sfx2000 Posted February 25, 2019 Posted February 25, 2019 40 minutes ago, TonyMac32 said: Well, they doubled the thickness of the sheet metal, The Russians paid for the FIAT blueprints with low-carbon steel - the FIAT started rusting on the production line FWIW - I used to have a old-school Lada Niva in the garage - great little unit - parts were a problem sometimes... replaced it with a Suzuki Jimny imported from Japan - and indeed it rules...
sfx2000 Posted February 25, 2019 Author Posted February 25, 2019 43 minutes ago, TonyMac32 said: had a German designed engine in my Ford, it had all the inexcusable failures my friend's BMW had, and now the small truck sits in my driveway dead waiting on an American engine with almost twice the mileage to be swapped in... Hehe - Cologne V6 - must be a Ranger... Put in a GM LS-V8, all is good there
TonyMac32 Posted February 25, 2019 Posted February 25, 2019 2 hours ago, sfx2000 said: Hehe - Cologne V6 - must be a Ranger... Indeed. Had failure of idiotic plastic thermostat housing (replaced with Aluminum), then the timing chains flew out the side and bent a bunch of valves at 117k (miles). The shortest lived engine I've ever had in an American car (I had a Stratus, but I may have crashed it) To be fair to Cologne, the pushrod version of the engine was far better, but the weird fetish with overhead cams was it's undoing. I'm swapping in a 5.0L V8 from an Explorer, since they were the same vehicle from the drivers seat forward it will be extremely easy, the donor vehicle with the engine in it costs about as much as a new head for that V6... I agree the LS is solid, but the GM people are too insufferable, I can't do that to the Ford. If a Dodge 318 fit in there, I'd gladly do that, the community would give me a high five for something different... 1
sfx2000 Posted February 25, 2019 Author Posted February 25, 2019 1 hour ago, TonyMac32 said: agree the LS is solid, but the GM people are too insufferable, I can't do that to the Ford. If a Dodge 318 fit in there, I'd gladly do that, the community would give me a high five for something different... True - and the Ford 5.0 is the practical choice and a good one at that - all the parts should be close enough to a bolt-in, and I always wondered by Ford never did this with the Ranger - a mini-Lightning truck with a HO engine... If one wants to do Chrysler - there is only one choice - the leaning tower of power - Slant Six 225 with the PowerPak - for the win on the weird side...
rooted Posted February 25, 2019 Posted February 25, 2019 True - and the Ford 5.0 is the practical choice and a good one at that - all the parts should be close enough to a bolt-in, and I always wondered by Ford never did this with the Ranger - a mini-Lightning truck with a HO engine... If one wants to do Chrysler - there is only one choice - the leaning tower of power - Slant Six 225 with the PowerPak - for the win on the weird side... Ford is doing a Ranger Raptor.I had a '66 Plymouth Valiant with a slant six, it was indestructible (almost).
TonyMac32 Posted February 25, 2019 Posted February 25, 2019 2 minutes ago, sfx2000 said: all the parts should be close enough to a bolt-in With the Explorer donor vehicle available, it's 100% bolt-in. I have to do some work in the cab because my ranger is too new for the explorer security immobilizer/key circuits. Might just swap the entire dash, also bolt-in. 3 minutes ago, sfx2000 said: I always wondered by Ford never did this with the Ranger Lack of vision, or "we're selling enough of them anyway, who cares?" The Explorer 5.0 hah GT40p heads on it and the good intake, so with a cam (I mean, I basically have to), it should be snappy. It will have to be AWD for a while until I acquire a manual transfer case. The Ranger powertrain options should have been as follows: 2.3L (110 HP/no torque), 3.0L Duratec (210 HP/190 lb-ft), 5.0L V8 (250 HP/all-the-torque) The new Ranger quite literally looks like someone asked me what should be in a truck and made sure to do the exact opposite. 5 minutes ago, sfx2000 said: If one wants to do Chrysler - there is only one choice - the leaning tower of power - Slant Six 225 with the PowerPak - for the win on the weird side... Oh man, the leaning tower of power. I know someone with a turbocharged propane slant-six A-body. If you're in the mood for strange. Personally I prefer reliability over anything else, and the 318 is far more robust than the slant 6. Of course, with a cross-flow head I'd basically have a BMW, but without plastic cooling system components or the unbelievably high oil consumption indicative of the "Ultimate Driving Machine"... Comparing engines by company or country gets tough, example: Chrysler 3.6L "Pentastar": 295 HP Volkswagen 3.6L "VR6": 276 HP <---Might be unfair, that offset-inline rubbish was always a half-baked idea, and honestly those engines are still wayyy too wide. GM 3.6L LFX: 305 HP Ford 3.5L "Cyclone": 290 HP Honda 3.5L "J35Y6 VCM": 290 HP <--- Fuel economy of a dump truck going uphill towing a Civic for when you run out of gas.
