Another new guy

[widetireranger]

Hey guys.
Been reading your posts for a while and I finally decided to join.
I've got a project 85 Ranger. Been wanting to do a Ranger for years and I seen one on Ebay for sale. So, I bought it, got it home and the nightmare began. So, I'm rebuilding the whole thing myself, seeing the kid who sold it to me didn't know what he was doing.....lol.
Right now it has a knocking 302 in it. Didn't know that till I finally got it running.
Replaced the 7.5 with an 8.8(that was the easiest thing I've done!)
So, I have a 302 in the shop floor thats gonna get transplanted in and I'm gonna rebuild the T5 I have too.

BTW, the T5 swap stuff you guys have done have helped wonders already.

Shane

[Dave]

Well a warm welcome to you, thanks for just going on and jumping in. You just have to love the project, not something we all plan on making money on. Sounds like you have a lot of the hard stuff already done, now to just make it right. Lots of good people here to help.
Dave

[Ryans5.8ranger]

Hello and welcome....if your trucks is anything like mine,im sure you will love haveing a 10,000$$ dollar truck ats worth $ 500...lol....time and money is all it takes...ive all sorts of time , its the cash that kills my fun..be sure to post pics.

[Ontariov8]

welcome your gonna love it once your driving it an make sure to post up some pics as well

[Dave]

Shane,
Just happened to think of asking what power level you're going to build that 302 up to. Even the "Z" spec T-5 is only rated to 350 lb-ft of torque, the normal Mustang WC good to 300 lb-ft torque (rated at a life of 100K miles). There are a couple of good places that sell power upgraded kits for the T-5.
Dave

[cgrey8]

Hello and welcome....if your trucks is anything like mine,im sure you will love haveing a 10,000$$ dollar truck ats worth $ 500...lol....time and money is all it takes...ive all sorts of time , its the cash that kills my fun..be sure to post pics.

No doubt. I love my daily driven V8 Ranger, and I have to agree the amount of money in my truck is far more than the thing would appraise for without all my receipts. Although there are LOTS of posts where people have done V8 conversions for less than $1000, but most of those people are those that already had engine, parts, & tranny just waiting for a project, and the Ranger was it. But for a far greater number of us, we have to purchase an engine, tranny, and everything else required. And we also suffer from a bit of project-creep where we wind up upgrading this and that while we are at it. But most of the time it is worth it.

By the time my truck was capable of being driven daily, I was well over $8000...and I came out with only a stock Explorer engine. But I came out with more than just an engine/tranny upgrade. If you want to read all the things I got and how much I paid for each, check out this Excel Spreadsheet:
V8 Ranger Project Costs

I tried to document everything I bought, including the tools I needed/wanted. One or two of the parts & tools I wound up not using, but they still went towards the total cost of the project so they stay in the list.

[widetireranger]

Dave,
As to HP, well.. I'd love to have all I can get but I'd bet around 300 hp will be my limit money wise. I bought a '90 Lincoln with a EFI 5.0 and and AOD. When I got my Ranger, it had a C6. I swapped out the C6 for the AOD thinking it'd be better with the 3:73's. Guess it sat in the shop to long and now it just has 1st, a little of 2nd and reverse. So, after finding out the AOD is shot, I figured I'd just rebuild the T5 and throw it behind the 5.0 to get me driving.
I really don't want to think of how much money I have in the truck now.

[cgrey8]

300hp is about what I'm hoping to get out of my future project whenever I get the money to do it. I've been planning a 331 stroker project for well over 2 years now, but my old house won't sell for a price I can live with. Now the country is in this damn recession and houses certainly aren't selling. So I guess I'll be holding onto it for a while longer.

But whenever I do get my money out of it, I'm hoping to bore-n-stroke a stock Explorer 302 to a 331, port the stock GT40p heads, replace the stock valve springs, put a mild but high-lift cam in it, and port the stock GT40 lower intake. I'm toying with the idea of screw-in studs so I can install stud-mount roller rockers for the little extra efficiency they give. With those mods, I'm hoping to be in the 300-325hp range. But believe-it-or-not, HP isn't my focus for the build. I mainly just want more low end torque without loosing fuel economy, driveability, or longevity. The added HP at the top-end will just be icing on the cake.

[jbaer619]

if your trucks is anything like mine,im sure you will love haveing a 10,000$$ dollar truck ats worth $ 500...lol....time and money is all it takes...ive all sorts of time , its the cash that kills my fun..

First Ill say welcome and good luck, But I know how that goes, now that my t-5 is blown and I have no money to fix it or really a place to store it everyone keeps telling me to just sell it, but i wouldn't be able to cause I wouldnt be able to get nearly as much out of it that I put into it, and no one could appreciate all the work that went into it

[Dave]

Chris, just remember that you have the pedistal style rockers, stud mounts are a no-go, you will need the bolt on ones, easy to find. I've got two complete never used sets of the rockers studs but I can't use them. You talking 300-350hp Rwhp or crank? 300 at flywheel no problem even with a 306. Got to go back thru those cam data sheets you sent way back when.
Dave

[cgrey8]

I realize the stock rockers are pedestal types that require a bolt to hold them down. But if you replace the bolt with a stud, doesn't that do what you need to allow you to use aftermarket stud-mount rockers?

This may be worthy of spinning off another thread...

As for the HP, 300-325 at the flywheel. As for the sims you ran, I'm making the assumption that the sims are estimating a bit liberal. So I chose to back down my expectations to more conservative levels. And if I end up touching 350hp, that won't offend me at all. The 24lb injectors I'll be using will be able to keep up, but I will have to up the FPR pressure to keep the injectors from being on the ragged edge.