warning don't try this at home!

here she is stock when i got her doin a little hard core posing in a creek,and shortly after with the stage 1 duff,31's and no dents-painfully long and low to the ground.

a crappy pic of her on 32's with minor trimming in the background,and now with dana 35,8.8,4.0l swap,fender cutting,bobbed bed,homebuilt bumpers w/removeable carrier winch,3" duff long arm lift w/dual shocks and deaver 3" rear leaves, both sway bars still on waiting for disconnect fab,cb,33x14 boggers and rear lock-right.all manual-no power or automatic options,they don't make em like this any more.

she started as a cheap wrecked 2.9l/5 speed reg.cab long bed that i threw some fenders on.later i added a 3 inch duff stage 1 lift and 31's,then 32's and some trimming. and wheeled it for a few years.some dumb ass hit my parked truck head on with his tacoma and the resulting insurance money made the stage 3 lift happen with some duff 3.5" coils and 33's.by the way the taco had  twice the amount of damage.

bumpers were the next project(so i'de be ready for the idiot who hit me next time). i made it all from cardboard first and then torched out the pieces of 1/4" plate before welding it up.there are 3/8" plate reinforcements inside the frame rail over a foot to help spread out the load.the removeable carrier has a regular 2" receiver setup.the rear pic is the only close one i have but it shows the temporary mounting with factory brackets that bent under enthusiastic pulling.it got reinforced like the front when i bobbed the bed. 

i also made a steering box brace similar to the jeep offerings because i noticed the 33's made my steering box twist the frame rail noticabley.the steering box is shaped perfect for a flat stock/u bolt clamp.its puny looking but the box hasen't shifted yet.

heres a pic of the brake line holders i made,and my CB and joke angle finder

  so then i thought my truck was tough and found out the factory cold air intake in the grill has a heavy drinking problem,enough to hydro lock the 2.9l!stopped like the key was turned off,no sputtering warning leaving it in 2ft deep water.the #6 piston went down with a full cylinder of water and didn't go back up when the crank came around at 3,000rpm's wedging the counterweight against the bottom of the piston and cracking it almost in half.all the other pistons were from a 1/16" to 1/4" low in the bores.

  so she sat until i got together the stuff i needed for a 4.0l/m5od swap.i only had to re-pin the 4.0l wiring at this harness end into the firewall.i cut the plug off the 2.9l harness to have an easy reference of the under dash harness wire locations in the large firewall plug.then rearranged the wires in the 4.0l harness plug to be where the 2.9l stuff was(8 wires were different,mostly due to my trucks lack of power options). and then re-pin the fuel pump/taillight plugs on the 92 harness to match my truck(no cutting or splicing).i used the cpu,its harness, engine,tranny, and headlight harness's from a 92 donor ranger and long block w/all accessories from a wrecked 93 non EGR explorer.the fuel lines ,motor mounts and radiator are the same from my 2.9l to the 4.0l.i used an m5od,shifters,boots and floor plate from a parts 91 explorer.the swap was easy and it bolted right in,its a much better 4x4 engine with its great low end torque.it looks like a factory install,runs good for an old whooped,(rolled on its side!) junkyard special,gets better mpg's than the 2.9l and doesn't throw codes.

more on pg2,i split it up for load time.