1997 MM 5.0 c-n-p conv. *IT RUNS! 1st CL drive Problem with Overdrive*

[410Fortune]

Stay cool!! I feel for you! That’s friggin hot and humid

 

[allmyEXes]

Actually, it started raining on me. Water cooled.
All 3 solenoids are going to have to be changed. Shift solenoid, torque converter clutch solenoid and (EPC) pressure control solenoid.
Dang! More money and several days for parts. If I had not gone to work on the MM at 5:30 a.m. on a Sunday. I probably wouldn't have
discovered this until late Tuesday. I will order them in the a.m. after comparing what I have to Rockauto pictures as kind of a 2nd time
verification. The valve body will need to come back out to swap solenoids. I'll put the pan on for now to keep dirt and stuff out.
Saturday, I picked up a 7-piece set of Metric 1/2" drive impact swivel sockets.
& piece metric swivel set damdest thing, no 16mm in the set.

I'm still working the exhaust system removal. I broke a rare Craftsman 19/32 socket trying to break a loose a header flange bolt.
15mm same as 19/32". I keep heating up the flange areas. I have one out of 4 out. If the inboard right-hand bolt would break,
that would suit me. Late Monday, I'm going to see how tough these Harbor Freight tools are. I have a 3/4" impact if needed but no 1/2"
to 3/4" adapter.

 

[410Fortune]

They are pretty tough
No 16 because they want you to buy the standard kit that comes with 5/8”
I hate that crap

 

[allmyEXes]

I see. 16mm is 20/32". (Click on the 3rd smiley face to go to 3-piece solenoids page).

 

[410Fortune]

20/32 same as 10/16 or 5/8 broken down lol

 

[allmyEXes]

@410Fortune One evening I asked a friend of mine's wife to look in the 2nd drawer and get me a 9/8ths combo wrench.

I have the old front half of the exhaust system removed and was able to so without damaging any of it. I had to heat everywhere there was a nut and bolt but the header exhaust flange points were the worst. I had to heat all 4 places at least 3 times and one four. It was a little exhausting. The 1/2" drive impact swivel made the difference too.
I got my box of new exhaust pipe parts out of storage.

The 1975 to 1978 Mustang II right hand exhaust manifold fits. The bottom is bumping the motor mount stud that is sticking up past the nut.
At times I had my doubts that it would fit. I was thinking the the much larger 4R70W bellhousing would bump it. The MII bellhousing is smaller. I removed the old one going out the front direction.
The MII one would not go in from the bottom. I was able to just get it by the alternator bracket going through from the front. I'm going to remove the alternator and bracket to get it out, trim off the excess motor mount stud, clean it up and reinstall it and the gasket. The radiator and fan shroud are currently not installed. A trip to Rural King is needed to go get some bolts and lock washers for both manifolds.

a further back view but dark.

After I remove the alt and bracket, I'll try again to get a front view pic of the stud bumping the bottom of the manifold.
Someone needs to design a log style header to go in this spot.

 

[allmyEXes]

View of side clearance next to rear upper control arm bracket.

Bottom of manifold touching excess engine mount stud/s.

A side view of the rear UCA bracket.

Grinder appears to fit.

I cut the front one from the top, front.

 

[allmyEXes]

Late yesterday I almost got the '96 F-150 manifold stuck between the heat shield, block etc. I took it off and called it a day.
This morning I finished removing the steering shaft and as I was installing the driver's side exhaust manifold, I had to tweak the vapor
return line a bit. At first, it looked like the flange was going to be all over the four lines, 2 fuel, one brake and the vapor line. Once that I got
it in its home position, It fit in the area for it real well. Hopefully I haven't made a leak at the block in the dipstick tube after tweaking it.

You can see from the bottom that there is room to reinstall the heat shield.

A little better view.

A 5/8"x5/8" nipple on the manifold bumps the steering shaft. The grinder will fix that. Collapsible column rubber may still bump it.

Up top the steering shaft won't quite go on the the column shaft piece.

At the most, I will use one steering u-joint on the bottom, Ford "V"x DD. Up top a double ended DD. The end of the Ford column shaft will
need some file fitting. I hope that my donated DD shaft is long enough.

 

[410Fortune]

Wow! I can’t wait to use the 9/8 line hehehehe
Those manifolds should easily out flow the stock sploder units

 

[allmyEXes]

Yeah, earlier I had a good view up into the left one. Alot of space up in there. From the factory, the truck 5.0 had much better manifolds than the Explorer 5.0. If I needed and had 1996 F-150 rh exhaust manifold, this would be a good time to see if it would fit the Explorer/Mountaineer chassis.
Below there are two pictures of the left hand 1996 F-150 manifold. It came with a big threaded plug to fill that hole. I assume it is for the EGR.
I'm considering drilling and tapping the plug to a 18mm hole in it to install a wideband O2 sensor to use with an AFR gauge and tap into the signal for Real Time tuning. I was wondering if this location is too close to the head (exhaust ports) and would have a tendency to get too hot and lead to premature failure of the wideband oxygen sensor. I will add an extra bung that could be plugged for now and used later if the manifold location doesn't work out. On the side, you can see the gum drop shaped piece which the steering shaft bumps.

Close up view.

