Because when it come right down to it - I want it to be B-B-B-BAD!

Tomorrow I'm going after a set of sixty or forty five series tires with raised white letters (GOODYEAR only will do) to go on a set of 15 by eight chrome rims.

They can migrate onto a set of alloy rims later, but right now it's what I got!

And keep in mind that later on I am going to build an absolute TWIN to this truck. One slow and fuel efficient, and one that the details to will be classified... No way to tell them apart unless you spot the plate numbers.

Let me put it thisaway - I have not discarded the idea of re-sleeving a 460 to punch it out to 520. And alloy heads with brass O-rings....

That is the mission, ladies and gentlemen. I envision it the same way Peter Fonda thought about the bike he had built for the movie "Easy Riders":

"We must be COOL.... We must have style..."

 

Sounds awesome. People are going to either A) run into the regular one and race it then run into the badass one and race it, and get killed. Or B), run into the regular one, race it, get killed, then be scared of the fuel efficient one.

First things first, you need two like Rangers.

 

You might as well go with fiberglass panels, when your building a missle, you don't want weight to hold you back. How are you gonna pass emisions with this thing to put it on the street ?

 

I'm thinking that's on the back burner for him.

The baby one (as I'll call the gas one) should use all the stock panels, stock everything, maybe get an aftermarket radio and speakers (if it'll be your DD).

The speed one, strip everything out, make it light as possible, as Wendell said, if you can find fiberglass panels, all the better. However make them look stock. If you could get a very very smooth bulge in the rear center of the hood (so the edges were still perfectly in the stock position and it wouldn't be very noticeable) to suck in more air, that'd be good.

Get a strong rear end (I'm saying 9"). A strong tranny (you want auto or manual?). The engine you seem to have an idea on. I'd say a radical cam, heads, a full workup. I'm sure monsterbaby can be of great help.

Do you want it to sound stock (that'll be fun) or you wanna show your power. An exhaust that'd not too loud at idle, but screams off the line would be cool. I would definetly reccommend a cutout for exposing the sound if you so desire.

Put a racing seat with five point harness in the middle, a roll cage wouldn't be a bad idea. All aftermarket gauges. Function over form in the inside. Of course, trim the engine out so it's beautiful lol.

 

I'm not sure I can use a stock Ranger frame with a grunt motor in it. But it's possible to bolt a Ranger cab & bed onto an F100 frame, with some cutting and welding.

I think I want to change the 90 Ranger to either a two or a four sealed beam light grill right from the beginning. I hate the fishtank headlights as I already mentioned, so they have to go!

 

Ok why do you want to sleeve a 460 block to get to 520 cid. 4.3" stroke crank, and .030 overbore is 521 no sleeving required. Alloy heads with brass orings? unless our running lots of boost, or lots of nitrous oringing the heads is a waste of time and money. I run felpro head gaskets (pre compressed for the alum heads) at 13.5:1 compression and when I bump to 14:1 will still stay with gaskets instead of orings.
Alum heads yeah that works, if all out race only then run with the A style heads, if wanting to run it on the street the TFS street castings, or the FRPP SCJ castings probably a better choice, or since your not ready yet anyway then wait for Kaase to come out with his P51 heads which are a revised version of the FRPP castings that have some tremendous flow potential.
For the rear end look for an early bronco 9" about the right width unless you want to run really wide tires then it doesn't matter just get a 9" shorten it to what you need.
Yes you can mount a ranger body on a F100 or F150 frame as you know I did it. but there is a problem doing that. I assume your building a 2wd street terror and putting the ranger body on requires you to do one of two things. like I did, the bed is actually raised off the frame 3" like a body lift so that makes it taller, or you can channel the floorboards because the issue is at the front of the cab the F100 frame has a drop that puts it against the cab floor board (if you need a pic let me know my description isn't real clear) so you would have to cut out the floor boards and raise it right under your feet which I don't like. So I would actually suggest beefing up the factory ranger frame or building a tube frame out of 2x3 square tubing.

 

You think the Ranger frame will handle it? I mean - I can see welding in some channel to the inside of the frame maybe, but are there any examples of one that someone has already built up?

Hmmm... I better figure on getting my own trailer at some point too. I can't always count on borrowing my friends.

 

Well one of the guys I race with has a ranger frame with a 514 in it. he cut out all the cross members and welded in new ones. he also widened it to get the full size axles to work. Do that with the cross members, box it up by the engine. and put in a 10 pt rollcage to stiffen it up and yes I think it will hold fine.

 

Jim Ferguson (My boss, who is also running a seven second Ranger (1/8th mile track) at Byhalia with a 302 in it) said he thinks the ranger frame is strong enough to take it all by itself. That says a lot about the actual cross-sectional strength of those frames!

it's being race tested in the 1/8th mile right down in missippi every friday they can run...

But now, I'm wondering about with the stroke AND the bore job - just how big can that sucker BE????

I'm going to have a C6 I can donate to the project from my blue truck, but Jim already busted up a tail-cone housing just running a 302...

This is not going to be an overnight happenning, I can see that from the beginning. But before I even bag a 460 - I want to know exactly what I want to have the machine shop do on it with an end result mapped out, taped, and wired...

BTW: As of today I have two 15X8 rims at a Goodyear shop I need to pickup around thursday that will have $247.oo worth of 235/60/15 Eagle G II's on them, and I have a pair of rims I swapped for to clean up tomorrow for a set of Pirelli 205/75/15's that I'll have balanced at Baileys tire and racing (hopefully tomorrow).

 

If he busted a output shaft housing his driveshaft is either out of balance, or he broke something else first. as to how big can a 460 be well max that most figure is 557cid, 4.5" stroke 4.440 bore (.080 overbore, but sonic check first) if you find a really good block and you want to sleeve atleast one cylinder maybe 2 you can bore .140 over to 4.5 and build a 572.
Me I bought an A460 block and currently gathering the parts for a 572 based on that block.

 

Shoot man - I'd be more than happy with a very solid 550 CID....

I expect I am about to become very well aquainted with the nice people at "Second Hand Speed" here in Memphis.

What are your thoughts about huffing it, and nitrous? Will the bores hold up with overpressure?

 

well how about a nice 545cid, pretty close to 550, doesn't requrie sleeving the block infact doesn't really require sonic testing it unless you want to for piece of mind. 4.5"x4.390 (.030 overbore)

 

Now THAT ought to **** off the bowtie people - it's just exactly 454 turnt inside out....

I always did like the idea of a square bore though - stroke matching bore. But who cares...

 

Question: Does the Merlin 10.25 axle match the width of a Ranger?

And is there a locker that can be installed?

How stout is the axle shaft?

I don't give a flying f word if the rims got to be eight bolt or five

 

Do you mean the sterling axle? Merlin is an aftermarket company that makes mostly GM pieces. No the sterling doesn't match the width not even close. you rember how wide my axle is under the ranger body, well the sterling will be just as wide. yes there are after market lockers like the detroit for it, but why the ford 9" is strong, has a lot more aftermarket support, easier to shorten, and a lot cheaper plus can use 5 bolt pattern rims and fairly easy to convert to disk if you so choose.