supercharged 5.0 true fire 98 explorer sport

[vroomzoomboom]

Evil is testing new boundaries. the heater box is going to be an issue. Are we pulling your passenger header to wrap it next? your running out of boxes to melt. lol

that thing tests me on a daily bases. after looking a the shield, its a lot longer and thicker then a v6. we better not have to pull that header. i really dont want to wrap it at all.

 

[4pointslow]

Thanks for posting that video, I love the sound of the exhaust and wine of the supercharger. We need more of that!

 

[vroomzoomboom]

Thanks for posting that video, I love the sound of the exhaust and wine of the supercharger. We need more of that!

HAHA thanks john. evil exhaust....um...yea. i have a friend that has told me he can hear it a block away. i have neighbours 3 doors away that can hear it fire up. not going to even say how loud it can get inside either lol. its funny also because i can hardly hear the supercharger from the drivers seat, but in that video you can really hear it scream away. must be from where the air filter is located.
we also need more cow bell to!

 

[CDW6212R]

I love the sounds too, and I bet she did after she thought about it.

Is there much room between the AC box and the header? If it's got close to an inch, I think a metal shield is the answer. If it's not hot enough for aluminum, I'd use that to create a pocket around that corner. I'm talking about placing a sheet metal barrier there, with an air gap which you can force cooler air through. If you can treat it like a brake caliper and build an air box to it, with ducting to bring cool air to it, that will save the AC box. The metal might have to be steel if it's too hot for AL though. It needs a good 1/2" gap there too.

 

[vroomzoomboom]

forgot about this video. was shot the morning i went to the race track

 

[vroomzoomboom]

been a quiet winter so far. i have thrown the towel in on one thing however. dono has done a great job helping (doing) the tuning for me, but he will admit he is no expert. so what i have done now is handed the tuning over to don lasota at lasota racing (http://www.lasotaracing.com/). have only done a few logs, he did find a few problems so far. first one was the isc integrator was near pegged. which was weird because don an i almost had it perfect. turns out that the tps was hanging on by one bolt that was also threaded out haft way. fixed that, then the second problem was the O2's were off. bank one was running richer then bank 2. havent been able to look at that just yet because it has been colder then mars up here for the last week (pretty much no lie on the comparison either). he had told me it gets better when the rev's go up, but at idle its off. i think i have cooked the #3 plug wire so that will be the first thing i will try.
i am going to give lasota i little plug here. a few posts back i had mentioned that he somehow found almost haft a second and a mph in the 1/4 for me, and that was taking a fast look at the tune dono did for me. thats impressive. now after getting him to tune it, not only has he spotted problems, but has told me how to identify them, but even in one example, how to fix it (i told him that i had played with the
throttle body, so he sent me this on how to reset it). the other tuner would simply say "you have a problem with the truck, fix it", or not say anything at all. so far i am pretty impressed with him.

other then picking up a few trucks to fix up, and flip (one which i have at the moment is a 00 limited with a v8 which is extremely rare up here, dono's is the only other one i can say i have seen, and he bought his from Illinois and drove it back. plus its almost a twin of his, with a different interior colour). i have (sorta) a new member to the fleet that wont be leaving anytime soon.

i have seemed to rub off on my son kyle. he finally got his drivers license about 2 months ago (and has got to use a few trucks that i have bought to sell). i showed him this that a co worker was selling, so i picked it up for him. he fell in love with it when he laid eyes on it. needs some fixing, but they all do. the only thing is, i have rubbed off on him too much. he has already told me he wants to lift it, put bigger tires on it, and a push bar......lucky for him i still have the shell that the stroker came from which has a body lift, and warrior shackles on it. if he says he wants a 302 in it, i am going to say your on your own kid lol. i am also going to tell him he better join EF, and start reading. after all, thats 75% of the way i learned about evil.

 

[4pointslow]

Your son's screen name should be VroomZoomBoom Jr.

 

[vroomzoomboom]

well...i was right. #3 it was

oh wait, theres more! after replacing that one wire with a new one don gave me, i could feel a vibration in the motor. when i sent a log to lasota, he said it was way better, but there was still some funny things going on with the o2's.
ladies and gentlemen, i introduce to you, #4 plug wire.

that literally crumbled in my hand before i took that pic. i tried something different with those wires, and that was putting head shrink on them, then wrapping them with header wrap, then putting the fibreglass boots on. looks like a fail to me. i have replaced the plugs with new ones (#7 i think i had gaped way to much) gaped them all at 32, and replaced the wires with accel extreme 9000 ceramic wires (part #9002C). i had also ordered terminals, but when i looked into my stash i had just enough to make a set. have some coming anyway so don and i will be set for awhile.
the tuning has been aggravating. or im sure on lasota's end. somehow each file he has sent was corrupt. even though he doesnt want to do it, but i asked him and that is to build off what don has done so far. i have to say i am pleased with him. he has returned emails within a few hours every time i have sent either a question, or a log.
also, i took her for a ride the other night to stretch her legs. i have forgotten how hard it will slam, and i mean SLAM you in the seat with the cold air we have at the moment. i mean, when your doing around 40kms (25mph) i hammer down on the loud peddle and manage to break all four tires loose and hit 80kms (50mph) before you can think about it.....i need to start on a intercooler for this ***** and soon! lol

 

[4pointslow]

That spark plug wire looks awesome!
I hope this is the cure for the repeated wire failure caused from excessive heat off the headers.
Maybe some 12's in the quarter mile are coming next season for you!
Your truck is truly awesome!

