kishy's 1985 Ranger

[VicCrownVic]

The body of The Ice Car doesn't have much left... like your ranger (possibly worse) it also seemed like an odd thing to put a perfectly good engine in that car. From experience I can tell you that having rotted out beater with a great engine is a perfect combination for a winter beater.

I don't have to worry about how the car looks since it's already rotted.
Don't have to put oil in it all the time.
I'm not worried about it breaking down in freezing weather.

I also changed all the gaskets from the heads up and the oil pan gasket while the engine was out even though I knew where every mile on that engine came from. I was slightly disappointed to find that the gaskets didn't need to be changed, but peace of mind is nice. I think you'll be ok with the gaskets you have decided to replace and the ones that you aren't replacing.

[kishy]

The valve seals look very doable in the truck. In fact, easier than out of the truck, because I can't get to my engine stand without removing the 83 from the garage, and it can't come out without removing the wagon, and its rear end is absent of axle shafts at this particular moment.

I'm not touching the oil pan gasket. That is a lifetime gasket, and is reusable. You don't ever have to replace those unless you damage them in handling, so that thing is staying exactly where it is. It's not like the garbage that older engines had where the oil pan had to be just so or it would piss everywhere from at least 8 spots.

That being said I have ordered the valve seals and a valve cover gasket along with a couple other odds and ends. Originally the timeline was looking like having it running and driving by the weekend, but it isn't winter yet so I don't need it yet. If I cook the new cat with burning oil I'll be a little upset, so I suppose I might do those seals. Maybe.

[DerekTheGreat]

THat's the spirit.

I would very much like to sample a fox Rustang with that 2.3 and a 5 speed. Doubt it'll ever happen because fox body Rustang. Hear those got close to 30 mpg and weren't dismal acceleration wise.

[gadget73]

The EFI 2.3 with a 5 speed was acceptable. The trucks with the twin plug 2.3 were actually decently perky too. The carb 2.3 with an automatic in a Fox car was an absolute turd though. Friend had an 84 Capri with T tops, probably the heaviest combination possible, and it was absolutely dismal.

[DerekTheGreat]

I was hoping to hear something like that. I've always wanted a '92 or '93 4-banger 5 speed notch as a beater DD. Only trouble is, they aren't affordable unless you have money to burn and parts aren't as common like they are if you DD shitty trucks like we do.

[kishy]

Been a little sidetracked, but some progress has kind of happened:

New starter arrived. I could have used the old direct-drive one, but wanted a gear reduction starter for various good reasons. $40 on Amazon (price increased following my purchase), we'll see how it performs/lasts.

Reviewed my RockAuto purchase history and verified I have, in fact, five rear main seals on-hand already (because I am forgetful and re-buy many parts many times over). SBF and the Lima use the same rear main, so I will pull one of those from the parts stash. The rear main is apparently stupid easy to change with the engine out, just drive screws into it at opposite points and give them a tug.

Valve stem seals arrived. Something funny about that.
By price, $0.44/ea, it should have been sold as individuals, but the photo showed 4, so I wondered if I might get (purchase quantity x 4) or just (purchase quantity).
I bought 10 so I'd have room for error during install.
I now own 40 valve stem seals. Friend with machine shop who works on 2.3Ts periodically wants the excess so that works out OK.
Valve spring compressor (the compact screw type) is in transit from Amazon presently.

Purchased a new valve cover gasket as well, only to realize that I already had one for this engine. Oops.

Exhaust manifold (junkyard pull from a 93) is at aforementioned machine shop to be checked for trueness at the ports, and tossed on the belt sander if needed. Also separated the EGR tube there, got the broken O2 out (that took some heat), and broke the studs off. Friend is getting the remainder of the studs out before I take the manifold back.

Last night, did some harness wrapping so the wires can stop being a big jumbled mess, and mocked up placement in the truck. Everything should be in pretty much the right spots. More monsoon-like rains drove me inside, but next step for the harness is soldering up some connections to actually mate the 93 harness with the 85 truck. It will be mostly "unpluggable" from the truck, something I consider important.

[gadget73]

So no burnouts yet? I'm disappointed.

If you need a seal driver, there is usually a PVC pipe or fitting size that matches up to the seal nicely.

[kishy]

So no burnouts yet? I'm disappointed.

If you need a seal driver, there is usually a PVC pipe or fitting size that matches up to the seal nicely.

Indeed, none yet. So am I.

I think I can come up with something to use as a seal driver, maybe. Also seems the approach of gently tapping it in a bit at a time in a circle around it should not deform or damage it.

Progress from last night:

Removed engine mounts. What a pain that passenger side one is...if I had a front sway bar, I'd have needed to take a fair bit apart to get to that nut. Extensions, a "mid" depth socket (a full deep socket would require frame hackery) and a good u-joint with my ratcheting breaker bar made it happen.

