turbo V8, ultimate b2200 conversion, "Stranger". Final pics

The truck is pretty much finished except for painting the bed which I why I waited until now to revile it.

Yes the whole Ranger front end had to be sectioned, and rebuilt. It was a long process that I will show pictures soon.

Well today I went under the truck to add another quart of Syncromesh gear oil {which is recommended for the Tremec TKO}, since I have lost a bit of oil here and there.

Also, I went to row through the gears with the engine off, and the gears were stuck. After a little persuasion I got them to go through all of the gears, next of course will be to see if the slave cyl is adjusted properly.

Anyway I went under the truck after jacking it up, and took off the filler plug, and then took off the cap of the gear oil. Well, that's funny there was no seal on the mouth of the gear oil.

I didn't give it too much thought. Went and got a bit of fuel hose, and put one end in the tranny fill, the other on the nozzle of the oil bottle.

Well, I must have squeezed that bottle for about 15 minutes or so, until my hands were getting cramps. I took the tube out of the tranny, and took the oil bottle out, and gave it a squeeze. Nothing.

I took the cap back off, still no seal. I took the line off and blew through it again, it was fine. Took another look at the cap, and there is was, THE SEAL.

After that the oil went in fine, but still never ran out of the fill hole, so I must have lost more oil than I thought.

Somewhere along the line I lost brake pressure. I changed out the old master cylinder, and installed a new one.

I got my wife out today to try and bleed the system again {I did bleed the master in the truck}. After a few tries nothing was happening.

I took a look under the truck and saw a pool of brake fluid. I don't know how this happened, but the ONLY factory steel line that I didn't have to mess with sprung a leak, and ruined some of the paint inside the engine bay.

Not the end of the world since I can paint it again, and needed to anyway.

But after going to the parts store and getting a new line, and using a hand held vacuum pump, there was still no pedal.

Got the wife back out to pump the brakes again. Went around all four corners and still nothing. I even cranked it up to see if the booster would help, and it didn't.

When I was bleeding the system I could see the calipers moving, but its just the pedal goes to the floor now.

Any idea's? Also, remember it did have plenty of pressure after building the system, the first time, it was just the leak that killed it.

Bad master cyl?

Oh, and even with the bad brakes I did get it out of the garage for the first time in a year.

It was fun to hear those twin T4's whine.

Looking good man..we need some engine bay shots though! My imagination is not filling the void..lol.. umm..on your brake problem... are your rears adjusted up good and snug?..all the pedal firmness comes out of the rears on the mazdas..

I promise to get to the engine, and turbo setup soon, but I'm trying to show how this mess progressed.......lol. Also, since I sprayed my engine bay with brake fluid, I'm going to have to repaint it.

Anyway, as you all might or might not know the Ranger front end is about two, or three inches too long.

So I had to section, and learn to weld plastic. I also reinforced the sections with steel, and flat top, recessed screws.

Inside of the front bumper and valence.


Outside.....


Of course this is before final filling and sanding.

Here is a pic of one of the two T4 turbo's I'm running. This one has an oil leak at the housing so it looks like I will have to rebuild it.

From what I gathered on the turbo forums the outlet pipe needs to be at more of a downward angle. So, I will try the least expensive way first.

I hit a new, well old, snag today.

I was never able to get the fender off the front tires by adding air to my new Shockwaves.

I bought a new air chuck, and that didn't work. So I measured the shock fully inflated in the truck, then again after I had removed it from the truck.

The shock didn't get any longer so, I gave the tech line at Ridetec a call.

After doing a few measurements for them, the tech guy said, "aaah, a custom", well yeah, I mean it isn't like they sell the same shocks for street rods, customs, etc.

Anyway, the shock was just too short. He said I would be going from a 3 stroke shock to a 5 stroke shock which is a bit longer.

He said he would take them back if they weren't beat up that much. Well, that is kinda a subjective term. I told him I DID get, some, scratches on them as its a pretty tight fit, and it would almost be impossible not to get a few scratches.

I hope they take them back. I'll update the results.

90 Mazda 2200 with auto, and air. Std cab, 2 wd.
Four 65 Mustang fastbacks, one 67 Eleanor.

oh gosh dont use shock waves... there over priced junk... i went round and round with air ride tech for months on a 1 ton dually and a half ton truck that were ruining shockwaves in next to no time..... i use a lot of ride tech stuff even though its so spendy and i have never had as many issues as when i have used shockwaves...just go double convoluted and relocated shock...tried and true and not a ton of dough when you blow out a shock or bag...

turbo set up looks well engineered though... cant wait for more

God, I hope my shockwave's will run ok.

After reading their forums I will be keeping in simple as in no ride height leveler, or computer pre set controler.

I do hope the exchange the two front shocks for ones that will work.

The problem as I see it is that those bellows are so big that it takes a lot of work to get them where they won't hit anything.

However, if it does get screwed up I'll just buy some Eagle coilovers, like on my 65 Mustangs.