Performance mods

[JBRALEY]

hey, I am new to the Explorer world! I recently bought a 94 Ford Explorer Eddie Bauer 4X4. It has the V6 4.0L engine. I am just wondering if there are any relatively easy, and relatively cheap mods I can do to increase the performance of my Explorer. any help/suggestions would be great! Thanks!

 

[something9000]

simple stuff like an exhaust system or intake help and are cheap and easy

 

[Jason94sport]

What do you consider performance? There's not much available. And the stuff that is will not be much in performance. Wrong vehicle for that.

 

[something9000]

/\/\ true the 4.0 is limited ive never seen any "fast" gen 1 explorer

 

[Roadrunner777]

Assuming everything existing is ok (Cat's are ok, good fuel pressure, etc...), then the one easiest thing to at least check is to see if the throttle plate is actually opening fully with full gas pedal. There is history of the throttle cable stretching.

You can obviously re-gear the difs to trade acceleration for torque.

You can install larger MAF and throttle bodies. You will get some incremental improvement, but maybe not worth the money in parts.

Cat-back exhaust will get you something.

Electric fan may get you a few horsepower.

The problem is that pretty much all of this stuff is $100+ and you may not see more than a few horses for each one. Forget about performance chips, many have tried, none have suceeded. The ODB-IV engine system does not offer tuning options.

However, there are some non-power related mods that are pretty great. One is to replace the back dif with a later year. That's a cheap junkyard part and you will end up with rear disk brakes. If you are thinking about 4x4 performance, that's probably a good time to think about lockers.

If you have the auto transmission, make sure you have the external cooler option behind the grill. The auto trans likes to blow seals if it gets too hot.

I got mine last December. For what it is worth, I am focusing on reliability and basic maintenance. Make sure your plugs and wires are decent. I beg of you, do not ask what the best plug is, there are some great but very long threads on that subject. (Hint: the decal under the hood tells you the best plug).

I mainly just watch threads here, see what people are having trouble with, try and address those things before they turn into a big problem for me.

 

[Jason94sport]

Forget about performance chips, many have tried, none have succeeded.

I had a superchip when they were available for the 1 gens.(long discontinued now) It did increase my HP & TQ, but required 93 gas. Wasn't worth the price of it though.

 

[Mudboy]

As Roadrunner stated, a perfext running OHV is about as good as you get. With the newest first gen approaching 18 years old,it is bound that what you get will not be in perfect running condition. My 91 has relatively low miles for its age. (155k) and is still not perfect but is alot better than when I got it.

The throttle cable stretching is a cheap easy fix and will bring your throttle response back to factory spec, this provides a throttle response that you will feel. My cable was not strectched and there fore I left it alone. have someone press the throttle to the floor and check to see if the throttle plate is opening all the way, if it is not then search "throttle cable mod" on this site.
My ex now idles to the point of not being able to feel it run. To acheive this I cleaned my throttle body, MAF and IAC and also ran sea foam through the vaccuum line going to the power brake booster. Few thingI plan on doing are running sea foam through the throttle body so I can evenly clean all cylinders compared to running it through the brake vacuum line which only feeds the back cylinders. running sea foam or trans fluid in the oil.I have a tap that comes and goes every few seconds, I beleive this is a lifter starting to stick. I have yet to change the plugs and wires. the passenger side plug closest to the firewall is not the easiest to access so alot of people skip out on changing it, there's a chance I may have a 20 year old plug in there. When i'm at dead idle and mash the throttle, there is a hesitation I'm hoping to eliminate. The last thing i want to do, is re-torque the lower intake manifold bolts for they are known to lossen up, when they loosen the cause a vaccumm leak that can cause some funky problems and poor performance. i want to measure the resistance on my O2 sensor. proper readings provided to the ECM arre a key role for gas mileage and performance. I also want to reading teh voltage at my TPS, once again this is a key signal to proper performance.
Also as mentioned above, proper fuel pressure is a key roll. Alot of people believe that if you press the schrader valve in and fuel squirts out that you have good fuel pressure, that is not always correct.
ther than a good running motoryou have to have a pretty deep wallet to get these motors to a rubber smoking screamer status. If you have the money and ability to make it happen, more power to ya. Another option is an engine swap. keep in mind that these motors were built to last not scream ddown teh 1/4 mile or win the baja 500. It is not as accepting to the regular mods as alot of other motors are.

 

[JBRALEY]

Thanks

Thanks for all of the advice guys. I did install a Flowmaster 40 series muffler.I understand that this is not by any means a performance engine, or vehicle, but I would like to get as much out of what I have as possible, within reason. I am going to check on the throttle plate today hopefully. Also, I was thinking about a KKM air intake, but I have heard alot of people saying that it would be better to just drill holes in the bottom of the air filter housing. not sure exactly how this works, but there are directions for this somewhere on one of the forums. is this true, or is this a terrible idea? Also, I know that one of you said to forget about performance chips, but there are several out there, and many people say that they work very well for the first generation explorers. is this still a bad idea?
Thanks again.

 

[FIND]

Drop a 5.0 in, spend less money than you would making your 4.0 into a decent engine.

 

[Jason94sport]

True, if my engine blows, a 5.0 with a M5r2 5 speed is going in.

