LA GORDITA BLANCA ( Linked Ranger on buggy tires)

[_Cole_Taylor_]

Catching back up after not posting for a while Finally got to go shock tuning with Roy the weekend of the Terra prerunner paradise
Got this thing working super good just needed more spring in the front to help out with the bigger hits but overall super happy with how much nicer the truck goes through the bumps
Hanging with the homies Skylar and Ricky
Was super happy with the truck this weekend had zero issues besides a little power steering leak (pretty standard ford thing) was time to clean it up and get ready for thanksgiving trip!
I wanted to have some more option lighting wise then just the 3 lp6’s I tried adding lights elsewhere just hated the way everything looked so swapped them out with some xl80s so I can have amber/white on separate or same time. After a once over and a new power steering line she was ready for the trip.

 

[_Cole_Taylor_]

All loaded up ready to go! This is the main reason I wanted rock lights on this thing for those late night load ups/ good work lights. Wouldn’t be a desert trip if you didn’t have to work on anything right?
Wheel sensor on ol La Ballena Blanca decided to take a shit in the way out so I swapped it in the oreillys parking lot Kept having this dash board issue would light up like a Xmas tree then completely cut power and the whole thing would turn black I tried a ton of different little easy things but nothing changed I was still able to drive so sent it to the dez anyway. Just more annoying then anything at this point Made it and was excited to drive the ranger again after the last trip, there was a bunch of family on this trip that hadn’t ridden in the new truck yet so I was excited to give some ridesAt the top of the hill over looking the lakebed with my little cousin. On the way back to camp I noticed the truck seemed low on power and wasn’t sure what was going on started looking around under the hood and found this connector messed up for the evap purge thing so I got to fixing De pinned it and was able to get it all patched up but the truck was still falling in its face and was only getting worse I was starting to get bummed at this point, I had only driven the truck about 30 min and it was only the first day. Then I found this mess fuel cell foam decided to come apart. Cleaned out the filter thinking I had found the issue, it helped a little bit but was still not there. Truck was driveable so I still cruised it around. At this point I should’ve just parked it .Ripped the studs completely out of the brake booster trying not to drive this thing into a giant wash out. Had to get pulled out and drove back to camp with no brakes. At this point I’m super bummed and over the truck was thinking about just going home but in true badlines fashion I kept fighting ran down the hill in the AM and picked up a new brake booster (I had replaced this once already and new it was a royal pain in the ass)Got the brakes working again but was still running like shit checked all the plugs/wires the only thing left I could think of was the fuel cell foam got past the filter into the injectors which are also a bitch to change but what did I have to lose at this point You have to pull the intake manifold off just to get to the injectors got the new ones in and as soon as it started up I knew that was the issue thing was running better then ever before! I was super happy after all the work it was fixed ! Proceeded to have fun the rest of the trip!Friends bike broke down so threw it on the back cause it’s still a truck!Packed up and headed but man this trip kicked my ass.

 

[_Cole_Taylor_]

Next up was annual new years trip got some new fenders from McNeil and mounted em gave the truck a whole new look and actually fit the width of the truck. Next up was heavier front springs per Roy’s demands to get this thing to carry the front went up 100lbs on top and bottom spring Sitting pretty after new fenders and springsDrove it around town here and there to try and work out any other bugs before new years but everything checked out. I was itching to get this thing in the dirt with the new springs.

 

[SaltyMethods]

What was your spring rate at and what did you go up to?

 

[charlie brown]

What was your spring rate at and what did you go up to?

cliff hanger. HAHA

 

[_Cole_Taylor_]

What was your spring rate at and what did you go up to?

700lb over 800lb

 

[SaltyMethods]

700lb over 800lb

So you dropped down to 600lb over 700lb?

 

[_Cole_Taylor_]

So you dropped down to 600lb over 700lb?

No spring rate was previously 600lb over 700lb and is now 700lb over 800lb

 

[_Cole_Taylor_]

Well after getting the new springs on and a once over on the truck I was ready for New Years trip, so I thought. First hour of driving around truck said no more head gasket blew causing to much crankcase pressure blew a bunch of oil out of the pcv valve on to the header and caught on fire luckily was well equipped and got it out before it burned anything up to bad. Over all was super bummed this happened on the first day. Got towed back to camp drained all the oil/ water out of it pulled the plugs and tried to turn the motor but she’s seized up sooooooo on that note if any one has a 2.5 out of a ranger hmu ! Still need it How she’s been sitting since new years

 

[FasterNU]

stick the 4.0 in it

 

[_Cole_Taylor_]

stick the 4.0 in it

If I can find a donor truck with a manual trans that’s what I wanna do! Has to be a sohc not ohv tho.

 

[_Cole_Taylor_]

UPDATE
so after much time I finally acquired a 4.0 SOHC it came with a Howe power steering pump, stainless headers / X pipe here’s some progress,

 

[_Cole_Taylor_]

Decided to tear down the entire front end and freshen it up while the engine is out

 

[_Cole_Taylor_]

Got to cleaning with the wire wheel and sander prepping for paint

 

[_Cole_Taylor_]

Pretty glad that I ended up taking everything apart all the heims and uniballs were shot and every bolt was shanked improperly

Got the bigger radiator fitted and mounted
Here’s everything all painted and where the truck is currently

 

[_Cole_Taylor_]

Well not much progress but it’s all the little things that add up, got the power steering cooler mounted along with the coolant over flow resi,

Also bought all the hardware for the front of the truck (balled out on some of the main pivot bolts from specialty fasteners) was able to go to G&J and get some used aircraft bolts for cheap and picked up the new (used) power steering resi from Roy, came off the jug kinda cool

 

[95_Bluwhale]

This was one truck I wanted to buy if I sold my bronco you’re killing it in the rebuild looks like a fun truck

 

[STUDIO305]

Killer work man! Always loved this look on the Tensor tires too

 

[_Cole_Taylor_]

Waiting on some stuff to come back from powdercoat but here’s some progress, on this rear pivot support the size tubing was to small to be able to get a socket in and hold the bolt so I came up with this. I drilled out the original hole that way the head of the bolt could fit all the way through then welded the bolt retaining washer on and a weld washer on top of that, this way you no longer have to have a special socket to work on the truck!
Also cleaned the front end up a bit with a valance and a single ONX6 20” bar TT style
I never loved the look of the these D35 4x4 “hub caps” so I painted em with chrome spray paint and they actually came out pretty good
Blend in way better now! We will see how long they last since the paint says it’s for indoor use It would be cool to have someone make me a hub centric one of these since all it does right now is act as a dust cover for the hub.

 

[Exploder_M]

Got the bigger radiator fitted and mounted View attachment 26798

What radiator is this? My 99 explorer with the sohc has a radiator but the cores fill the sides entirely from front to back where as many replacement radiators like yours have a thinner core with that void behind the front core.


The yellow part is what im talking about.
Looks like are two different options for core depth. 1" which is what you have and 2 1/4"which is what I have.