2000 Mercury Mountaineer 5.0L V-8:

Engine has 116K miles. Great compression, got it with complete engine wiring harness, the ECM, and the battery cable wiring harness all from the same 2000 Mountaineer. Also he threw in the motor mounts, engine plates, and the front engine brackets with it. Total cost on this was $435 with taxes and all. Not a bad price. It is in great shape with no cut wires or connectors and no cut hoses etc from either the motor or the wiring harnesses which is rare! So I got lucky on it. I think I got a great deal on it. All I need is an alternator, power steering pump, and A/C compressor. Good thing is though the A/C compressor in the ranger will work on this motor. So will a windstar, and other Ford vehicles I found out.

 

Your truck will be a beast when its done lol

 

Lol yeah I can't wait. Takes so much time to piece together everything though. Plus I have 2 jobs and getting a day off to work on this thing is hard too! :( It'll get done though lol

 

Going to be good! Are you going to drop the engine in as-is or pull it apart and freshen/clean it up?

 

Well, I was going to take the valve covers off, oil pan off and re seal everything and clean it up a bit but this thing is dry as a bone so I almost hate to mess with them. I may just drop it in and fire her up! I don't have much time to work on this thing so if I take the time to pull this thing apart it would take a couple of months to get it cleaned up :( I'm just tryin to focus on getting it in to enjoy it before fall creeps up on me! Lol

 

Repainted the bed rails on the truck cause they were sun faded gray and really tore up so I repainted them. They turned out great!!!



Old axle out:



New axle in:




Terrible pinion angle. Had to get 4 degree shims to fix it:



And the carnage of smashing my finger between an engine hoist and the axle lol

 

Looks good. You going to paint it up as you go?

 

thanks Adam. I'm going to clean up the frame and axle and then spray them with a nice undercoating to keep it clean underneath.

 

i would remove the over load spring since you are running the axle spring under. also good luck looking out your back window.

 

Dude I have no clue what the heck you just said at all....Why the heck would I remove the overload spring? And what do you mean good luck looking out my back window?

 

4/5 Drop underway:

I knew if I did a 2/3 it wouldn't last long so I went all out lol. Back still has the lifting shackles in there till I can get to Ford and buy some new factory ones but the front is slammed.

 

Dorman sells stock shackles for $35 a piece as well

 

Sweeet! Keep up the good work.

 

Wirelessly posted (Blackberry 8530)

Looking good. I've got a 5.0 AWD Exploder sitting in my yard with body rot, and seeing swaps like this makes me seriously consider pulling the for sale sign off of it and yanking the drivetrain to put in the Ranger.

Subscribed!

 

Thanks guys!


Kevin, for that I can get them here at my Ford dealer lol. Rockauto has em for about $45 for both sides it looks like. Prolly get them there.

 

You should! And btw I love the look of your truck. I like that color a lot

 

hot dog, this is going to be a sweet build. Definitely looking forward to see more of it.

Also, you might like your truck with it set in the second hole on the lift shackle. That is where mine is at and i like that better. Doesn't hit bump stops all the time, and gives a slight rake. With the stock shackle, it was just about level front and rear. Just sayin'

Any plans for building up the motor?? staying auto?

 

Hmm, I may look into that grant. And I wish I was building it up but I would just really like to get it in and running so I can enjoy it a little this summer lol. I work two jobs and start school in August so if I want to get this thing up and running at all this summer I've gotta just get it in! And yes I am going to stick with the 4R70W with some Baumann parts.

 

Yeah I was surprised at how much they cost. I needed them in a pinch so I had to buy them local, I would have ordered them from Rockauto though.

 

Well finally got the rear drop all done. Was held up with the rear axle and had to order new rear shackles as well as front master cylinder from the explorer I had to swap in. Now the brakes are bled and all is how it should be. The only thing left is shocks for the front but since I did not want to go with Toxic shocks again I am figuring out a way to make some Nissan hardbody front shocks to work so I can run some nice monroe Sense-Trac's. The bottom of the shock does not have the fork ends however to bolt to the control arm and no place sells shock hardware kits so I am going to have to figure something out. Only a few minor details holding up the motor going in and hopefully those will be worked out very soon!

 

When you swapped over the expo master did you do the proportioning valve as well?

Thats all you really needed to swap.

 

Damn that looks great! What wheels do you have planned?

 

There is no proportioning valve on the expo master cylinder. On my ranger's stock one there was but the explorer one does not have that.

 

Thanks! I was really wanting some 18x9 and 18x10 deep dish bullitts like I had before but for $1,500 I don't think so. Plus I can't rotate them. I'm either going with the 18x9 03 Cobras in Chrome or machined. Not sure which one yet though. Machined look more sporty but the chrome would match the truck more. I can't decide :(

 

Looks real good! When does the motor go in?