Whelp... im back in a Ranger!

[Blmpkn]

Big-ish progress day on the ol gal today.

I decided that just building it a new exhaust from its factory header to the rear wasn't going to be enough work... so I decided to go full ham and get some shiny new mid-tubes to compliment what i was already planning ?

The header is listed as fitting 74-80 pintos and 82-92 rangers.. but fits a 96 most excellently.. with the exception of no EGR provision. Not a big deal.

The job wasn't exactly easy.. but also not terrible. Removal of the alternator bracket was necessary to wiggle it in there.. and had the side effect of causing some coolant fitting to lose its fitment and dump my rusty "coolant" all over the floor... oh well. There are worse things to bitch about.

Also found out that the mating surface of my coilpacks have definitely seen better days.. thanks salt-belt! Probably be a good idea to replace them.

With any luck.. I'll be able to build the rest of its exhaust next weekend. I'll be reducing the 3" collector down to 2.25" > universal hi-flow cat > canister muffler > piped out to the stock location.

I would of purchased 2.5" or 3" diameter stuff for the remainder of the exhaust if I knew I was going to be putting an aftermarket header on it... but me being me decided to change course after I had already bought all the 2.25" stuff ?‍?‍

These motors respond extremely well to simple changes to the intake/exhaust...

In 96+97 the 2.3 made an entire 112 hp and 124 ft lbs from the factory.. all this exhaust work should** put me close to 130hp and 135 ft lbs. Longtubes and 3" exhaust stuff would of been ideal and put me up over 150/150.. mabey in the future!

** honestly.. with 218k miles on the odo and with the amount of blowby the thing has... all this exhaust work MIGHT bring it back to its factory power output... at best ?..


... but.... gains are gains BRO ?

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[Blmpkn]

Messed around a bit more in the past couple weekends..

45° and a donut flange kit welded onto the header.. would of preferred a ball&socket setup but they were 3x the price.. and this was SUPPOSED to be a cheap exhaust ? I think I'm up to around 430$ or so..

..And got the collector-back pretty much finished up. All I got left is cutting in for the muffler, adding hangers, making a couple bungholes for sensors, and kicking it out the side like stock.

The 450$ titanium MIG worked pretty damn awesome.. once I remembered to turn the gas on ? this was the first bit of welding I've done in YEARS... and I'm happy enough with the result. Really not a fan of welding tube ?

 

[Blmpkn]

Got my muffler welded in place today, as well as putting an o2 bung in the header.

Went a little too wild burning the bung in.. and managed to get its plug pretty well stuck in it. Needed an impact to remove.. I'm hoping that running a tap through it will fix it well enough.. seems like it should.

Plug after removal..

Nice shiny exhaust for a rusty truck lol.

Just about done the exhaust chapter now though.. need to put another o2 bung post-cat, kick It out the side behind the tire, and put hangers on it. So close!

 

[Blmpkn]

Were finally ALL DONE besides wrenching on an autozone exhaust tip which I've yet to buy.

Hopefully next weekend I can throw the rest of it back together and see what it sounds like bouncing off the limiter.. while I grunt and giggle like a caveman ?

 

[Blmpkn]

Like, comment, subscribe... all that. I'll split my first million youtube dollars with all my subscribers so.. ya know.. help me help you! ?

 

[Blmpkn]

Well.... I made an impulse purchase yesterday... which is going to have great effect on the fate of the lil '96...

?

 

[Blmpkn]

So.. the rangers almost ready to take out on the road again. Exhaust is finally 100% after the installation of new sensors last weekend.. and the ol gals running better than it ever has since I bought it.

The header & my exhaust sounds exceptional while sitting there idling. Get your foot into it though... and it sounds like the angriest civic anyone's ever heard.. doing its best impersonation of an F1 car.

