Jakee's 4.0 SOHC Build up discussion and motivation thread | Page 75 | Ford Explorer Forums - Serious Explorations

  • Register Today It's free!

Jakee's 4.0 SOHC Build up discussion and motivation thread

After Camber adjusters, Body bushings, rear sway bar, and brakes are complete, I'll be posting baseline dyno numbers. First things first. Must be safe!


EDIT (11-6-2007)

Let me save you some time by posting the summary to this thread. The thread is filled with a bunch of off topic ramblings. Read on if you want but be warned.

Summary to this thread....

I'm going to attempt to close this thread because the N/A goal is coming to an end. I really lost interest in the N/A goal a few months back, and It just doesn't make sense (from a $/HP perspective) to buy anymore bolt-ons when the force feed options are available for us 4.0 SOHC guys. I would rather save the money to buy a turbo than to keep spending big bucks for little gains. And so, this is what I did, and these are my opinions on how the mod worked out.

The first thing was the intake. I can remember going around in circles trying to figure out which one to buy. The Volant? no, the K&N....wait a minute, the MAC is cheaper? Anyways, I finally decided on the MAC intake because of the cost. All and all, an intake is an intake. You're not going to see a big huge difference between any of them, but I still feel the best out there is the Volant. I believe in a "Closed" intake. In other words; I don't like the idea of sucking hot engine air thru an open filter under the hood. That's just me and the difference between a "Closed" intake and an "Open" is very small. I did, however, see a gain from customizing the MAC intake by closing in the air filter with a trash can....Yes, you heard me right, a freaking trash can that I cut to fit in the engine bay. It worked good and people usually don't notice what it is. They just think it looks cool. Anyways, I also replaced the MAC filter with a Volant filter; cut a 3-1/2" hole thru the fender and placed a Volant filter thru it. No water can get to it, well....not from this area....I then added spectra hoses from the front of the vehicle where the fog lights were for a "Ram air" attempt. I had a couple of aluminum parts machined for a clean install. That was it for the intake.

Next, I believe I ordered the 73MM C&L from hensonperfromance. This housing uses the same electronics but is just a bit bigger than the stock plastic MAF housing. The gain was small, but was worth it. I believe I've found dyno's of a 7 RWHP gain? Not sure, but there is a gain there.

The TB was the next thing. I purchased a 4.6 TB from KBX performance because I heard a guy named James had discovered it to work with the 4.0 SOHC. I later fooled around and half shafted it. Basically, what that does is removes half the rod that the butterfly is attached too. Do a search on "half shafting a TB" or something like that to get more details. I believe this mod really doesn't give big HP; more throttle response than anything but it's worth it.

When I had the TB off, I noticed this big tube right in the way of the airflow. The tube is the EGR valve and the reason it's sticking in there is to evenly vent exhaust gases back in the intake. Do not remove the EGR valve; it actually helps you. What I did was remove the part that's in the way of the air-flow. I have no idea if this helped me, but It felt like it did. The only ill effect I can think of is maybe one side of the engine is getting more EGR flow; however, I haven't seen traces of this on the spark plugs so I believe it's good.

Now for the exhaust....yeah, it's hard to get a 4.0 SOHC to sound good. In fact, I think mine still sounds pretty bad. I started off with the Gibson Cat back and if your looking for a "Slightly louder than stock" exhaust, then this is the one for you. The gain was good and I liked the sound but I wasn't satisfied. I felt there might be just a little more power I could unleash so I tried a higher flow muffler; a magna-flow. I started off by having a custom Y-pipe made. It has 2-1/4" primaries that y's into a 3" single exhaust. The pipes run back a little ways and goes into a 3" magnaflow cat, then into a 2-1/2" magnaflow muffler, and dumps right before the rear axle. The flow is there but the sound.....I hate it.

I also added JBA stainless headers. I have to say that headers are very expensive for the 4.0 SOHC but there is gain, trust me. If your looking for EVERYTHING you can from the engine, add headers to it later on down the road.

Next is under-drive pulleys....This is one of the better mods in my opinion. The under-drive crank pulley works by slowing down the serpentine belt, which in return, slows down all the accessories running off the belt. The result is more power to your back tires. The only problem I had was it slows the alternator down too much. The fix is an overdrive alt pulley and I added one to speed the alt back up. Problem solved. I'm also running a underdrive water pump pulley with no problems what so ever.

Another good mod is a electric fan. I went with the flex-a-lite 180 and haven't had a problem yet. Very good quality pc.

The best mod, in my opinion, is a tuner. I went with a SCT XCAL II that I picked up from hensonperformance. I think this changed my truck the most and I'm very pleased.

I believe this about sums it up. Every pc of info I just typed here is on the net, and most is right here in this forum, but I wanted to compile some of it for reference purposes....

