Hi! My name is Danny and I live in Holiday, Florida (it’s close to Tampa). I recently picked up a 1996 Ford Ranger XLT. It’s nothing special, but the price was right…or so I thought. It was listed on craigslist for $800, but I drove it home for $500. My Ranger has the 2.3 4 cylinder with the 5 speed. This is my daily driver so I don’t mind the 4 cylinder. Here’s what I’ve done so far: I had the factory exhaust, but the cat had a rust hole in it, so I replaced the cat with one from Magna Flow with a couple of new O2 sensor. Since I had the cat off, I replaced the exhaust system with a DynoMax cat back system. I’m pleased with the exhaust system so far. I had to modify the cat where it mounts to the factory header. The bolt pattern was off by ½ inch. The Dynomax system sounds good, not too loud. The only thing I don’t like about the system is the tailpipe. They took it from a 2 ¼ inch round pipe and flared it to an oval pipe, so you can’t put a chrome tip on it. When I first picked up the Ranger, it had 4 different tires on it, one being the spare. It had the factory alloy rims, but they are only 14x6. It’s hard to find good tires to fit those rims, so I picked up a set of 15x8 American Racing “Baja” rims off craigslist for $100. I went down to Wal-Mart and got a set of the $79 Goodyear Wranglers. The 235/75/15 tires really fill the wheel well and looks good, but it changes the final gear ratio (more on that later). I had the gauge cluster without the tach, so I picked one up at the local salvage yard and replace the odometer gear. I replaced the flywheel, clutch assembly and the slave cylinder/throw-out bearing. I changed the fluid while it was out. I’m one of those people who like the stepside bed, so I changed out the bed, bumper and the fuel filler hose. My truck is white and this bed just happens to be white with a spray in liner. The tail lights were already sold, so I picked up an aftermarket set on ebay. I sold my old bed and just about broke even. I picked up an ARE fiberglass bed cover for $150, but it’s a gold color. I replaced all the hoses, the heater valve assembly and the radiator. The front headlights were fogged and cracked, so I picked up an aftermarket set, also from ebay. At this point, the truck is starting to come around. Until I saw the smoke coming out of the dipstick tube, not a good sign. I changed the oil and filter, so when I saw the small trace of creamy oil, I knew it wasn’t good either. Oh yes, I will be posting about that later. Here’s my last gripe…what’s up with the 60/40 bench seat? Are all the armrests broken? And yes, I will be putting up a post about that too! Well, that’s all I have for now…it’s dinner time!

 

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