Having two ford explorers with the SOHC motor in it, they can be a very torquey engine given the correct mods. I personally love that being thrown in the seat feel, so I know where you’re coming from. I’d start by doing the following mods in order as I list them.
-Cold air intake. Make sure you use a quality filter such as AMSOIl. You’ll notice a big difference versus using some cheap crap off ebay
-Exhaust. The stock muffler is extremely restrictive to reduce noise levels. Now, it’s going to sound weird, but the SOHC likes to be choked a bit for low end power. To solve this, don’t get dual exhaust and don’t go larger than a 2.5” tailpipe. Actually, only have a single 2.5” tail pipe. I’d go with a flowmaster muffler
-Synthetic oils. Get it in the engine, transmission, and rear end. Synthetic puts less drag on the motor thus adding more power and better fuel economy. I’ve seen reports where Royal Purple added to all three put 10 more hp at the wheels. I personally use mobil 1
-Electric fan. Your fan right now is constantly ran by the motor. Going electric takes that drag off the motor and to the rear wheels where you want it. You also get better fuel economy
-Tune, expensive but worth it. I wouldn’t tune until you’ve done some of the above mods. The tune allows the transmission to shift quicker, advances timing, and brings all your mods together so the engine knows how to best maximize them. You can also tune to run specific fuel types. I used to run premium when I had money to blow, but I now run 87
Misc things
Port and shaft your TB. Search on how to do it. Free but takes time
Larger MAF. If you do this, you need to tune so your truck learns
Also if you haven’t done a good tune up lately, do it.
