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ForOffRoadDriving's 94 Ranger Build


ForOffRoadDriving

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HIGHLAND, MICHIGAN
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1994
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3.0L
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This is my 94 Ranger that I've had since 2003.


My family got it for free when my cousins grandpa moved to South Carolina and didnt think it was capable of making the trip down there. He told us it ran like crap and he didnt want to screw with it, so if we wanted it we could have it. I had the honors of driving it home from the back yard it was parked in and yeah, it ran like crap. I got it home and popped the hood only to find the air intake tube was disconnected at the intake manifold and half of the spark plug wires had been disconnected from the spark plugs. After discovering those things and fixing them, my dad and I decided to give the truck a full once over and also discovered the rear leaf spring hangers and front coil spring buckets were rusting out so we replaced them before putting the truck into service. My family members including myself, drove the truck on and off for the next four years until it started having cooling/heating issues and then we decided it would be an emergency backup vehicle.
 
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ForOffRoadDriving

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In the fall of 2007 my younger brother (17) was expelled from the local high school and had the option of going to an alternative high school run by a community college or waiting until the next school year to come back. He decided to get a job and work until the next school year, but soon realized that having a car is necessary to have a job. The two of us decided we would fix the family ranger and as long as he payed for the parts then i would teach him how to fix it and then it would be his truck. It had been having trouble maintaining a steady engine temperature and would sometimes surge coolant through the hoses, which in the cab sounded like someone with a rubber mallet smacking the fire wall. Also at times you could hear the coolant running through the heater core almost as if the hoses werent filled up all the way. We took apart all the cooling system components and flushed then inspected them, only to find nothing out of the ordinary. I suspected there was an air pocket in the system or something blocking the flow of coolant either in the heads or in the block, so we decided to take the motor down to the block and see if we could find anything in the head that would be causing our problem. Once everything was apart I went to work (I work at an Auto Value parts store) and got prices for all the parts that we would need to put it back together. Our machinist (we have an in-house engine machine shop) and i looked over the heads for any blockages and found none, so while we were at it we decided to magna flux them to make sure there were no cracks. Of course there were no cracks, so my search for the cause of the problems continued.
 
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ForOffRoadDriving

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1994
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Manual
When i came home with the heads and a price sheet for my brother, there were about three full size pickup trucks in the drive way with what looked like my brothers bed and dresser and tv stand in them. Come to find out my brother and the next door neighbor who have been friends since they were six decided to move into an apartment that was two blocks down the street from the restaurant they both were working at. Since he now didnt need a car to get to work, I was left with a broken truck in the gargae spread out in a hundred pieces and no money to put it back together with. Frustrated with my brothers inconsideration toward my time and energy put into the truck, I threw all the parts into the bed and put the topper back on it and pushed it back outside. For five months it sat outside with nothing but a towel over its bare block until i finally decided to turn it into my project in March of 2008. My plans were to pull the motor out and rebuild it completely (since it had been outside for five months it was really my only option), swap out the A4LD for an M5OD since I had already done the swap before on my 90' and never regreted it, and replace any other worn out parts i found along the way (as youll soon see i may have gone a little overboard?).




I picked up this 94' ranger as a parts truck, which also had the 3.0l in it for $300. It had 200,000 +miles on it, but it had all the parts I needed for the MT swap and the motor was unmolested and would make a perfect diagram for me to look at when putting my project truck back together. I got the red topper from my friends dad whos 85 ranger had recently blown up and put it into use as a storage facility.
 
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ForOffRoadDriving

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In the beginning of this build I didnt take many pictures because I didnt think it was necessary, but as the build went on I decided that just replacing worn out parts wasnt going to satisfy my urge to modify and soon realized this was going to turn into a big project. Here are the pictures from the first month of rebuilding:





 
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ForOffRoadDriving

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Manual
These are some pictures of our machine shop where the motor work took place:





Crank grinding machine

Cylinder honing machine

Cylinder boring machine

Block decking machine

Sand blasting cabinet (which ive spent many hours staring into)


Steel shot blaster

Oven for cooking blocks and heads and lots of rusty parts before they go into the shot blaster.


Spray off tank (think giant dishwasher with aluminum cleaner in it)

Piston wrist pin remover/installer

20 OTC ton press
 
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ForOffRoadDriving

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These are pictures I took in April, when I started cleaning up the front end parts and replacing all the parts that can go bad (I work at a parts store and parts are cheap so why not?) I removed every rivet holding the front end together and loaded them all into the oven (except the axle beams) and then put them into the shot blaster. I only took a few pictures at this point and sadly they were with a cell phone.







 
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metalmacguyver

Yeah, I built that.
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Cool! Looks like you know what your doing.

The plans are to lift it a bit or just get it back to running condition first and then decide what you want to do?
 

