Awesome upgrade! Better headlights are always a plus.

 

Engine build

Alright since I am working front to back it it seems reasonable to the engine next.

So long story short I was having some miafire issues.
One thing lead to another and i decided to pull the motor again.

Pulled the motor tore it down found I had a piston contacting a valve.
Well one thing led to another and whole motor came apart.

IF YOU JUST WANT THE BUILD PARTS LIST SCROLL TO THE BOTTOM

Pulled pistons all out all the main bearings looked great but had some normal wear. Cylinder walls looked great slight ridge at the top, still had decent crosshatching. Definently looked like a 148k motor. I was planning on doing total seal rings while it was apart and for sure balance the rotating assembly. I had always heard what a huge difference balancing made especially on these. So I had to try it. And while it was out I wanted to do everything I could to set it up for 300whp.
I had recently bought a running idit with a stage 1 drop in turbo, stage 1 injectors, and 110cc pump. Rails, andbserpintine setup Btw that was all on factory 94 head bolts. And the kid drove it like a stock car. Always racing it. He saw 30psi numerous times. Idk how the heads held but they did.
Well i got talking with justin at r&d about balancing and total seals. Then I got talking about adding coating to the pistons. Then he told me that he won't coat used pistons. That threw a wrench in things.
That sent me down a rabbit hole of looking at the best pistons to get. Ended up getting Mahle. .10tho decompression pistons, sent them to r&d to get ceramic coated and total seals. So when he was ready I took the rotating assembly to justin at r&d for the balancing, I also took the heads to have him check over them make sure they looked good because if I'm going to do this, im gonna make sure it all looks great.
Well he called me when it was all done. It would have been great if I wouldnt have gotten while-you-are-in-there-itus. You know the I better do (this) while I'm in there since I dont want to go back in for it. Well I decided I wanted my block sleeved for peace of mind. So I took my block to justin when all my other parts were done and ready to be picked up.

He sleeved all 8 cylinders installed cam bearings, had my heads checked over and everything else ready as well.
Got it back home and started prepping the block. I chased every hole, cleaned the block out, installed main bearings, pistons, fit rings checked clearances all in order to assemble the short block. I then installed the new cam cleaned all the lifters found I had a sticky lifter, and ordered a new set and a head gasket set. While I was waiting I torqued the heads on with playdoigh in all cylinders rotated it around and the. Checked clearances. I also degreed the camshaft in after I took the heads back off to measure the play dough to make sure the stage 1 camshaft was making all the valve events happen at the proper time.

I HIGHLY RECOMMEND DEGREEING ANY AFTERMARKET CAM. there are a couple good youtube vids on how to, and a degree wheel is like $30 on summit.

After all of that I installed new head studs, gaskets. Lifters and finished assembling the motor.
I also used the factory turbo oil cooler on my engine as they have more fins per inch and thus better cooling.


I also HAD to have my serpintine pulleys and brackets powdercoated sparkle black because they matched my other previous powdercoat.

While the motor was out and waiting on parts I had some down time.
I had previously monitored trans temp on my zf5 and after adding fast coolers i was no longer worried about temps (they didnt surpass 170*) i decided to install a port in the oil pan for temperature monitoring of the engine oil. I welded in a 1/8" npt bung in the bottom of the oil pan.

I also took the stage 1 injectors that were in it and pop matched them, cleaned them and reshimmed them all to back to 1800psi +/-50

When the motor was out last time I modified my hypermax intercooler piping to accommodate the stage 1 drop in turbo. I also built a custom intake manifold, because I wanted ports for water meth/ sensors. But I also wanted a unique intake manifold.
I also redid the engine bay wiring harness and custom routed it to my needs and removed wires.
I did the same thing this time with the rest of the wiring harnesses in the engine bay trying to loom up everything possible, route wires together, remove things that were unnecessary and hide others.

My vacuum canister had been removed but it caused cruise surge so I used 2 small ford ranger canisters and made a bracket to mount them in the core support under the passenger headlight. I then ran a vacuum line as hidden as I could up to the firewall where I had rerouted the hvac hoses and tried them in.

I rerouted the pressure regulator hoses and framerail mounted the pressure regulator. I know that there is slightly more fluctuations in pressure to the ip, but I wanted to remove everything I could to clean up the engine bay.

I removed the fender liners washed and cleaned them. Removed the factory insulation, sandblasted and spray painted the battery trays and fender trays.
Had the starter rebuilt as well.
I also sprayed the engine with duplicolor engine enamel in ford grey.
Repaired the drivers side core support for the fender liner mount. Battery acid had rusted it away.


Build parts list


Junkyard '98? Ford ranger vacuum canisters
Riffraff hose holder
Dei reflect-a-cool firewall insulation
Ebay 5 port vacuum junction block
Delco ac compressor
Gates serp belt, idler and tensioner
Rebuilt the alternator in order to powdercoat it.
Had all the serpentine brackets and pulleys powder coated sparkle black
Engine tech lifters
Arp head studs
Mahle headgasket and cam bearings
Engine tech main bearings
Total seal 2nd rings
Ceramic coated mahle .10thou decompression pistons
Balanced rotating assembly
R&d drilled 13" flywheel
South bend 450hp/900ft lb single disk clutch
Motorcraft thermostat and glow plugs
Motorcraft psd glow plug relay on factory controller
Carquest/advanced auto master and slave cylinders (only auto parts store to sell aluminum housing)
Idit factory oil cooler.
Heads already had inconnel(idit) valves and comp 910 valve springs
Oil temp 1/8" npt bungs in oil pan
Dei titanium Heat wrapped crossover pipe, up pipe, and downpipe
R&d stage 1 drop in turbo
R&d 3" downpipe
R&d cold air intake
R&d stage 3 fuel system set at 9 psi.
R&d stage 1 cam
R&d stage 1 injectors
I think that is all but im sure i forgot some things.

 

awesome job! is she running yet?

 

Yes it is. Runs great actually. I've had a lot going on so I haven't gotten around to updating threads like I would like to.
I got it running in spring around April of this year. And moved 8 hours to albany Oregon this summer with it. So far I have probably 4000 miles on it since the rebuild. I actually just got done sound deadening the doors and most of the cab and rebuilding the doors through I have more to do to them. I did window motors, one touch down(auto down drivers window), door speakers, window felt, door handles, and sound deadening and new vapor barriers. I still need to do the door lock actuators and door hinges/strikers. And I have several other irons in the fire. Not enough time or money for all the ideas I have.
but yes there have been tons of mods since the motor was put in. It's a never ending battle.