Another lowered Ranger!

[Hizdudeness]

Ive only owned 3 trucks in my life including the ranger. A mildly built Lightning and an s10 full drag tubbed small block chevy on juice. Most of my drag racing was done in fox bodies.

Mike the notch in the far lane is mine at Moroso. I snapped a couple engine pics turns out one is before I blew a head gasket on the stock engine from this car right when I decided to build this another is a carb juice combo c4. Sorry man Im not a camera guy at all. Its consistent. My gf at the time caught the pic at Moroso of me on my quickest run. I won there. 10.2@134 vortech strim tremec 5 26x10 slick

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[BiilyJones]

I'm in Blairsville. Haha , not trying to clone your truck. The one in the pic below though Which I think you and I both are trying to clone. My file date for the pic is 12/3/2019. I have just been busy with projects around the house. I was actually one of the first buyers for the belltech kit it has been sitting for well over a year. I dont know how long actually but my receipt for the control arms is from 13 months ago. I know I bought it well after the kit as it wasn't even being made when I bought it. I actually have had a dp and intercooler sitting for months also. I really like the current exhaust tone. My truck only has 5k miles on it still so I dont drive her a lot. Covid was a nightmare and I did the travel ER/ICU nursing thing. TBH I would love to run E85 just not a fan of the 2 hour drive to get it. I grew up in the car industry but left after the crash in 08. I started racing at an early age go karts then mx and finally got into drag racing.

Tbh I am still very disappointed in this truck. It makes ok power, but the package weight is way too great. Its take off from a stop is just gutless. Ive only owned one vehicle slower that was my Rubicon. It handles like a truck form the 90s, the brakes kinda suck...I'm comparing it to my 02 Lightning. That truck was amazing. Funny thing to replace it now it would cost well over the value of my ranger. I sold it for like 20k in 2016 Now to find a clean single owner under 50k mile example. I just don't know. My first ride was a Nova with 4.11 gears and 3k stall. It only ran 13s on street tires but I thought it was the quickest thing ever.

My Ranger has been on a diet but it still is way too heavy. Next weight loss mod is Lithium battery. I feel like anything over 3k lbs is just too much. I Need to reweigh again, but I'm aiming for a bit under 4k with me in it. I've grown to accustomed to all this techno crap. This is the first vehicle that I haven't removed the cruise control in. I have a serious problem with modifying things. I'm slowing down as the wife is tired of my shit. Every time I get done with the project I sell it out of boredom. I like the challenge. Planning the upgrades, overcoming obstacles. I always do everything save for the machine work. Even paint. Some of which is great others meh, depends on the booth temp and humidity and how much I hated paint work that day. Since I do all my work I usually trade up or pocket cash. Shortest I have ever kept a car was 3 days. This Ranger is honestly ironically my longest. I think its because its like this nut that I want to crack and I just cant get it to do what I want.

So Im going to find a rear end I like and build a jig and 4 link it. Im thinking Mustang for sure as I have built several and I dont have to research anything and heck even have parts laying around to do one. Before I do that this thing has to make some real power. The wide sticky tires just killed any wheel spin I could induce you know I mean judiciously as in trying to go fast; not spin tires.

When I was real serious I did a 92 Mustang removed everything unnecessary-manual rack, no ac, no heater core, no sound deadening, removed rear seats, light weight seat(s), gutted dash no speakers, removed all emissions, deloomed the wiring harness and body harness to remove everything not needed, I didnt do go plexiglass and it had a 6 pt cage. I welded in the racers edge kit on the rear subframe. It was my quickest car I built at the time and at that time it was quick AF. Whole thing myself. Strim vortech with victor jr heads. When I raced fun fords weekends I was in the street renegade class. My best time was 10.2 @ 134 that was at Moroso in south Fl. At the time It was one of the faster stangs in its class. It was in a few mags. I did the SE US but never won much money. It was fun but ultimately I had to get out as the class got out of control real quick. I took the car and went crazy lightweight it as I no longer had to meet tech. Scariest car I ever drove. I got into cutting bolt heads and replacing sheetmetal and removing bonding material. Jesus it sounds like a drug problem. I was in my early 20s and did not have the kind of money to compete once low 9s started hitting. Also when my buddy Jason died in Orlando it kinda took the wind out of my sails. I got out right as everyone started going twin turbo.