I made a goal at the begining of this thread, but I'm really not interested anymore. It doesn't make a hill of beans to have high dyno numbers, but it is nice. The only dyno I had sucked; I made 189 to the rear wheels. I'm thinking I'm a bit higher than that but I'm not worried about it.


Next project......TURBO!! and I'll probably do a baseline for this. If so, I'll add the baseline dyno here so there will be N/A results.
 



Join the Elite Explorers for $20 each year.
Elite Explorer members see no advertisements, no banner ads, no double underlined links,.
Add an avatar, upload photo attachments, and more!
.








Join the Elite Explorers for $20 each year.
Elite Explorer members see no advertisements, no banner ads, no double underlined links,.
Add an avatar, upload photo attachments, and more!
.





it's all good. i just didn't want any of my crappy @$$ karma to infect anyone else after you said it and i thought about it. i just wish it had ended there, it's been a crappy freakin week.
 






I'm trying to get this thing ready to tune. While installing the wideband, I found my freaken rear O2 is stuck in the bung. I'm not sure what made this happen? Maybe the exhaust wrap warped the thing but it's stuck...Any suggestions on how to get this thing out. I really don't feel like taking the y back off.
 






I'm trying to get this thing ready to tune. While installing the wideband, I found my freaken rear O2 is stuck in the bung. I'm not sure what made this happen? Maybe the exhaust wrap warped the thing but it's stuck...Any suggestions on how to get this thing out. I really don't feel like taking the y back off.




Stuck as in cannot unscrew? If so then just put some more ass into it. Breaking an O2 loose that has never been changed can sometimes be a PITA. I know when I went to break the O2 loose in my LS the first time I put the wideband on it I ended up putting a cheater wrench on it to get enough leverage to get it loose.
 






No, I got it to turn but it's galding I think. I'm putting all my a$$ into it. I think I'll soak it with something and work it back and forth; Then I'll hook a chain to the sensor and the drive shaft and put it in gear..hehehe
 












Yes, just a penetrant and elbow grease. Let it soak for a while, and you can start by tightening it slightly, the normal torque. Good luck,
 






I'm lauging, but I've actually done that before. I tell you what gets me, those darn propane fittings.
 






Left hand threads should in some way be labeled as such.
 






Left hand threads should in some way be labeled as such.




Yeah, I know the propane fitting usually have a little slit in the point of the hex part of the nut.
 






JTSmith Saved me.

Thank you JT for the black gauge face. I like this look. The white gauge face sucked. I wouldn't reccomend anyone updating there stock gauge face with the NUimage version. Anyways, I'm killing time with these small mods, and making the truck look better.

View attachment 41895

View attachment 41896

View attachment 41897

View attachment 41898



The the future of the interior will have two tone leather seats (Black and grey) I plan to rip the carpet up and lay down some dynomat, then replace the carpet with new. I may take the back seat out and leave it out. This is not a daily driver, and I can lose the weight.
 






Got a steal on this carbon fiber gauge face off ebay

Not bad looking at this while driving. I think this blends in nicly with the other silver parts. The wide band is silver so it shouldn't stick out anymore.

View attachment 41914
 






:feedback:

Yes:thumbsup: Or :thumbdwn:

I know these are little bitty mods but it's all I can do right now. Give me some feedback please. Good or bad, I don't care; I don't want the truck to look ghetto so if you think it does, tell me.


By the way, the steering wheel will be black.
 












I'm trying to get this thing ready to tune. While installing the wideband, I found my freaken rear O2 is stuck in the bung. I'm not sure what made this happen? Maybe the exhaust wrap warped the thing but it's stuck...Any suggestions on how to get this thing out. I really don't feel like taking the y back off.

So what your saying is that your bung hole is frozen? LOL.For a guy that is good. The main reason for O2's getting stuck are the lack of anti seize on the threads before installation.-j
 












So what your saying is that your bung hole is frozen? LOL.For a guy that is good. The main reason for O2's getting stuck are the lack of anti seize on the threads before installation.-j

What is anti seize? hehehe

Guilty as charged. Let this be a lesson for everyone, use anti seize or you'll end up like me
 






Black and grey interior was very boring. I don't think I want to go back to just black and grey. I was trying to get another color in there where it looked okay. Maybe I should consider getting carbon fiber pcs for the window swith plate? The silver will still show and maybe that would tie it together better. The gauges are white and the only thing in the truck white, so I figured it stuck out anyways.

I appreciate the feed back, keep it coming.
 






Okay, I ditched the carbon fiber pc. After three days of driving, I was starting to get a headache from it sticking out. Plan b.
 



Join the Elite Explorers for $20 each year.
Elite Explorer members see no advertisements, no banner ads, no double underlined links,.
Add an avatar, upload photo attachments, and more!
.





Are you 2WD there? You mentioned CF touches on the interior. I have several parts done by PI, and my bezel is for my AWD. If I change to 4WD I will need a different bezel. Have you seen some others trucks with it, it looks good with either gray interior. Regards,
 






Back
Top