 

[jd4242]

/\/\ true the 4.0 is limited ive never seen any "fast" gen 1 explorer

only limited by funds and anytime your in VA ill take you for a ride

 

[jd4242]

Thanks for all of the advice guys. I did install a Flowmaster 40 series muffler.I understand that this is not by any means a performance engine, or vehicle, but I would like to get as much out of what I have as possible, within reason. I am going to check on the throttle plate today hopefully. Also, I was thinking about a KKM air intake, but I have heard alot of people saying that it would be better to just drill holes in the bottom of the air filter housing. not sure exactly how this works, but there are directions for this somewhere on one of the forums. is this true, or is this a terrible idea? Also, I know that one of you said to forget about performance chips, but there are several out there, and many people say that they work very well for the first generation explorers. is this still a bad idea?
Thanks again.

chips:thumbdwn::thumbdwn:

 

[arco777]

I have found the 4.0 to be plenty of power with a couple cheap/free mods.

The stock muffler is fine in my opinion. I installed a Magnaflow and actually lost power. Granted it was a straight through, so a Flowmaster may work better. Since that I've gone back to a stock muffler. Removing the tailpipe did help though.

Modifying the throttle body with Spdrcer34's mod gained top end power slightly.

Look up the "50 horsepower for 5 cents" mod to tighten up your throttle cable. It is a huge improvement.

I built a higher flow air intake with Spectre parts from O'Reilly's for about $80. This did improve my power and makes a nice intake noise. It goes all the way to the throttle body. Really though you can get the same performance by replacing the airbox with just a cone air filter. A long Spectre filter is around $30 and adapts to the MAF easily. If you can't afford that, chopping up the airbox does work but is not ideal. K&N drop in panel style air filters won't do much so don't bother.

Adjusting your TPS can help. Do a search on adjusting/calibrating it. Not hard at all and is free. May gain a little throttle response and MPG depending how far yours is off.

Besides that, just keep your motor in good shape and well maintained with no CEL codes thrown. You can do a compression test to find out if weak cylinders are holding you back too.

With only these modifications (and 3.27 gears!) my automatic-equipped 4.0 makes enough power to put a grin on my face every day and spin the tires occasionally. A well maintained engine with the above mods should make enough power for anyone, though if you want more torque or have large tires a different set of diff gears may be required.

 

[SwaintaN]

. I installed a Magnaflow and actually lost power. Granted it was a straight through, so a Flowmaster may work better..

Same here, it was crap to believe that Mag Muffler w/ a Straight thru would do that but it did.. i now sit w/ a FM Delta 40 Pro

One thing people didnt mention is AC elimination. Ive seen better performane and Gas once I eliminated EVERYTHING to do w/ ac and it makes under hood look so much better and easier to get to ALL your plugs...

 

[Currency]

Port and polish?

 

[Mudboy]

I have found the 4.0 to be plenty of power with a couple cheap/free mods.
.

You mentioned in your post about spinning the tires once in a while. The problem is even with your mods it's still lacking if thats all you got. Look at a Jeep Cherokee with the 4.0 straight 6. They pretty much all came with 3.55s and if you mash the gas your tires smoke (stock trim, stock tires) a 5 spd you'll burn second and chirp third. In order to do all of this in an explorer you need some hefty mods. Also not to mention, the AW4 auto trans used in cherokees robs about 30% of teh HP going to the rear wheels.. This is an example of why people say the 4.0 Ford motor is lacking in the hp department.

 

[jd4242]

You mentioned in your post about spinning the tires once in a while. The problem is even with your mods it's still lacking if thats all you got. Look at a Jeep Cherokee with the 4.0 straight 6. They pretty much all came with 3.55s and if you mash the gas your tires smoke (stock trim, stock tires) a 5 spd you'll burn second and chirp third. In order to do all of this in an explorer you need some hefty mods. Also not to mention, the AW4 auto trans used in cherokees robs about 30% of the HP going to the rear wheels.. This is an example of why people say the 4.0 Ford motor is lacking in the hp department.

How much hp does a hp have?how much does a heep weight?what size tires are stock for a heep?you want to compare apples to apples then you should be comparing a heep to a ranger 4.0 and i guarantee i can melt the tire off a ranger with an auto or 5speed Hell i can melt them off in a x too

 

[Mudboy]

1991 jeep cherokee had 190 Horsepower and 235 ft-lbs while the 91 explorer had 155 hpp and 220 ft-lbs. One thing I didn't notice was the weight difference. 4 door cherokee 2892, 4 door explorer 4012. SDo yeah the cherokee was over 1000 lbs lighter and had 35 more horsepower right from the get go., Cherokee came stock with 235 75 15s

 

[Jason94sport]

and i guarantee i can melt the tire off a ranger with an auto or 5speed Hell i can melt them off in a x too

I had 3 1st gens & never was able to do that. With simple mods or without. I could only screech tires accelerating around a corner, or a brief chirp from a stop. 2 were 5 speeds.
Maybe I had good sticky tires. 3.27 gears were in all of them.

 

[interscope8]

Are we seriously gunna turn this into a Jeep vs Ford thread on an Explorer Website?

If u wanna play this whole game a 2001 Cherokee has 195 hp with its 4.0L i6, my 01 ST has 210 and its not a Chrysler.