2000 AWD Xploder from Turbo back to NA

After getting an estimate on how much it would run me to fix up my Xploder with all new exhaust, cold side piping, and a bunch of other stuff done up the "right" way... I've decided to convert my Xploder back to NA form so that I can actually ENJOY the truck before I die of old age.

Anyways... To start it off I ordered up a MAC cold air intake (I do not have the stock intake) and sold my FMS headers on ebay.

I plan on buying a set of torque monster headers in the next week or so but am still up in the air on how I should run my exhaust from a performance "speed" perspective. I do not plan on doing much, if any, off road driving, so am looking for a setup that improves take off and speed for spirited pavement driving that sounds good.

I already have the spare tire removed (and will be keeping it off, I have free towing anyways lol)... What would an optimal setup be with the above in mind and no worry of a spare tire being in the way? True duals (straight pipe off of each header, thru separate mufflers, and out the sides), or a dual exhaust both going into a 2 in 2 out "H" pipe style muffler and then out the sides? Or something else? In all cases I won't be running any cats.

I also plan to re-tune my car since currently it is tuned for the turbo setup which obviously will no longer apply once I rip everything out.

Thank you for any input!

 

[willzilla]

This is all great info for the rest of us. How does it feel to be the guinea pig?

Haha.. Fun stuff! Lol. Got my bolts in today. Haven't lined them up yet to the ones I took out to verify they are indeed the correct dimensions but I think they are. Got my gaskets in as well. Need to paint my intake manifold bolt cover plate still too :-D

 

[willzilla]

Well... FML.. My dream of the dual e-waterpump and e-fan setup WITH the Lincoln Mark VIII fan has been SHATTERED The e-waterpump is actually a tiny bit THICKER than the damn OEM waterpump and I just cannot quite shimmy the two in together So.. Now I need a BAD ASS (yet not bank crushing) e-fan that can flow some serious air... Suggestions??

 

[willzilla]

Looks like I will probably switch up to a Contour dual fan.

 

[Dono]

I think angled correctly, the contour fan will fit. You can go with a dual fan controller. That might be a good thing for amperage draw control.

 

[willzilla]

I think angled correctly, the contour fan will fit. You can go with a dual fan controller. That might be a good thing for amperage draw control.

Hopefully it fits! The dual motors being offset and split out should allow tons of extra room for the waterpump.

I already have a fan controller and it's not a 2spd... It's a DCC FK85, originally meant for the super beefy Mark VIII fan... But it's variable control so I'll just have it ramp up that way and control the dual fans as a single "unit".

 

[willzilla]

A couple new pictures of my mediocre painting job on the upper intake manifold bolt plate cover (whatever it's called) lol... First I stripped it down (it was black, not sure if that is normal or if it had been painted or what?):

I then polished up the lettering/numbers as best as I could and taped them off and painted the rest of the plate in Ford blue high temp (2 coats) and 2 coats of high temp clear:

And what it looks like sitting on the painted intake manifold:

Looks pretty good overall for a cheap'o paint job by a very bad painter (me) lol. I like the blue as it goes with the spark plug wires, couplers, electric waterpump, and air filter (blue AMSOIL) IMO.

I need to find where I put my stupid EGR blocking plate and paint that blue as well for some extra pop! Lol.

 

[willzilla]

On a side note.. Does anyone have a link to the waterpump bolt diagram? As in, which bolt goes where? The dealer manual does not say and I do not recall what goes where as the bolts I pulled out pretty much disintegrated on me :-/

 

[Dono]

Here's a thread I found thats mustang 5.0 up to year 1995. Hopefully its the right bolt pattern.
The size of bolts are listed starting at bottom passenger side bolt going clockwise.
http://mustangforums.com/forum/5-0l-1979-1995-mustang/392433-water-pump-bolts.html

 

[willzilla]

^ That looks like for Mustangs up to '93, and not the similar to Explorer 94-95 Dang, thanks though for the link! I shall keep looking! Lol. New fan comes in tomorrow.

 

[jd4242]

Well... FML.. My dream of the dual e-waterpump and e-fan setup WITH the Lincoln Mark VIII fan has been SHATTERED The e-waterpump is actually a tiny bit THICKER than the damn OEM waterpump and I just cannot quite shimmy the two in together So.. Now I need a BAD ASS (yet not bank crushing) e-fan that can flow some serious air... Suggestions??

Tbird surper charged fan would probably be best.its a Taurus fan motor but has a smaller shroud and different blades.moves more air than Taurus and just under the mark fan.its harder to find tho.I've got pictures if you wanna see it

 

[R1dd1cK]

I have 3 supercoupe fans laying around. I would sell one.

