So this weekend was eventful as far as cars go. Usually my weekends are consumed with everything other than my car projects. Customer work, wifes honey-do lists, daughter's activities, TV, trips to Sams Club, etc. You get the idea. Time to work on my own stuff happens so seldomly, and ends up being a precious few moments every great once in a while.
This weekend was one of those times for me. I saw the opportunity and grasped it securely with both hands, with a white-knuckle hold that nothing could shake loose from. I searched car-part.com for months looking for explorer engines. I wanted an engine for my 99 ranger V8 swap, so I kept checking daily for just the right one. It had to be a culmination of right price, mileage, and proximity all wrapped up into one gleaming example of 5.0 muscle, which would become my trophy for all my time and dedication to searching. I looked and looked, scanning, kind of like searching a single's website, no she's too heavy, nope, big nose, nope, way too many miles on her. You get the picture. Most were just too far away. And others were just too high of mileage for me to want to invest in.
So fast forward to a few months ago when I posted up my poll on what engine to put into my race car in my sig. My end goal with my car is to put a coyote engine in it and race it in that new coyote stock class the nmra has now. Money is tight as with everyone, so dumping 7k into an engine and electronics package just isn't in the cards right now for me. So after reading all the responses from my poll and looking over the extra parts I have laying around, I decided that a 5.0 explorer engine was the way to go for me. Cheap, easy to slide into the car, and would transfer easily into my other 4 cyl coupe I own when I decide to swap it to a coyote engine down the road.
With that decision made, I got back onto my search. I looked and looked through the car-part website for just the right engines. I had thought about it and decided my search would be for a 96-97 GT40 headed explorer engine to put into my race car and a 99-00 P headed engine for my ranger. The GT40 heads would work well with my existing mac 1 3/4" headers and aluminum exhaust I have sitting in the corner. The P motor would have the wiring and accessories that would work well with my ranger swap. My search was now concise and focused. After weeks of looking, I came across two engines, one 96 with 111,000 miles and one 99 with 84k miles on it, both at the same junkyard, and both 70 miles away! YES! It had to be a divine intervention! It was meant to be! I told my wife all this and all I got was, how much is this going to cost? I dodged that bullet by changing the subject to shoes and moved on with my plan.
I had a trailer stolen from me, and pretty much had resigned myself to the fact that I was out the cash for it, as well as no more car trailer for me. Well, turns out my insurance covered it and gave me a pretty good check for it. Now I had the funds to purchase my engines and no more excuses. Onece again, divine intervention, can't argue with it. I called up Marshall's Auto Parts and spoke to Rick. Rick and I discussed the pricing, core charges, etc etc, and I told him I would call back after some thought. I looked at my schedule and picked this past Saturday for THE day. No daughter, check, no wife's plans, check, no customer work, check, all that was lacking was getting a friend to tag along for the long boring ride out there and back. For those of you who have never ventured through central Ohio, you have no idea how boring that drive can be. Thank God I came to like country music over the last few years, as I would have been ready to drive my car over a cliff after this if I hadn't. So my friend Jeff agreed to tag along and lend a hand. My buddy Mark was going to go, but I'm glad he didn't as this took a LOT longer than anticipated and his kids would have been at the baby sitter about 5 hours longer than anticipated, but I'm getting ahead of myself. After I had all this in place, I called Rick and pulled the trigger(for all the gun haters in the audience, this is a euphanism, no actual triggers were pulled), and got my engines ordered, along with coil packs, a/c compressor, computer, air cleaner box, maf, and air cleaner intake tubing. He said they cut all the throttle cables and a/c lines when they pull an engine, so I was out of luck there. All the extra parts are for my Ranger V8 swap I'm doing. I went to Rangerpowersports.com and read up there on what I needed, with more on that later, so I had placed my laundry list of a parts order with them. Things were in the works now, the gears of my plan were meshed and turning, no stopping it now. I took off that Friday so I could go. I know I said Saturday earlier, but bear with me for a sec. After placing the order on Wednesday of two weeks ago, I was told my Rick they would both be out by that Friday and he would call me to confirm so I could come and get them. Friday came, no call. I waited all day, no call. One wasted vacation day. I got busy with other stuff working on things I shouldn't have had to do, mainly replacing the broken timing belt on my 2.5 in my Ranger, so I wouldn't have been able to go anyway as that turned into a clusterF that I just didn't expect. It turned into a Friday, Sunday, Monday deal that ended up with the truck being more powerful and getting a ton better fuel economy, but more on that later.
Monday I called Rick and asked what the status was on my engines being pulled. He said they were working on them and he would call when they were out. Monday afternoon, my engines were out! Ready for the taking. YES! So my backup plan of going up this past Saturday was set into motion. Always have a plan B, as it usually turns out to be the plan you use. At least that's how my life works most of the time. Plan A's look good on paper, but usually don't account for all the chaos theory interference.