The first 5 minutes of my anxiously awaited test drive are gonna be incredibly amusing.. then I'm definitely gonna have to dip into a parking lot and hop on Amazon to order a more muffle-y muffler ? wanting to keep with the free-flowing chamberless design... I may try out one of those twin-loop fart cannons.. the cheapest one I've found is around 75$.. well see.

Video of obnoxious exhaust soon!

 

[Blmpkn]

Deepest apologies for no amusing exhaust video yet.. the latter half of the year got away from me unfortunately.

I ended up driving the truck back&forth to work for a week once I got it back together, and it went well enough.. kinda..

It's got a parasitic drain somewhere, which I have yet to diagnose.. and the clutch has started to slip extremely bad.

One thing to note is that the clutch DIDNT slip before I did all my exhaust work... So I feel safe in the assumption that all this Chinese stainless has ABSOLUTELY added mucho mucho power ? lol.

The exhaust is also WAY TF TOO LOUD like I had imagined. It sounds exceptional for a single cam 4 cyl in my opinion.. really puts a smile on my face past 4k or so.. it's just way way way beyond too loud lol. Still planning on switching the muffler out for a twin-loop design.. hopefully that does the trick.

The best Christmas gift of the year was definitely a TwEECer RT piggyback ECU for the ol girl. I'm not gonna mess with the tuning myself.. im gonna let the fine folks at TwEECer handle that remotely once the time comes (spring/summer)

In the meantime..

-replace clutch & seal shift rail plugs
-front brakes & bearings
-shackle flip + patch frame behind shackle hanger
-replace drivers side cab mount bracket & cab corner.
-muffler.


If this winter at work is good to me I'll be buying the truck a sweet ass head from BoPort. Stainless back cut valves, hardened seats, stiffer springs, ported, big cam.. $2800ish with no core.

If work ISNT good to me... I'll sell the wheeler once the trails open up in May and buy the head that way ? between my exhaust, the head, and a hot tune... Should be mighty close to 200hp.. which is enough for my goal of being quicker than a TRX ram in the 8th mile. I very much want to beat one of those 100k$ monstrosities in my sub- 5k dollar shitbox lol

 

[Blmpkn]

INFINITE POWERRRRRRRRR showed up yesterday.. hell yeah.

Bringing the truck back to the garage where it'll live it's winter within the next couple weeks.. stay tuned and all that ??

 

[Dereku]

I respect the work you put into the shit box. Nothing says sleeper like a clapped out shitbox. I like it.

 

[Blmpkn]

I respect the work you put into the shit box. Nothing says sleeper like a clapped out shitbox. I like it.

Thank you lol.

It's been a fun project thus far.. I expect the trend will continue. Should be a fun little run around once it's done!

If/when I get around to putting a turbo on it Ill be aiming for 250ish HP to the wheels. That'll be right at the top end of whats safe for the stock clutch & tranny... But at only 3000lbs... Thing would definitely shit and get.

 

[Blmpkn]

Beauty shots from yesterday.. got the bed off and started cleaning up the frame.

'fabricate new crossmembers' has been added to the list..

More to come.

 

[Blmpkn]

Phase 1 of frame repair mostly done, just gotta weld the overlap plate onto the inside and drill a couple holes for the rear shackle hanger bolts.

Recommended settings on the welder for 1/8" were dead nuts.. that's always appreciated. This was not the case when I was melting the exhaust together lol.. I hate welding thin tube.

More to come next weekend!

 

[Langwilliams]

nice work. Reminds me of when I had a 95 Jeep YJ that was a rolling rust bucket. Frame patches were the norm.

 

[Blmpkn]

nice work. Reminds me of when I had a 95 Jeep YJ that was a rolling rust bucket. Frame patches were the norm.

I'm relatively sure most YJs by this point are made up of more patches than factory metal lol.

Thanks though, I'm super happy with how it's come out considering it was my first go around with frame repair.

I need a decently sized patch at the driver's side shock mount too so.. more practice! Weeeeeee!

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