410Custom's builds a 2007 Ranger V8 - custom truck build - Project "Ranger Premier"

[JoshT]

That might be it. I probably read that discussion too and forgot about it.

What style do you have selected at the bottom left (mine says 'Shades of grey')?

I just tried all of the, and none had the like button.

 

[BKennedy]

If only there was a thread for forum related topics....

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[410Fortune]

Back at it! truck is now on the lift where much work has been taking place

Had some fun with the floor jack before going up on the lift

Sorry for the messy shop! I was able to clean this up later

First up once she was lifted was to finish the rear axle install.
I had to bend up a new brake hard line for it using a 53" piece of coated 3/8" brake line from Napa
I think it was 53?
Anywho we measured in the store compared the old rusty part to the new lines
Also installed the B&M differential cover. 3 coats of red 3 coats of clear....came out sick!

hangtime

new brake line, and rear brake lines installed
Speed sensor wired up, begin install of new E brake cables

diff cover installed with gasket and thin coat of permatex on both sides
Diff and cover were thoroughly cleaned first, of course

rear brakes plumbed and ready to be bled

 

[410Fortune]

more of the rear axle

new hardline hand bent to shape, I haver done this many times it is never easy to get it right (or at least close!)

brake lines mounted with all factory clips / hardware
new E brake cables visible

ooooh la la

Time to switch up focus to the drivetrain
Next parts to be installed are transmission cooler lines, starter, starter wiring harness, transmission wiring harness (customized) converter cover plate and of course we will need some exhaust down pipes.

I setup a bench for doing exhaust, I have this milwaukee band saw just for this, fits nicely in the vise

layout all the pieces and start fabricating
To start I used a few inches of the factory pipes, they give me the bends needed to clear the front diff and get the exhaust routed properly

start cutting the pieces I need, each piece was de burred, chamfered, and sanded smooth for a good fit and good weld prep

many hours later

right where I want the pipes!
Dual 2.5" all the way out
I might incorporate an H pipe to help equalize the banks
Also found perfect spot for the wideband 02 sensor

custom downpipes

all cleaned up

 

[CDW6212R]

Very nice, and please take lots of pictures of the exhaust work. I'd love you to have my truck for that task, but, it'd have to be 2.5" pipes, for the first system(stock long block).

I like that shot of the space there next to the starter area. I'll need to place my down pipe there a little higher because the 6R80 has the three bolt starter(which is higher by 1-2" I think). I'm not sure if I can make the exhaust with the 4R in it, or swap to the 6R first.

 

[410Fortune]

The starter is nowhere near the Downpipe should be plenty of room. The trans cooler lines do need to run through there though
I will get lots of pics for you

 

[allmyEXes]

Very nice work. Is that mig or tig that you are using to weld the exhaust ?
You may have said already, what size/s are the wheels and tires going to be ?

 

[410Fortune]

220v mig with c02 / argon it’s a harbor freight multiprocess unit…. But I have not taken the time to learn how to use the tig yet. It is also powered by a generac pos rattle trap of a portable generator. We are off grid so anytime you see me run a 220 welder, plasma, lift, etc it is all run of a portable generac pos rattle trap of a gasoline genset. No need to burden our main battery bank with those heavy loads plus battery banks and welders have been known to not get along
After being off grid for almost 5’years now you learn a lot about generators, generac is not very good lol next time I will get a Honda

Shooting for 17” wheels with 35” tires

Thank you! This is the first time I have built down pipes from scratch …. I am now addicted to fabricating exhaust! So many years paying shop to cobble things together… now I can finally Re do my own exhaust the way I want it

We will need to order up two mufflers for this beast. I am a big fan of borla exhaust, but I also love the sound of flowmaster and some others, plus I have had good luck with no name mufflers. I have heard good things about spintech and always wanted to try their design. This is the stage of the muffler selection as of now. We need something slightly compact so I can stuff two of them under here, also I want straight through flow no chambers if I can help it

 

[allmyEXes]

You get a good weld flow especially running a mig off of a genset...

 

[410Fortune]

You get a good weld flow especially running a mig off of a genset...