New passenger side mount looks to be a perfect fit. New driver side is not. It sits too far forward on the crossmember which will screw up the longitudinal alignment of the engine, I suspect too far to be taken up by flex in all the mounts and could cause a driveshaft alignment issue. On top of that, the top side of the mount does not align with the holes on the engine bracket. Need to either modify this or find a mount that doesn't suck. Might put truck together with the original mount and deal with it later (never). They aren't totally shot, just squished down a bit.

Truck is an 85 and I'm reusing the 2.0 engine brackets. Mounts were bought for an 85 2.0. There's no reason for these not to fit other than sloppy engineering.








Test fitted cupholders from a 94. Not a perfect fit, but fits the trans tunnel well enough that I'll explore modding this to fit in place better. It'd be nice to have cupholders.




Tidied up my aux lighting wiring which was a mess since I installed it. I will likely relocate this stuff into the ex-93 fuse and relay box eventually, but keeping it as-is until the truck runs. Also added the second wire for the gear reduction starter and reconfigured the terminals on the starter relay as required.




Primed and painted the thermostat housing and ECT 'socket' thing that goes on a heater hose. It later occurred to me that I could have used a 95 thermostat housing with integrated port for the ECT, but this will be fine. It also occurred to me that there was no benefit to painting these, but at least they should stay pretty for a while, with the exception of the tool marks the ECT piece will receive.

[gadget73]

Is that supposed to be new and old of the same mount side by side? They don't look to be a match.

[kishy]

Is that supposed to be new and old of the same mount side by side? They don't look to be a match.

Correct, and correct.

There is an unused third hole on the crossmember, and using it, the mount can be positioned on the crossmember at the right height, but the alignment peg/dowel seems to be slightly too far forward for the mount bracket on the engine, and the actual threaded stud is too far back (spacing between them is too wide and placement of both is wrong).

There are ways to make this work but it will be a hack.

[gadget73]

It doesn't happen to be a match for the mount on the other side does it? Wonder if it got boxed wrong. Either way I wouldn't hack things to use parts that don't fit. It would be the right mount or the old mount.

[kishy]

Nope, definitely not. It's either a poorly designed part for this application or, despite its appearance, is for a different application.

I'll use the new mount on the other side, particularly because that one is a super pain to remove. At least changing this one in-place later on won't be too bad because it's on the easy side, if there is one.

[kishy]

Further reference about the problem mount:



Progress today:

Successfully mated '93 and '85 harnesses. Although subtly different, the 93 wiring terminals actually fit into the 85 connector I was hoping to use, so the harness fairly nearly just "plugs in" which is what I was aiming for.
Verified power distribution works and ECM operates the fuel pump relay ( = engine should be plug-n-play once installed).
Replaced the rear main. Not hard by any stretch but glad I wasn't doing it from below the truck.
Tried to find my pigtail for the older style EGR valve but couldn't, so probably getting a junkyard one tomorrow.

The charge circuit is absolutely hideous but should work well enough.
Battery on passenger side, positive cable goes to B stud on starter relay.
16ga fuse link-protected wire runs across the engine bay to driver side where it originally went into a splice that joined together with alternator output, regulator sense wire, and the two main feeds to the interior behind additional fuse links.

I changed this by re-routing the battery positive running across the engine bay to go to the power 'in' on the '93 underhood fuse panel, where the alternator charge wire also goes (so it will charge the battery through that lame wire across the rad support).
The '93 fuse panel and harness has fused outputs which have been connected to the two main feeds into the interior.
The alternator is a 95A 3G so I don't anticipate any issues with the truck being able to 'run off the alternator' so the skinny wire for the battery is likely a non-issue. I've studied it fairly closely to make sure there are no undersized wires that will be overloaded and I'm pretty sure nothing is going to melt under peak draw.







Identified one of the 'mystery wires' just by chance. Solid light green through the firewall is the BOO (brake) output before it gets interrupted by the MFS. This now goes to the ECM because it wants to see a BOO input, as well as tees off for future use to run a high mount stop lamp which I've wanted to do forever but didn't realize I had such easy access to that signal outside of the dash.

Drew up a little diagram of how I might take care of the clutch switch input to the computer in the event there is no viable way to plug a second circuit into the existing clutch switch. The alternate plan is to take the start circuit off the switch and put it through a relay, as well as a second relay for the ECM clutch input, and have both relays be triggered by the clutch switch.

[gadget73]

If you want a possibly cleaner option than 2 relays, find an autolamp relay from a 90s car. Its basically 2 relays in one box. Single coil, two contacts. Physically its about the same size as two Bosch relays side by side. A and F are the coil, B and C are one set of contacts, D and E are the other.

[DerekTheGreat]

If possible, put new seals on all valves, not just the intake. I heard something about GM V8's later getting equipped with exhaust valve stem seals and how that cut down on their oil consumption big time. I mean, you are there...

Also, how "married" to that bench seat are you? Those floor/shifter mount cup holder suck. THat's what my '94 had and stuff always went on the floor or required too much effort to get to once on the road. I swapped in bucket seats and center console with cup holders and that was the ticket & what I recommend to you.