supercharged 5.0 true fire 98 explorer sport

hi everyone, my name is tim . i live in selkirk, manitoba, canada and as if this date that i am posting this, i am 36 years old.

i bought my sport in jan 05 from a local ford dealer. it had 111,000KM's on it. this is the second sport i have owned. it was sitting on the lot for about 8 months before i came along. i am the third owner (i was able to track down the person that traded it in, and they got it from a friend, who bought it new in 98).

i started to do a few things to it after i first got it, then i found this site, and all hell broke lose! i've never been satisfied with something the everyone else has, so i started to tinker with it even more.

mods include

interior

installed factory tilt, cruise, overhead console, auto dimming mirror, full length console, with a message center (it didn't have these from factory).

white face with blue flames indigo gauge covers (they light up blue)
blue l.e.d. everything
white l.e.d. interior lights
Kenwood DDX392 Touch Screen Head Unit
alpine 4 channel amp (all four speakers)
boston acoustic front and rear speakers
alpine mono amp (for sub)
2 12 inch jl audio subs
rockford fosgate cap
passenger side one touch window down mod.
custom transfer case shifter
tripple a pillar gauge pod, housing autometer boost, Innovate LC-1 wideband, and oil pressure gauge
12v power inverter with 120v plug in a 2 usb plugs built into the center console

exterior

BMW E46 projectors, mounted into stock housings using clear lens
6000K HID head lights
angel eye "driving" lights, with 8000k h.i.d.'s
clear parking/corner lights
billet grill (powder coated by Turdle)
blacked out ford emblems
custom front steel 95-98 bumper, with 4 inch round tubes welded in for driving lights
shaved radio antenna
shaved roof rack
black euro tall lights
l.e.d. license plate lights
smoked out 3rd break light
lund rear tailgate spoiler/wing (formally from the truck "blackjack" owned by EF member Spas)
hand made roll pan (made from 3 1/2 rear bumpers, with 1/4 inch diamond plate on the top, and it is removable)
aluminum T/A differential griddle/cover (powder coated by Turdle)
Motegi Mr107 20' rims
goodyear wrangler hp p245/50 r20
1 1/4 wheel spacer in the rear, 3/8 in front
and most noticeable, black with blue pearl paint, and blue true fire (ground effects are black with blue pearl as well)

Suspension

2 inch lowering blocks in the rear, reverse TT in the front (2 inch as well)
Explorer Express rear sway bar
4 door leaf springs
rancho rs9000 adjustable rear shocks
03-05 sport trac spindles with drilled and slotted rotors

performance

5L swap
347 stroker
TFS twisted wedge alum heads
comp gold 1.6 rockers
comp cams CCA-35-556-8 nitro cam
heavily modified edelbrock victor jr air gap intake (which serves as a valley pan now)
eaton m122 supercharger (metco 2.70 pulley, and ASP 8 rib 7 1/4 crank pulley) with custom made mount with bell intercooler core
8 rib serpentine belt conversion using pulleys from a 7.3 powerstroke
custom made 3 1/2 inch throttle body elbow
accufab 75mm throttle body
4 inch intake pipe
PMASS MH90 90mm Universal 3000 KG/HR MAF
amsoil cone filter
F.A.S.T. 60lb injectors
edelbrock fuel rails, trick flow specialties fuel pressure regulator with summit racing fuel pressure gauge
walbro 255lph fuel pump
1/2 inch steel braided fuel pressure line from tank to rail using 8AN fittings
torque monster headers
2 1/2 duel pipes with flowpro duel in and out 2 1/2 single muffler
accel extreme 9000 ceramic 45 degree plug wires with boot protectors
4R70W w/2600 stall with J mod
tuff stuff 200a alternator
tuning made possible with sct pro-racer package, and tuned with major help from member [MENTION=102869]Dono[/MENTION] and [MENTION=81804]4pointslow[/MENTION]
flex a lite duel 12 inch electric fans
big 3 upgrade (4 gauge wires)
meziere innercooler water pump
2 froozenboost innercooler rads

Transfer case

4406 manual shift from a 97 F150
modified stock trans cross member to accept 93 mustang 5L polyurethane tans mount
double cardan rear drive shaft

because of all the "fun" i had doing the bodywork, and some other things to my truck, i have nick named it "evil dora" or if you like, just plane "evil"!
and now the thank yous

my buddy gord leiss, who let this thing sit in his garage for 3 months while i did the body work to it. he also gave me a hand with some of the prep work, and painted it for me

kevin willson for doing the true fire http://affordableairbrushing.ca/

Joe Bukoski for letting me do the 5L/4406 swap in his garage

now people from this site, weather they knew it or not, they helped

BIG THANKS to tara a.k.a. explorersport77 for pictures of her truck. wouldn't been able to build the roll pan with out them!