This weekend was one of those times for me. I saw the opportunity and grasped it securely with both hands, with a white-knuckle hold that nothing could shake loose from. I searched car-part.com for months looking for explorer engines. I wanted an engine for my 99 ranger V8 swap, so I kept checking daily for just the right one. It had to be a culmination of right price, mileage, and proximity all wrapped up into one gleaming example of 5.0 muscle, which would become my trophy for all my time and dedication to searching. I looked and looked, scanning, kind of like searching a single's website, no she's too heavy, nope, big nose, nope, way too many miles on her. You get the picture. Most were just too far away. And others were just too high of mileage for me to want to invest in.
So fast forward to a few months ago when I posted up my poll on what engine to put into my race car in my sig. My end goal with my car is to put a coyote engine in it and race it in that new coyote stock class the nmra has now. Money is tight as with everyone, so dumping 7k into an engine and electronics package just isn't in the cards right now for me. So after reading all the responses from my poll and looking over the extra parts I have laying around, I decided that a 5.0 explorer engine was the way to go for me. Cheap, easy to slide into the car, and would transfer easily into my other 4 cyl coupe I own when I decide to swap it to a coyote engine down the road.
With that decision made, I got back onto my search. I looked and looked through the car-part website for just the right engines. I had thought about it and decided my search would be for a 96-97 GT40 headed explorer engine to put into my race car and a 99-00 P headed engine for my ranger. The GT40 heads would work well with my existing mac 1 3/4" headers and aluminum exhaust I have sitting in the corner. The P motor would have the wiring and accessories that would work well with my ranger swap. My search was now concise and focused. After weeks of looking, I came across two engines, one 96 with 111,000 miles and one 99 with 84k miles on it, both at the same junkyard, and both 70 miles away! YES! It had to be a divine intervention! It was meant to be! I told my wife all this and all I got was, how much is this going to cost? I dodged that bullet by changing the subject to shoes and moved on with my plan.
I had a trailer stolen from me, and pretty much had resigned myself to the fact that I was out the cash for it, as well as no more car trailer for me. Well, turns out my insurance covered it and gave me a pretty good check for it. Now I had the funds to purchase my engines and no more excuses. Onece again, divine intervention, can't argue with it. I called up Marshall's Auto Parts and spoke to Rick. Rick and I discussed the pricing, core charges, etc etc, and I told him I would call back after some thought. I looked at my schedule and picked this past Saturday for THE day. No daughter, check, no wife's plans, check, no customer work, check, all that was lacking was getting a friend to tag along for the long boring ride out there and back. For those of you who have never ventured through central Ohio, you have no idea how boring that drive can be. Thank God I came to like country music over the last few years, as I would have been ready to drive my car over a cliff after this if I hadn't. So my friend Jeff agreed to tag along and lend a hand. My buddy Mark was going to go, but I'm glad he didn't as this took a LOT longer than anticipated and his kids would have been at the baby sitter about 5 hours longer than anticipated, but I'm getting ahead of myself. After I had all this in place, I called Rick and pulled the trigger(for all the gun haters in the audience, this is a euphanism, no actual triggers were pulled), and got my engines ordered, along with coil packs, a/c compressor, computer, air cleaner box, maf, and air cleaner intake tubing. He said they cut all the throttle cables and a/c lines when they pull an engine, so I was out of luck there. All the extra parts are for my Ranger V8 swap I'm doing. I went to Rangerpowersports.com and read up there on what I needed, with more on that later, so I had placed my laundry list of a parts order with them. Things were in the works now, the gears of my plan were meshed and turning, no stopping it now. I took off that Friday so I could go. I know I said Saturday earlier, but bear with me for a sec. After placing the order on Wednesday of two weeks ago, I was told my Rick they would both be out by that Friday and he would call me to confirm so I could come and get them. Friday came, no call. I waited all day, no call. One wasted vacation day. I got busy with other stuff working on things I shouldn't have had to do, mainly replacing the broken timing belt on my 2.5 in my Ranger, so I wouldn't have been able to go anyway as that turned into a clusterF that I just didn't expect. It turned into a Friday, Sunday, Monday deal that ended up with the truck being more powerful and getting a ton better fuel economy, but more on that later.
Monday I called Rick and asked what the status was on my engines being pulled. He said they were working on them and he would call when they were out. Monday afternoon, my engines were out! Ready for the taking. YES! So my backup plan of going up this past Saturday was set into motion. Always have a plan B, as it usually turns out to be the plan you use. At least that's how my life works most of the time. Plan A's look good on paper, but usually don't account for all the chaos theory interference.
