DEAD!!!! Dum-Dums Ranger 2.5TD 4x4

[Dum-Dum]

So I bought a shit bucket of a Ford Ranger for £1000 a while ago. It's the World Rally version but someone has painted it black which is a real shame.

Somehow it passed an MOT needing just a CV boot really.
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Took it out, got it muddy which was fun. It definitely needs bigger tyres as standard is 235/75R16 but it's only on 235/65R16 meaning I'm about an inch closer ot the ground than I should be and the speedo is well out.

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So I decided to do a suspension lift by winding up the torsion bars. This is the easiest thing on earth, jack the front up and support it with the wheels off the floor and no weight on the suspension, 17mm on a breaker bar and with some brute force to screw the bolt in 10 turns lifted the front ride height from 83.5cm to 88.5cm (a 2" lift) I measured this arch to floor through the center of the wheel.

Before
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After
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I wrote the measurements on the rear arch as I'm gonna paint the bed at some point soon.
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I plumbed in a boost gauge and stuck it in a broken air vent
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And I fitted a nice de-cat exhaust
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I found in fitting the exhaust I could avoid jacking it up by just driving onto some bricks
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Oh and I also fitted a pair of rear fog lights (as I hate the single ones) and bolted them to the truck bed rather than having them hanging below the bumper to give me more clearance.
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Plans are:
Stage 1 tune, mechanical pump
235/85R16 AT Tyres, these are the metric equivalent to running 32" tyres so are pretty big and will give me another 2" of ground clearance.
+2" spring shackles
Body lift kit
Oh and I have a little turbo project on the go and I'd love a bigger FMIC and a gnarly winch bumper
Oh and painting the bed as the old white paint is very much showing through.

[THE_Liam]

I fully   this babe!

Needs some kind of pikey-reference signwriting, "O'Millar's low-quality driveways" or something

[Tom]

Thats epic! Cant wait to see what else you do to it

[Niall]

Highway maintenance along the back, hi vis logo/company name down the side, bulbars on the front and a load of brand new PPE on the dash. Yep, would suit this and you Chris down to the ground lol

[Piggy]

the first car thats suited you matey

have fun

[Dum-Dum]

I fully   this babe!

Needs some kind of pikey-reference signwriting, "O'Millar's low-quality driveways" or something

No dags kept in this vehicle overnight sticker?

Thats epic! Cant wait to see what else you do to it

Cheers mate, exciting times having something new to play with that I can go mad on.

Highway maintenance along the back, hi vis logo/company name down the side, bulbars on the front and a load of brand new PPE on the dash. Yep, would suit this and you Chris down to the ground lol

I would love to get the big red and yellow chevrons on the tailgate and some pikey orange lights. It's already got my big hivis coat on the back seat, might throw my rigger boots in it too.

the first car thats suited you matey

have fun

Oh I am

[lolsteve]

You need to fill up the passenger footwell with empty cans of Budweiser and mountain dew

Looks nice though, must be a bit different driving this to the low small hatchbacks

[puglove]

Be careful with the tuning chris. Think of the temps when your stuck giving it stick to get out with only the fans to do the cooling.....

[Dum-Dum]

Looks nice though, must be a bit different driving this to the low small hatchbacks

Yeah very different but I drive minibuses at work so It's not completely alien. I do drive it much much slower though.

Be careful with the tuning chris. Think of the temps when your stuck giving it stick to get out with only the fans to do the cooling.....

Yeah it's got an engine driven fan at the moment so it's spinning constantly. I think a little tuning will help cool it with less exhaust restriction meaning less heat that way and a better intercooler should help too.


So some more slow progress as money is tight.

I bought some all terrain tyres last month, got 4 AT's and a road for £40 off ebay. They are 235/85R16 which is 31.7" tall and a whole lot cheaper than 32"s. Standard my car should of been on 235/75 but it was actually on 235/65 (28") so a big difference

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And I got them fitted the other day and they look mean. They have lifted the truck another 30-40mm. The truck is a whole lot more stable feeling on the road now for some reason.

