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!

 

[4pointslow]

Me Too!

 

[vroomzoomboom]

sold the other ranger i had a couple of weeks back. then i picked up a 01 mustang convertible. just a v6 auto. i must be getting old. when i was younger i would laugh at people with a v6 or 4 cylinder mustang. this little pile is growing on me to the point i might have a hard time selling it.
the road of life got every bumpier this week with me losing a friend that i had known since i was 6 years old, or for 40 years. that was a had pill to swallow. been keeping to myself a lot in these last few weeks as well.
no cooler yet. then again i am not really bugging the guy either. he did call me a few days ago with some questions and said hes getting close to finishing it. not sure if i will have the blower on this summer now or not. time will tell i guess.
today evil went under the knife however

had a guy i know do something that i have wanted to do for a long time

if you havent guessed yet

i had him do the j mod to the trans for me.

havent driven it a bunch yet because on the test drive the cooling fans didnt want to kick on, and cause evil to almost go nuclear on me. found the connector to be melted a little bit so i will fix that and proceed to drive the crap out if it.

 

[Dono]

Sorry for your loss Tim. It's a hoof to the mid section.
Great to hear about the j-mod, although it doesn't really matter much right now anyway. Yeah, I get it.

I'm sure most of us do.

 

[4pointslow]

That V6 mustang just needs a little boost and nitrous, LOL.
How much did the JMod cost, parts and labour? Just curious, having read about it and read a lot of posts by Jerry when he used to be with SCT.

 

[ahodges]

You'll have to let me know how you like the J mod and if you went for the quickest shifts or not. I assume you got that idea from me?

 

[CDW6212R]

...
How much did the JMod cost, parts and labour? Just curious, having read about it and read a lot of posts by Jerry when he used to be with SCT.

The cost is nothing but the gaskets and the accumulator springs if you change them. It's mostly about drilling several holes in the VB larger, and those hole sizes vary by the preference and car model. I haven't done it yet myself, but did the research to make notes on possible hole sizes.

It's easy to drill hole bigger, but not so much if you go too big and want one smaller. I planned to go easy on a few of the holes, and see what the effect of the new accumulator springs are, before adjusting the holes a 2nd time.

My trans right now when hot is sometimes leaving from a stop in 2nd or 3rd gear, I'm not sure which. I have to let off the gas when that happens, to pause and let it try again. I think my issue will be a solenoid(1/2), but that's my guess, old 225k mile parts.

 

[vroomzoomboom]

the guy finished welding in the cooler today and dropped it off

 

[vroomzoomboom]

 

[vroomzoomboom]

the tricky thing is trying to lay all this crap in all at once, have it line up, and with the valley pan in place with goop all over it to seal it to the mount in one shot. i ordered a carb stud mount kit to see if it will work.

either i will cut these down, or see if there is shorter ones i can use but it looks like its going to work.

 

[4pointslow]

That looks awesome!
It's party time!

 

[ahodges]

It looks great Tim. It looks like your guy did a great job welding that all up. I'm really interested to see how much this helps your IAT's.

 

[Rick]

 

[Dono]

Have you had a chance to go any further with this? Is Evil under the knife yet?
If Evil is still driving around, how do you like the J-Mod?

 

[vroomzoomboom]

havent really done anything. gave the snout to a friend to machine the snout so the bottom bolt could be used. told him to take his time because there is no way its going on this summer. going to be very honest, after all the time and money (lots of money) spent, the desire is fading. talked to gord last week. going to see if i can shove it into his shop over winter and screw with it there. have no time. i have a sport trac here that is fighting me every step of the way. evil also has a new problem with the power steering lines leaking at the rack someplace.
j mod is good. doesnt really beat you to death when your under normal throttle, but lay into it, it slaps you around, and barks them going into second and jars you pretty good going into third.

 

[Dono]

We all know that even though you are doing amazing work on your own its still crazy expensive to do this stuff. It would be awesome if you were able to find a warm place to store and work on Evil over the winter. Time, money, desire, and energy. I get it completely. That's exactly where I'm at. I don't seem to have much of any of the previously mentioned four to work on my truck these days. I feel your pain. If you decide to yank Evil's rack I'd be happy to give you a hand, as I know it's no fun and maybe with two of us it will be just a little bit more tolerable.

 

[vroomzoomboom]

evil decided to add itself to the list of things that piss me off lately.

see all that yellow braiding inside the circle? that hose decided to split on me once again throwing antifreeze all over my nice clean engine bay tonight. i swore i replaced that same hose last summer to. now to try and find the part number for it.

 

[ahodges]

Motorcraft hoses too?

 

[vroomzoomboom]

Motorcraft hoses too?

i believe it was

 

[Turdle]

You might check the clamps for sharp edges. Are you using the factory spring clamps?

 

[gmanpaint]

Haven't heard from you in a while. Hope all is well, and balanced again.

I miss reading your updates here. Anything new lately?