Americans put $50,000 engine in a $500 Ford Ranger for Mexico desert race

These Americans put a $50,000 engine into a $500 Ford Ranger for a Mexico desert race.

The YouTube channel, Donut, bought a 1993 Ford Ranger for $500, with plans to convert it into a top-performance desert pre-runner.

It would be an ambitious project, but when competing in the Norra 500, you need to bring your A-game.

But would they be able to turn this Ranger into a racer?

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Turning a $500 Ford Ranger into a Mexico desert race champion

Nothing sets a driver on edge quite like their car being in a race.

We’ve seen plenty of nail biters in our time, whether it was a race involving a fake toy Corvette, a Dodge Demon 170, or an upside-down Camaro.

But would putting a $50,000 engine inside a $500 Ranger make it a winner in a Mexico desert race?

Donut was about to find out.

The plan was to put an LSX-based V8 engine in place of the Ranger’s old engine, in hopes that it would improve the vehicle’s durability when out in the desert.

The old engine was capable of 152HP, with the Donut team hoping the V8 would kick things up a notch and secure 500HP at the rear wheels.

“Oh, that’s going to be super easy,” one of the hosts commented sarcastically. “And how old is [this new engine]?”

“Applying for AARP [American Association of Retired Persons] as we speak,” the other joked.

The vehicle itself also got an overhaul, which included new suspension, brakes, and interior fittings.

Would this be a champion?

The journey to getting this Ranger ready for the race was trying.

As the saying goes, Rome wasn’t built in a day.

And the same logic applied in this case.

Just under two weeks in, it was time to trial the engine.

And this is where things went haywire.

Fuel began dripping out of the bottom of the vehicle, and the team was left scrambling.

On the second attempt, the engine started up weakly before dying.

A call to an engineer buddy got them back onto the right path.

One of the hosts explained: “It turns out we were getting signals to all the coil packs.

“Initially, we thought there was no signal.

“What’s weird is that nothing was firing […] The odds of having eight defunct coils is super unlikely.

“I swapped out the coil to a brand new one that we had, and that worked.”

Now that a crisis had been averted, it was time to get the Ranger on the Dyno to see what horsepower it was capable of.

With a goal of 500 in mind, they managed to get a respectable 453hp.

Next stop – the Norra 500.

To see the process for yourself, head over to the Donut YouTube channel.

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