BannedCR500Riders.com

Dropping a 5.0 V8 into my truck out of a 98 Explorer. Picked up the engine, trans, and 90% of the rest of the stuff I need to drop it into my Ranger. 76000 miles on the drivetrain. Even got the motor mount plates so this will bolt right into my truck. Got it all for 500, and 200 in travel gas. Ill get that much out of the V6 drivetrain I will pull out!

No idea what route to take with a Cam though, I know they dont like a cam with less than 114 degree LSA (explorer electronics issue). But other than that, I have no idea what would be a good swap. Looking for maybe a slight idle and more torque. Not really desiring a high-RPM fire-breather, truck will be my Daily Driver, and it needs to get decent fuel mileage.

Hoping to get to the swap in January, give me plenty of preparation time, and I dont have anything happening in January.

Usually the best bang for the $$ is getting the fuel injection remapped with a dyno tune. Will optimize the air/fuel ratio at various rpms to give a little better tq/hp and even a bit better fuel economy.

Okotokian wrote:Usually the best bang for the $$ is getting the fuel injection remapped with a dyno tune. Will optimize the air/fuel ratio at various rpms to give a little better tq/hp and even a bit better fuel economy.

That tuning can be done pretty well via data-logs taken with a handheld tuner, then sent to a guy that writes tunes.

Iirc, the explorer 5 oh came with gt40 heads. should make a kick ass little truck.

dannygraves wrote:Iirc, the explorer 5 oh came with gt40 heads. should make a kick ass little truck.

GT40P heads from 98-up. My motor definitely has the P heads.

Long time-no update. Cylinders had rust in them-must have gotten some water in there when the guy had it in storage.


So, motor got a new short block. New pistons, all new bearings....I also threw a performance cam from Comp Cams into it, converted to Roller Rockers from Crane Cams, and a double roller timing chain from Edelbrock to correct any cam timing retard machined into stock components. Stuck with the stock rocker ratio as per recommendation from other 5.0 guys. Should run real nice.


Project is rolling along, just ripped the truck apart today, no turning back now!

I'll get some pics posted when I've got some progress, but for now, I will leave you guys with this

The Damage


Fresh paint, and the roller rocker set up.


And, the intake plenum plate-polished aluminum letters and old ford blue for the rest.

Looks pretty cool. Don't you love that no turning back point. I have 2 trucks I went there with right now. My green 65 4x4 went the cummins route, my 65 travelall is getting the front suspension out of a 2005 crown vic......since they are both internationals there is no instruction booklet and nobody has done it so I'm on my own. Probably should have done one at a time but oh well. looks like you have a cool project truck should rip along nice

Nothing like paving the way! I cant stand having more than one project at a time. Drives me crazy having something ripped apart, cause all I want to do is race for the end product (without cutting corners, that is)

Stock motor i believe is around 130 HP. With the work done to the V8, it should be around 300. Stock is 225. After its running, I have a Tuner to write some tunes for my SCT Tuner to take full advantage of my changes

i kinda want to do this to my ranger

I had my green truck in the middle of the swap when the power steering went out on my travelall. The part that broke was unobtainium and I didn't want to look around for it forever and had the crown vic frontend. I thought it would only take a couple days so I put it in front of my green truck......didn't work out to be so quick, as usual. I'm almost done and cant wait to have big discs and power rack and pinion instead of straight axle with 4 wheel drums.

Those 2.5's LOVE boost. They respond better to boost than the V6.

Update: It Runs! Got all the PATS stuff installed yesterday, and she fired RIGHT up. Only let it run for a second, dont have any trans fluid (need a Yoke for driveshaft first)

Couple odds and ends left to do and she will be driving. When its all done, I will post a detailed write-up of what all I had to do.

Got her running properly. My dumb ass changed over 100 vehicle wires to make this all work, and did it all right the first time. As fate would have it, I mixed up cylinder 5 and 6 plug wires and that was causing my running issue. Strange thing is, it idled nearly perfect.....

Muffler shop to reconnect the exhaust to the muffler that is already under the truck. Then its back on the road