 

[jd4242]

I have 3 supercoupe fans laying around. I would sell one.

Do you:shifty_ey lolhow did you come across 3?? I searched for awhile to find mine

 

[willzilla]

Oooo nice, thanks for the offer, though, already have the Contour fan (pulled trigger quick to try and get this project finished finally lol) on its way (delivery set for today). From what I read the Contour fan is real nice as the fan motors are split out to the sides of where the waterpump would be so it allows a lot of extra room (overall very slim) and still flows a good 3600+ cfm, which, is not that much under the Mark VIII and should be more than enough for my current NA setup

Additionally.. Looks like I may be taking a 6 month consulting gig in Vegas for pretty good money, so, perhaps extra Xploder project money! Haha.

Ooo... And I have also been working on the SVTf... Wanted to keep stock radio (so I wouldn't need special harnesses for steering wheel controls, stock amp/sub, etc), and instead of putting in aftermarket HU I installed trip tunes and linked it to a bluetooth blue gate module thus making my stock SVTf head unit bluetooth enabled for music streaming! I hardwired in (soldered) a dual usb port behind the HU which powers the trip tunes and also gives me a mico usb plug for my phone with only the micro USB charger cable visible. Pretty clean overall and happy I can stream PANDORA and podcasts now!

The triptunes and bluegate are all in the glove box for easy access:

Ooo... Have also been busy with my mini "gun collection". Recently got my C&R FFL (allows me to ship to my door old antique and relic guns) and bought an old school mosin nagant 91/30.

Beautiful gun and only a little over $100 (got the hex receiver, ended up being a 1932). I didn't want to blemish the gun itself in modifications so I swapped it to a new Archangel stock w/Timney trigger (no perm modifications, easy to swap back to stock if I wanted):

Anyways.. Enough rambling and car/gun **** Thanks for the info/tips! Hope to get more work done today on the Xploder!

 

[Dono]

Nice job on the bluetooth addition! I have looked around for a factory style addition I could do to my explorer, but no luck so far. A CD changer really doesn't do much for me anymore. Auto pairing to my blackberry (Or similar) for listening to music would get my attention.

It looks like a head unit replacement though.

I have had no luck searching for the water pump bolt placement

 

[willzilla]

Nice job on the bluetooth addition! I have looked around for a factory style addition I could do to my explorer, but no luck so far. A CD changer really doesn't do much for me anymore. Auto pairing to my blackberry (Or similar) for listening to music would get my attention.

It looks like a head unit replacement though.

I have had no luck searching for the water pump bolt placement

I believe the trip tune works with the Explorer as well. It hooks into your antenna actually and then you solder in 2 wires (power and ground) into a power and ground location (I did mine off the power and ground connector in the back of my stock stereo).

The trip tunes adds the aux jack to wherever you wire the box, I put mine mounted in the glove box like in the photo. I then bought an bluegate off Amazon for like $20 and the bluegate takes any device with an aux and can make it a bluetooth receiver, thus, I used the triptunes aux jack which feeds thru the antenna cable and then stream music into he bluegate from my phone and listen to music on station 88.3 I believe it was

I got the contour fan in today and FML it is too friggin wide (or tall)... WAY too wide, and just a little too tall, so.. I said F it and begin chopping things up (brand new fan too lol).. I sawed off the top and bottom of the fan shroud thingie and slapped it in there to spot check fitment with the electric waterpump:

And the fan mounted up... A lot of uncovered radiator space on the right side but I think it "shouldn't" matter, no?

 

[Dono]

I've read there should be a Percentage of rad uncovered so that air going thru the fans at speed doesn't over spin the fans. Pic looks pretty good.

Fire her up yet?

 

[jd4242]

It may or may not matter but I know typically you want it to pull air from as much of the rad as possible. To me you look to have tons of room, why didn't you just go with a Taurus fan? One suggestion tho, need to mount it on rubber or padding.having the shroud right against the rad tubes is bad, the fan will vibrate and rub a hole into the rad tubes in no time.

 

[willzilla]

Yeah, there is a lot of room.. Maybe 70% covered, 30% uncovered.. Radiator is pretty chewed up too, blahhh.

I don't think the Taurus fan would fit, even though a little slimmer than the Mark VIII fan, I think it would hit the idler pulley on the e-waterpump.

 

[willzilla]

I have 3 supercoupe fans laying around. I would sell one.

How much shipped to 38004?? This WILL fit on the 5.0?

 

[willzilla]

Ok... Going to rip out my radiator (it's pretty beat up and some of the fins are smashed pretty good in numerous spots) and my ****ty fan configuration and junk it (blah)... Going to slap in a new radiator with HOPEFULLY a supercoupe fan or something.