2000 AWD Xploder from Turbo back to NA

[willzilla]

I think that I am cursed...

Check engine light popped on the E-350 yesterday... Pulled the codes and got a p0130 code.. Upstream O2 sensor... Thankfully those are cheap IF that is the issue... The light varies from sometimes being on and sometimes not, so, maybe wiring, maybe sensor.

Not only that... Was driving into work today in the van and the idiot in front of me had a CHAIR flip out of the bed of his truck and right in my path... No way to avoid it so I drove OVER it... Jacked up the front valence.. Hopefully nothing else... Couldn't see anything else damaged thankfully and was able to find a new valence on Amazon for $30 shipped!

Have not done anything on the Xploder lately.. Waiting on my LED's to arrive and will place an order for my water pump Thursday I'm guessing and have the pump next week. I finish another semester of grad school Sunday and will have a few weeks of no school to get the Xploder finished up hopefully!

 

[CDW6212R]

Enjoy the time off, and congrats with school.

Be happy for the little things, and to not have it worse.

An online member friend I know had a really bad trip home from Carlisle. He was driving his recently bought 89 Mark VII convertible, and he hit a big pot hole on the GW bridge. It ruined his brake caliper and line, so he had to have it towed. It cost him over $200 for the tow, beyond what his "plan" would cover. Waiting over 2 hours for the tow truck, he put the top up and discovered... someone had cut his top since the show the day before.

I'm grateful to make it home each day without major incidents, accidents or tickets etc. Driving anywhere is very hazardous.

 

[willzilla]

Enjoy the time off, and congrats with school.

Be happy for the little things, and to not have it worse.

An online member friend I know had a really bad trip home from Carlisle. He was driving his recently bought 89 Mark VII convertible, and he hit a big pot hole on the GW bridge. It ruined his brake caliper and line, so he had to have it towed. It cost him over $200 for the tow, beyond what his "plan" would cover. Waiting over 2 hours for the tow truck, he put the top up and discovered... someone had cut his top since the show the day before.

I'm grateful to make it home each day without major incidents, accidents or tickets etc. Driving anywhere is very hazardous.

Yeah, for sure! That sucks! I've had similar issues before, usually it's no problems for years, then, a bunch at once, lol.

 

[CDW6212R]

Yep, knock on wood.

 

[willzilla]

Ok... Got some good news... I can finally head up to NC and retrieve my SVTfocus Been a long time, lol. Going to fly up prob next Saturday, tweak the tuning, and drive it back to TN Sunday!

Anyways... Got bored a little yesterday and knocked out my backseat LED lighting conversion. Did not see a lot of details on this in the forums and very vague info in the thread I had linked earlier when I did my front console lighting conversion so I just winged it with this, lol.

Getting the console/map unit out was pretty simple... pop the lense off and 3 screws and out she goes... No wiring/connectors to disconnect as 2 of the screws themselves makes the connection into a screw female receiver on the roof under the console.

Here is what it looks like out with the OEM bulbs out and with the map lights themselves already replaced with some wedge #921 Superstar LEDs in place:

Because there is no wiring and it is all circuit board type flat flex type stuff I didn't have anything easy to solder to so I took one of my defective old wedge LED units I had originally bought for my license plate lights and cut the end off with the LEDs mounted to it and then shaved off the electronics leaving just the wedge board. I then wrapped on each side part of a wire and soldered it in place giving me a wedge connector type deal to plug into the socket with wires to solder to for the LEDs:

And the wedge adapter plugged in:

I'm sure there is a simpler and smarter way to do this but it was getting dark and I was just winging it at this point, haha.

I then hot glued in 2 of the 10-LED red discs with hot glue (man I love having a hot glue gun!!!!!) and soldered them up to the wedge adapter and insulated everything with some more hot glue:

I was "almost" an idiot and nearly covered the screw holes as I had completely forgot about the whole mounting it back part.. But, thankfully, by luck maybe, I had not covered any of the holes enough to prevent a screw from screwing the console back into place!

And this is what it looks like mounted with the lights on (and the map lights turned on):

The second picture looks kind of pink in the photo but in person it's a nice deep red with absolutely no pink at all and it looks great and is nice and bright but not overpoweringly so!

Next up will be the rear cargo area, maybe tonight after work Maybe I will take the notes from this thread and post a how-to for all 3 conversions in a single thread as I think it gives a little more detail than the ones I roughly based from.

 

[willzilla]

Finished up my red LED conversion yesterday. I did the cargo area finally Was not too difficult though my stupid light housing clip thing was broken and had to repair that.

Cargo light removed, broken:

Cargo light repaired and a red 10-LED disc glued in place. The disc was a little large to fit in flush so had to sit an an angle but still offers enough light radiating downward to be more than enough:

Wiring soldered in place and some additional hot glue added to fortify connections:

How it all looks installed and lit during the day:

And at night:

The photo looks pinkish (camera phone fail) but it's a nice strong deep red color in person... Positive about using red LED's is that night vision is mostly retained when on versus using white LED's which would pretty much blind you and wipe away all night vision!

