Moving this post to another forum.

 

Was it about plasti dipping parts of the truck?

 

Lol no, I moved it to the never ending thread. It was a teaser for what I'm about to post, but I don't guess things are too active around here on a Friday night. Most people have more fun things to do than work on their truck and post to an Internet forum

 

It's been a long 13 weeks, but the UPS man finally brought me the Torque Monsters!! Sorry for the bad cell-phone-in-the-garage pics because they don't do these headers justice. They're absolutely beautiful. I'm taking them to the shop tomorrow, and I'm hoping to see some good progress. I'll get a pic or 2 for y'all too.

Sorry again for falling behind on my promised intake pics. I started painting Sunday and didn't like how it was going, so I decided to start all over again. I took the opportunity to do a little porting on the intake as well. Not professional by any means, but it should help bring out a little extra power.

Rather than just using aircraft stripper like a lot of people do and what I did the first time around, I decided to take a longer (but better) route by sanding with the Dremel starting at 60 grit up to 240 grit and finishing with 400 grit sanding by hand and my Dremel's wire wheel. Then I used VHT high temp primer, satin black paint, and a few coats of satin finish clear. Came out better than I expected. Still have to do the 5.0 plate, which will be done the same way but with a touch of red added to it.

Onto the pics!
Headers




Intake

 

Awesome!!

 

Purty

 

Thanks guys! I'm still tossing around some ideas for the plate, one of which will be extremely time consuming but very awesome if I can pull it off. If I try but can't make it work, I'll be in the market for a new plate and will have to start over lol

After this week, I'll have 2 weeks off for the holidays with not much planned other than finishing up the little details of the swap while the major parts are going in down at the shop. I went by there yesterday; the old 3.slow and tranny are out, and everything else is ready to go in, which should hopefully start this week. I'm hoping it won't be long before I'm driving this beast.

 

I hope everything goes smoothly! I want to see this rig driving around!

 

You and me both!

 

The "PRO HEADERS" on EBAY will fit the gt40 heads...they said they would not, I ask it the pictures were that of the exact headers...they said yes...I said send them on...they fit great! Wrote Mr. Castro the Owner and he was surprised and pleased. They are cheap and good. I know for a fact they will fit..but only buy the Ceramic Coated headers the plug wires are close and this will add some insurance.

 

Do you have this thing running yet?

 

I'm not exactly sure what you're getting at. After reading your other thread, it seems like you still have a V6. How would you be able to tell if those eBay headers fit on a V8 Ranger swap? The only 2 proven sets of headers that will clear the location of the spark plugs on a 5.0 with GT40P heads (different than the location of earlier V8s with GT40 heads) and the Ranger steering shaft are the discontinued FRPP headers and the Torque Monsters. The TM's are hand made to order, and have proven gains in HP and torque. I'm sorry, but I wouldn't put my faith in the exhaust of this build on what some guy on eBay told me.

The TMs are tried and true. They're pricey and have a long lead time, but worth every bit in my opinion. Huge improvement of the stock exhaust manifolds, which are known as being the most restrictive part of the stock drivetrain.

Not yet. D-day is fast approaching, though

 

You've got mail

 

Yes I do! Thanks man! I bet you saved a lot of money on shipping by only using those 17 packing peanuts lol

 

This needs a separate post...

I just got back from the shop. Decided to make a surprise visit They haven't touched the thing since I was there last week, but managed to put a new vehicle in the garage while leaving mine outside Needless to say, I was a little ticked.

Things have been moving much slower than I'd like, and much slower than I was led to believe. Long story short, I had a nice talk with the shop owner, and they're going to get on my truck with all hands on deck. Y'all give me another week or 2 and I promise there will be a video!

To understand where I'm coming from (and maybe get a little sappy lol), I'm planning to propose next month. I'm taking the woman out for the anniversary of our first date, and we're going to do everything we did that day. I was driving the truck back then, and it plays a big part in that day because I picked her up in it and we spent a lot of the day out riding the back roads in it. I'm going to pop the question out in the middle of nowhere, in the last place we were before I took her back home. So I have to have it done before we can go out because the Fusion doesn't exactly have those capabilities lol.

Back when I dropped the truck and motor off, I wasn't worried about deadlines because I figured there was plenty of time, and the guy said it wouldn't take long at all. He just had to finish a boat for someone and I'd be next up. Now, we're just a few weeks from D-day, so I have to make this happen. It's crunch time!

 

I was laughing as i was putting them in there. Those were all they sent me when I received the gauge in the mail myself. Glad it made it alright!

yesss hopefully it's done!

