supercharged 5.0 true fire 98 explorer sport

[boominXplorer]

There's plenty of room to tap the thermostat housing, it's where my electric fan temp sensor is located. Do it right in the hole in the top where it looks like it belongs. They also make aftermarket t-stat housings that are already tapped (but they are made out of steel usually)

 

[ahodges]

Tim, I'll leave this link as reminder on how i did mine last year; the temp sensor post is towards the bottom. Andrew's 1996 Explorer XLT

 

[vroomzoomboom]

Tim, I'll leave this link as reminder on how i did mine last year; the temp sensor post is towards the bottom. Andrew's 1996 Explorer XLT

funny that you posted about the water temp sensor because i was looking at that thread remembering you did the air temp sensor and the pic you posted about that and was trying to see which tap you used lol

 

[vroomzoomboom]

not much has happen lately. with this pandemic going around and all. i am one of the lucky ones that still is working full time hours......for now at least.
back in feb or early march i had to change the rack on evil. for those that have done one in a v6, its not so bad. for those of us that have had to do it with a v8, its zero fun. even more when your laying in melting snow....then strip the pressure hose inlet in your brand new rack and have to pull it back out and do it again and also breaking the rack so you no longer have a core to return.....but what was funny is i had to take it to a ford dealer in town to get the alignment done. i heard the guy start it up from the waiting room while it sat outside and also heard two throttle blips and two tire chirps. my son also works there. he came out from the shop kinda snickering and with a smirk on his face. he told me as soon as the door opened everyone stopped doing what they were doing and watched as it rolled in, then every tech walked over to it, to see what was under the hood. they couldnt believe it had a supercharger on it, but i dont think he told them it had a stroker in it. had to talk to the guy working on it. he had said he figured it had a little snot to it, but as soon as he pressed the gas peddle, he wasnt expecting that! always a ego booster when you can drop the jaw of a mechanic lol

 

[4pointslow]

That's awesome that the mechanics at the shop got to see your truck! It probably made their days.
Why did you have to replace the rack, was it leaking?

 

[vroomzoomboom]

That's awesome that the mechanics at the shop got to see your truck! It probably made their days.
Why did you have to replace the rack, was it leaking?

so this rack was around 9 years old (i had changed it like a week before i had to leave to go to AFN in around 2011). late last summer i noticed the steering wheel shutter side to side going straight on the highway driving roughly 80kms a hour or 50mph to the point i could hear the u joint in the column clack around but wouldnt do it all the time. i thought it might be the tires out of balance or something front end related. i also would see a puddle of something under it from time to time but couldnt find the leak. new years eve i wanted to take it for a spin, and my block heater cord aways comes unplugged. i jacked the truck up and crawled under it to plug it back in. when i was under it, i felt something drip on my neck. when i looked up, fluid was leaking from the boot. bought a reman rack and spent a day and a bit putting it in (v6's are easy, v8's are a nightmare). had it all in and the last thing i had to do was put the pressure line in. guess what i did......stripped it....then broke the new rack trying to get it out so now i have to eat a 150 core on it...

 

[vroomzoomboom]

Yes I know any updates have been far and few over the past months. Truth is there hasn’t been much to post. But, I have been driving it. I have been shocking a few people with it (like one guy that raced me which I ended up gaping him by 2 cars and shutting it down at 170km’s or for the metrically challenged that’s 105 mph from a 70 km or roughly 45mph (and the only reason why I know this was she started floating around on me which caused me to see how fast I was going....on a overpass in the city limits, whoops...).
tonight is or was crummy out and I am siting looking at the mount that’s waiting to go on. Over the past few days I have been thinking of every problem I’m going to run into with it because I want to tryin and take no longer then around 2 weeks from start to finish with this. Evil is my therapy truck lol as well as my wonderful employer is forcing us to take 80 hours of holidays between June 1st and July 12, which Ithink I’m going to use to finally plop the new blower on. I have nothing sitting for sale or fix to sell in the driveway at the moment but that to can change.
so the first of my problems that i have found so far i think i have solved.......i hope

originally i had a Y block for the heater hose, and temperature sending unit. found a 45 extended fitting that looks like will clear both the fuel rail lines and valve covers. i also had a thermostat housing kicking around that i forgot i had (and if you have ever seen my shed you would know why i have forgotten about a lot of parts i have). drilled and taped it so it to has a new home. however..... new problem ugh

the sensor will live right under the hard A/C line.....@ahodges, how did you get past this, or did you do some careful bending?
i also roughly took a tape measure to where i was thinking about mounting the heat exchanger, and it to looks like it will be tight but fit. wont know more till i pull the grill off and possibly the header panel as well.
lastly, and this really sucks. thanks to my careless neighbor and his cat, evil has some new war wounds.....right in the flames on the hood. happy i am not.

 

[ahodges]

Yeah I had to carefully bend the hard a/c line up to clear the sensor and the wiring. It didn't take too much and i haven't had any issue.

 

[410Fortune]

dang cats just wont stay on the ground!!!
Keep up the good work
Don't be afraid to bend the hard ac lines......they bend rather easily to gain small clearances....