 

[willzilla]

Added the LED conversion (all 3) into a single how-to HERE for anyone interested

 

[CDW6212R]

Thanks, those are great and detailed pictures.

 

[willzilla]

Thanks, those are great and detailed pictures.

No problem! Hopefully it helps someone.

I will be flying up to NC this Saturday and FINALLY retrieving my SVT Focus and driving it back to TN Sunday... Woohoo! Will be nice having my car back after so long. Bought it new back in 2002 and it sits at 50k-60k miles and half the car is brand new lol (new paint, new cf hood, new wheels, new tires, new exhaust, new suspension, etc, etc). Will almost be like a new car, lol, and having a second car will allow me to take my time with the Xploder and get everything done on it I like!

 

[CDW6212R]

Well then, enjoy the great gas mileage, and tear the truck apart!

 

[willzilla]

Well then, enjoy the great gas mileage, and tear the truck apart!

The SVT actually gets mediocre gas mileage, lol, prob low 20s on 93 octane Haha, but, that is still better than the Xploder! Hopefully once I retrieve it I will then get that waterpump I want ordered as well and install the 1" IMF spacer!

 

[CDW6212R]

I drive my LSC most of the time because it does about 19mpg, and the Mercury is 14mpg at best. I need to change the O2 sensors and hope that is the problem, or else do the computer tune. I have an odd slight vibration sometimes, and for the mileage, I'm thinking it's u-joints or axle bearings(&axles). I have had new axles for a long time, so I bought bearings and seals to swap those next.

 

[willzilla]

I drive my LSC most of the time because it does about 19mpg, and the Mercury is 14mpg at best. I need to change the O2 sensors and hope that is the problem, or else do the computer tune. I have an odd slight vibration sometimes, and for the mileage, I'm thinking it's u-joints or axle bearings(&axles). I have had new axles for a long time, so I bought bearings and seals to swap those next.

That's good you have the parts already... Sounds like me with my 1" IMF spacer... Bought it like 2 years ago, haha. Also need to replace my upstream o2 sensor possibly on the E-350 as the check engine light pops on occasionally calling out p0130 code... It's intermittent so not sure if sensor or wiring or what at this point.

 

[willzilla]

So... This past weekend I flew up to NC and retrieved by SVTf after 4 years, lol. Drove it home without any issues!

Have a few things to do to it from sitting so long.. A few switches have gone bad (the brights on/off in column is bad, the up/down window switch on the drivers side is bad and only works up, not down, lol), need to trim cf hood a little more to fit in my washer fluid nozzles, need to have tune adjusted for new stuff, and a few other odds and ends Nice to have it home so I can get finished with my Xploder and finish it up without being rushed!

 

[CDW6212R]

Great, it's a slick looking car, and now you'll save some money on gas too. My 91 Lincoln looks like hell with no clear coat, but it does 5mpg better than my truck.

 

[willzilla]

Great, it's a slick looking car, and now you'll save some money on gas too. My 91 Lincoln looks like hell with no clear coat, but it does 5mpg better than my truck.

Yeah, def save a lot of money on gas! I plan on alternating between both cars to keep miles low on both (the SVTf has under 58k miles on it). I averaged over 30mpg on my 600 mile drive home from near Charlotte, NC! I was shocked considering my tune is way off, almost 7 years old, and for completely different modifications! I lightened the car down a lot (dry-cell battery, cf hood, lighter rims/tires, junk removed, etc) and improved air in and air out so I'm sure that all helped!

 

[willzilla]

Not much new as of yet... Stupid SVTf is DOWN and the Xploder is down, lol. SVTf is having a cylinder 2 misfire... either plugged up injector, bad spark plug, or bad coil pack... Coil pack is brand new, so... Frustrating, lol. Spark plug wires ohm'd out fine, and I pulled the injector and cleaned it... Will put in all new plugs next... Trying to find a new fuel rail vac hose as I broke mine as well :-/ lol.

 

[CDW6212R]

Swap the coil pack out whenever you have a miss, I too had a miss that ended up being a not very old Accel coil pack. I have the two OEM units back in my truck.

 

[willzilla]

Swap the coil pack out whenever you have a miss, I too had a miss that ended up being a not very old Accel coil pack. I have the two OEM units back in my truck.

Yeah, I would, but do not have any other coil packs and have MSD wires which only connect to the MSD coil pack and not to the OEM coil pack :-/ Wish there was a simple way to test the coil pack??

 

[CDW6212R]

Ah, the new packs require matching wires, that's odd. But truly my wires didn't fit the Accel packs as well. Each maker seems to shape the wire towers slightly differently. I chose the Accel for the least contrasting color showing, everyone else was buying the MSD units. I think I got had, because they are all expensive, and mine went bad in less than 3500 miles.

For the 302's, I wonder if Screamin Demon makes a coil pack yet, they only had the 4.0 units back then? Theirs are all black.