90 BII 4.0 Swap

[truckerdawg]

Here begins a diary of my 4.0 swap into my 90 4x4 BII 5 spd all power accessories with manual transfer case(thank goodness). Donor was a 92 4x4 5spd Ranger(manual doors and windows). This was the closest to a plug and play I could find. I took a few pics along the way and if you think its too much just let me know. I hope I am almost there- but you know how that can go. So here are some donor Ranger engine pics. hopefully they can be of help to someone.

 

[truckerdawg]

Some more donor 4.0 pics.

 

[truckerdawg]

A few more pics.

 

[truckerdawg]

The end of donor pics. I hope they can help someone who needs to see where something goes. I will pick up again with more, but I've got to hit the sack now-4 am wake up to go to work.

 

[truckerdawg]

Here is the donor wiring harness laid out. I mistakenly yanked out everything under the BII hood except the wiring in the fender to the power windows and door locks. All I needed was the engine management wiring and it would have plugged into the existing BII harness. This caused me a lot of extra work-splicing in the power windows and door locks. Adding back all the lighting wiring and basically every bit of wiring on the driver side.

 

[truckerdawg]

I decided to rebuild the 4.0.$$$ .040 over pistons with moly rings, comp cams 410, engine quest heads, smith bros pushrods, mizpah rebuilt 4.0 lifters(mine), Bosch 4 hole fuel injectors, and pacesetter ceramic coated headers with flanges milled flat(important for a perfect seal). And attached to it the Luk Pro Gold clutch and flywheel(says for 93-94, no listing for a 90-92 4.0) but there is no difference- Just use the older TO bearing 90-92. Here are the headers. And a flange view after milling.

 

[adsm08]

Ohh, shiny.

 

[kryptonitecb]

Those are pretty

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I547 using Tapatalk

 

[truckerdawg]

Before I get too far, I want to thank those who have helped me with questions I have had in the past. And yes, they are shiny and pretty-till you put them on for a few miles. My best headers I ever had were a set of Ford SVO Motorsports, but they were high dollar. Very thick polished stainless steel with zero flaws.

 

[truckerdawg]

Have you ever noticed how nobody likes being passed by your old faded poor man's looking Bronco II on the highway and they most always speed up. Here some more work done. 1. painted radiator core support. 2. brakes(repacked spindle bearing) before putting on the front brakes.

 

[truckerdawg]

I needed to take care of some bushings. Using a 1/4" drill bit in the end links and 6 holes took less than 2 minutes a piece to remove each bushing . Put back polyurethane.

 

[truckerdawg]

Also, had to replace the body bushings with polyurethane. Didn't want red, but for $35 for Energy Suspension I went that route(Craigslist). Used Skil blade 94102 to cut the body bushings(cheap and worked great). Half the bushings were split open and mush-this one was a good one.

 

[truckerdawg]

I rebuilt the 4.0 or did I? Or did I correctly? Here some pics. My enginequest heads are both on with the lifters first in the block before you put the head down. EQ heads are supposed to flow a little better and be thicker castings.

 

[truckerdawg]

Well the installed pic and head pic did not show up. Here goes again. Plus lower intake and valve covers.

 

[truckerdawg]

Lower intake with Bosch fuel injectors, upper intake, a front view, and since I removed the AC compressor I changed the idler pulley to a serpentine pulley.

 

[truckerdawg]

Tomorrow, I am going to try and crank the 4.0. I pre-lubed the engine a few minutes(turned the oil pump drive rod) high pressure melling oil pump. I am a old school carb guy even though I built a 2.9 before and got in running- I have no knowledge/sense of these computer- sensor- fuel injected engines. Because of this I am a little apprehensive. The exhaust is hooked up only through the y-pipe so that I would have the O2 sensor connected -Will this cause problems? I don't know. No headers on yet-wanted to do a short break-in first.

 

[country0001]

Looks good.

 

[truckerdawg]

Good news and time consuming bad news. Fired up immediately and idled smooth, BUT coolant leak in lower intake manifold gasket- I knew I didn't like the way it sat. I read a post somewhere that the one piece gaskets have problems with setting up a improper alignment( I thought the bolts would pull it down and correct that-no such luck). Fel pro made a 2 piece lower intake gasket set for this and I will go that route.

 

[truckerdawg]

Turns out the coolant leak was my temperature switch sensor. I had planned to replace it and therefore did not tighten it up and forgot about it. The headers are on but am missing an exhaust flange(lost it somehow) and so ordered another one. Easy fit on passenger side with alternator removed. Driver side was easy but threading thru dipstick was no fun.

 

[truckerdawg]

Been out of town working. Got the headers y-pipe installed and hooked up the exhaust. Would like to go 2 1/4" with a hooker muffler, but the exhaust and muffler on the BII are perfectly okay. We don't have smog testing here thankfully-I don't know how anything can flow through a catalytic converter. This is not a request for anti-smog clean air advocate posters. Also benched the transfer case into place and connected the drive shaft- that took a few choice words. I need to check the front drive shaft u-joints and then will get it in.