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

[CDW6212R]

I like it too, and it slightly helps me visualize what the four coils will look near where I want them.

I would avoid a spacer if you can, use just enough to clear the VC's etc, and make it phenolic. The stock intake has the longest runners already, so it's already the best for lower rpm power, more just hurts top end power.

 

[410Fortune]

Heater box lids were made to be modified

I’ve used 5/8” and 1” spacers basically on all of my engines I like how it keeps the upper intake cooler to the touch

It also good for clearing tall valve covers
It does make mods to the egr pipe necessary and the coil tower, if you still have one.

 

[allmyEXes]

@410Fortune I'm deleting EGR on this one and won't have to deal with pipe stretching.
Looking at the RH header for twin wideband placement. The truck is ready to move out of the penalty box 50 ft closer to the shop. I'm able to steer it now. Some time back, 2 of us attempted to kick steer, actually with arms try to turn the front wheels a bit. Nope, the front wheels are sitting down 3 inches in very dry clay. We have been in a drought and 6" behind on rain. If it had been squishy mud they might have turned. These trucks are right around 4000 pounds fl.
I got a little hands-on time on it this week. I cleaned the original timing cover and cleaned the new water pump before painting. I picked a light gray. Bare aluminum oxidizes fairly quick, so this will be better. The new crank seal needs to go in.

Friday the whole day was spent at the cancer treatment center with my wife. Sept 13th she had a 3rd of her right lung upper lobe removed.
DRs say some cancer cells were left behind. We were onsite at the center for 7 hours Friday. I need to keep an eye on her today. I'm going
to leave the house long enough to go get my 2nd pair of accessory brackets to clean the grease off of the before media blasting. I don't
know a fast way to do such other than an old toothbrush and God's greatest grease cleaner. If you are going to blast parts, you surely don't
want to blast grease and oil. It won't work. It's feeling like one day at a time and one piece at a time and winter is coming soon.

 

[97Sandbox]

Keep at it and eventually you'll get there! At least that's what I keep telling myself.

This quote from Hot Rod's editor John McGann has stuck with me: "Doing something every day, even if it's just dusting it off or cleaning the windows, keeps your focus on the car. Doing mundane things can often trigger a spark of inspiration when you're stuck on a problem, and at a basic level, interacting with the project as often as possible will remind you why you took on the project in the first place."

https://www.motortrend.com/features/finishing-project-car-advice-starting-line/

 

[allmyEXes]

@97Sandbox I was thinking about your bolts earlier.
I have a multiplicative factor involved too. Many other vehicle projects, personal and jobs for money, not to mention the home stuff too.
Thanks for the positive support, Grant. This project like all others is one piece at a time.

 

[410Fortune]

How do you eat an elephant?

Life is hard
Trucks make it easier

 

[CDW6212R]

@410Fortune I'm deleting EGR on this one and won't have to deal with pipe stretching.
Looking at the RH header for twin wideband placement. The truck is ready to move out of the penalty box 50 ft closer to the shop. I'm able to steer it now. Some time back, 2 of us attempted to kick steer, actually with arms try to turn the front wheels a bit. Nope, the front wheels are sitting down 3 inches in very dry clay. We have been in a drought and 6" behind on rain. If it had been squishy mud they might have turned. These trucks are right around 4000 pounds fl.
I got a little hands-on time on it this week. I cleaned the original timing cover and cleaned the new water pump before painting. I picked a light gray. Bare aluminum oxidizes fairly quick, so this will be better. The new crank seal needs to go in.
View attachment 447130
Friday the whole day was spent at the cancer treatment center with my wife. Sept 13th she had a 3rd of her right lung upper lobe removed.
DRs say some cancer cells were left behind. We were onsite at the center for 7 hours Friday. I need to keep an eye on her today. I'm going
to leave the house long enough to go get my 2nd pair of accessory brackets to clean the grease off of the before media blasting. I don't
know a fast way to do such other than an old toothbrush and God's greatest grease cleaner. If you are going to blast parts, you surely don't
want to blast grease and oil. It won't work. It's feeling like one day at a time and one piece at a time and winter is coming soon.

That looks great, nice and clean, nothing like the real parts on these engines. If you want it to look good, either paint it after it's all on, or trim the timing cover gasket before you install it. That gasket overhangs a lot and the light blue doesn't look very good.

I wish you and your wife well, God Bless your family. Take it slow concentrate on little things that you can handle.

 

[Turdle]

The like was for the appearance of the parts.

The other part is a definite dislike. Hoping your missus a speedy recovery.

 

[Josh P]

I'm looking forward to seeing the progress.

 

[allmyEXes]

Thanks for all of your interest and well wishes for my wife. She is resting now. I'm at my shop here for a few minutes to round up the stuff for cleaning. Alternator bracket not real greasy. The ps/AC bracket is going to take some time to clean. I think that I found the only metric fasteners on this otherwise standard bolts on a 5.0. The ps pump and pulley.

I bet the ps pump has been changed. Looks like a reman sticker.

Spray paint can upside down before shaking to allow pigments to gravity shift. More later

 

[Turdle]

Another good cleaner for this is purple power. It's around 10.00 for a gallon of concentrate. After scrubbing that in well, car wash bay with hot soap wash. You'll get as wet as everything else but it saves a lot of time.

