Hey,joined in o8 but left the state for a while (fishing),anyways back now and I noticed I had 0 posts lol after being a member for over a yr. I have an 87 ranger stx 4wd xtcab shortbox 2.9 5spd. The body is in great shape,the paint is a little faded the seats r done,Im putting 85 mustang gt seats in it today til I can find a nice power split bench that'll fit. I've always wanted one of these and I got a smoking deal on this one(almost free) It doesn't run quite right so I'm gonna monkey with it and if I cant get it to run better I'll put the 302 out of my stang in it when the 557 I'm building right now goes in it.
Cool site,
Jr.

 

welcome to R-F
sweet a first gen
got any pics

 

welcome to R-F, Marvin!

 

welcome dude, post up pics if you can!

 

Man, I had a cool post written up and a pic and my net crashed lol. Anyways, heres the only pic of it I have right now from when I picked it up:




Not in too bad of shape for a start of a project. Runs not so great(I havent ran the codes on it yet uses the same code reader as my stang same yr even) has a tick but I know what that is.
Needs valvecover gaskets bad lol. The wiring has a few patches in it under the hood, I'll get a schematic for it and see whats been monkeyed with. Other than that everything works. I want to put 31s on it maybe 33s but I doubt it. 8.8 will end up out back dunno what I'm gonna do up front yet. If the motor is gonna need to be rebuilt or even needs a headgasket or anything requiring disassembly I'll put the 302 that's in my coupe right now in it as I'm getting ready to put a BB in I'm about done with in the stang. I'll post some more pics of the ranger when I get the stang seats in it. Thanks for the welcome.
Jr.

 

looks sweet man,
for the first gen

 

Thanks, is that your rig being launched in your avatar. If you plug one up off road into a search engine theres a black excursion and a red 70s ford with some crazy suspension under it. Both of those rigs are a friend of mine and the company is about a 5min drive from my house so i hope I can bounce some ideas off his head for suspesnions ideas. W/31s it;s not brain surgery but theres like 1 or two kits out there I like and they are way to spendy for what I'm trying to do. But, if you go to their site, I've seen that black excursion launched in anger and it's fine,not just a foot or two under the tires...launched like you didn't care. Cool stuff but his shocks prob cost more than I'll have tied up in this ranger when it's finished lol. The 302 will prob find its way into the ranger,runs high 12s in my stang and alot would say that it would work poorly in a 4x4 but i don;t think so, when i drag race the stang that motor is all done by 51-5200rpm I shift it 5k I'ts making peak torque @3k rpm and its just shy of 300ftlbs @ 2k rpm so with a 2500 converter it ought to be a good time. It's just a good combo,with 31 in tires and the 3.73s(was thinking 4.10s but it'll have a c-4 in it(with low 1st,we have a tranny sponsor for our race cars so the converter and tranny is just the wholesale cost of parts and thats it) with the v-8 unless I can find someone with an old james duff tailshaft t-5 swap kit for the 4x4 ranger, I see them for sale from time to time then I'll do that) . Sorry to ramble but once I strart typing and thinking about a project I go over it in my head and type what I think. Didn't see too much on here about the first gen stuff but I;ll keep looking I'm sure it's there and I just started browsing and searching the site.
Keep'em shiny side up
Jr.

 

hey man no problems i do the same thing when i talk to people. i probably would do it on here if i could type and spell better. i wish my avatar was my truck. right now my truck looks like a redneck revenge truck. if you click on my user name, click on "View Public Profile", go down to where it says Albums and click "Kris' 87 Ranger"; that my truck. i'm going with a v8 too. yes i did jump truck a few times. i like to see your specs on that 302. 31? if you get the right backspacing you might can do it as is. i had 31X10.5 on mine mounted on 68 Thunderbird rims, but then i got the rims i got now with 31X11.5 and i had to trim the fenders. well send in lots of pics as you fix it up.

