347 RE-Power 1996 Limited AWD | Page 8 | Ford Explorer Forums - Serious Explorations

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347 RE-Power 1996 Limited AWD

As things are getting closer and closer thought I would update.

Started late last year, reading posts and asking questions. I decided to go ahead to drop in a built 347 into my 1996 explorer which has over 300,000km (almost 190,000 miles) on it. The truck still runs great BTW, and has been in the family since new and its been in my hands since last Oct.

First impulse was a cheap 1996 complete 1996 5.0L Explorer motor on fleabay. Shipped it to the engine builder to use as a donor.

It is a 347 built by Fordstrokers with a custom cam from Camshaft Innovations.

- Scat rotating assembly
- Mahle pistons
-Trick flow fast as cast 190cc heads
- comp gold rockers
- trick flow Track Heat intake.
- Torque Monster Headers built with the correct exhaust flange.

Other items of note
- 1" phenolic spacer
- 70mm accufab throttle body with modified throttle arm
- 30lb injectors
- 255lbs/hr fuel pump
- re-use the explorer intake elbow 70mm dia.
- black trick flow valve covers
- utilize some of my MAC intake

Supporting items
- 75mm Prom M MAF (Henson Performance)
- Wideband 02 sensor (Henson Performance)
- tuning (Henson)

Other to-do's
- exhaust will be re-done from the headers to cat back with mandrel bent tubing and new cats. Larger mandrel bent intake tubing to match larger diameter of MAF and TB.




This motor is being bolted to a Lentech 4R70W with 2600RPM 11.5" stall converter.

I'd like to thank many people for advice and tips but especially Don - CDW6212R for pointing me in the right direction with Fordstrokers and equally important was providing me with a custom made 28oz balancer with the explorer timing ring machined and pinned on there.

2010man for selling me his 1994 Mustang Cobra OEM crank pulley. This part is not made by ford anymore and has the same diameter of the explorer pulley but bolts to the custom 28oz balancer that Don sent me.

Also Turdle and tmsoko for answering some questions.

here it is at the engine builder


here it is at my shop, patiently waiting. mocked up driver's side header and intake.


Here is a used 70mm accufab throttle body next to a stock explorer 65mm TB. I modified the arm on the TB to match the location of the stock explorer linkage so both the throttle and cruise cables/linkages with match up.


I will post more updates as they come.:thumbsup:
 



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Ditto, sharp.
 



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Looks good. Love having retrofits on my X.
 






BW4406 swap parts

Like everyone else who has wanted more out of their explorer and went for a BW4406 swap. I'm going to join in the fun. Between my two vehicles I don't have anything with enough ground clearance to hit the back roads for camping and fishing trips. As the kids grow up i'm sure i'll be doing more of that type of activities. So rather than just lift my truck with bigger tires I wanted true 4x4.

I recently went to the local pick and pull yard to get a BW4406 as I wrote about in this thread. I ended up getting a transfer case for cheap. Due to the higher mileage on the donor truck i took the donor transfer case and got a tranny shop to go through it.

In addition to the BW4406 swap i'm doing the budget 5" lift with TT, Warrior Shackles, and 3" body lift. I plan on running 285/70R17 Goodyear duratracs. I plan on doing the body lift and transfer case swap at the same go because i'll have some of the interior ripped up to get to body mount bolts anyways and I want the extra clearance for the transfer case swap.

This is probably not too exciting to many guys out there as it has been done so many times already. But I will say that I am quite excited about this transformation. I will be taking the driveshafts to a driveline shop to get new u-joints all around and the conversion u-joint for the front shaft and also make sure they are balanced. I like to do things once, and do it right the first time if possible.;)

Here is the freshened up rebuilt 4406 i picked up today.
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Tranny shop also threw in a gasket for the tranny to transfer case surface.
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Here is all the parts. F150 front driveshaft on the far right. Expedition rear driveshaft beside it. The shifter linkage, boot, knob. Also got the pigtail for the 4x4 indicator lights.
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Hopefully I can get this all done in the next month or so, depending on my time and once my body lift, gap guards, shackles, and driveshafts get freshened up.
 






yup. do the body lift first. that way you wont have to pound your floor in, or as much. also you wont have to make the shifter twice either. i dont know if you saw it or not, but for the trans mount, i used a mustang poly bushing, but had to cut the cross member down a little. that way, you wont have to worry about changing them every year or so.
 


