 

[vroomzoomboom]

that was what i was thinking, 12's lol. im kinda thinking i told dono to wick the timing up a little to high and that my be the problem for the heat thing.

 

[CDW6212R]

Nice, I like that plug wire, it's ceramic there right? That should be better to hold the fragile end section intact.

 

[4pointslow]

Don't quote me on this but I think it is advanced timing raises temperature in the cylinder, and overly retarded timing raises temps across the exhaust valves and into the manifolds/headers. I believe the idea is the mixture is still burning as it exits the cylinder.

If you open a stock tune and look at the timing tables you can see where the engine was designed to be, where it would be safe to not cause detonation and not burn the exhaust valves on the way out. Then look at what timing you are running with the engine modifications and boost, it has to be retarded from where factory settings were.
Are your headers wrapped? May help with keeping heat off the wires.

 

[vroomzoomboom]

you might be right. after all, i know nothing about tuning lol. i seem to remember dono saying it was at 14 degrees advanced, but i could be wrong. headers are not wrapped. and if i can help it, i dont want to wrap them. i have heard that stuff will trap moister and every time i wash the truck, the motor gets sprayed down as well. also with no fender liners (splash shields yes, the clip on liners, no) all sorts of gunk can get in there. specially when i drive it in the winter (which still to this day not many people believe me). i did wrap the boots with header wrap, then slid the socks over top of the wires however.
don emailed me back and had said that the last log was MUCH better, so he has sent a new file for me to load in, and do a load, and WOT pull. i am hoping to do this today, but i have been feeling like hell all weekend (and i am sure doing the plugs and wires outside at -15C didnt help) so i will see how things go. as i said before, i do really like that he is fast with his email responses.

 

[Dono]

Tim's timing is substantially advanced at low load from factory. I based my 'guess' on decipha's mbt chart he published. Here is a shameless cut/paste from his site. I'd post the link, but for whatever reason It doesn't work.

We all know there is more to mbt timing than just the head. There is also compression. So, I lowered timing more. It does look like an aluminum head can take more timing than the factory sbf head though.

It is difficult to know what mbt timing could possibly be during low load conditions as there is never really detonation. Tim could very well be on to something with the motor overheating because of too much timing at no/low load conditions, we will have to try it and see.

It was great to see Tim finally say 'Uncle' and go with the flow on the ceramic plug wires. Although, I have managed to destroy a few plug wires pulling the boot off and the connector is left on the plug. I don't think any plug wire likes to be taken on and off much.

It's all but impossible to tune a vehicle that everything is not working perfectly. Its a moving target as the motor is perfect one day, and then the next day its with a partially firing cylinder. It's nice to see Tim working with someone that has endless experience and can reasonably quickly recognize an issue and point Tim in the right direction to repair.

I'm really interested on what the idle issue turns out to be, and how Lasota tunes it. This is all learning for most of us here.

 

[vroomzoomboom]

had i known those wires were available before i bought the last set, i would have got them. good thing you were thinking. the only one thing that does worry me tuning in the winter is you can get away with more timing then in the summer because of all the cold air that the motor is ingesting. might not have any ping when its -20C outside, but what will happen when its 25C and the under hood temp is hotter then the sun. havent even looked at the hood i was trying to make in the summer/fall either. lets also hope that you are able to read the history on what he has changed so you can use it to your advantage

 

[Dono]

Pulling a few degree's timing if required is super easy Tim, so don't be concerned there. Nice to see progress happening.

 

[4pointslow]

I think this year is going to be an interesting year for the both of you, cant wait to see the limits of these Explorers pushed yet again.

 

[vroomzoomboom]

im just hoping we dont go beyond that limit. the whole "stock blocks can take x amount of boost/horse power before you have two 4 cylinders" still floats around in my mind. that and the luck don's been having, i am surprised he hasnt dowsed it in gas, flicked a match and walked away!
having a new problem. seems every file don has emailed me makes the truck do the same thing. it will idle no problem, but tap the gas when in gear and the wideband goes to 21.8 and turns gutless. and it is now doing it with the tune dono did for me, and don touched up for me (the one that the truck ran the 13.12 in the 1/4). i emailed him both log and tune he sent me, and the one he touched up for me. but i thinking this. the one he touched up for me has been in the hand held for months, and the ones he sends me get loaded in when i get them. i am thinking it might be possible that my advantage III is screwing something up somehow. will wait and see what he thinks.

 

[4pointslow]

How old is the fuel pump?

 

[vroomzoomboom]

few years. not sure of the mileage however. when i load one of my old tunes in that was in the hand held the truck runs fine. don emailed me back. he said it is possible that advantage might be the problem and gave me steps on how to fix it. he also said if that doesnt work, i might have a bad pcm....awsome....