I have my moments!! Lol

Thank you! I am learning much from this
My welds will improve, for these pipes the tack welds are done in the truck upside down.... have to hold parts, weld, not get burned, etc
Then the final welds were done on a utv tailgate and it had been a long day.....I know I can do better as I get more practice
Sorry Eddie your truck is the Guinea pig! although if these ever fall apart it will give us a good reason to have a visit

I do plan to wrap the downpipes, I like to use exhaust wrap to push the heat further downstream past the transmission and passenger floorboards

Now that the downpipes are located and mostly sorted out I was able to get back to installing the trans cooler lines, torque converter cover, starter, starter wiring harness and trans wiring harness
Lower trans shield installed! Every little bit counts (sometimes I search for a while just to find the bolts!!)

trans cooler lines, cleaned inside and out, slightly bent to conform to my design
Worked out nicely! I like to use the factory metal lines as opposed to cutting them and running hoses simply because the metal lines do such a good job of dissipating heat, reduce the number of hose clamps, and they are tough

two straight pipes in place to ensure I get the downpipes positioned properly
I am building a few exhaust mounts into the system, first one will be at the trans mount similar to a stock 5.0
you can see cooler lines installed
cooler lines, starter wiring harness installed, do not forget to mount the supports! Hardcore 5.0 dudes will notice for my purpose here I haver moved the trans support bracket to the same bolt as the wiring harness support bracket

That is the underside of the pass engine mount plate
cooler lines in place!

104K starter and starter wiring cleaned and installed. All terminals cleaned and treated with anti corrosion spray

can see the lower trans shield from before is also in, over to the right is our red urethane front diff bushing

another shot of the wiring and cooler line supports, proper routing

the starter / charging harness is mounted to the front of the 5.0 here with these two brackets

transmission cooler lines are wrapped with some heat shield material when in proximity to the exhaust. Remember exhaust downpipes will be wrapped also

Now time to start the wiring for this rig
It all begins at the starter, alternator, ac and low oil level harness from the 98 5.0 104K donor
harness is cleaned and repaired before install

I can use this harness as it is, no mods needed

typical repair of the factory wrap

transmission / 02 sensor harness is getting cleaned up, this dude will need some mods for our build

FYI the wiring harness are the dirtiest part of a build! much time is spent wiping them down so I can work with them

So when Brett built our 4r70w we make sure to use the 98-01 style bulk head wiring connector along with its corresponding internal hard wiring harness and 98-01 style solenoids
Half way through 97 the 4r70w changed from 9 wires to 7. I needed to make sure I had the correct harness/bulkhead fitting before plugging it in

7 wires we have the correct harness, no mods needed
I keep this chart (along with many others) pinned to the wall in the shop because I am often making changes to these transmissions

Now inside the 5.0 transmission harness is also 3 of the 02 sensors. This truck will be using a single wideband 02 sensor with the Holley drivetrain computer....so I removed two of the 02 sensors and their wiring. I will route the bosch 02 sensor to the holley computer using the factory wires and blue plug

time to unpin the removed wires, harness is cut down and 2ea 02 sensors go bye bye

Harness will be re wrapped and installed along with the transmission case vent
stay tuned....more coming almost daily
Today is Friday April 1, the kids are on spring brake next week = WAY MORE SHOP TIME for me

 

[Josh P]

 

[410Fortune]

he must have missed some welds should have used a FORD rear end

 

[410Fortune]

Guess what
The Holley system INCLUDES the transmission plugs as well as wiring to the 02 sensor… no splicing into the factory harness.
I am reading the instructions…..
Again

So no need to mod the factory trans harness
Forget all that stuff I posted this am about that
Whoops… stupid human brain fart (goes to remove factory trans harness from truck)
Battle on

 

[CDW6212R]

I love it, almost all of that I would do or will do. I wish one of the EFI systems would soon be able to run the 6R trans, that would make the cost a great deal. BTW the 6R has the trans lines coming out of the driver's side, that should be interesting to route around the exhaust and engine.

Have you heard of the Vortex muffler, by Cherry Bomb? I don't know what they will be like in person, but they are straight through with a small curve in the middle(thin barrier centered in them). But they are also just 4" thick, and flat, you could stack and weld them together(as I will with about four pieces of steel to space them about 1/4" apart). I have the 2.5" version with 2.25" inlets(pair), but they make single In/Out models too. I'm going to split the two bank pipes behind the cats, and run four pipes straight into the mufflers, if you can visualize that mess.

 

[CDW6212R]

What starter/battery harness are you using there, is it the V8 or the vehicle's 4.0 wiring? I ask because the 302 part has been obsolete for 10-15 years, and I prefer the OEM wiring. I had a low mileage harness that I installed into my 91 Lincoln, it had bad battery cables and the Explorer part went in with minor work. I plan to remove that soon before I sell that car, I'll swap the stock one from my 92, and be reworking that wiring with a 2002 Mustang harness set I have.

 

[JoshT]

I'm having a brain fart here. How is the Ex starter setup? Does it have a separate solenoid or is it built into the starter. I'm thinking the latter.

If the latter and you don't have the factory starter harness (or need the factory senders) then you would just run cable from battery positive to lug on starter and a start wire from ignition switch (or computer) to the solenoid? Basically the same as with a separate solenoid, but everything down by the starter?