I will run with it as is for now. Got enough work to get done. I will certainly keep an eye on it especially with my driving habits and 347 underfoot.

Did you modify the crossmember because the mustang poly mount is thicker or just to lower the drivetrian slightly?
 












Just a mini update.

Needed the transfer case shift lever grommet. Because I hacked up the original at the junkyard pulling the linkage arm off the transfer case gear selector arm. Tranny shop gave me one. When I proceeded to install the grommet it basically shattered. So I come to find its a tricky little part to find. Called ford finally and ordered one up. Go in Saturday to pick it up and it's the wrong thing. So I have another one coming on Tuesday which I'm hoping its the right one. $30 though. Ouch

Dropped the driveshafts off on Friday to get new joints and balanced as I want to minimize or eliminate vibration issues I keep reading about people having. Come to find out the front F150 junkyard shaft I got from the donor truck needs a new spline as the existing one was froze up. Instead of using a conversion U joint they are putting a 1310 yoke on the front so it will be a standard part if i need to replace down the road. Those should be ready Monday.

On Friday night I put the truck up on jack stands and thoroughly soaked every fastener in sight wih 2 cans of penetrating lube with special attention paid to the ones ill be removing for the bodylift install and transfer case swap. I also dropped the transfer case skid plate in preparation.

In addition to that I cleaned junk in the garage cause I hate starting a project in a mess. I cleaned up all the shift linkage because it was pretty caked and shifter boot looks almost new now.

I have also printed mountaineergreens AWD to BW4406 swap How-To in color as a reference.

Next week ill try and get an update on the whereabouts of the body lift, gap guards and shackles I purchased from a local 4x4 shop. Also the Goodyear Duratracs im looking at are on sale until Oct 13th so ill inquire about those too. $100 off helps.

Really excited about getting this done. :banghead:
 






More parts

got the rebuilt and balanced shafts. The front has a new yoke on the end to make it a standard 1310 u-joint instead of the conversion.

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bodylift and shackles
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I'm gunning for doing the bodylift and transfer case swap this weekend as its thanksgiving and its a long weekend up here. I have family in town so i'm not sure if it will help or hurt the cause. We'll see..... This is my daily driver, so I need to get it done quickly.
 






body lift started

Got some good progress started on the body lift, my brother helped out for a few hours. Pre soaking all the bolts a few days ago really helped. My Ex has plenty of corrosion underneath after 16+ years of road salt. Didn't have to use heat for breaking loose any body mount bolts. Only one was a problem as the mount would turn as the bolt was turned. To which I notched the metal body mount washer and jammed a screwdriver in the notch and against the side step mount to keep it from spinning. Then the bolt came out no problem.

bumper and interior pieces
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work area
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seats and console
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interior removed
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Steering shaft separated
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B pillar bolt
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rear seat body mount bolt
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passenger bolts removed:thumbsup: drivers are all loose already. blocks go first on passenger side. then removed the drivers side bolts and put blocks there 2nd
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As you can see I have an issue here. Roll Pan and frame will need to be clearanced. Will be hard to get a cutting tool on the frame. Also there is a frame crossmember there so i'm not just dealing with the end of the frame. The frame was clearanced before to make the roll pan work. May need to slice up the steel roll pan........:mad: That is the next step, then the blocks go in after that.
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Will be picking away at this over the weekend, only get to work on it at night.
 






I like your garage! Make me want to get to working on mine ASAP:D

Looks like you are making progress and I'm looking forward to the end result. Goodluck!!!
 






I like your garage! Make me want to get to working on mine ASAP:D

Looks like you are making progress and I'm looking forward to the end result. Goodluck!!!

Thanks and thanks. The garage was last years project.
 






Excellent, and I'm glad the bolts let go for you.
 






Excellent, and I'm glad the bolts let go for you.