As far as I know Im the first person in the world that I know of to put an rb26 into a 300zx tt Only took this one pic its on my fb from 2009 but The car was already long gone. I did it in 07 and sold it after the auto industry went tits up. Everyone started claiming afterwards that they were first but they no one did it until after I answered some questions on a forum and let all the secrets out. I should have opened a shop and kept my mouth shut. I havent seen one with ac besides mine though It had a gt35r on it, stock 5spd 300zx mated to the rb. I did the wiring myself and used the eraliest ghetto as tuningI was a tech for Nissan and Subaru early on so ive done several crazy things with sr20s, I did 3 rotary engines(I will NEVER EVER do another), 4 Honda builds, 9 mustangs, 3 Camaros. I love the way rotaries sound, but Jesus those things are like literally burning money to move. If you know rotaries I did 2 rb13 and an na 3 rotor from a cosmo. There is a guy now that has perfected a 4 rotor. I would bet he is has over 100k in the engine project alone. I feel like Modern American muscle cars are dead AF to me. They make the power; but to sacrifice that cam sound for improved drivability and emissions hurts me.


My last two current car build goals are one a lotus elise stripped and powered by a turbo bike engine. The final one is probably gonna have to be some sort of electric powered madness as the dyno juice wont be here forever. /Sadpanda

OK now that I wrote a book I have to apologize for that bleeding wall of text.

TLDR: BS car crap, blah blah, my whole damn life story FFS, Ranger still feels kinda weaksauce

Pics of lightning or gtfo

 

[BiilyJones]

 

[Loweredon33s]

Hey was that yellow 4 eye at Maple grove many years ago? It looks very familiar to me.

 

[BiilyJones]

Hey was that yellow 4 eye at Maple grove many years ago? It looks very familiar to me.

I dont think so. I was hauling my buddy's car to the track for him. He did sell it shortly after. Had a 4.6 with a carb and nitrous, and very aggressive weight reduction ?

 

[Hizdudeness]

Wow that was tough one mate. I lost a lot of pics when I upgraded the phone, but I found one.

 

[Loweredon33s]

I dont think so. I was hauling my buddy's car to the track for him. He did sell it shortly after. Had a 4.6 with a carb and nitrous, and very aggressive weight reduction ?

I’ve totally seen that car before.

 

[BiilyJones]

My buddy was a firm believer in instead of finding a place to lose 100 pounds, find 100 places to lose a pound. He ground those corners off of the 8.8, then swept up the fines and put them on a digital scale. I really liked that car.

 

[Hizdudeness]

Nice taunt the Lighting trailering the fox. Rub it in good why don't you?

Im only remembering the good times. Im still angry as my wife forced me to sell the L. It got 12 mpg at best. It had 410 gears and I like playing so it frequently got single digits. Everyone wanted to race you. When you didnt win people were still surprised.

 

[Hizdudeness]

What are we gonna do with these rear ends fellows? Seriously? The locker is not even doing it for me. Im seriously thinking of Frankensteining an 8.8 with our lug pattern 31 spline axles and cutting the axle tubes and just doing way too much work to make something I know that can do what I want..

No one I have contacted is making an lsd that is drag/street style. They are all crawler oriented or lockers. The application dana 44 m220 just garners offroad support. Anyone got an idea here?

 

[BiilyJones]

Weld it.

 

[Dereku]

What are we gonna do with these rear ends fellows? Seriously? The locker is not even doing it for me. Im seriously thinking of Frankensteining an 8.8 with our lug pattern 31 spline axles and cutting the axle tubes and just doing way too much work to make something I know that can do what I want..

No one I have contacted is making an lsd that is drag/street style. They are all crawler oriented or lockers. The application dana 44 m220 just garners offroad support. Anyone got an idea here?

For straight line speed? I am sure there is a bypass to keep it locked up. I think Toyota people have the brown wire mod. This allows them to lock it whenever they want. Pretty sure you could figure that one out. Or is it you want more options?

 

[Hizdudeness]

Haha omg I would die going over blood mountain. No guard rails. Never seen a survivor if and when they find the car missing. They don't believe in wasting money on guard rails here. Also Ive never been a fan of that method, spool if you have too, but I like turning also.

 

[BiilyJones]

Should have bought an fx4, I can put it in 4 hi and lock the rear and make all the boosts.

 

[Hizdudeness]

Hmm Derek I will check into that. Not worried about the speed it disengages. The procedure to lock the rear takes too long and i thoroughly enjoy a light goose every now and the in a good spot for some sideways action. Also traction control off messes with my cruise control. I know, I know; I told you im getting spoiled.

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