ForOffRoadDriving

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well im actually almost done with it, but i didnt get my self out of my anti- technology cocoon until i got a digital camera for christmas this year. i still have dial up at home so i do most of my "rangerstation business" at work or at the gf's house. i want to do a 2-4 inch lift on it, but since i already replaced all the suspension parts with new moog parts, i want to give it a while. my only concern is fitting the tires i plan on buying under there. i got a set of 15x8 cragar soft 8s for the truck for $100 and i want to put a set of 30x9.50 BFGs on it but i think ill experience some rubbing.
 
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PaleBlue90

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Solid Axle Swap
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2.3,2.9 and 4.0
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its lookin real good. im very impressed
 

ForOffRoadDriving

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Manual
My main focus in May was to pay for all my engine parts and then reassemble it. I replaced alot of parts in the process. The oil pan, which someone had tried to patch with JB weld had to be replaced so as a precautionary measure i decided to POR 15 it as i have been doing to all my metal parts through out the build. i also replaced the pistons with silv-o-lites and hastings rings, i replaced the oil pump with a melling unit, i used clevitte rod/main/cam bearings as well as a clevitte cam with the stock lift and duration. I upgraded my ignition components to an Accel high energy coil (with cool sticker of a cartoon man being shocked on it) and 8.8mm blue high temp wires. I also used a Standard Igniton Blue Streak cap and rotor to replace the original Motorcraft parts that were still on the distributor. I doubt that I will notice any performance gains from these but the price was the same for these or the Standard igniton parts and they add more detail to the motor I think.








 
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ForOffRoadDriving

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Once the motor was put together and all parts were accounted for, I started to concentrate on the cab and the MT swap. while I had the motor out and the temps were up, I went to the junk yard and found a non/ac heater box. I didnt bring any deep well sockets with me so an open end wrench and a shallow socket had me fighting it the yard for a good 2 hours while it was 90 degrees out (pretty hot for MI). did I mention I had to sweat it out next to bunch of wasps nests (one in the glove box, two under the hood, probably more I didnt see) the whole time? after I got the hearter box in, my GF and I gutted the interior and went to town with angle grinders and wire wheels and removed all the rust on the floor pan. We used POR 15 on the floor and about 12" up all sides of the cab and the insides of the doors. once we had two coats on I went back and put on two coats of herculiner, cause I want this truck to last!







A year after our family got the truck there was a bad ice storm and we lost a tree that partially fell on the truck. The branch that hit it left a good crease in the bed rail and tailgate and put a sharp dent in the roof. I pulled the head liner to inspect the under side of the roofs sheet metal and suprisingly the paint wasnt cracked so I will probably just fill it with bondo later.
 
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ForOffRoadDriving

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1994
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Once all the paint had cured, I started on the dash board and pulled all the AT components and swapped in the MT parts. The one thing i dont understand is why my AT gauge cluster had a tach and my MT one doesnt?



When I was making one of my trips to the junk yard, I found an 2002 extended cab ranger that had a vinyl floor and I wanted it, so once again I braved a glovebox full of bees to get it out. I also replaced the weather stripping on the doors with new stuff from Shermans (sn aftermarket crash parts supplier that we deal with at work).






 
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ForOffRoadDriving

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Transmission
Manual
once I had my new brake booster and master cylinder attached to the firewall I started bending up my new brake lines....and I coated them in POR 15 for longevity purposes.




 
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ForOffRoadDriving

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FORD
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Manual
I also got an awesome deal on a set of brand new rims. A friend of a friend was putting a body lift on his ZR2 s-10 and had ordered a set of rims from Summit and had them delivered to Bell Tire, where they were mounted with a set of BFG all terains. when the kid went to pick up his wheels and have them installed he found out they didnt fit! he had ordered a ford bolt pattern instead of a chevy pattern and since tires had already been mounted on the summit wouldnt take them back. this is where I enter the equation, my buddy calls and says his buddy has some rims he needs to sell so he can get some new ones, so i meet his buddy at the gas station with $100 and i go home with a new set of Cragar soft 8's!
 
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ForOffRoadDriving

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HIGHLAND, MICHIGAN
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1994
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FORD
Engine Size
3.0L
Transmission
Manual
I had a day off and i was the only one home so I figured it was the perfect day to work on the truck without any distractions. my brother who was originally going to get the truck (i have two younger brothers, one is three years younger than me,Karl, and the other is six years younger, Keith) came home for about 30 minutes and helped me lift off the bed. After he left I went on ahead and started stripping the back of the frame until i was left with just the two frame rails. My friend showed up later that day and he and I got out the angle grinders and wire wheels and went to town cleaning things up.





I bought these tail lights from Shermans also. I kind of like the way the reflectors are shaped, but they almost look too bright for the truck, so I am thinking about using some VHT nite shades on them to smoke them a little bit.












I took these brackets to work and put them in out shot blaster to clean them up for paint. that machine has saved me so much cleaning time its amazing.




 
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