94SVORANGER
07-10-2008, 10:52 AM
We were Tuning a Crown vic with a rear mount turbo in my shop. I got to talking with the guy and he was looking to sell a ranger with an 88 turbo coupe engine for $1000.00. I told him I'd trade him a 4.6 L modular short block from my Mach 1. Done. It did not run very well. After a bit of investigating, The distributor and engine management system were the problem. It had a mega squirt engine management system and an aftermaket distributor in it. We put the stock distributor back and put in an Accel DFI Thruster engine management system in. At 20 psi It made 230 rwhp and 250 rwtq. 1 week later the 5 speed blew up. I towed it back to the shop pulled the drain plug, and about 1/4 of a pint of some black goo came out and that was it. I got a junk yard replacement with 64 k on it and it's been good since. So then I drove it for about 3 months burning oil and leaking oil adding a quart every tank of fuel. Until it was leaking so bad it was a quart a day. We had a max ported head, custom grind cam, springs, stainless valves, retainers, and rocker arms sitting around the shop for 13 years from a guy who was going to make this swap on his 86 SVO. He never did. So we pulled the motor out of the truck and stripped it to the bare block. The crank, pistons, rods, all barings, and rings looked perfect. Next we reassembled the engine with the stock short block and new top end components. We were putting the turbo back on and discoverd ithe barings in the turbo were wiped out. I guess all the low oil conditions wiped it out. I got a new T3/T4 turbo for it. When It arrived we discoverd it had no internal waste gate. The homemade turbo manifold on the truck had no room for an external waste gate. Next I went to E_BAY to see what I could find. I then saw this awesome stainless header, exactly what I needed. From the seller, I found the link to this site. It's nice to see there is a group of people who think the idea of a turbo ranger is cool too. I should get my new header on Monday. I hope to have this project on the dyno and all finished by the end of next week. Then I can swap transmissions in my mustang. I'm pulling out my gas sucking racing automatic and puting my 5 speed back in. I should go from 12 MPG to 19-20 MPG.