Don, I spoke too soon. the front body mounts i had only removed the nut from the top. The bolt has to be removed from the metal sleeve from below and the sleeve then has to be drilled out with a 1/2" bit. Passenger side came with lots of effort. The drivers side snapped off. I then tried to drill out the bolt inside the sleeve and broke a drill bit inside. :eek:

So i'm going to see if I can locate a new metal body mount sleeve on Saturday. I also need a few more bolts in the 160mm range as the kit is made for a Ranger and not an explorer. I also need to get brackets made up for the front bumper as the Ranger kit is not going to help. I know there is a drawing of how those brackets should look on this site somewhere.

The roll pan and rear frame was solved with a sawzall and minor trimming to the underside of the roll pan lip. So that worked out best case scenario really.

Here she is 3" taller now.

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Tomorrow is busy with my son's 4th birthday and family is around too. Just not busy with the truck.
 






Got a little more done tonight. I needed some shorter bolts but everything was closed when looking for M12 x 1.75 metric bolts in the 150-160mm length so I took the bolts from the kit that were too long and ran some more threads on each bolt with a die and then cut to length.

The front body mount sleeve that had a bolt and drill bit snap off in it was cut up so I could use the top washer portion to be used temporarily while the new one I ordered from ford comes in. Will be easy to swap out later.

I got another problem now with the steering shaft extension interfering with the torque monster header...... I will have to "shave" the high spots of the steering shaft extension at a bare minimum and possibly clearance the header in adition to that.

What's the best way to clearance a header tube if I need to go down that road?

Maybe I just need to sleep on it and look at it with fresh eyes tomorrow (errr later today as its 3am). If anyone has some good ideas let me know.
 






Bodylift is done. Torque monster headers needed lots of "clearancing" to make room for the steering shaft extension. The kit bolt for the extension was shaved, shortened, and the nylock nut was shaved also.

Next move tomorrow is to shampoo the carpet while the seats and console are out. Install the gap guards. Do the torsion twist and shackles. May do some underbody painting to cover up visible underbody rust.

Then I'm on to the transfer case swap. I'll also have tires and alignment done this week. Stay tuned for pictures.

I will say that the PA 853 ranger body lift required many modifications to make work on my 1996 explorer. I say this because I can compare to the one I installed on my old 2001 ranger. Not complaining but just an observation.

Note for others. You will need 6 M12 x 1.75 bolts that are 150 mm long. Or do what I did and cut the bolts down and run longer threads on the bolts with a die. You will need to make or get a shop to fab up different front bumper brackets. You will have to trim plastic tabs on the drivers side radiator (V8 related issue, or at least on my truck). I also had to modify the lower radiator kit brackets. The parking brake bracket also required modification (easy). Lastly and the biggest one was the above mentioned modifications on my set up with the torque monster header interfering with the steering shaft extension. Nothing a BFH and 1hr of beating can't solve..... It also really helps to remove the drivers front tire and inner wheel well liner to do this.
 






. Lastly and the biggest one was the above mentioned modifications on my set up with the torque monster header interfering with the steering shaft extension. Nothing a BFH and 1hr of beating can't solve..... It also really helps to remove the drivers front tire and inner wheel well liner to do this.

i would recheck your bolts as well. never know if you may have rattled some of them loose.
 






i would recheck your bolts as well. never know if you may have rattled some of them loose.

I did recheck, thanks for reminding me.

Got the bodylift, torsion twist and rear shackles done. About 4.5" of lift total:thumbsup: Went for a test drive to get some pizza. Just need to put on the gap gaurds and mount the front bumper after I get the brackets made. Going to get new tires and alignment set up ASAP. Then on to the 4406 swap.

frontview.jpg

frontview2.jpg

bodyliftandshackles2.jpg


I will say it does look funny on my ass end with a roll pan and those warrior shackles. Will look better with the bigger tires.
bodyliftandshackles.jpg
 



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Tires are going on Friday. In the meantime, I have cleaned, and painted my wheelwells and surrounding frame areas with a fresh coat of black paint. I put the performance accessories gap gaurds on the rear only because I wanted to leave the fronts off so when they do a wheel alignment they have great access to the upper control arm bolts. Looks 100x better than the above pictures show. I also got bumper brackets made for the front bumper. I took the drawing off these forums, did a drawing at work and emailed the dxf file directly to a business real close to me that does laser and waterjet cutting. They look good, i'll just take the corners off with a bench grinder and paint them up before installing.

BodyLiftBumperBrackets2JPG.jpg
 






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