2002 Explorer V8 4wd to 2wd conversion

[gillis.mike]

Has anyone converted from selectable 4wd to 2wd. I have 2002 xlt v8 that is being lowered and heavily modded 4.6. I want to get rid of all the 4wd pieces. Is there anything other than the tranny tail shaft from a 2wd and the 2wd driveshaft that I need.im planning on the same 0-60 as the srt8 Cherokee and the trailblazer ss .already have the trickflow top end kit, 75 mm tbody shorty headers from a 2002 mustang and a built 5r55w. Gonna gear the x with 4:30s. Thanks for any input

 

[zerodevil]

Supercharge it and get those 0-60 times with a *****en launch to bat. You wont see 0-60 times anywhere near the srt-8 and TBSS with anything less than some form of forced induction. The 2v 4.6l just doesnt respond well to anything else. I have a full bolt on 4.6L, stalled to 2500.. and i just kiss 6 seconds to 60.

The 3rd gen V8 explorer is VERY front heavy, and as a result the 2wd versions dont get a lot of traction. Remove your front driveshaft and drive around town for a little bit, My truck breaks the rear tires loose with no brakes from a dig.

Be carefull with that trickflow kit, it was desinged for the "top-end" of the powerband, mainly raising the redline to 7kish.. the stock internals will not last long In that RPM range.

Idealy, a good street build would be to keep it 4x4, Kennebell supercharger at 6-7 PSI (intercooled), Crower Stage 2 cams paired to Patriot stage 2 heads. And an aftermarket fuel system. finnish it up with some 20x8.5's and 20x10's rims with some nice wrap. And you will likely break into the 13's on the track. Cost if you do the work yourself is about 10 grand, and will yeild HP #'s of around 400-450 at the wheels. You can then start to worry about embarassing new camaro drivers and Vetts.

 

[gillis.mike]

Not being mean or snappy but I don't need advice on the performance end of the build I've been racing 5.0 and 4.6 mustangs for over a decade and I know I can build a n/a engine that can eat a srt 8 and trail blazer as. I don't want to remove a front driveshaft and " drive around" it's the ghetto way to do it. If anyone else has anymore input about converting from 4wd to 2wd that be great. Like I said I don't need advice on engine building just the conversion thanks

 

[gillis.mike]

And as far as the 4.6 not responding to mods well, I've built 3 4.6 2v n/a mustang engines each on $6500 budgets and all 3 dynoed at 600 to 637 hp at the crank. So yes they do respond to budget mods

 

[Kevlar7R]

I think the tail shaft and the driveshaft should be all you need.

if you're going to do that kind of power though, you may as well get a trans built to your specs, and a custom drive shaft.

 

[Inspector13]

I don't want to remove a front drive-shaft and " drive around" it's the ghetto way to do it.

I think he meant it as to give it a shot to see how you like instead removing everything and then realizing that you don't like it.

Just my $.02 is that the thing with comparing the explorer to the trailblazer ss and the Cherokee srt-8 is that both of those are AWD, where as the explorer is either 2wd or 4x4. The auto 4x4 feature on the explorer evens the field against the other two.

As for your question not only do you need the different tail shaft and 2wd drive-shaft you need to get rid of the front differential, so you will need new front suspension components to replace the 4x4 pieces. You won't need all new suspension but you will need to replace some of the pieces.

 

[gillis.mike]

Tranny is already built,has anyone ever tried to swap the bw 4411 to the bw 4410 transfer case. If I keep a awd system I'd rather the 4410 just because its a mechanical setup rather than the 4411 I have and the fact it's a actual awd unit

 

[gillis.mike]

Trick flow topend kit out of the box = 390 hp on the dyno no tune with tune 434hp

 

[Inspector13]

Tranny is already built,has anyone ever tried to swap the bw 4411 to the bw 4410 transfer case. If I keep a awd system I'd rather the 4410 just because its a mechanical setup rather than the 4411 I have and the fact it's a actual awd unit

Right. I don't know if anybody has ever done it, but it is what I would look into if I was interested in doing what you are doing. Might have to look into a built transfer case depending on the strength of the factory ones.

 

[gillis.mike]

All I wanted to know if anyone has done the 4wd to 2wd swap that's it lol

 

[Turdle]

Seriously--???

A question about a trans tail shaft turns into how you need to mod your engine? This guy asked how to convert to 2wd--I'm surprised nobody advised him to wear a condom.

Why would I make that connection? It is as confusing as this thread.

 

[gillis.mike]

Thank you