 

[vroomzoomboom]

the cat problem has been taken care of, or as far as i know thanks to a bylaw officer, and a tap. however my neighbor has now accused me of killing their cat, and blaming me for it getting out of their house (?). with that said, a big o fence is going up next week. which also may now stop me from putting the new blower on. the idea of having the top of the motor off while they are sawing wood near it doesnt sit to well with me

 

[vroomzoomboom]

the next little upgrade i have finally got around to doing. i had scored a par of spindles from work a few years ago for a 03 sport trac. the problem was i couldnt remember if i had the correct ones because i didnt know the year they came from. i had created a thread to figure out if i had the correct ones, lucky for me i did. however i didnt save the dust shields so for now i have to run without them.

easyest way to tell them apart is to look at the calaper bolt loction. the one on the right is from evil which is a 98, the one on the left is from the sport trac. notice the hole location is higher on the sport trac one

not a monster difference in size, but anything that i can stuff in there without modifying the crap out of everything is better then nothing

also after doing some searching, there is a company that is still around (i called them to make sure) that has stainless steel lines which i may order in the future as well

Deerfield Precision

 

[ahodges]

Awesome! Every little bit counts! Do they use the same calipers?

 

[gmanpaint]

Hopefully the calipers are larger, and take a larger pad, to add to the stopping force. I thought about this mod in the past, but I would have to buy new wheels and tires to get them to work. Wasn't in the cards, and still isn't. lol

From personal experience, I wouldn't use Deerfield. I waited over 3 months after ordering and paying them for a set of 4 SS brake lines. After a month and not receiving them, I called and they said, they had parts on back order to make the lines, and said another 30 days tops. 60 days after that, I opened a paypal claim to get my funds back. They wouldn't answer calls or emails for the last 30 days. If you do use them, I hope your transaction goes a lot smoother than mine was.

There are other places to order them from, and around here, local shops that can make them.

 

[CDW6212R]

Awesome! Every little bit counts! Do they use the same calipers?

I think any 16" OEM Ford wheel will fit on those 12" rotors.

The calipers can swap, the pads are basically the same size, so I'd go with the original vehicle calipers. I bought the spindles and calipers from a 2003 for mine, and I liked my old calipers better, which had really good pads and I knew didn't stick/drag. Here's what the caliper from the 01-03/05's should look like;

 

[410Fortune]

same calipers and pads, just a larger rotor
Skyjacker sells stainless brake lines for your truck, should be in stock just about anywhere

 

[vroomzoomboom]

back to what everyone wants to see and not a post about brakes either.
baby steps. i man'd up and found a spot for my AIT.

on andy's truck (ahodges) he found a sensor that can screw in. years ago i bought one and kept it kicking around because sooner or later i knew i was going to use it.

orignally i was going to put it on either side of the outlet for my innercooler, but after thinking about it, it wouldnt have a correct reading because it wouldnt be past the innercooler. i didnt think i would have room under it, but i was able to squeak in into the valley pan at the back.
i may have also found a way to put the pcv valve into my valve covers using this

https://www.summitracing.com/parts/tfs-51800810

i need to call trick flow and see if that will clear roller rockers with polly locks. if it does, that may be the last of the head scathing, and i might rip it all apart in the next week and start putting the new supercharger on.

 

[ahodges]

Looks like progress!

 

[4pointslow]

Yes! I cant wait to see this up and running and making POWER!!!!!
Your gonna need a sticker that says "Do I have a taillight out?"

 

[vroomzoomboom]

Yes! I cant wait to see this up and running and making POWER!!!!!
Your gonna need a sticker that says "Do I have a taillight out?"

someplace i have a licence plate braket that says "speed kills, "play it safe" drive a chevy. i had that on my capri for years. some kid got pissed of at me once for having it and demanded i take it off. i told him, he can race me, if he beats me, i will pull it off right in front of him.
it didnt come off lol

 

[vroomzoomboom]

so where do i start. even though you cant really tell in pictures i have posted, but the flames on the hood over the years have taken a beating. with no garage to put it in, the sun had taken its toll on them. earlier this week i dropped the hood off to my old boss that does hot rods and custom work to have him touch it up.

if you look at the hood and the top of the grill, thats the color it should be. the bumper is what it has fadded down to over time. the hod was bad enough that there was no more blue, and it turned dull from the sun, and i am sure the heat from the blower didnt help it any either.
however, this is where a different story starts. when i gave him the hood, i drove to his place a put a spare hood on there that i dropped of. when i went to pick it up, i just pulled the spare hood off and drove there with no hood. this is where things take a hard right into the wall.
a few weeks back i was screwing around like i normally do with this thing. i matted the trotle, and had felt the transfer case shifter hit my leg. thought that was odd, but figured i would look at it later. well, fast forward to yesterday, while i was driving to get my hood, and being hoodless, i took off from and light....i also saw the motor on the drivers side lift up....lots.
i figured i broke a motor mount. my buddy that painted evil for me as we talked about this, had said, "are you sure none of the bolts backed out?". with this floating around in my head i had to look, what i found was this

not what you want to find. especially when have some spare mount bolts kicking around and they fall out as soon as you put them in.....wonderful. so i am not even going to think of doing this, but i am going to have a buddy thats better at this then me come and helicoil the block. however, while i wait for him, and now that i am on holidays for a week, i am finally going to put the m122 on. its been like 2 years, and i have time finally and its not snowing, or -1000C outside.

hopefully this will be the last pictures i will have with this blower on the motor.

i have a few more parts that i ordered here now. one of them is a battery tray

https://www.summitracing.com/parts/aaf-all76100

it fits in on the passengers side, will have to do some small mods to it, i think i may also have found something i can use for a baffle for my pcv valve in the valve covers, but cant say for sure untill i pull that. otherwise, i did start pulling it apart tonight, didnt get to far after pulling the diff down to look at the mount because it got dark out, and i know damn well that i bolt, or 10mm socket will drop and not hit the ground, so i will start on this again tomorrow.
cant believe its FINALLY going on!!!!