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!

 

[vroomzoomboom]

well, that sport trac i mentioned previously is still the bane of my existence. took it to get the safety done earlier this week and it failed. for the first time ever since i have been buying and selling these trucks i told the shop my problem is now your problem so they are going to finish what it needs so i can put it up for sale and hopefully be out of my life. i bought another one as well (not sure if i mentioned that or not). a 2wd which i have never seen a 2wd trac up here ever. its up for sale. i have spent pretty much every weekend this summer either fixing, cleaning, or looking at trucks to buy fix and sell. now summer is gone.
as for evil, well......ive probably have drove it 4 times since my last post. new old problems with it. after fixing the hose the blew out, i can now smell coolant every so often, as well as looking at the reservoir it appears to be losing coolant because the level keeps going down but i cant find the leak. i think the water pump may be packing it in because the last few times i drove it, when i nail it, i can hear the belt screech when the motor first winds up. and now for the latest problem, every once and a while when driving at highway speed, the wheel beings to shake left and right. not sure if the pump (which is around 2 years old) or the rack (which is around 7 years old) is going. rack isnt leaking either, and i just replace the pressure hose on it 2 or 3 weeks ago.
the new supercharger set up hasnt been touched all summer either.
the one thing i will add however is my son is making me a proud papa more and more. he is now starting to live a dream of his he has had since he was 15 and that is being accepted into the canadain armed forces reserves and is in the royal winnipeg riffles division. he was sworn in on tuesday and last night went for his first parade night.....which ended in him getting a flat tire at 10 o clock.

 

[Dono]

Congratulations on Kyle Tim.

None of us here are very happy that you haven't dedicated your summer to the supercharger project though. We really want to see this happen, and don't want to hear about how Evil is being Evil.
We really, really don't want to hear that you are having issues with some of the vehicles you are flipping. That's very bad, and gets in the way of Evil from a time, energy, and financial perspective. One word. ****ty.

 

[gmanpaint]

Hey! There he is. Welcome back Jack.

X2 on the boy! That's awesome.

Sorry to hear about the bad egg (ST). It happens, just sucks when it does.

I hate mystery leaks!!
Wonder if the heater core or the shut off valve is blocked. Carpet wet at all? Check the engine oil for contamination yet? Any coolant puddles on the intake from when the hose blew? Any signs of a wet block from the intake gaskets leaking?

I agree with Dono, we want to see more track time and cruising vids/pics of you enjoying Evil. I know how it feels to wrench on it constantly, and all it wants to do, is be a Yard Ornament. Might get mine out once this year. (Why do we do this again?)

 

[410Fortune]

Those Canadian armed forces dudes do not mess around! Congrats!
Truck stuff happens after family stuff happens
2wd sport tracs are super easy to convert to 4wd sport tracs
Or you can of course sell them to me for a super cheap EF buddy price! Im just a bit south LOL
Summer went QUICKLY this year, I do not mind. Gotta make the most of each day

 

[vroomzoomboom]

quick monthly update.....nothing has changed! with the exception that both sport tracs i mentioned in my last post are gone.....however there is another one sitting in the driveway, and there will also be a.......dodge? yes, the ford guy bought a dakota from one of my childhood buddys last weekend (no i am not keeping it, its also a flipper). last week i had to spend pretty much all the cash i made from the trac's to put a roof on my house so the blower is now once again pushed to the back burner. as well as we had a dumping of snow here (snicker snicker, don lives 15 mins from me, and he got it worse then i did, snows gone at my house now) which made me put the winter tires on evil. driving that thing becomes a handful real fast with cold weather, and winter tires. blow on the gas peddle at low speed and your sideways. havent fixed any of the problems from last post either. maybe this weekend if i can juggle time. glad i posted about the coolant smell on my last post because i took it for a ride for the first time in a few weeks and forgot about that. i a buddy that is a machinist and gave him the snout this summer to try and rework it so i have all the bolt holes for it to go to the supercharger case. he is going to be working on it this coming week, but isnt sure how pretty its going to be. time will tell and once again, im not in a big rush for it either. so yea, that i have for now.

 

[Dono]

At least the project isnt dead! Any movement is good movement. The snow was crazy.