 

[vroomzoomboom]

Guess what
The Holley system INCLUDES the transmission plugs as well as wiring to the 02 sensor… no splicing into the factory harness.
I am reading the instructions…..
Again

So no need to mod the factory trans harness
Forget all that stuff I posted this am about that
Whoops… stupid human brain fart (goes to remove factory trans harness from truck)
Battle on

yea, i was like um.....doesnt it pretty much plug in? cant you toss the factory harness? lol. i am going to be learning a bunch on this very soon as my kit came in today. the big one for me (according to brett) will be wiring the factory coil packs in if i remember correctly.

 

[JoshT]

yea, i was like um.....doesnt it pretty much plug in? cant you toss the factory harness? lol. i am going to be learning a bunch on this very soon as my kit came in today. the big one for me (according to brett) will be wiring the factory coil packs in if i remember correctly.

Yep, that's what peaqued my interest in the Terminator X systems as a potential for my build. If I had to figure out all the woring I'd just stick with the Explorer EFI (and may still), but since they have a package that will work with the transmission and everything, I'm very interested.

From my reading into the system, the coil packs are my biggest obstacle. I get most everything else, but I want to use factory coil packsm and I can't wrap my head around how they would be wired in. I was excited to see 410 say that he was going this route for this build. Hoping that his example will clear things up for me. If so, Brett might be getting another order in the next year or two. Just too many other irons in the fire to tackle right now.

 

[410Fortune]

Phew okay

Sorry for the trans harness debacle I got on a roll.. I always dig out and stage the next set of parts to be installed the trans harness was just begging to be cut up and Re wrapped. Now I basically destroyed a perfectly good 98 5.0 trans harness lol lol

Yes I have heard of vortex mufflers, no details, I have just heard of them. We spent much time yesterday researching mufflers enough to make my head spin. I learned hooker exhaust is actually Holley very interesting, they have a very nice active exhaust system which is way out of our budget. Also been looking at vertex mufflers which are tunable electronically… sweet but $350 each plus $350 for the controller plus plus plus stuff is wicked cool but can get expensive and complex real quick! I researched crossovers and cutouts as well

I ended up ordering a 2.5” x pipe we will be incorporating instead of an h pipe like I had planned. X pipe is for sure the way to go and a crossover is a very good idea in a system like this it improves power and torque and it lowers the decibels a bit.
I am still researching mufflers but again I am leaning towards to basic Borla single in single out units. Once the truck is running and in service and proves itself (like a good 5.0 ranger) then we can come back and do electronic cutouts or electronic mufflers etx… right now that $$$ and time is needed for shocks, wheels, tires, fuel system, etc etx

I read and Re read the. Entire Holley terminator manual…. Way too easy! Seriously. I am holding my tongue right now but that Holley system makes it way easy to get this 5.0 and 4r70w up and running

Wire in the factory mas, tps, crank sensor, cam synchronizer, injectors, and a few other things really very straight forward. I have the coil pack drivers needed to run the stock 5.0 dis for now that is the way we are headed. Running 8ea ls coils and converting to a cop engine sounds fun too, but i have this system here so that’s what this truck is getting.

I have already attached the Holley transmission wiring harness and routed it up the spine of the trans. I need to order a line pressure sensor from Holley this will allow us to monitor trans line pressure, a nice option from Holley wiring is included

I also built the Downpipes exhaudt support from the factory 5.0 bits. Once I finish this work up today I am lowering the truck down so o can put the engine together. I have some hurdles to overcome like fuel system plumbing / regulation otherwise I see no reason I can’t have the engine together, wired, the Holley pcm mounted and ready to begin the programming process very very soon

Yes I am using the factory 98 5.0 starter/alternator/ac harness it includes all battery power wires, engine and chassis ground, alternator charging circuit, ac compressor clutch wires and low oil level pan sensor wires. No mods made to that harness.
Yes it is totally possible to
Build your own starter harness, battery cables, alternator harness from scratch, I have done that many times too
98 explorer has two starter relays one is in the power junction box and the other is of course built into the starter itself.

Also found out the kids spring break is two weeks long! I forget this each year, heck yes!

 

[410Fortune]

Oh and I am sure the Holley system could be programmed to use the 6r auto.. I am sure that is coming it works with every other trans and the 6r controls have already been “hacked” haven’t they? Optishift makes a controller for that trans right? Been a year since I looked

I have a “few” 5.0 drivetrains lying around and I have a “few” complete 5.0 high mile drivetrain donor explorers in the yard, so if you need some obsolete parts just speak up