 

It's a lat model roller block. .030, heavy trw forged pistons,studded mains and heads(it gets a big dry shot,runs the times quoted on the motor though),arp rod bolts,fms Bcam(224@050 480 lift),289 heads(with a ridiculous amount of porting) w/1.84/1.54 undrcut swirl polished valves,milled to 50cc combustion chambers with the pistons 010 in the hold I have 10.75 comp,runs fine on premium even with 16deg initial timing, If i pull back the timing it'll run on anything.Has a ported edelbrock efi performer(really ported, then extrude honed) 1 7/8 eq length shorties(Had them made, have heard you cant get them a million times til I pop the hood) 2.5' x-pipe w/mac cat back.comp rail type(no guideplates required) have had no issues with the rockers (7/16 screw in studs no point going to 3/8 everything is within a few buck from 3/8 to 7/16) and they are prob 15yrs old and I'm running 150 on the seat and 340lbs open for valvespring pressure and had 0 issues with these rockers. 30lb injectors,lighttning maf and an anderson ford motorsports pms for tuning.75 tb. I think that's about it, king cobra clutch,t-5(with better guts) 8.8 with 3.73 with a rebuild trakloc I used the kit for the 03 cobra with the better clutches(carbon fiber) and instead of the way ford packed them I went friction/steel/friction/ steel alternating like that with the zspring out of an f-150(had to damn near beat it in) The tracloc won't slip in the rain period or snow will prob do the same in the back of my ranger when I get an 8.8 for it. I get alot of crap about the letter cams being junk, but my junk runs 108mph with a whole lot of nothing parts and on the street it'll incinerate the tires well into 3rd, its been a good motor has 65k miles on it now and runs like it did when I first built it. I could duplicate it for alot less money but it wouldnt be as durable, I know I could do the same with a ringed and bearinged (think i invented a new word) stock ho shortblock and maybe some early 351w heads or some gt-40ps or something like that milled to get the compression up. Anyways thats whats in my coupe, if you want ridiculous you could put this in a truck but you wouldnt want to drive it, when asked when to shift it(let a friend make a pass in it) my reply was "when you run out of courage lol"


351w,superlight guts,big heads,big cam,lots of compression,5k converter,4.88s,transbreak,2700lb foxbody with driver.........street car
Jr.

 

so the 289 heads are ported and polished?

 

you got to put some cam2 in it and turn the timing up. when i had my 74 charger (318) i ran 35 to 40 deg of timing.

 

Yea, I run 16 deg initial and 32 deg total. Mopar guy, cool heres a pic of one of our race cars, 68 dart post, 500 cu in,12-1,indy heads and intake,domi,all motor,9.59 best so far 137mph:













Our 67 dart gt stock stroke 440, 11-1,performer rpm heads,pump gas street car so far 10.70s and I drive it to the trackL


motor in car



motor our for end of season teardown


Our 74 duster 44o, mopar stage 6 heads.10-1 compression 11.50s, there's more in it just havent had enough time to get the tune perfect, still working out a few bugs.



putting the interior back in after cage install(full interior street car:) theresa swing out doorbar too. heres the motor for that one too before I installed it last yr.



five of my friends lol



motor for duster


We live 2 miles from the strip and race every chance we get in the summer,I've been into drag racing since I've been able to drive. I built the 545 I have for my 87 mustang coupe which freed up the 306 that's in it, that's why its going in the ranger, My coupe is pretty casual liiking, it's black with a cobra r hood,cpl guages on the cowl panel, I have widened10 hole wheels in back stock width up front, it's pretty sneaky til I get the 545 in it anyways.
Take it easy,
Jr.

 

i going to miss that old car. had a lot of fun in it.