 

[allmyEXes]

Earlier I added the ps pump picture to the last post. Today I cleaned a good bit off old oil off of the 2 brackets. It was probably spilled ps fluid. Tomorrow they will get a little more cleaning before the media blasting then painting. I'm going to have to work around some chances of rain over the next 2 or 3 days but I don't expect a deluge this coming week.

 

[allmyEXes]

Before a light blasting I washed the brackets with Purple Power. After blasting I washed the blasting dust off of them with tap water. Dried them with a repurposed hair dryer. Two good coats of paint and done.

Some of you that know me have figured out that sometimes I will go to the previous post and add a missing picture or two.

 

[allmyEXes]

Friday 11-17-23 At work today we moved several vehicles. The '97MM was one of them. It finally moved out of the dirt lot penalty box. Soon, that area will be mud. Now it's on gravel near the buildings. It has a receiver hitch and I was able to plug in the pushbar made of 2 inch square pipe and a propane tank bottom with a piece of L60-15 bias ply attached to it. ~ 5 years ago, I made this tool when I was stuck working by myself.
None of the 4-wheel disc were stuck. That is good karma. The cat living under it is going to miss his home.

 

[allmyEXes]

Tuesday night 11-20-23 I had some time that I could work on one segment of the greater project. The last day of January I started making a bench box to be able to read and write PCMs on the work bench and power them up properly. There is a 104 pin PCM connector on one end and it has an OBD2 port to attach a pass-thru device for OBD2 port flashing.
Last night I wasn't using that method. ~ 2 months ago, I purchased one of the last few remaining Moates Quarterhorse devices. It attaches to the J-3 port of EEC-IV and EEC-V PCMs.
I connected a 1998 Explorer V-6 test PCM to the 104 pin black bench box. It has a toggle switch to simulate key on and key off. It was attached to a stable 12 volt DC power source. The Moates QH was installed on to the J-3 port with a USB cable going to the Laptop that had the TunerPro RT software turned on. I was able to successfully read the bin file that is stored in the PCM and saved the file when prompted. Later I opened the file in TunerPro RT and used the Hex Editor feature to verify that the file was completely copied. I just tried to attach a copy of the bin file to this post but it is not a recognized file extension on this Forum. Anyway, it worked. Tonight, I'm going to read and copy the bin file that is in the 1999 Crown Vic passenger car and check my results.
In the picture you may can make out the Moates Quarterhorse computer board plugged on to the PCMs J-3 port.

The OBD2 port is not used when using the Moates QH.

 

[allmyEXes]

Through the Thanksgiving holiday/s, I opened 5 EEC-V PCMs and cleaned each one's J-3 port to use the Moates Quarterhorse to read and save the bin files with the TunerPro RT software. This tool will also be used to "real time" tune. IE engine running and one person driving while the other is on the laptop making adjustments to the "tune". It is strongly recommended not to do this solo.
After that, It was time to get out the other device that will be involved in reading and writing to the PCM. There are several types of pass thru devices that attach to the OBD2 port for the EEC-V PCMs. After a failed attempt to purchase A Mongoose Pro for Ford by Drewtech, after my money was returned, I purchased a device through a company in Kazakhstan that I had previously purchased PCMFlash module #29 that is for EEC-V PCMs and others in that class or generation of PCMs. They specifically recommended a device called a Scanmatik 2 Pro. It was made in Spain and used on many eastern and western European Fords and some other autos too. It is made to plug into the OBD2 port in the vehicle and then plug into the laptop and with PCMFlash software open and ready, read, copy the PCMs bin file. This tool is also used to write a bin file back into the PCM. In the picture, my homemade bench box is kind of hidden under the cables. I have it all hooked up and ready for a bench read as apposed to doing this in the vehicle with the PCM installed. The box works well. If you put together a bench adapter, make sure that you hook up the purple programing wires that are numbered 13 on the OBD2 connector and # 13 on the 104 pin PCM connector. That way the flash programming will work.

Below is a picture of the screen with PCMFlash software open ready to use.

 

[410Fortune]

That is very exciting! You are now a hacker!

 

[allmyEXes]

Yep! But not yet a "tuner". That will take months, and more than one brain.

 

[Blown]

I have found EECtuning.org to be a good source for stuff. I went with a Tweecer years ago. I got help with my first tune, learned much with a couple of remote sessions and then more by comparing that tune with the stock tune. The Tweecer Manual does a pretty good job of walking you through the tuning basics.

I could help with what to tune but not how to get there with that programming.

Good luck with all you have going!

 

[allmyEXes]

@Blown I have heard of Tweecer and that may be pro EEC-IV stuff like Fox body Mustangs. All of my studying has been about EEC-V using TunerPro RT and the Moates Quarterhorse J-3 port interface for real time tuning. I'm not to that point quite yet. I have a "hybrid" powertrain harness to get started on. For several weeks now I have been involved in some welding projects at work.
I'm to the point now that I have to weld 2 o2 sensor bungs to my Mountaineer header. That will be soon to come.