ExplorerSport77's X "Hotness"

jon a.k.a. Turdle for selling me some real swanky rear shackles, as well as powder coating the diff cover and sending them up to canada. as well as much needed info on v8, and 4406 swaps as well as doing the grill and showing me how its done.

don aka dono for the help with the tuning, and wideband, as well as the supercharger

andy aka ahodges for some parts, and any help i needed for all the go faster goodies

5.0 swap - w/ 4406

jad2411 for finding me a link for my hidden antenna

ryan a.k.a. MustangP51 for doing his write up on making l.e.d.'s for interior lights, and how to make projectors

P51's HID Headlight (Projector) and Fog Conversion (PICS)

and N3ELZ cardomain page for L.E.D. switch and cruise pod mods

http://www.cardomain.com/ride/296394/2002-ford-ranger-regular-cab/page-6
http://www.cardomain.com/ride/296394/2002-ford-ranger-regular-cab/page-12
http://www.cardomain.com/ride/296394/2002-ford-ranger-regular-cab/page-23

bob a.k.a. rwenzing for showing me speedhut's sit for the gauges

Gauges, Custom Gauges, Tachometers, Speedometers, Shift Light, Pod

Buzz4x4 for his write up on blacking out ford emblems

How to Make Your Own Custom Ford Emblems

the late aldive for his write up on one touch down passengers window mod

http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=141027&highlight=touch+passengers+window+mod

BIG COUNTRY, for his write up on how to install a auto dimming mirror

http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=84968

BIG COUNTRY, 98formulaLS1, and Ryon40 for there write ups on how to install a message center

http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=225017&highlight=BIG+COUNTRY
http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=80670&highlight=message+center
http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=245085&highlight=Ryon40

MountaineerGreen for his 4406 swap write up and "Custom" Driveshaft for a 4406 and 4" Superlift on the Cheap " (even tho its lowered

http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=166726&highlight=awd+4x4+swap
http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=185232

Simon, aka blueka for his "pickle" thread, and help anytime i picked the phone up the phone on the 5L swap

http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=271813

Jon, aka 4pointslow for any MAJOR technical advice i have needed

http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=219092

i wish i could find who did the write up on the overhead console install, but here is the link

http://www.explorer4x4.com/overhead.htm

Russ aka NICE59FORDF100 for his help on the wiring, and what to watch out for electronically.

hopefully one day, i will be able to help people on here just as much as the people that i have mentioned above!

plus you know you have done something right when.....

your truck (as well as corkey) wins truck of the month

http://www.explorerforum.com/forums//showthread.php?t=296023

is the feature truck on the fun hump day radio show (starts roughly around the 30 min mark)

http://explorerforum.podbean.com/2011/03/23/19-vroom-zoomboom/

and you drive 26 hours ONE WAY to the carlisle all ford nationals in june 2010 and 2011, and grab second place in the s.u.v. all category!

then in 2014 you go back to the same show you have been to 5 years in a row (nothing by most, but its one hell of a long drive) and take first!

 

[Turdle]

I have my ac set to what your outdoor temp is

 

[Dono]

I have my ac set to what your outdoor temp is

Where's the 'Like' button? Oh man, you must be cooking.
I tried to do some work today outside, and I thought it was killer.

 

[vroomzoomboom]

I have my ac set to what your outdoor temp is

your a/c, or that big ass fan upstairs i thought would suck the bed into the attic! lol

so i am going to call this a successful fail. took it for a run. got the truck hot, and i had everything on. stereo pounding, fans on, lights on, heater (yes, even as hot as it was) on. the alt that was a year old was charging at 13.1, the new one, 13.8 with all that crap running......however when i was dataloging it, it would drop as low as 12.9.
probing the alt to battery, 13.8, battery, 13.8, power distribution box fuse on both sides, 13.8, datalog, 13.
all isnt lost just yet. fast forward a few hours later i was talking to don on the phone because we are going to do the big 3 on his truck, and the second alt in the background is his. he had said something like "what about the wire from the battery to the body?"
me......?
looks like at one point i had that, but took it off. this might (i hope) the reason why my datalogs and volts dont match up. i put a wire on it, but it was too late to start it and go for a ride so that will have to wait until tomorrow.

 

[Dono]

Fingers crossed.

The pcm gets its ground from the body. Maybe that ground right off the negative post straight to the body (Less than a foot of wire) I'm not completely hopeful, but might as well try.

A ground straight to the pcm maybe? From there we are in to trying to probe the power wire to the pcm.

The good news is that you are running all accessories and your voltage isn't dipping any further.

 

[CDW6212R]

Do you mean the short ground going to the radiator support?

Below is my 99, the first pic shows it untouched where it had been cut after the roll over(emergency people do that). The next pic shows the original ground wire, going now to the radiator support bolt. I made a new big ground cable, and used the old one to connect to the frame(to feed an air compressor at the back).

