2nd Gen 5.0L Performance Mod List

[Centaurus5.0]

@Blown

Do you happen to have any pics of your old rides? It would be cool to see some pics of your set-up's.

I've never had a blown car personally, but I have passed wrenches at more than a few installs...in mustangs. I've said before, if Vortech or better yet Hellion (custom turbo headers included) made a kit for our rigs, it would solve all our hp problems (lack of).

 

[Centaurus5.0]

I already have a cam and headers on my v8. I also have a supercharger, don't make me use it........

View attachment 155932

USE IT USE IT USE IT!!!

 

[Turdle]

I already have a cam and headers on my v8. I also have a supercharger, don't make me use it........

View attachment 155932

is that just layin around or wgha?

 

[boominXplorer]

is that just layin around or wgha?

At the moment yes. It's off a 5.4 but pretty direct fit on any mod motor. I've thought about using it on my 77 build with the 351w (another thread on here) but not sure.

I also have a stage one focus sport turbo kit for my 07 Focus ST that's been in storage 2 years. Its a nice kit with a water cooled garret. I work 60+ hours a week and never feel like working on my own stuff anymore.

 

[Centaurus5.0]

What ever you put it on, you'll be able to hear it coming a mile away. The Procharger's whine is loud!

 

[Centaurus5.0]

Wanted to show this off:

2wd 5.0L driveshafts are steel and measure 54.5" from CL to CL of U joint. 99-2003ish Police Crown Vic aluminum driveshafts are are 55.5" with 1330 u-j. The later model P71 are much longer.

So the question now is, do I cut an inch off a new expensive mmc driveshaft or or do I hold on to it until I do build. I reason that if I had a 4r70w built with the 1" shorter output shaft I shouldn't have to cut it at all. Also, what yoke does the explorers have? longer or shorter? do the splines run to the end?

A driveshaft shop quoted me $280-$320 to custom make an aluminum one. I picked the mmc up new in the box for $400. Way more than I ever wanted to spend but way cheaper than the next closest priced one at $899. I wanted it mainly for the NVH dampening characteristics... and because I know there aren't too many people out there with one of these NIB ;D. Though they were made to dampen high speed vibrations in cv with 3.55's, our rigs suffer from bad vibrations on the other end of the spectrum when chugging along under 1800rpm in Overdrive. It sounds like a real low booming rumble. Combined with a sloppy leaf spring suspension where the pinion angle is bouncing around on every pot hole and on braking and take off. It makes sense to have something lighter to help reduce/absorb bad vibes, hp be damned. 4.0L 2wd come with aluminum shafts fyi. Maybe due to the sohc high rpm nature and availability of 4.10 gears?? I dunno.

Have any of you guys put an aluminum driveshaft in a 2wd?

 

[vroomzoomboom]

What ever you put it on, you'll be able to hear it coming a mile away. The Procharger's whine is loud!

i will have to get a new video of @Dono 's truck. you can literally hear him a block away with his rear mounted turbo lol. sounds like a jet air plane.

 

[shucker1]

@Centaurus5.0 ,

What dimensions do you need?

Spline depth of the front yoke?

My shaft happens to be out and fully stripped down.

It was going to get a coat of POR-15 today and new crosses pressed back in when its done.

 

[vroomzoomboom]

@Centaurus5.0, looking again at your first post, you will also want to include in the 347 mentions jon's (Turdle's) mountee "turdle" who pretty much cost guys like me a lot of money lol. also andy's (ahodges) insanely clean 96 which not only also did a v8 swap, but also did it with a 347 stroker with a m90 explorer express supercharger on top of it as well as took second in explorer/mountianeer at 2016 carlisle all ford nationals in i believe
Andrew's 1996 Explorer XLT
and also here
5.0 swap - w/ 4406
brad (ford99_1979) 347 RE-Power 1996 Limited AWD which is where my 347 came out of orginally
then if you really want to do some searching, 2 members who are long gone from the forum, trolls, and clowns (or is it clownz) who had blinding fast trucks

now getting back to performance mods, 2 other ones which some people do overlook are, a trans shift kit, and high stall torque converter. these however have there draw backs as well. depending on the shift kit you go with (dono will back me up on this one) they can sometimes be harsh. i had used a transgo stage 2 kit in the first trans i had. it was hard enough that it would bark the tires going into 2nd gear. if you also live in a area that has snow in the winter, it can make driving, shall i say "interesting" in winter, as well as put your passengers through hell if they are not into that sort of thing. with a converter, you would also face higher trans temps depending on the stall you go. both of these wont give you horse power, but with a shift kit will take less time to shift, and converter, will get you in your power curve faster, and keep you in it. other draw backs are, you have to pull the trans out to put a converter in, and for the shift kit, drop the valve body out of it, resulting in you getting a bath in smelly trans fluid, while its dripping in your face the entire time unbolting it.

 

[Centaurus5.0]

I updated the shout-out list for strokers.

I agree on the shift kit. It should be one of the first things someone does to their rig. I had a lentech valvebody in an old 1996 (rolled it) and it felt the same as the BCA I have now. The BCA would chirp 2nd on WOT when I first put it in but now it just a firm shift. Just a weee bit too firm for a DD but I'm hoping the swap to 4.30's from 3.73's will tame it some. (less difference in rpm when shifting).