 

[allmyEXes]

Here is another non "P" head manifold option. I remember 20+ years ago when these were $300. 6 or 7 years ago, the tariffs added to Chinese goods have made the American's prices of Chinese goods go up. The Chinese are still making the same profit from before the additional tariffs.
Anyway, here is a link to the early Mustang Hi-Po manifolds. It is possible that they may fit the Gen 2 Explorer/Mountaineer's with 5.0s that
have non "P" heads. For those of you following, my '97 Mountaineer is an early production, March of 1996 that DOES NOT have "P" heads.
1965-67 Mustang Hi-PO manifolds It will be a few years before I can trial fit some of these in/on an early Gen 2 5.0 truck.

 

[410Fortune]

I never had issue running non p manifolds on p heads and vise versa, I mean the exhaust ports and bolts are in the same locations.. the difference is the angle of the plugs.. different wires have always worked out. My experience is with conversion headers for rwd rangers and also with tmh for both ttb 4wd trucks and also tmh for our Lsa ifs trucks, p heads or non p heads… the manifolds should still bolt up

 

[allmyEXes]

I see. Earlier, I was searching for some info using "P" heads on an early Mustang and came across this.
Modifying early Mustang manifolds

 

[allmyEXes]

I couldn't sit any longer. Holiday or not. Heat wave or not, I can't resist the urge to keep moving forward on this project.
Earlier, I ordered a replacement stud and brass nut kit for the Mustang II (2) exhaust manifold. Because the design is 1970's era, the exhaust
pipe mounting studs are too close together for the 2.25" exhaust pipe which I'm using. Several weeks and pages back, I was hand filing the
bride plate slotted holes more inboard to fit the M II manifold. Coincidentally while this project has been going on, I stumbled upon this
steel doughnut gasket that is two different sizes. One size fits the manifold and the other fits the 2.25" pipe. I didn't even know that I
possessed this part and found it while moving some other stuff.

Flat flange and pipe.

Mustang II manifold and pipe fitted.

I'm headed to AutoZone for parts.
ADDED 45 mins later. 2 wins. AZ parts got here when they said the would and they fit what I am working on.
Came with a 3rd stud !

 

[CDW6212R]

If that steel doughnut will fill the gap to mate the manifold to the pipe, you can buy actual doughnut gaskets to do that better. The steel won't seal very well, the new parts you can get will be malleable and conform to both parts much better. Those were an old type of gasket, but evidently they are still available for some applications.

 

[allmyEXes]

@410Fortune I was bringing up the point that my particular truck has the traditional or old style plug angle and
if someone thought that they were going to use another 289/302/5.0 "drop down" style exhaust manifold on their "P" heads,
it might not work so well without some carving. Look at post #353 where a guy appears to successfully carved his 289 manifold/s.
@CDW6212R Do you think that a stepped design fiber type donut gasket is available? I already had thought
about using a coat of putty during assembly to take care of any imperfections.

 

[410Fortune]

I’ve used the soft metal rings for sealing up collectors before, they are an old Chevy pickup exhaust gasket, they work well on the ball type flange that won’t seal

The tmh in my bii may have been over tightened about 50 times trying to seal leaks, eventually I added the Chevy rings and no more leaks. It’s kind of a pita to get them in place and to stay there, but once they are in place they center themselves and crush to shape a nice round gasket

 

[allmyEXes]

Today, I was working on the 2 exhaust manifolds. The lefthand manifold needed the boss? cut off. It may be a spot that may be for a
heatshield. It was a lump bigger that 1/2"x1/2". The manifold is now bolted on with the gasket. 4 of the long bolts need shortened a 1/4" each.

The right hand manifold needed the two studs removed and replaced.

It took a pipe wrench for the 2nd stud. This was a hot procedure. The 42" fan had to be off during the heating process.

Studs installed. Link to complete process. seized bolt and stud removal. Threads were lubed and tapped before stud install.

3 pack of solenoids arrived this morning.

 

[allmyEXes]

Sunday. After installing the intermediate steering shaft, it clears the F-150 driver's side manifold by a 16th of an inch. I think this shaft
is off of a 2002 Explorer Sport Trac? @410Fortune The clunky 1997 steering shaft would have more than likely bumped the exhaust
This leaves me with extra steering parts that I know for sure will need on the 1954 F-100/1999 Ranger project. That was on my mind
when I purchased the hotrod/racing type steering u-joints.

It's difficult to see in the picture. I stuck the screwdriver in the gap for demo. Bolts need to go in the steering shaft.

The passenger side manifold and its down pipe parts are fitted. The 5/8" brass nuts just clear the oversized pipe.

I have the manifold on and 1, maybe 2 of the 8 bolts won't start. It is loose enough that I can shift it up and down and forward etc.
I don't know if the antique exhaust manifold is warped. In the morning, I will give it one more try before removing it and file the
holes that are giving me trouble. I think it is 2 of the short ears. If it is a long or deep hole, maybe get it on the drill press and fix it.

 

[allmyEXes]

On the passenger side exhaust manifold, it is just one hole that needs to be filed a bit at the 12 o'clock position. It is still on and 2 bolts tight while I'm working with the exhaust tubing. I've gotten a slow start while figuring where it needs to curve and be welded. did some test welding
and getting the welder dialed in better. 2 quick shots of the right-hand side. I've got it roughed in but I'm still waiting on the 3/8th thick
muffler flange. Hopefully the fab shop will get it ready for me to pick up. Also, a 2-9/16ths inch front left manifold flange is on its way. 2 1/4"
wouldn't allow the flange bride plate to slide far enough up the flared tube to reach the manifold studs.

It's a little dark under there.