So hopefully this is a good as spot as any to post my build thread, as it doesn’t really fit any section specifically.
Quick background, I have raced on and off for 20 years in EC4WDA racing which is a short course obstacle off road racing. Two vehicles per race. Somewhat similar in appearance to tough truck type racing so you can picture what it’s all about. I’ve always raced one of my buddies race jeeps as I never got serious enough into it to justify buying or building a racer of my own. I also changed careers, got married, had kids, etc. so I was out of it for a long time. In the interim I’ve built many other projects, such as a factory five roadster (65 Shelby cobra replica), 1970 challenger restoration that’s an ongoing project, and many more.
So last year I decided to take my daughter to one of these races for the weekend. She’s now 8 years old, and surprisingly she loved it. Camping out for the weekend, and even enjoyed watching the races to some extent haha. That prompted me to decide to build a race truck and get back into it. My criteria was I wanted to compete in one of the lower classes as they are “slower” machines, usually can be built cheaper as they don’t need as much suspension etc, and I’m rusty as ****. I also wanted to build something unique. This isn’t nascar, but there is a tendency to have some generic cookie cutter vehicles running (for example most of the lower classes machines are Cherokees with the stock 4.0. A lot of the higher classes machines are jeeps with LS swaps). I quickly decided on a 98-11 Ranger build, with my original engine choice was going to be a 2.3 Lima turbo swap, as I already have the engine for it from a project from many years ago, and it certainly fits the bill as unique.
I ended up finding a 1999 Ranger 4x4 extended cab, not running, about 90 minutes away for $500. The interior was trashed (good, need to strip it anyway!), the engine didn’t run (again, don’t care), and the frame was solid (rockers? Not so much, but that’s doesn’t matter). I trailered it home and got to stripping it down. I then needed to get a roll cage in it. They sell commercially available roll cages that seem to start out about $600, but in reality, when you add all the needed options and freight shipping, it quickly was looking like a $2000 cage! The point of this build was to keep it cheap and fun! I went to work fabricating my own tube bender, very similar to a JD Squared style bender. Once I had it built, I found the manual configuration of the bender was a huge pain! I ended up redesigning some of it and got it mounted to an engine stand and added hydraulics. So for $500-600 I ended up with a fully hydraulic tube bender to get the 1 5/8” DOM bent custom to my design.
I should probably note, I’m not a professional fabricator, but I’m pretty handy with most things mechanical and electrical, and have built a pretty well equipped (but way too small!) shop over the years.
During this time, I looked through the rule book and found that over the last few years the organization changed some of the point factors for various mods and engines. One of those changes was the addition of a turbo (factory or not) on an engine was now such a huge point cost, that the 2.3 was going to end up in a class likely competing against 5.3-6.0 LS engines. Would it have been competitive? Probably. But I’m not ready to be racing that high of a class. So I got talking to my buddy’s dad. He’s been doing the same racing for 40+ years and he owns a shop about a mile from my house. I noticed he had a 3.0 sho engine in the corner of the shop under a tarp. I had asked him about it and he stated he picked it up over a decade ago in some sort of deal. It was believed to run and be on good shape, but little else was known.
Now, I’ve owned two 2nd gen SHO’s in the past, a red 93 ATX and a green 94 ATX, that were both a lot of fun, and I was always a fan of the engine. I asked what he’d want for it, knowing it was an often talked about swap that was basically tried a lot and very rarely completed (if ever in a 4wd). He told me I could have it. It was just eating space. Well, that sealed the deal.
I got to doing some research and decided the issues encountered would not be too bad, especially since this was a race vehicle and I had no concern for HVAC, cutting of the firewall, etc. in fact, as most of you probably know, when the sho is swapped to longitudinal orientation, most guys flip the intake 180 degrees to get the throttle body to point toward the front of the vehicle. I had no need for this as not only is it extra work to flip the intake (requiring intake port spacers to raise the intake over the timing cover), I actually prefer the throttle body face the firewall as it’ll keep the air filter in the cab and out of the water and mud holes we often race through.
Once the majority of the cage was completed, I got to building the aluminum dash etc. this freed up tons of room behind the dash to accommodate the intake (and I later learned a portion of the heads) poking through.
I have a small YouTube channel that I have documented a few different projects, including this Ranger build. I’ll leave links to the three parts of that build. Which takes us through the SHO engine being mounted in the chassis and bolted to the stock auto trans from the Ranger (yes, I’m keeping it auto. I have a few ideas on how to make this work). I’m hoping by the next video, I’ll have the wiring done and get the engine running in the truck.
I’m open to feedback and questions, and will have some questions for you guys as well. In fact my first questions is where to find a coolant diagram for the engine, as I’m obviously going to eliminate most of what I don’t need.