 

[vroomzoomboom]

made a short wire going from the battery to the rad support. cant really say it did anything. i also got majorly sidetracked with other things. like.....me overheating it bad again! took it for a ride on friday to datalog it when all of the sudden with no warning it started running like hell, then died at a light. not wanting to run, i was able to limp it home to discover the intake pipe infront of the throttle body fell off and was just laying there. no problem, put it back on started my log again when i made it a block from home and saw the temp in the 250F range. ran home and fans wernt running, but the controller was on. one wire going to the fans broke off at the connector. because everything is so tight to the motor, i ended up pulling the rad off to put a new connector on. also thanks to my hookie wiring sometimes my wideband would shut off, or my oil pressure gauge would stop reading, this time my water meth kit would come on, so i had a buddy of mine take the scotch locks (i know, I KNOW) out and do it properly for me this weekend as well. but finally i had my buddy joe start probing everything, grounds, and power going everyplace under the hood including the pcm. we couldnt find any wires with high resistance, but he is also thinking that they might also be getting heat soaked. by the time he was finished checking the truck cooled down. he wants me to pull the hood and see if anything changes (that and he also want to catch me driving hoodless just to get a picture and hang it over my head on any social media page he can find, you'll have to know our friendship lol) i am also going to start plain b and c hopefully soon as well. its 2 things that i have wanted to do the truck for a while, but didnt have a reason to, until the head issue. now i have a reason. i big reason at that.

 

[Dono]

You were busy this weekend. That blows.

Yea, those crimp locks are terrible. Pretty tough to beat solder and heat shrink tubing. You know that already.

Soooo........Whats plan b and c? Plan b....drink beer, plan c...repeat?

 

[vroomzoomboom]

Plan b is make a cowl hood. Kris Guilbeaux has a explorer express cowl hood that was kind enough to send me some pictures on what it looks like. They where very useful. So I now have a idea on what they look like, but I will be doing a few things different to it when I make it. Plan c is I also asked Andy to send me pictures on how he did his intake pipe. Believe it or not, that will be harder to make then the hood lol. There might be also a plan d if it really comes to it as well. I just hope I don't start running out of letters in the alphabet that's all

 

[Dono]

I'd love to see that air filter out of the engine bay, or at least boxed with an inlet from out of the engine bay. I hear you that its not an easy thing to do.

Maybe the fan connector was intermittent enough that it has been causing issues for a while. I still want to see what you come up with for a vented hood though. lol.
The cooler you can keep your supercharger and intake air the better.

 

[vroomzoomboom]

Yea, Joe suggested cutting a hole through the fender and fender apron and sticking a air filter out the side....,.smartass....lol

 

[vroomzoomboom]

plan b is now in effect

went in for cruise night on sunday. it was cooler then it has been here for a few weeks. it was still running hot in traffic, but once on the highway, it would cool down. changed the thermostat, that didnt help. i forgot that i didnt have the air dam under the rad on, put that back on, still runs hot (in the 190-200 range). i am going to toss the mechanical fan back on, and pull the electric fans out to also see if anything changes. if not, i am also tempted to put a new water pump on, but even still the underhood temps in this thing is pretty crazy, so i dragged a old hood i had laying around that i was going to use on dono's old black truck until he went a different direction on it. here are a few pics of where i am at now. its not even close to being finished, so i wont have any post on this for a while. that and everything is tacked which means i still have to warp the crap out of it....errr weld it together.

 

[CDW6212R]

plan b is now in effect

View attachment 91967

View attachment 91968

View attachment 91969

View attachment 91970
....

Cool!

With that hood, you will have plenty of room to fit a decent intercooler under the blower. Is that part of the idea too?

BTW, could you fit this kind of piece in a hood? This is a 73-76 Gran Torino hood with a 72 Sport hood center section welded in. If you saw the movie Gran Torino, that's the hood scoop those 72's had. It's a pot metal piece that bolts in, I have one on my Ranchero.

 

[MONMIX]

Nice hood.

 

[vroomzoomboom]

Cool!

With that hood, you will have plenty of room to fit a decent intercooler under the blower. Is that part of the idea too?

BTW, could you fit this kind of piece in a hood? This is a 73-76 Gran Torino hood with a 72 Sport hood center section welded in. If you saw the movie Gran Torino, that's the hood scoop those 72's had. It's a pot metal piece that bolts in, I have one on my Ranchero.

View attachment 91975

if i put a m122 on, i will make a intercooler into the intake before i put it on the truck. if i cant find one, i will build a new intake, and ditch the mount that i have now. as for that other scoop, thats not really the look i am going for.

Nice hood.

thanks kevin, i figured you would like that for sure.

 

[Dono]

I'm looking forward to seeing the hood in person. I like the final lines, and the roll of the front.

 

[vroomzoomboom]

I saved the patterns incase someone I know wanted one made as well

 

[CDW6212R]

If you do change the blower and use an IC, find a better intake. The GT40 is the smallest intake not counting the puny older OEM versions. Begin with either a TFS R lower, or the Systemax II lower, they have much larger runners and a bigger top flange opening. Those will help at the higher levels using the bigger blowers. I got one for $125 used on the Corral a long while back.

 

[vroomzoomboom]

i wont be using a fuel injected intake

 

[4pointslow]

What ????!!!!!?????

 

[CDW6212R]

i wont be using a fuel injected intake

Cool, did you get the idea from that guy in Australia or New Zealand, who built his blower onto a carbed intake? I forgot where I saw that, but I think I saved a picture of it. That guy was able to install the injectors closer to the heads, giving more space in the center area.

For a carbed intake, the Victor Jr is small, go with the Victor, which has bigger ports. There are a few similar to those two standards, but many are cheap copies with poor port matching etc.