Before I killed my truck...

I originally bought the truck when we lived in Germany in 1990. It was owned by my boss. She was engaged to this fellow who could not take the truck with him when he was transferred to England. The truck sat in a parking lot for almost two years. I harassed her and begged her to sell me the truck. She kept telling me NO! Then one day she called him and a woman answered his phone. She broke off the engagement and he said she could keep the truck. She was reassigned to the States and was going to sell it for market value (approximately $2800) and send him the money.

About the time she was leaving, she went to her apartment to get a load of stuff and when she was ready to leave the truck would not start. She called me to help her out. The truck had been parked so long that the choke was stuck closed. I helped her get it started and she drove it to the base gas station. I went back to the office. Later she came in and told me she sold the truck for $500. I was upset. I went home and told Penny and she said to call the boss and see if she would sell it to me instead. So I did and she did.

At the time it had a 2.8 liter V6 and 29 inch tires. It was just a plain jane truck but $500 for a running 4x4 is a killer deal! Plus it only had 58,000 miles on it!

Then I got a wild hair...

This is what my truck looked like. It was an '84 Ford Ranger 4x4 with 31" tires, push bar, nerf bars, and a $30 Walmart spray paint paint job.

The saving grace of the truck was the high performance 302 V8. This truck would eat Mustang GTs for lunch (with the tall tires) shredding universal joints and drive shafts in the process. My friend Kevin Jacobs helped me with the assembly and installation of the motor.

I had built the motor for low end power because that is where you need the power for 4 wheeling. Also, I had experimented with 3 different fuel induction systems. First was an Edelbrock Performer series carburetor. The problem I had with it was that every time I would try and climb a steep hill the truck would die because of the placement of the jets. Next, I tried a Holley Projection fuel injection system. Had to get rid of it because everytime I got it wet, the throttle position sensor would short out. Last was a Holley 600CFM carb.

Then one day...