 

When I shipped my old SuperChips to Dewey a couple weeks ago, the only box I had that wasn't huge was almost the exact same size as the SC box. I wound up putting more peanuts inside the SC box than in the FedEx box lol

The owner told me they'd have it done in plenty of time, so we'll see what happens. I'm off until the 5th, so I'm going to be keeping a close eye on the progress, and helping them out if I have to. As of tonight, the motor and trans are out of the Ranger, but it still has the 7.5 bolted up.

I just hope they don't hit any big snags with it. Something that's been on my mind is that I still haven't found any write ups addressing the driveshaft in any way, which seems odd. If it needs to be shortened (which I think it will) I would think someone would've mentioned that somewhere, or at least said that no modifications to it would be needed.

 

Ah hopefully the driveshaft isn't an issue. I know they're not too expensive to get built locally (at least here) to a custom length. About 3 years ago I know someone that had a front driveshaft made for his ranger around here and he said it was fairly cheap, like $100-150.

 

That's not bad at all. We have some good shops around here that can build one or modify mine, I just wish I knew what to expect beforehand, especially with Christmas and New Years coming up. Don't need to have all the shops closed when I need parts. Other than that, I think I've addressed all the big things.

 

just jumping on this finally, missed it while I was away from the forum for a while. Hope you've got good news for us and you. Personally I can't remember what happens in a 2wd 5.0 swap situation. 4x4 you got the t-case added so you have to cut/add per what you throw on the end of the trans. But they'll know right away and it doesn't take to long for someone to cut and balance you one for pretty cheap. I'm trying to decide what I want to do with my 5.0, and a 331 or 347 was something I was considering.

 

Hopefully good news will be coming soon! Went to check on things Christmas Eve. Things are finally progressing like they should. Guy was bolting on as much as he could to the motor so they could start setting it and the trans in soon. They were missing a few small things, but I went home and placed an order with Summit so they should have everything they need by Monday. If they get the motor/trans stabbed early this week and get the rear end swapped so the driveshaft can be done (if needed) I don't see why it can't be ready next weekend. As long as the wiring cooperates, he says it should be running by the end of next week. Only time will tell.

If you're going to stroke a 5.0, I say you might as well go with the 347. Don't leave any of its potential untapped. I didn't want to spend all the money on a 331 only to be left wanting more in a couple of years, but not wanting to pay for another round of machine work.

 

Do you have a picture of the gauges lit up? Kind of interested how you know you have a CEL?

 

Don't have the gauges wired up yet, hopefully soon though. They're getting wired up while everything else is getting wired. I also bought a small yellow LED for the CEL and 2 green ones for the blinkers.

This is how I understand it: The PCM should still send the same signal regardless of whether or not the stock set of gauges is installed. It just tells the light to come on. The code is in the computer. All I should have to do is tap my LED into the wire that goes to the original CEL. Piece of cake.

 

Holy long post update: Went to the shop yesterday. How much progress was made on my truck since last week? ZERO. Nothing. Where was the new truck that snuck in ahead of mine? Done and gone. I know small jobs getting flipped quickly help make the man money, but he's had my truck for a few months now, and I've had over $1,000 in parts ordered and shipped directly to him so he wouldn't have to wait on me to bring them. None had been installed.

After catching the guy in a lie the other day about stuff he was working on and then catching his helper in a lie yesterday, I went off on them. He told me he'd be working on it in the morning so I left them an ultimatum: Get my truck in the garage (been sitting outside this whole time and almost stolen once) and make some progress before I come back tomorrow (today) or I'm hauling all my stuff to someone who will shoot me straight and get the job done. I've been more than accommodating to this point, but I'd finally had enough.

Showed up today, and to my surprise my truck was inside and they were hard at work assembling the engine. The rear end from the Explorer was ready to be installed, and the transmission was ready for assembly. I stuck around for an hour or so to check everything out and to lend a hand. He says they're going to set the motor in over the weekend to get a measurement for the driveshaft. Very positive change from the day before. I'm going to stay on them though to make sure nothing falls behind. I'm hoping they still get it done in time. We'll find out soon.

A few pics from today:

Headers installed. They're gorgeous! You can also see the truck patiently waiting for its transplant lol





All the empty space under the hood. Kinda wish I had bit the bullet on doing a coilover swap right now since I have all this room. Oh well, it'll happen soon enough I'm sure.





Also installed my Buggman SD 3BL while I was there.



Also hooked up my Buggman OHC lights this week. Made a piece to fill in the console's tissue holder, and put a dual USB charger in it.

 

Nice! hope they keep cranking away at the truck to get it done on time