throttle body, some other upgrades. but man was that intake a pain to get seated right.

when i most recently redid my van (351w) intake i did the felpro 4 piece gasket, and bought some Permetex Ultra Black. layed a bead of permetex down, then seated the felpro gaskets all correctly and perfectly in position in it, then let it sit for a day. then put the manifold back on.

wish i had done that the first time. or when i did my f150.
my biggest problem with these Small Block Fords is always dropping the intake on perfect straight the first time, so i don't shift and move those damn cork gaskets out of position.

:/

Not bad to get to... just the front belts are so tight there is not much room to work. Especially with the bypass hose, most of the battle is getting it off and back on again.

I had just a plain gasket, I tried just glue, tried another plain gasket and then a gasket with glue on both sides lasted almost a year.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

I was told to just use the ultra black silicone across the intake front and rear and forget the end gaskets.

Of all the problems I have had, they have not been one of them.

I use the 2 piece silver graphite intake gaskets from Ford Racing, like 10 bucks for the pair.

https://www.summitracing.com/parts/fms-m-9439-g50

 

[CoreyTilton]

ahhhh. i getcha.

this is what i started using
https://www.summitracing.com/parts/FEL-1250S3

and extra $20 but when it comes to gaskets and fasteners i tend to splurge.

I was told to just use the ultra black silicone across the intake front and rear and forget the end gaskets.

Of all the problems I have had, they have not been one of them.

I use the 2 piece silver graphite intake gaskets from Ford Racing, like 10 bucks for the pair.

https://www.summitracing.com/parts/fms-m-9439-g50

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Fel-Pro is good stuff.

I don't think Ford would skimp too much on stuff like gaskets for their performance company though.

 

[CoreyTilton]

true

Fel-Pro is good stuff.

I don't think Ford would skimp too much on stuff like gaskets for their performance company though.

 

[CoreyTilton]

long time no update. well,
still have the ranger.

annnnndddddddddddd

It Runs!

sometimes no news is good news.

well, i mean, you'll see.

pictures and a VERY long story to come

- corey

 

[CoreyTilton]

so where i last left off, we got the ranger running on the mustang 5.0 ho that was in there, but it was VERY unhappy. the intake manifold had a crack near the thermostat housing, vacuum leaks everywhere, and a lot of EFI components that i wasnt sure if were actually working or not. so we decided we were going to switch it over to Carb, and toss all the efi junk.

at the same time, plan was to replace the alternator which was acting faulty and actually draining the battery when the truck was off, also had to replace the master cylinder, brake booster, and ALL the brake lines front and back. the only part of the braking system that isnt brand new now is the pedal and the proportioning valve.

first gone was the harness
which felt awesome to get rid of.

pulled the accessories, bunch of top end stuff then the intake manifold.
once we got the intake manifold off we discovered what looked like a TON of red permetex between the heads and the block.

so putting 2 and 2 together from months back when we found a freeze plug blown out, which issssss common with these 302s, but then there were cracks in the intake manifold where coolant flows, this was starting to look like there might be a cracked block hiding under the hood that somebody tried to bandaid.
didnt want to waste any more time or money, so we pulled the heads off to see for sure if the block was safe to keep building on.

and guess what, HUGE cracks in the block between the coolant passage ways. which someone tried to permetex up and bolt all back together.

(dinner of champions)

so now we had to decide what we wanted to do.
call it quits, cut our losses, and get rid of the truck. or try and find another 5.0 used somewhere and hope its in decent condition. or buy a remanufactured to stock 5.0, and install that.

we we decided we like the truck too much, and wanted to save it and put a new engine in it. i don't want to mess with anybody's used junk if i'm going to be going through all the work of doing this swap at this point, but also if i need to swap in a completely bare long block, we really wanted it to be worth the work. so, for honestly not much more than it was going to cost for a remanufactured stock block, we bought a crate 5.0 long block from BluePrint engines.

Engine is a .30 over 302 roller block, all new forged internals, with an aggressive cam. and 190cc aluminum heads. our engine dyoned at 390HP and 380ftlbs to the crank.

here it is as it arrived to us

so now the fun began.
first we had to pull the old block.
we disconnected the tranny cross member, and left the tranny on for the pull

stay tuned for more fun pictures of assembling all the new goodies on the new engine and squeezing it back in there.