sfx2000 Posted February 25, 2019 Author Posted February 25, 2019 2 minutes ago, rooted said: Ford is doing a Ranger Raptor. I had a '66 Plymouth Valiant with a slant six, it was indestructible (almost). that's not the same Ranger... Going back to Slant Six - when I was a kid - my dad had a older Dodge Van (the one where you sat over the front wheels, and no protection if you had a front end hit...) It had I suppose 150,000 miles, and it threw a rod... dad welded up the side of the block in the driveway, ground down the broken rod end, and drove it for 3 more years as a slant five... beast of a motor, even wounded... 1
TonyMac32 Posted February 25, 2019 Posted February 25, 2019 4 minutes ago, rooted said: I had a '66 Plymouth Valiant with a slant six, it was indestructible (almost). Nice, I've helped a couple friendsout, one swapped a broken \6 out for a 318 in his Dodge Demon, the other swapped his 318 Duster with a 340. 5 minutes ago, rooted said: Ford is doing a Ranger Raptor. Yes, but the new platform isn't worthy of it in my honest opinion. The 2.7 EcoBoost is a FAR better engine than that 2.3L open-deck catastrophe in the normal ones though...
TonyMac32 Posted February 25, 2019 Posted February 25, 2019 1 minute ago, sfx2000 said: dad welded up the side of the block in the driveway, ground down the broken rod end, and drove it for 3 more years as a slant five... Very nice. My ranger is currently a slant-3. I could just unplug the injectors from bank 1 I guess...
sfx2000 Posted February 25, 2019 Author Posted February 25, 2019 3 minutes ago, TonyMac32 said: The new Ranger quite literally looks like someone asked me what should be in a truck and made sure to do the exact opposite. the "new" ranger - pretty much copy paste from gm, toyota, etc... Much of this is due to regulations and supply chains It doesn't have the character of the older rangers... not so much different than Hi-Lux vs. Tacoma over in Toyota land...
TonyMac32 Posted February 25, 2019 Posted February 25, 2019 Just now, sfx2000 said: not so much different than Hi-Lux vs. Tacoma over in Toyota land... Right, or the Datsun/Nissan Hardbody vs the Frontier. 6 minutes ago, sfx2000 said: Much of this is due to regulations and supply chains Well partly, but it's also just a huge game of follow-the-leader in the industry right now. the Colorado at least has a work truck option, but (to risk stereotyping) the baby boomers are too concerned with how soft the seats are and the millenials on how many touchscreens it has. The reason my old one is still in my driveway is because it has 0 power accessories. It doesn't even have cruise control. The automatic transmission was a tradeoff I had to make because the M5OD-R1HD manual option was made of glass and couldn't tow as much. I did install a bluetooth stereo so I could handsfree when my wife inevitably called me during my 20 minute commute.
sfx2000 Posted February 25, 2019 Author Posted February 25, 2019 27 minutes ago, TonyMac32 said: Honda 3.5L "J35Y6 VCM": 290 HP <--- Fuel economy of a dump truck going uphill towing a Civic for when you run out of gas. the Honda J-Motor - designed and engineered in the US, and easy to come by... It's light, as it's aluminum block for all - makes good power on gas, and it's over engineered so good on Turbo - it's one of two choices for sand cars out here in SoCal - it's either the GM LS or the Honda J - both make big and reliable power - the j-motor takes a bit more work to tune with the VTEC and EFI mappings
rooted Posted February 25, 2019 Posted February 25, 2019 I thought boosted 2.2 ecotec's in sand cars was a thing now.
TonyMac32 Posted February 25, 2019 Posted February 25, 2019 Well, I didn't say unreliable, I just said thirsty.
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