1999 Ford Ranger

I'm pushing plenty more than a stock Cobalt SS.... I'm at 285...

yeah stock cobalt ss only pushes 205 at the wheels. Thats why I said after a few upgrades.

it'll still be good fun

mmm freshly fabricated parts...





So I was dumb and forgot to tell Bob to put the external wastegate provision on the header the first time, so instead of having it put in two weeks ago, the header had to be sent back for the external wastegate.. This came in yesterday or today, and it's sitting in a buddy's shop back home... Should be able to get it on next weekend, I can't wait!

Anyone have any tools / able to help me with testing compression? I'd like to try to find out if my rings are bad or if my oil problem is elsewhere... My two prime suspects right now for my oil burning problem is bad rings or warped exhaust valves... Hopefully it's the latter because then I could just throw on the head from my spare engine.

Also, current plans-list for the truck:

• Oil change.
  Try to rearrange the intake so I can actually run a coolant-overflow tank and windshield-wiper fluid tank. Also, replace nasty filter.
  Get my purrty exhaust tip put on.
  Clean up IC piping.
  Pick up an adjustable cam gear to pull some more power.
  Air-fuel gauge (dumb for not having one in the first place, really).
  Fix bad ground on passenger-side foglight. Also, clean up wiring / loom it.
  Hurst shifter!
  Cupholders - probably an explorer center console with mustang buckets.. Have you tried carrying a hot mocha while driving stick?
  Fix melted vacuum line and route it away from the turbo, probably the reason my vents aren't working lol.
  Maybe some painting under the hood?
  Oil catch can.
  New BOV or recirculate the HKS that's already in.

Christmas / Birthday is coming up, so I might score some cash and do some shopping for myself

I met a guy at Purdue who also has a turbo ranger... he built it as a joke with his friends, but it turned out pretty well and it's his baby now. He actually wants to help me out with a lot of stuff building-wise: Pretty knowledgeable guy. The only problem though is that he lives in Crown Point so I'd be driving a good 2 1/2 hours to work on my truck, and I'd have to stay up there at least a weekend..

Anyway, the biggest thing is that I want to do some compression tests... Help me! lol

go to autozone and they will loan you a compression tester. I can't remember how much of a deposit there is for it.

Do you know what your compression is supposed to be at? If you don't then find out first.

The compression tool itself screws into the spark plug hole. Leave all the other spark plugs in.

Unplug all your spark plugs and injectors < VERY IMPORTANT

Now turn the key like your going to start your truck and watch the gauge build. Once it quits increasing stop and thats your compression. My celica took around 8 turns to see what compression was.

All your cylinders SHOULD be pretty close to one another in compression. If one seems off then there's your problem.

THIS WILL THROW CHECK ENGINE LIGHTS GALORE SO YOU NEED TO HAVE A SCANNING TOOL WITH YOU TO CLEAR THEM OUT OR YOU MIGHT NOT BE ABLE TO START YOUR TRUCK BACK UP ONCE YOU'RE DONE DOING THIS.

I will say this, a compression test will get you to the problem cylinder but it won't tell you whats wrong. Once you've narrowed down what cylinder it is, then a leak down test would be your next step. If you need to do a leak down test let me know, I'll explain that one too.

Well I've been reading up a bit and I read up that if a cylinder has low compression, throwing some 10W oil in and running the test again will tell you if the rings are bad or not.

Compression should be between 130-150 I'm pretty sure... Thing is, I have 8 plugs--two per cylinder, that's the thing that's really got me stumped. Do I still remove both and run the test with one of the plugs wide open or leave one in?

leave one of your plugs in, you won't build compression if both are out. I've heard about the oil thing but my issue wasn't the rings so I didn't do it. I just went to the leak down test to see where the issue was.

The leak down will tell you if its your intake valves, exhaust valves, bad piston rings, or one other thing.

i think jeremy knows how to do all that, isnt that what he learned in school? compression tests and all that?

I'm not sure honestly. I know how to do it because I've already done it on my car before. Its a pretty basic test, nothing too complicated.

Finally got a Hurst short-throw shifter yesterday, got it installed this morning before work within an hour.. I didn't have to worry about notching it or making a gasket since the guy before me already did it (It's a "vent" mod, trying to keep my seals alive), so it popped right in basically. It's much more firm than the stock shifter and the throw is cut down a lot, I love it. Just gotta build a bit more muscle in my right arm aha. I'll get pictures up soon..

sweet action!!! I wanna see it!

yacob06 wrote:

sweet I wanna see it in action!!!

fixed for ya

Bro I wanna go again as soon as we hit that bridge on 41 I started spinnin In 3rd and you took off. Lol. By the way it sounds good. I had my window down.

Bullet wrote:

Bro I wanna go again as soon as we hit that bridge on 41 I started spinnin In 3rd and you took off. Lol. By the way it sounds good. I had my window down.

Ahh i didn't know we were actually going, just thought we were messing around . aha sure though next time we run into each other. Time for new tires? aha

who needs tires? lol tires are overrated

slurpie822 wrote:

Bullet wrote:

Bro I wanna go again as soon as we hit that bridge on 41 I started spinnin In 3rd and you took off. Lol. By the way it sounds good. I had my window down.

Ahh i didn't know we were actually going, just thought we were messing around . aha sure though next time we run into each other. Time for new tires? aha

I wanna see this. In fact slup I'm yet to see your truck get down dammint!

its pretty! It's so sweet seeing a ranger get down.

I need tires my fronts look lke a set of slicks. And next time the srt is in town it better have a 50trim or I've let myself down. So we should be gettin it in when we run. And yea that ranger is sick. I wanna see it go down the quarter and hand some v8 his ass on a silver platter. And an update tires should be ordered next week depending on the situation with my car right now but it's under warrenty so it should not cost me a penny so I should get tires around the 15th I hope then it should be 750cc injectors. I'm takin my time with this I want it to be perfect. I may get cams instead but idk. It's about the green but I'll keep everyone posted. And slurpie brother I wanna see vids of that thing man!

Since you mentioned it, here's two videos I found on accident from the previous owner on youtube:

VS. 07 TrailBlazer SS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALDu5g1T1wY

And tuning
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xax6nvywfg

And just for fun, not my truck
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTXuKt2E9rE&feature=related

As for right now, I'm getting sideways in the snow and rain (I will admit, it's not always intentional). And Maynard -- Lafayette is mostly dead this time of year. You'll see the truck getting down and dirty sometime though, maybe I'll take you for a ride one weekend.

Alright here's some quick pictures of the Hurst... the pictures came out really nasty, not sure what settings I had on the camera.. Better ones will show up in the future!

Also, I fixed my air controls and my vents all work properly now. The problem was a melted vacuum line; it was a .20 cent fix and only took about 30 seconds. Minus the fact that the vent door shuts under boost. -_-

That shifter is fuckin sick!



Also that truck on 14psi hung that well with an ss trailblazer?!? Slup I have very underestimated that truck of yours. If you get a set of radials or slicks on the back I guarantee this truck will run mid 12s all day long.

its so preeeeetttty!!!! can I touch it?

Omg jacob