- corey

 

[TiredRetired]

I'm watching. Looking forward to seeing that 302 in there. Been there and done that and it's a ton of fun. Enjoy.

 

[CoreyTilton]

so first thing was first,
Blueprint ships these engines in Blue, as pictured above, but the ranger is black on black on black (with aluminum wheels) , so of course we we had the engine out of the truck, might as well paint it.

so we taped everything off, and went at it applying a high temp VHT Engine paint. i talked to blueprint first and this is exactly what they recomended and say its done all the time with their blocks.

and then much like the blue paint, we decided the chrome valve covers had to go.

this is what we're dealing with under the hoods

slapped on a pair of edlebrock tall cast aluminum covers. similar seal style as the stock 5.0s , so chances are they won't bend and leak like every cheap pair of thin sheet metal covers ive ever owned.

up next we had to swap out the timing cover.
blueprint ships these with a timing cover for a standard rotation water pump and mechanical fuel pump.
i'm reusing the electric fuel pump in the bed by the fuel cell that i ahd setup for the efi, AND i wanted to keep this a serpentine belt setup, which, you need to run a reverse rotation water pump, which means.... we needed to put a different timing cover on.

then came to find out that i also needed to drop the oil pan inorder to do the gaskets right and properly clean everything.

joy

then managed to slap our new airgap intake manifold on

followed by jr victor high flow water pump

i did a little powder coat sanding work on the water pump logo to make it match the intake

next was time to start throwing on accessories
bought alternator and power steering mounts from March Performance

put on a 130amp alternator from SVE bought through LMR mustangs, along with a mustang power steering pump, and under drive pulleys from BBK

put on a Spec aluminum fly wheel, and spec stage 2 clutch setup

truck waiting for it's new heart

next we cleaned and painted the T5 transmission that was on the old engine, installed a new rear seal, and slapped it on

jacked the truck up, and got ready to sweat

now, i don't have any pictures of the going in process, because... it sucked.
allot.
it was all hands on deck. the engine had to come in at almost a vertical angle, hoist was all the way smashed up against the firewall, the headers on this thing have to go in AT the same time, but can't be bolted on. they will NOT slide in though with the engine bolted down, they just dont fit.
the conversion on this thing was done with 1960's Bronco mounts (yeah, took me a while to figure out what these were) and a weird wrap around cup adapter.
you need to send a bolt up through the craddle from BELOW into the engine mounts. which means you need someone underneath with a flashlight trying to get the people above to line the block up right. so the bolt will go up and in.
yeah, there totally wasn't allot of yelling back and forth at eachother. :/

anyway, it went in.

more pictures to come. stay tuned.

also if anyone knows any good ways to post videos here, i'm sure a few people will get a kick out of what this things sounds like at idle.

- corey

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Youtube is great for video.

You are making very good progress, I have seen Blueprint engines on Summit but never really checked into them.

I really like your hoist, that thing looks really stout. FWLIW now pulling the hood makes pulling/installing the engine much, much easier...

 

[CoreyTilton]

Youtube is great for video.

You are making very good progress, I have seen Blueprint engines on Summit but never really checked into them.

I really like your hoist, that thing looks really stout. FWLIW now pulling the hood makes pulling/installing the engine much, much easier...

Sweet I'll have to go with YouTube then. Thanks.

And yeah they are decently priced, and have a 3 year 30,000 Mile warranty. So hard to go wrong. They aren't the best crate engines out there. Definitely wouldn't try and put any boost on this thing, but it's pretty sweet for what it is.

And yeah, that lift is dirty
Buddy owns a shop and was letting us do the engine work there.
He's one of those guys with every tool and toy imaginable. That hoist will extend up to to 16 feet high. But it also cost more than 6 of what I paid for this truck.