 

[vroomzoomboom]

monthly report of nothing happening...
the last truck i had for sale just sold yesterday freeing my driveway up. my buddy wont be able to machine the snout, so eff it, it will get bolted on the way it sits. i found out we are getting shut down for 2 weeks at christmas, so being single around the hollidays sucks and i will try to talk one of my friends that has a heated garage to let me bring evil in and i will see if i can get the blower mounted and running for the time being. if i cant get the innercool working it can wait till later. i have the flanges for the elbow being cut now and should be ready next week. i am going to use the throttle body that i have now and make my own adapter for it. i found a place called spin tech that might be able to make or get a pipe that goes from round to oval.

 

[Dono]

Good news- you have spare time. Bad news- you have spare time.
Who knows, maybe the bad news is good news also. No shortage of crazy out there.

Some piece and quiet working on a vehicle can be a great thing.

 

[vroomzoomboom]

and sometimes it leads to throwing wrenches, swearing and hard core drinking as well.
****'s getting old i tell ya

 

[Dono]

I hear ya.
I'm going to have to pull my motor again. I'm going to just live with the stink of oil hitting the exhaust pipe thru the winter. As long as I'm moving, I don't get the oil smell. Talking about getting old, its going to be a long winter.

 

[410Fortune]

I had a leaky rear main seal on the BII for a while, would drip right onto the hot cat heat shield
So I built a simple guard that hung from the trans inspection cover bolts, it deflected the oil over and away from the exhaust
I loved that little tin metal guard! I have used that technique a few more times to help customers w leaky rear mains

 

[Rick]

So I built a simple guard that hung from the trans inspection cover bolts, it deflected the oil over and away from the exhaust
I loved that little tin metal guard! I have used that technique a few more times to help customers w leaky rear mains

As they say necessity is the mother of invention.

 

[4pointslow]

Two out of 4 of my vehicles are leaking oil. I should build some shields for them.
If we let the oil leak on the frame and body panels maybe it will slow the rust down. lol
Tim, I hope you get to work on your new setup when you have time off.
Being single has become a way of life for me now, it is so peaceful.

 

[vroomzoomboom]

im also running into a road block with one thing. i have been trying to figure out where to put a pcv in there. pretty much all fuel injected sbf lower intakes have a opening at the back. this "valley pan" started life as a edelbrock air gap intake for a carb. i am also using trickflow valve covers like these

i could put a valve in it anywhere however there are no baffles and will suck any oil flying around in them. i had tried using air breathers once, and they also leaked oil everywhere, so that would be out.
i also cant put one in the mount either because it is sealed and everything goes threw the innercooler.

anyone have any ideas???

 

[410Fortune]

Whats the hole in the back of the new lower intake riser going to be used for? Wrapped in blue tape.
Otherwise your gonna have to put it in one of the valve covers??

Wicked cool looking setup thus far!! Frankenmonsterv8

 

[Turdle]

Yeah, baffle the covers and run PCV to both to split the suction. Thinking half vacuum to each cover would suck less oil maybe?

 

[vroomzoomboom]

Whats the hole in the back of the new lower intake riser going to be used for? Wrapped in blue tape.
Otherwise your gonna have to put it in one of the valve covers??

Wicked cool looking setup thus far!! Frankenmonsterv8

that is going to be either the inlet or outlet for the innercooler

Yeah, baffle the covers and run PCV to both to split the suction. Thinking half vacuum to each cover would suck less oil maybe?

i dont think there is room to put a baffle in them. i have crane roller rockers and i believe it would hit the polly lock.
the valve covers that are on there are ones i found at work that someone scrapped. why, i have no idea. i just used them to see how close everything might be just incase as well

 

[Turdle]

Maybe if you stay on the side of the valve cover toward the intake valley and put the PCV in between cylinders to minimize oil spray? The ceiling of the covers get a direct spray of oil, but what about the wall?

I've even seen PCV vents tapped into the block, which would be ideal if you could find the right spot.

 

[4pointslow]

This thread has multiple ideas. Have a look.
Explorer 5.0 EFI w/roller rockers what valve covers? - Page 2 - ClassicBroncos.com Forums

Fresh air needs to come in one side valve cover and go down into the crankcase and up the other valve cover through a PCV valve then into your supercharger inlet.
The oil fill cap tube in the picture of your valve covers is where the air goes in, so the other valve cover is where the PCV valve needs to be.
I like the one in post 21.

 

[CDW6212R]

Is there room for a taller valve cover? How about a little more height so there is more room for a baffle under a PCV hole?

The PCV works best in the intake valley because there is a less oil spraying around, just a mist that is easier to catch with the metal mesh under the PCV.

I also have VC's made for a carb or not the typical EFI holes. I haven't tried to figure out where to make holes or whatever in them.