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[THE_Liam]

That's looking hard as f*ck mate!

[HDIkyle]

Looks good. Does need some arches tho and a winch and lift. I see the punto is still stalking about

[Seb_Ryan]

Needs a BFO bullbar on the front with spots

[Dum-Dum]

That's looking hard as f*ck mate!

Cheers mate, just contemplating if I have money for a stick on front plate to go on the bonnet so I can take the hole saw to the front bumper.

Looks good. Does need some arches tho and a winch and lift. I see the punto is still stalking about

Winches arent cheap but I'm looking at how best to adapt a land rover winch bumper however I'm gonna wait till I've done a body lift so I can get the best fit.

Needs a BFO bullbar on the front with spots

Yeah, Just need the money for it. Think I'm gonna go for a LED light bar like was on the yellow F150 Jeremy drove in the top gear international rescue.

[Dum-Dum]

Found a foot high bank to drive up and got some wheel lift

Truck went straight up happily in low range.


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[mr_fish]

When in Low range, does this Lock the diffs? or do you have a separate button for that?

[Matt-Rallye]

Pikey truck is awesome! reminds me of my old mitsu strada!

[7057sam]

Looking good chris

Loving this project

[Dum-Dum]

When in Low range, does this Lock the diffs? or do you have a separate button for that?

No diff locks sadly but it's got LSD's both ends and possibly the center too.

[highwayman306]

"Think I'm gonna go for a LED light bar like was on the yellow F150 Jeremy drove in the top gear international rescue."

Damn right Dum-Dum! DD Will look the mutts nuts

Its a beast look forward to seeing some more progress

[Dum-Dum]

So another affordable mod, stick on plate!

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Sadly I'm gonna have to afford to buy another one as I've f*cked fitting this, it's not central, it's not level, it's full of air bubbles and creases and I'd like it a little lower down the bonnet. Pro Tip - Don't decide to fit one on a windy day 5 mins before you have to leave for work.

I was gonna drill the bumper for some more air flow (drag lol) but it has a massive metal cross beam and I cant be f*cked with trying to make 5 holes in that with the holesaw.

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In other ranger news I tried to repair my electric windows because now neither works off either switch, went to change the fuse to find there wasn't one, just a bit of wire bent between the holes so as soon as I have the money spare I'm gonna get a pair of these http://www.mudstuff.co.uk/products/elect...om-dp.html and completely re wire the windows to make it simple to trace issues. The Carling switches are great, they are fitted to stuff at work and I've never seen one break which with my record of breaking things is impressive.

[Poodle]

Got to be honest, that plate looks a bit daft imo. If you want aero get a bed cover.

[Dum-Dum]

Got to be honest, that plate looks a bit daft imo. If you want aero get a bed cover.

Oh there is no real gain to it, I think it looks mean and it'll make alot more sense when I make one of these.

[Dum-Dum]

Today's fixing was solving the fact that my offside headlight was often incredibly dim (no jokes). Turned out if I wiggled the plug it got brighter briefly so decided to replace that then realised the nearside had already been replaced with crimp on terminals so that was replaced too, the bulbs were swapped for quad LED sidelights and brighter H4 bulbs I happened to have knocking about and it now all appears to work.
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Went out for Pizza and came back to find another Ranger had parked behind me, really shows the difference in height already.
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[Dum-Dum]

The Ranger is dead!!!

Turned up the fueling a little bit further, popped the turbo seals after just half a mile

Engine ran away on it's own oil.

Couldn't stall it.

New engine will cost as much as the truck is worth.

f*ck!

[welshpug]

oh dear, fail of epicness!

[Connor]

Twat.

[Paul_13]

Uh oh spagettio!

[WiNgNuTz]

Oh dear mate, was good fun while it lasted though, eh?

[Toms306]

[Dum-Dum]

It was epic fast for that half mile though, got a bloke on the ranger forums offering me £250 for it which sounds like a reasonable deal.