more interesting each day.
As you may or may not know, I recently bought a cheap truck that was parked near my place with a For Sale sign in it. The asking price was $500; I paid $400. It is a 1986 Ford Ranger, 2WD, 2.9L V-6, 3-speed automatic, two fuel tanks and in relatively good condition.
As I was signing the title, I find out that the original owner was a friend of mine who died around this time last spring. He had purchased it in 1987 and had sold it sometime between six and twelve months before he died.
A few days after I bought it, I was going over the VIN for no particular reason. According to the VIN, it's supposed to have the smallest of the engines available at the time - the 2.0L 4-cylinder gasoline. So, the engine is definitely NOT original.
In the month after that, the engine developed a problem with stalling, which annoyed me, but it was tolerable and I have no money, so I'll just live with it for now.
Then, two and a half weeks ago, it started developing transmission trouble. It would slip and occasionally drop out of gear altogether; not very often, mind you, but still worrisome. That is, until I took my soon-to-be brother in law on a dirt road near here that I like to hang out on... Ever since then, it's been slipping and dropping out(mostly dropping out) when I come to a stop or slow down enough.
A week and a half ago, I took it to a mechanic for an estimate for refurbishing the transmission and a few other things. The numbers on the tranny show that it is the original transmission that came with the truck.
This last weekend I was camping not far from here when a party broke out; no big surprise as that's a common park to throw things like going-away parties at that park. The guy organizing the party was none other than Todd, the son of the friend who owned the truck in question.
Me: "So when did your dad put the V-6 in?"
Todd: "Wait, what? It had four cylinders the last I saw it. And that was three months after dad died."
Finally, I was in Auto Zone yesterday purchasing a new oil-pan gasket, oil filter and some other things to fix this thing up. I went to buy an air filter and found two options: The **3660 was the one designated for three of the engines. The V-6 was one of the three. The rectangular **3660 did NOT look like the toroid **3637 that's on the engine now. The only engine that the **3667 fit on, for that model year, was the original 2.0L.
To recap-no no, there is to much. To sum up:
The truck's first owner, from 1986 to 2008, was a close friend of mine.
He sold it about 18 months ago.
Sometime in the last 9 months, the engine grew a pair of cylinders.
When the engine was swapped, most of the components of the 4-banger were forced on to the V-6; including the transmission.
So, the "new" engine has been choking, leaking and inhaling its own exhaust(more on that later) while beating the crap out of the old transmission.
When I found out that the transmission was the original, I decided to get a "new" one. They're all $150 for any of the compatible trannies, so I will replace this 3-speed auto with the 5-speed manual this engine would have come with back in '86.
With all these modifications, the nature of the guy who owned it till a year and a half ago and the adventures he took the thing on, I think I'll name her Millennium Falcon. I was going to go with Serenity, but, I figure that the Falcon has more in common with my truck. I could go with Rum Runner, but I think I'll save that for my starship. |
