Completed Project 5.0 swap - w/ 4406

[ahodges]

Ok and now for the pictures!!

I have a couple more but Photobucket is freezing up again on me.

Now on to a problem I have that I would love to hear input on. As some of you know from previous posts, I planned on running the vacumn disconnect axle with the TOD 4406. Problem as I found out last night when I put the engine in, is that the front right corner of the engine oil pan hits the corner of the vacumn disconnect assembly on the axle. Has anyone been able to run the disconnect axle (used only from 95-96) with the 5.0?

 

[christopherjones]

Posted in my meager build thread how I did it

 

[ahodges]

Ok thanks. I think I'm going to just change the axle to a live axle without the disconnect for a couple reasons. First being that an axle swap is way faster and I really don't want to pull then engine out again.
Secondly, there is an option of cutting the corner of the oil pan off and having a piece of aluminum tig welded over it but I'm not confident that'll hold and that involves pulling the engine again.
Lastly, I was going to put a different oil pan on it, one from a 98-01 (steel pan that could easliy be modded), but none of the junkyards by my house have a steel oil pan for an explorer and Ford discontinued it. I think there might be a couple aftermarket ones around but none of the ones i've seen have the dish out for the exhaust pipe on the driver's side. This option also involves pulling the engine again.

 

[christopherjones]

You can do my method without pulling the motor albeit a little more tricky

 

[ahodges]

So I went ahead with changing out the front carrier. I wanted to share a few headaches I'm having doing this. I picked up the first one from a local junkyard last Wednesday only to find out on Friday (when I had time to do something with it) that the support webing was cracked. So I exchanged it yesterday (not without headache dealing with them), took it to work and sandblasted it, took it home and clear coated it, and then untaped everything to realize that they shorted me the internal shaft that goes in the right side of the housing. I don't know what to call that thing; it connects the differential to the half shaft on the passenger side. Does anyone know so I sound smart when I call the junkyard again!?

 

[gmanpaint]

The internal axle shaft? The one that goes into the spider gears, and to the disconnect collar?

Only non-fabbed 5.0L & CAD I have seen used a 4" lift kit for clearance.

 

[ahodges]

Yeah I'm talking about the internal axle shaft. However, this is a later model axle from a 97 explorer so I can have clearance for the 5.0 oil pan.

 

[ahodges]

Well I got the axle swapped out and the engine is in! Here are a few pictures.

These are from last weekend I think. Now I have everything done except putting the new 75mm throttle body on, intake, spark plugs & wires, front bumper, and the hood!!

It is going to get exhaust on Tuesday!

 

[ExDude]

 

[curt1007]

Nice!

 

[CDW6212R]

Well done, excellent work.

 

[ahodges]

Thanks guys! Ill post some more pictures up when i get time. Its going to get exhaust tomorrow.

However I just tried to fill my coolant system today before i take it to the exhaust shop and found out I have a pin hole leak in the engine oil cooler/ heat exchanger. They are discontinued from the dealer (I tried to get one in anticipation of having this problem) and I don't know where to get one. Does anyone have any ideas?

 

[ExDude]

Junkyard?

 

[CDW6212R]

Ask around on here, I'm sure some people have parted out some 302 Explorers and have one. I found one on eBay when I went hunting one. They were $1100 from Ford at the time.

 

[christopherjones]

I'm running the 4.0at rad with a modified lower hose and it seems to do the trick

 

[ahodges]

Air Intake

Ok I think I solved my oil cooler problem. Karl has one (ped5stang is Karl right?) but he doesn't give any guarentee it will work, sold as is. I found another one on ebay amazingly which looks better then mine did before I painted it so I might get that one. Either way hopefully it's mini crisis averted.

Now I need to ask for suggestions on an intake. I bought a MAC intake system from James but now that I have it I see that the intake pipe is much smaller then the SCT MAF sensor and it's even a little smaller than my throttle body so I think I need a bigger one. What have others done for a custom high performance intake? I think a 4" would be about the right size instead of 3" or less.

 

[CDW6212R]

Karl is listed with the other venders in the vender link at the top of the page. I copied that link here; http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/dto_vendor.php?do=click&id=1001

You can also get his address and phone number on the vender's page.

I think those coolers had leaking issues with previous older Fords, I thought that these Explorer units were all good. I hope you had one from the older stuff.

I'm glad that you asked about the inlet pipe, I hope that you find a good choice. I have looked a few times for short periods, but never found the ideal "L" shaped pipe.

I'd like to find one that's a match to the 90mm MAF I have, which is about 3.5", the 75MM TB can take a 3" pipe well of course. I'd prefer a stainless pipe, or polished aluminum etc, or else painted black.

I forgot where I got closest to finding the best piping, I recall them being SS and about $40or so IIRC.

 

[ahodges]

Thanks! I asked Karl about it now.

As for the intake, that is the exact set up that I have 90mm MAF and 75mm TB. The outside of the MAF housing is about 4" so I was thinking of starting with a 4" elbow and adapting to the smaller TB which shouldn't be a big deal. I found some K&N air filters that will work and I can make custom mounting plate but I still haven't got a good solution for getting a 90 degree elbow.

 

[CDW6212R]

That elbow is the tight spot, the old one is molded to fit around the radiator hose a bit. That's why I'd first try a 3.5" elbow there, to see how hood clearance will be. Try to match the MAF inside diameter, so the coupler fits them both well. Please don't use the gaudy blue couplers, yack.

 

[ahodges]

haha. I want to find some nice black couplers but I haven't put a lot of effort into that yet. I'm going to order a K&N RF-1032 filter today which should work nice. It has a 4 inch inside flange diameter. Maybe K&N makes different sized couplers?