* 670CFM Holley Street Avenger Carburetors
* Edelbrock Performer RPM Intake
* Mopar Performance Purple Camshaft, Hydraulic Flat Tappet, Advertised Duration 268/ 276, Lift .429/ .444, Mopar
* Hedman Street Hedders
* FlowTech Purple Hornie Mufflers
* Be Cool Custom-Fit Aluminum Radiators
* Hughes Performance Street Master Torque Converters, 2500 Stall Series
* B&M Transpak Kits
* Mopar Performance Ring And Pinion Sets, 4.10:1 Ratio,
* Mopar Performance Sure-Grip Differentials
* Mopar Performance Competition Leaf Springs
* Summit Traction Bars

 

Oh yea, I spent a ton of time porting them, I ported the intake to a fel pro 1252( I think thats the part# if its not I'll correct it in the morning. I almost eliminated the pushrod pinch(it's pretty thin there after I got done,any more and I prob would have broke through and had to put a sleeve in it,after I had it cut for the 1.84 intake valve and bowl hogged I blended that in, did alot of work on the short side radius,almost eliminated the guide boss and streamlined what was left ,had to do a little brazing,I didnt break all the way through bit it leaked a little in one spot when i pressure tested it but it worked fine after the first brazing and I didnt hit water on any of the other intake ports. the I opened the exhaust port exit to the 351w race gasket(I'll get you the part# if you want it) I removed ALOT of material to get it that size but didnt break through anywhere and ran it that size to the short turn(did alot of work on the short turn, made it wider and as close to perfect as I could get it) same as the intake with the guide boss, and polished the chambers.If I would have had to pay to have all this done it would have been ridiculous money to put into old 289 heads but i like using factory ford stuff and seeing the look of disbelief when my 289 headed 5.0 beats their aluminum headed junk, espcially on the sauce. But like i said it could be done cheaper, and alot easier if one would start with some early 351 heads(wouldnt have to remove as much material,or gt40p heads would have needd very little work, or regular gt-40s but I wanted to see how far I could get with the 289 heads. If I carbed it and put in a much larger cam and a vic jr and something along the lines of 4.30s-4.56s and a 750 holley I bet i could have touched the 11s on the motor but it wouldnt be nearly as streetable as it is and would get terrible mileage,I get 20-22 on the freeway and around 14 around town not bad for the performance. If theres anything else you want to know about the combo lemme know.
Good luck,
Marvin

 

I must have been in the middle of typing when you posted,that's a really nice charger. Sounds like a really sound combo, I bet it was alot of fun. Purple hornies are cool, I haven't seen a set in a long time. We use the mopar SS springs in our 67 gt with a spring relocation kit that put the leaf springs under the frame instead of next to the, and with the mini-tubs we got a 13.5 wide mickey thompson ET street under it with a enough room so theres no rubbing, even aired down. That charger looks really clean,not too many of those around anymore in that kind of shape, too bad you got rid of it. I have a friend with one similar but in nowhere near the shape yours was in his is really rough(. I like the mopar cams,alot say they are outdated but they r proven and they work. We have the 557 lift solid in our duster and it works really well. We are gonna put a solid roller in our 68 dart(the race car),yea we are still running a solid flat tappet in it lol,theres alot of power left on the table in that car by not having a solid roller.
Take it easy,
Marvin

 

wow that should sh*t and get
but I got a question? Why a 289 head? a 351 head would be ez-er, wouldn't it? anyway it's bad^ss!

and the Mopar... wow... umm... bad^ss... no that's beyond bad^ss... straight up sick!!!

so you do race? what tracks do you race? what class do you race?
i race @ 75-80 dragway in Monrovia MD & Mason-Dixon Dragway in Boonsboro, MD. class ETK & Trophy

is the 68 dart Super Street or Super Gas ?

 

We race here in woodburn and at PIR(portland)sometimes,once in a great while up in seattle. Been crazy busy haven't been around. I used the 289 heads on the engine in my coupe because I wanted to try them(had the bigger valves,springs,keepers,rockers etc laying around) they work suprisingly well but if you had to pay full retail for what was done to them you'd be better off with some Ps or maybe the small world products head and you'd be bucks up. I have another late model 302ho shortblock with some worked on early 351w heads,f-cam,torker intake and a small shot on, but it's just sitting for now,We've got more engines than cars so it just takes time,plus I'm working on a b.b. for my coupe so that makes the sb stuff kind of sitting til I get another fox body together with good suspension which won't be too much longer,I have the body.
Jr.