Contemplating 5.0L rebuild for mild performance boost

[Blown]

Wow, close, but a work in progress. Go man, excited to see it work!

 

[410Fortune]

Glad you got a clear direction and she ran w the stockers
Been following these discussions learning a lot about stuff I know very little about! Thanks to you dudes!!

 

[Mesozoic]

Haha yeah, this is a learning experience, for sure. I'm not that familiar with the behavior of an EEC-V controlled engine when it's got bad O2s, but given that I can't pull their voltages in real-time from the datalog and I'm not sure they're working in OBD-II either, would bad O2s (not switching) make it run terrible or what? I've got 4 new Denso units right here, just need to put her back on the lift and install them.

 

[Blown]

I missed setting the Cranking Fuel Pulsewidth on my initial start-up, rookie maneuver, but I did catch it. Well, after rich, smelly, stumbling starts.

New O2's is good! I am running only the first two after my exhaust changes. It is running fine with the rears turned off. I think the rear sensors are more for assessing the cats condition. The fronts are closer to combustion and at the distance you would place a wide band for tuning.

 

[Mesozoic]

A friend will confirm O2 death this evening and we will proceed with a full replacement of all sensors after that. I suppose I could turn the rears off as well and avoid any potential fouling of additional sensors as a precaution.

 

[Mesozoic]

It runs, pretty good. Needs some cold start and idle adjustments to deal with the cam and extra airflow, but I've already adjusted the trans tune so it locks up early at low throttle since it's got a fairly aggressive torque converter.

 

[Blown]

Awesome! Congratulations, it's always a bunch of work!

I put a Punisher E4OD in an F150. It was built to lock hard and shift hard. It took some set-up as the TC locking felt like another shift!

It sure looked good on paper, I look forward to hearing what you think of it after break-in and a few good pulls!

 

[Mesozoic]

It pulls pretty damn hard and that's without exceeding 4000 RPM and running stock injectors. I need to install the LU24A set of injectors I just received from Ford and will then be able to go WOT. It scoots pretty fast off the line and it's not very loud at all either, which is nice. Tuning the transmission has been challenging, for sure, but I'm getting there. I finally got it to at least shift into 4th gear and just working out the locking schedules now.

 

[Mesozoic]

It is also leaking furiously out of a brand new Flowkooler water pump now. While the impeller upgrade was excellent, the GMB unit they started with is garbage. Consider yourself warned.

 

[410Fortune]

That sucks
Waterpump repair already
Glad she’s running and making some passes!

 

[Blown]

Sounds great!
Shoot, always a pain when a new part don't work right!

 

[Mesozoic]

Yeah, that was a totally unnecessary pain in the arse. I always thought that GMB was a good brand until my friends who run a local service shop laughed at me about that selection. They ordered me a new Gates part and I just finished installing it. It’s certainly not the worst job, but Flowkooler is a total disappointment. I reached out to them to see what recourse they have to offer.

While I’ve got the truck in the shop again, I’m going to replace the injectors with the new set of Ford LU24A units and see if I can manage to double check all of the valve adjustments on the rocker arms.

 

[CDW6212R]

Sorry to hear that the new WP was bad. I have a new Flowkooler WP to use too. I have had a GMB model once before, for my 99 V6 truck. That finally worked fine, but the inlet casting was so bad, it squirted coolant out when new. I had to file the casting edge down, to be even enough for the hose to seal.

Quality is hard to get these days, there is too much junk on the market.

 

[Blown]

Go man!

Just a thought as you have only just completed a bunch of work! I think I pioneered running two stock tailpipes or likely was just was first to post it. Doesn't matter, the bends are right, they fit and work great! 410 is working or has completed a rig with two Ranger tailpipes. The stock Explorer tailpipes have resonators, the Ranger does not. The biggest issue was keeping cost down by getting free shipping. I noticed a gain, at higher rpm, over the dual input muffler vs single 3" tailpipe I was running. Well, I also added better mufflers and an X-pipe.

 

[Mesozoic]

Yeah, I was thinking of replacing the downpipes all the way back out with some new custom made plumbing for a different sound and more flow once I get this thing running correctly.

Let’s see some pics of the exhaust work you mention, it’ll probably be useful to others for future project design.

 

[Blown]

Yeah, I was thinking of replacing the downpipes all the way back out with some new custom made plumbing for a different sound and more flow once I get this thing running correctly.

Let’s see some pics of the exhaust work you mention, it’ll probably be useful to others for future project design.

I didn't want to pay for custom. The stock pieces are not as good as custom mandrel bent stuff, but it's a less expensive alternative. I think it will be good to 400HP which I also think is about the header maximum. I am not a fine finisher and more about function so it is pretty rough looking. Here is more detail: Will Be Blown Again!

Can't help but notice my flux welder, this is before I cleaned them up:

 

[Mesozoic]

Looks good! So those are dual 3" pipes all the way out? Independent mufflers as well?

 

[Mesozoic]

Ok, so tuning this thing is a bit of a nightmare. The induction and exhaust has been so significantly upgraded that the stock transient fuel tables absolutely do not suffice (runs totally lean on tip-in) and the engine load calculation by the EEC is completely off as well. I have a handle on the transient fueling as that's been well explored by EEC tuners, but the high engine load observed at idle and while cruising isn't something I've quite nailed down yet.

 

[Blown]

Yikes! I'd be after help. I can tune decently, but the only thing I could do with a high load calc. would be to compare that tune to the stock tune to make sure nothing got changed.

I seem to remember Mike G. having to fix something with my Tweecer tune strategy and a high load calc. It's been some time, so I am not sure. I'd send you my tune if it would help? I could also relay data that is input for specific load related items in my tune? Not sure what those are but???

 

[Mesozoic]

I've been reading a fair bit on the EECTuning forum and what I've discovered is that there's this Failed MAF Table which is used not only for MAF failure in operation, but also to compute load and transient fueling during normal operation. I've adjusted mine and will see how it calculates load after the adjustment. Due to the high load its currently seeing at idle and cruise, it's demanding the spark associated with high load, which in my case ends up being around 34-35 degrees of timing... so it's running safely, but rather inefficiently.

Also, I'm now using a Quarterhorse and Adam's READ0 definition since all of the modules in my truck (including PATS) have been paired with the READ0 ECM. While Adam's definition doesn't expose the PIDs, I've been able to reverse engineer it a bit to identify what table require adjustment based on my previous experience tuning CDAN4. So, Tweecer isn't currently an option at the moment. There's too many tables that need adjustment that are not currently exposed in Mike's definition.