I would like a better torque convertor too. The right one will definitely helps lower ET's over the oem.

 

[Centaurus5.0]

@shucker1

If you could measure CL to end and spine depth and if it has the smaller diameter machined in at the yokes end, that would be great. I just remembered I bought a steel crown vic shaft once and had it shortened an inch when I converted a rig to 2wd and I think I used the yoke. I just don't know if all the vehicle that use the 1" longer transmission all use the same long slip yoke with the splines that start halfway down the middle. I'm also wondering if putting a shorter yoke on would be the same as shortening an inch.

FYI, the 2006+ police aluminum driveshaft come with 1350 u joints. If someone were interested in upgrading their driveshaft, I think that one would be the one to get and just have it shortened.

 

[vroomzoomboom]

whoops! also forgot about the jmod or jerry's mod this i myself wouldnt do without help. valve bodys and internals for transmissions scare the hell out of me, but i know others, like ahodges have done them.

TCCoA Tech Articles

 

[Centaurus5.0]

valve bodys and internals for transmissions scare the hell out of me,

Me too.

That's why I buy a complete VB done up by someone who's been modding them for 20+ years instead of me trying to figure out what hole does what and possibly screw up. I don't want to have to remove the VB more than once in it's lifetime if I don't have too. Like an old machinist once told me, "If you had time to fix your mistake, you had time to do it right the first time."

 

[Centaurus5.0]

So, about the full exhaust dilemma.
I might have stated this before, but a few years ago I had a face to face chat with Larry Larson. He runs full exhaust on his truck and chevy2.

Told me straight up a full exhaust system will not do anything to a car that is properly set up. In his testing, removing the full exhaust system only picked up .05

5 hundredths
His exact words were " the tubing weight could be the .05"

Just sayin'
He's had a few "worlds fastest street" vehicles.

You mean on his 2500hp twin turbo "street legal" Pro Mod car?

This may be rounding back to the "all power is made at the headers in an exhaust system" argument, and one which I agree with, to a point.

If you had the room to install "tuned" headers like this:

or this:

Then yeah, the length of those headers would have maximized/used up the exhaust energy and anything past the collector is just for show (or sound). What do you expect when the total header length is many times longer than our whole system from header to tailpipe?

But we don't have that kind of room.

I would like to point out also that many header designers consider the exhaust valve size when determining the primaries diameter. Don't need a 1.75" primary if you have a head with a 1.54" (gt40) exhaust valve. 1.5" or 1.625" will do.

 

[shucker1]

@Centaurus5.0

Should be what you are asking for:

O.D. 2.600 (Sorry, I don't have a ball Mic)

Splines are full depth, straight cut from what I can tell. (See photo)

Depth called out as 5.650 + \ - .0005

Splines look to be cut past balance ring.

Running Depth 4.442 (I did just polish down running area yesterday, so running area may be slightly off.)

 

[Centaurus5.0]

Thank You Sir!

 

[shucker1]

NP!

 

[Blown]

@Blown

Do you happen to have any pics of your old rides? It would be cool to see some pics of your set-up's.

I've never had a blown car personally, but I have passed wrenches at more than a few installs...in mustangs. I've said before, if Vortech or better yet Hellion (custom turbo headers included) made a kit for our rigs, it would solve all our hp problems (lack of).

I'll post-up some stuff in my Blown again thread.

 

[Centaurus5.0]

I was just thinking about catbacks...

The original one on the cent (22 years!) has developed a few holes but I actually like the sound of a stock muffler humming at 2,000rpm. Was thinking about doing something special until I added up the cost.

The way the bassani muffler is designed, you could install a dual-in dual-out and have one out going to a tailpipe with a resonator for everyday driving and the other out have an electric cut out and a turn down when it was time to open it up and hear it. But bassani muffler would be $250(yikes!) and a cut out ($100-200??) plus the install... too much.

I had a spintech on a 98' similar to the one shown above with the 2.5" dynomax tailpipe and it sounded good! gravel-y sounding idle with a flowmaster like tone that gets smoother the high you rev. Think I paid about $140 for the muffler and around $100 for the tail pipe $10 for a stainless band clamp and about $50 to weld it on. I would do that again, but I'd need a resonator now. Bit too loud for coming and going all hours of the night for my job.

Part# XS2268

AP Exhaust makes a straight through stainless 2.5" Magnaflow knock off for $54.99 at Summit (compare that with Cherry Bomb's SA2268 at $69.99. exact same muffler). This looks like the cheapest route but I've heard some other straight though 2-in-1 designs that didn't sound very good to me. Would like to hear more grumbling and rumbling than crackling and popping but the ones I heard have had 2.5" systems with 3" tail pipes and no resonator.

Maybe I should just put on a Flowmaster and be done. The last time I had a car with one was 20 years ago when the Force II 3 chamber kits first came out for the foxbody's.

 

[traveler]

Ok, for a change in pace and to entertain and educate the less informed here (namely me) can you more experienced people here tell me why this:

"351W:
Not happening without an automotive engineering degree and a truck load of money."

is true? Size? design? what?