What use would you have with a 1988 Ford Ranger that was all but ready for the junkyard? That was the situation that faced BangShift member “neongreen”…his Ranger had dutifully served him since his high school years, with the 2.3L four-banger doing it’s duty in-between rebuilds, but when he moved to Los Angeles, surprise, it wouldn’t pass smog to save it’s life. So the engine was pulled, stuffed into a 1962 Ford Falcon, and the truck sat idle. Somehow, through the powers of coercion, he managed to talk a friend into a deal: he would sell the shell of the Ranger to him for a dollar, but the friend would cover the cost of building the Ranger as neongreen envisioned: with a 60,000-kilometer Nissan RB20DET inline-six from a Nissan Skyline R-32 into the engine bay.

Apparently sourcing the 2.0L turbocharged mill isn’t that big of a deal: the Japanese are finicky with their cars and as he points out, “it is basically just garbage to the Japanese,” so for $1,700 he was rewarded with the engine, transmission, ECU and accessories. But an engine swap is never as simple as just stabbing the new block into place and hitting the key, especially when you are creating the unholy matrimony of Japanese rice rocket and American mini-truck. Parts need to be fabricated, systems have to be able to talk to each other, and at the end of the day, it all has to start, run, and drive without issue. The entire cost of doing this swap comes in at $3,961, which is well under the $5,000 Project Car Challenge, and it sounds just like a Skyline should on the highway (“Lucifer’s vacuum”). Take a look at what it takes to bring the better parts of JDM and Americana together into one lime-green Ford:

Project Thread Link: RB20Ranger Asian Fusion