01 sport - 4.0 SOHC STS turbo charged (Project complete)

[Limited02]

I have been watching that build on SVTperformance. Sick ass ride for sure!!! I would keep it all Ford and build a 6.8 V10 with twin snails in the Ex

 

[Jakee]

How do you like the wheels now that you've had them for a few days? I like that style and several others. I think if they could be had with thicker/wider spikes that they would look better. It's hard to find something different when they keep making the same "hip" styles. I like the Cobra "R" wheels except that the spokes are too thin, for me. Wheels are really tough to choose, there are so many and so many are alike.

I still like them! It took me about a year of searching for wheels and when you and I talked in PM I knew about the Fr500's. Every time I searched wheels the Fr500's stuck out. The "light" construction is one thing I did look at but knew this wheel had to be lighter than a few others. I wanted the best of both worlds but even with lighter 18's I may see a decrease. That's why I'm planning on a track set of rims and tires.

Now the only problem I'm facing is what to do with the gray cladding on my truck. Once I install the wheels, the gray will not look good and I've never really liked it. I'm trying to see if silver, like the wheels, will look okay. The plan is to paint the cladding and the bumpers with the silver but I'll have to see it first. I need to do this in Photoshop first to make sure it looks okay.

 

[Limited02]

Get a good pic of the wheels and tires on and I will see if I can help you paint it. I know a place or two that has some photoshop "experts" that will do a realistic job.

 

[Jakee]

Unfortunately, I haven't got tires yet... ;( With the economy the way it is, the company I work for just implemented a "cost reduction" plan. This means 7.5% less for me @ payday. I need to slow it down alittle on the high dollar things. > $300.00

But heres a pic of the truck the way it is now. I want to see the cladding silver for one pic and black for the next. I've got GIMP but I'm no expert so it'll take awhile for me to figure it out. I'd appreciate your help.

I'd like to get this truck looking better for when I make the 12 second pass...

 

[CDW6212R]

OEM wheels are often very light, they can afford to invest in more expensive forgings considering their volume of parts.

I would almost surely go with painting the trim black to match the truck. How many choices of finishes are there for the step boards? Do they come in stainless steel, I'm wondering if another color besides black would work better for those?

 

[techieman33]

OEM wheels are often very light, they can afford to invest in more expensive forgings considering their volume of parts.

I would almost surely go with painting the trim black to match the truck. How many choices of finishes are there for the step boards? Do they come in stainless steel, I'm wondering if another color besides black would work better for those?

Those rims are very light, 7 or 8lbs at the most, I was surprised to say the least when we took the tires off of my old set.

 

[CDW6212R]

Ditto, my Mark VII LSC wheels are really light, they are forged Speedline OEM wheels.

 

[Jakee]

Wow, if these OEM wheels I have are 7 or 8 LBS a pc then I'll be keeping them for the track; although, I think they're heavier than this.

I tried the silver on the cladding and it was way to much contrast for my taste. I then sprayed bed liner on the rear cladding pc and I'm thinking this is the way to go. It gives a nice texture and doesn't look all that bad.

For the nerd bars, I could get some diamond plate polished aluminum and fabricate step pads. This may be the look you're referring too, yes?

 

[CDW6212R]

Yes, I've seen them in many colors etc, and I think that they are all the same part for Explorers.

 

[Jakee]

The look I’m going for is something clean looking, but durable at the same time; something that’s not way "over the top". Just a basic clean looking OEM style truck with a little added flare. In other words, I don’t want carbon fiber accents with lights glowing underneath.

 

[Limited02]

I think it would be a good idea to use the black bed liner on the moldings. With good prep it should look nice and be durable. You could clean up the stock wheels and add a anthracite color paint to them for track duty. I think you could pick up some used drag radials for the back and call it good.

 

[Jakee]

I've often thought about sending them out and widened a bit. Say maybe a 9" rim or so for the back.

 

[Limited02]

I think it would be cheaper to pick up some used weld draglites or dragstars than it would to have the stockers widened. Here are some ideas-
http://www.svtperformance.com/forum...ear-weld-draglites-15-8-5-5-bs-4-lug-fox.html
For the rear FR500's
http://www.svtperformance.com/forum...ickey-thompson-drag-radials-p315-35-17-a.html
Front and rear rims only
http://www.svtperformance.com/forum...ell-273/597222-weld-prostars-wheels-sale.html

 

[Jakee]

Not bad and I see your point.

The first link is for fox body rims which have 4 lugs. Nerds rule.
The FR500 rims I have are 18's..............................Nerds rule again. :
But the last link is cool.

 

[Limited02]

LOL, I was hauling butt through to find a cerain link I saw a few days ago and didn't really pay attention I suck If something better comes up I will let you know.

I also think that your new wheels would be good for the track because you will have better tires on than you have now and therefore shouldn't really have traction issues. If you do, then I would see about getting some drag wheels and tires.

 

[Jakee]

I'm going to try them out next time and see how I do. I would like to just make one change at a time to see if it really helped but that's going to be hard for me. I change things or think of better things to do daily. My tune for example, I've already change several things in it. That's actual not very smart because you don't know what change really helped....

As for the drag wheels, I've already got centerline wheels that are very light. The lug pattern is for GM so I'll have them re-drilled to accept my pattern. Not a big problem.

I'm still looking at the tires for the new rims. I made a tire calculator in Excel and according to this calculation; I need around a 26" tall tire to get me at 5500 RPMS thru the trap. For some reason, I know I'm missing something. Can you guys check this out and let me know what I'm missing, please.

 

[CDW6212R]

Are you going to build the truck dedicated for the 1/4 mile? If so then you could justify changing gearing or the tire diameter. Most street vehicles don't go that far, it will raise your cruising rpm's a lot usually. Are you aiming for the top of 4th gear?

 

[techieman33]

Are you going to build the truck dedicated for the 1/4 mile? If so then you could justify changing gearing or the tire diameter. Most street vehicles don't go that far, it will raise your cruising rpm's a lot usually. Are you aiming for the top of 4th gear?

I think he's talking about tire size for his track setup, not daily driver. So curising rpm's won't really matter.

 

[CDW6212R]

Ah, true, for strip tires he can adjust the diameter to better fit the gearing.

You do want more tire height for gripping the track off the line, so don't make the wheels bigger. Use 15's if you find good tire sizes to work with the track and gearing.

 

[Jakee]

Yes, techieman is correct; I'm referring to the track set-up. The street set-up will probably have the same if not a bigger diameter tire to what I currently run. The highlighted line was just me plugging in different combinations until I found one that was round 9%. According to my data logs, at 101MPH in the top of 4TH gear, I'm at 5000 RPM's and I would like to be around 5500 RPMS at the track.

What I think I'm missing here is when I go changing tires around I'll more than likely see a different trap speed at the end. I'm not sure how I account for this but I'll keep plugging at it.