1999 Mounty 5.0 aka My Great Bad Idea

[97Sandbox]

I don't hate the two-tone look with the different color armrest and console lid, but I do hate the three tone look since all the spare interior parts I have are tan.

I'll be on the lookout for a grey console. Even charcoal would be a step in the right direction.

 

[410Fortune]

Vinyl paint!

 

[97Sandbox]

I drove the Mounty all around town yesterday before dropping it off at the shop for tire mounting and alignment. I topped off the tank for the first time since the swap...averaged out to 12.9 mpg...oof. Not quite what I was hoping for, but there was a lot of time spent idling, a lot of cold starts, and not much highway driving on that tank. It'll be interesting to see what the next fill up equates to.

One thing I will say, this truck is an absolute blast to drive around town. It's not bad on the highway either. I still want to rework the tailpipes sometime so the outer pipe doesn't touch the frame, I think that'll help reduce the noise and vibration. There's a bit of drone between 2500 and 3000 RPM that'd be nice to get rid of too. Anyone have experience with building quarter wave/Helmholtz resonators?

 

[allmyEXes]

In the past, I've used alot of SEM Product brand vinyl dye or paint. It works well.
Here is an interesting page about exhaust system Drone reduction.

 

[Josh P]

A Borla S type muffler sounds good, loud as hell though.

 

[Turdle]

I think the armrest would look better if it was black.

 

[97Sandbox]

I like that Helmholtz article. I read a similarly detailed article about quarter wave resonators yesterday. Interesting stuff for sure. I wonder which style would be easier to fit under an Ex.

Something I need to look into though is how to handle resonator placement in a dual exhaust configuration. I wonder if I would need two resonators or if having the crossover would allow me to just run one. I should really reach out to some of my old automotive engineer buddies.

 

[CDW6212R]

The Helmholtz chamber is built inside most OEM mufflers, that's why they are all quieter than aftermarket. I prefer that idea, if you notice they are odd shaped and vary in placement etc. I think making one of those should be much easier than routing an extra 24" of pipe, or a pair.

I think they would be more effective after each muffler, not before them. I've thought of making a small box out of sheet metal with one inlet and outlet, no packing, and a simple dead end path of similar volume as to what OEM mufflers have inside. They look to be fairly small in volume, I think maybe under half a cubic foot. That's what the aftermarket should make and sell, most people would want that simple small device.

 

[97Sandbox]

You know you can feel good about your swap when the mechanic says "I never knew they made those with a stick. It must be really rare." Haha.

The Mounty is feeling very good with a fresh front-end alignment and all four balanced wheels. I took it to the same shop that I had align my Fit and they once again did a great job at a reasonable price. I'll be going there from now on even though it's 25 min away instead of 2 min like the shop in town that butchered the alignment twice.

I'll grab some chrome lug nuts off a third or fourth gen to throw on next time I'm at the salvage yard. Otherwise, I'm liking the look of the AR Nitro wheels.

The wider rim and more aggressive offset is more subtle than I expected, but that's not a bad thing in my opinion.

 

[Turdle]

So, it's keeper not donor for sure now?

 

[97Sandbox]

Hahaha it's a keeper till it rusts out, then it'll be a donor. But I think that'll be a lot longer timeframe than I originally expected.

In the meantime, my Sport keeps on chugging along somehow. When the OHV finally goes, it'll be a tough decision whether to find another 5.0 donor or go with an SOHC/M5R1-HD swap. The latter is becoming increasingly appealing to me.

 

[CDW6212R]

Very nice Grant, I'm glad you like it and how it's turning out. A good alignment shop is hard to find, keep that one.

 

[DintDobbs]

@97Sandbox I am a supporter of the SOHC/M5R1-HD. My SOHC's are at 197k and 227k, never rebuilt, and neither of them makes the slightest timing chain rattle. My Limited gets close to 20 MPG's. Maintenance wins!

 

[97Sandbox]

Yeah, I honestly loved the SOHC in my '97 and those were supposedly the worst. It had over 200k on the original engine and still ran strong when I scrapped it due to rust and the second 5R55E burning up. It seems like finding a totaled '04-'11 Ranger would be easy enough and get me one of the better SOHC iterations. I'm sure @410Fortune knows what year PCM would work well in a 2000. I'm thinking '01-'02 Ranger or Sport Trac?

 

[410Fortune]

97 sohcs last forever once the dealer did the updates

Sure I often use sport trac pcms in rangers and vise versa. Sport trac basically is a ranger on paper
for the sohc engine in a 2000 and 5 speed I would look for an 98-04 Explorer sport, 01-04 trac, 01-04 ranger, or 98-01 4 door explorer XLS that hopefully had the manual trans
01-04 mazda b4000 also an option
(2001 was first year of sohc in ranger)

the 98-01 PCM pats is easier to work with, you can get the keys and tumbler and pats module to go with the pcm and all is well
02-04 pcm have the next version of pats, not so easy to work with, but pcm can be flashed to disable it
I recently put a 04 Mazda b4000 drivetrain into a 98 ranger and after several attempts to use the 04 pcm with the 04 key and 04 engine I could not get around the pats. I kept the 98 dash and dash wiring to avoid cutting holes in the firewall
Because of this I ran into a pats wall
No matter how i wired it to fool the pcm and pats system I couldn't get the pcm to be happy
very odd because I had added all the wires needed to make it still think it was an 04...or so I thought
I shipped the PCM to my friend @allmyEXes and he disabled the pats. Ranger runs awesome and I use any key I want.

 

[97Sandbox]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought the SOHC/M5R1-HD combo wasn't available until '01. Sounds like an '01 donor would be best from the wiring perspective but with an engine from '04+.

 

[410Fortune]

well you maybe correct but I am not sure
Many explorer sports were sohc and 5 speed even 4wd and rear discs, I could swear the one I got my old diffs from was a 99 maybe 2000? was for sure old body style sport not like the 01+
That would be a fun truck a sohc sport 5 speed..... zoom!!!!!

first year of sohc in ranger was 01

 

[97Sandbox]

Yeah, obviously this is wandering off topic for the 5.0 Mounty thread, but I'm definitely liking the SOHC Sport idea. I'll have to keep an eye on marketplace for any Rangers that get wrecked over the coming snowy months.

 

[97Sandbox]

Is there something I don't know about 90s Ford steelies?

I threw the old Mounty rims on marketplace for $100 (what I paid for the AR rims, mind you) and within a couple hours a guy messaged me and drove over and hour one way to get them. I thought those 15x7 steelies were pretty common. And last I checked, they're only $15 each at my local you pull. Maybe I need to get into the used wheel business...

 

[410Fortune]

Bingo

You should see how fast the old timers come for the old aluminum 15” wheels, the crager looking ones. You can’t pay me to run a 15 anymore hahaha

It Could be that it’s snow tire time and instead of paying $120 every year to swap them over they wised up and just got some spare Rims. Tire shops aren’t $10 a tire anymore more like $25

Stepson sold a 4.1 limited slip 8.8 yesterday dude drove 7 hours to get it and paid big $$$