And yeah, the hood opens all the way back onto the windshield. That's the one thing that didn't get in the way on this

 

[CoreyTilton]

so hear the engine is sitting pretty in here

this is what i did to modify the fuel setup.
when i was planning on keeping the efi system, i installed a fuel cell and a bocsh 044 fuel pump setup in the bed, along with a -10AN send line and a -10AN return line, straight into and out of the stock HO fuel rails.
i used PTFE line with a stainless braided cover. as apposed to rub line, ptfe is supposed to last forever without needed to be replaced.

anyway, i cut the send and return lines back and mounted an Edelbrock fuel regulator on the fender. i then ran a 3rd line from the regulator to the to the carb. set the regulator to 5psi, and good to go. also installed a fuel pressure gauge sender.
the red box underneath is the Rev limiter by Performance Distributors (same guys i had setup the HEI distributor). its a pill style soft rev limiter, so i can set it up for 4500 rpm while i break the engine in, and then give it the full 6,000 rpm redline after 500 miles.

next on went some headers. this drivers side one was pretty miserable. especially with header wrap on it.
i ended up buying a tap and die set and chased every bolt hole on the aluminum heads and ran every header bolt through the die just to make sure they were all perfectly threaded and would go in smooth. this made a HUGE difference and helped a ton.
i used Stage 8 Locking header bolts, so i dont have any fear of them loosening up

the header on the other side wasn't much better.
got the carb on and hooked up, found top dead center and got the distributor in, wedged the triple core mustang radiator back in there, got hoses hooked up, and measured for the new serpentine belt and got that in there. fit mint. these March Performance adjustable alternator brackets rule.

then we installed the plugs, wires, and the new throttle cable from Lokar. the bracket setup from Lokar is sooooo clean for these edelbrock carbs i had to do it. im used to some haggard frankenstein thing that flexes like i have on my 4x4 van, but this is perfect.
oh, also forgot to put the dip stick tube in so had to take that driver's side header back off.
Don't Forget Your Dip Stick Tube!

now at some point i'll crawl under and take a few pictures of the tranny cross member i have going, and the custom exhaust i did, but for the mean time,
this is what the Driver's side header looks like, before i sanded it, painted it, and header wraped it.

some serious FrankenHeader stuff going on there right?
its strange, its ugly, but it fits, so im not complaining.

this is what i got for mufflers
flowmaster Outlaws

and i think i had said in the original post that we were going for a 70s mad max inspired street rod type thing, so this is what we did for tail pipes/tips/side pipes

and so now this is what we have sticking out each side of the truck

now, wouldnt you know, those flowmaster outlaws, with about 4 feet total exhaust pipe, and that engine, were Ridiculously loud. like.... ear muffs required loud.
like, i make the people at the grocery store parking lot think they are in a nascar pit crew loud.
but the exhaust job i did i thought was so nice looking, solid welds, almost no bends, smooth transitions, ii really didnt want to hack it up and try to put on bigger mufflers, so i did some hunting and found this company called Car Chemistry that makes ezhaust components for race cars, classic muscle cars, cars running real zoomies, cars running lake pipes, ect ect. these are baffles that going into the header collector, and bolt in to the 4 bolt header flange and collector flange. they were easy to install, can be easily removed, and cut the db of the truck a good amount.
these are their 2 disk option, they make a 3 disc and some additonal inserts if i wanted it quieter.

anyway,
got the truck running, first try
took a few minutes to tune, and good to go.

although we had to do some adjustments on the hydraulic clutch setup.

new clutch was MUCH heavier than the old one and needed some serious throw to disengage fully.

that was fun.

BUT

we got a STicker!

STREET LEGAL!

 

[1qaz]

Awesome progress! Wished I was up in MA so I could it in person. Any plans on the paint?

 

[CoreyTilton]

Awesome progress! Wished I was up in MA so I could it in person. Any plans on the paint?

probably staying flat black.
it's duplicolor perfect touch. which is cheap, and easy, so as i do body work and fix stuff here and there (note passenger side lower door skin) i can go around and do touch up cheap and fast. if you go back to the very first page with pictures, you'll see it's already came a pretty long way body work wise.

eventually i'll probably invest in a pop up car tent and paint gun for my compressor and do it up a little more pro.
but i also have an 82 ClubWagon and a 93 f150 that will probably be ahead of the ranger in line for real body work and paint overhaul.


plus, we're in Massachusetts. paint jobs don't last long on these roads unless they live in a garage 85% of the year