410Fortune - 96 5.0L XLT refurbish (making 1 great Ex from 2)

[ExploreH.B.]

No way! That's me at Mission Bay, on the X-Games course a couple of years ago.

 

[Joey P]

Looks great Jaime!! What's the intake spacer do for the 5.0?

<---------Newb....

 

[410Fortune]

+15 Hp according to Ford
it keeps the upper intake cooler = cooler intake charge
It allows more airflow over the fuel rail
It increases the length of the intake plenum runners = more torque.
It gives me more room for routing hoses/wires
it also makes the throttle body clear my friggin oil fil cap! hahaha

(sits grabs popcorn to watch Park Bonifay debate)
Oh and I finally ordered some ballst for my boat, Pro X integrated bow sack , cant wait!

 

[Joey P]

Thanks..

 

[rynstvy]

awesome

Here's another Exploder with the Fiberwerx F-150 3 piece clip.

NICE

Needs some finishing work/bimper, bigger tires, hide the framerails but this kit looks pretty wicked on a built Expo, yet another option to consider

i'm really into prerunning my explorer i was wondering where you found these pictures, they seem like good ideas. :navajo:

 

[FROADER]

There are a couple of those front clips for sale on www.race-dezert.com

 

[410Fortune]

You likey that one then you will lovey this one:

Those pictures are directly from Fiberwerx

Also I am a regular on this forum, desert Explorer's are popular over there:
dezertrangers.com

 

[Jefe]

Last time I did this Jefe commented that I spent alot of time cleaning the upper intake in order to paint it the stock color (silver).

This time I decided blue would be a good color for the accents on this engine

Nice

 

[410Fortune]

Okay pictures:

Got the timing cover gasket on Monday, so I spent about an hour cleaning up the timing cover, then installed the new main front seal into the cover.
The timing cover gasket was put in place using some tacky gasket glue, and silicoln around the edges where it meets with the oil pan.

After that it was easy to install the crankshaft pulley/balancer, crankshaft position sensor, and finally the waterpump and gasket (again spent some time cleaning up the gasket sealing area and some buildup on the waterpump face of the timing cover and passages into the block.
Water pump gasket also got sticky gasket glue on both sides.
It took me some time to find the stupid waterpump bolts hahaha Ford has double sided studs to pick up wiring looms. I installed just like factory.

There were a few small things that needed to be done before I could go much further. First I needed some more parts:

Fan blade (thanks Joe!), hood release cable and bracket (from rolled truck, blue truck has FUBAR'ed cable), new trans cooler & fittings, spark plug booties, 5.0L belt and tensioner pulley. Oh and my favorite I had to get out of storage my PIAA fog/driving lights. It is my understanding these babies used to belong to Tom Davis and came to me via a trade with Bill (RangerX)

So the new engine was missing the heater core manifold and the water temp sensor that installs inside said manifold. I had to rob these parts off my donor engine (that came out of this truck). Funny thing is the reason this engine does not have it is because I robbed it and cut it up to use in my BII

I spent some time cleaning it up and re-painted the manifold, cleaned up the trheads applied some silicoln and threaded it into the upper intake. I also connected the heater hoses to the heater core and the 96 style bypass rubber hose (later models have a hot water bypass inside the upper intake, which I deleted on the BII)
Before cleaning/painting:

I soldered on the two wires for the temp sensor and installed it.
Finally last night I fit the waterpump upper hoses, modified the coil pack mounting bracket and installed it (intake spacer requires modifiactions of the tripod coil pack mounting.)
The throttle cable bracket is also modified and installed, these parts came from my donor truck as well, the bracket on this blue truck had been cut
I mounted the factory power steering cooler also.

tonight I will plumb the power steering, route the spark plug wires, mount the front dress brackets, alternator and wiring, power steering pump, tensioner pulley, water pump pulley, idler pullies, etc.

I will be welding in the new radiator support on Friday night or this weekend, the drivetrain will get fluids, and I can hopefully break in the cam this weekend

 

[410Fortune]

Okay well after working on this SOB for the last few weeks, with thoughts of actually driving it I am back thinking I want to go lifted, not lowered.

Speaking of long travel Explorer's check out the new Baker Motorsports Explorer (well it still has an Ex frame anyways):

Drool all over the floor

 

[r37ribution]

awesome

 

[410Fortune]

The previous owner had Accell 8MM high temp wires.
I cleaned them up and installed:

Power steering, AC compressor and lines, alternator, vacuum, new belt, new idler pulley so now all accessories are in place:

I straightened the metal on the pass inner fender, some grinding and it is ready for the new rad support to be spot welded in place.

Fluids, fan clutch, cooling, trans lines and cooler, then camshaft break in

 

[rynstvy]

ive been wonderin can i beams like the ones above on the prerunners come out of alignment easy? i know that my a arm come out of alignment easy, can i get a set up for jumoing with a solid axle or not?

 

[410Fortune]

I have seen the A arm alignment cams tack welded in place so they don't move on you (from hard use)

As far as the beams pivoting from the beam pivot point and from the radius arm mounts, these beam setups typically use a uni ball pivot on the beam end and a heim on the radius arm. These give more precise movement then traditional bushings. the camber shims on these knuckles (beamed trucks) are held in place with a pinch bolt and are not as prone to moving out of alignment as your A arm shims are.

Solid axles can be setup for anything, but it sounds to me like for your use the A arm suspension can work very well (without torsion bars if the budget alows)

 

[Creager]

those headers look sooo swweet

 

[rynstvy]

I have seen the A arm alignment cams tack welded in place so they don't move on you (from hard use)

As far as the beams pivoting from the beam pivot point and from the radius arm mounts, these beam setups typically use a uni ball pivot on the beam end and a heim on the radius arm. These give more precise movement then traditional bushings. the camber shims on these knuckles (beamed trucks) are held in place with a pinch bolt and are not as prone to moving out of alignment as your A arm shims are.

Solid axles can be setup for anything, but it sounds to me like for your use the A arm suspension can work very well (without torsion bars if the budget alows)

i'm not sure about a arms, but blitzkreig motorsports has an long travel 4x4 w/ coilovers but for a blazer but same idea, i like to 4 wheel and jump. not sure wich way to go on suspension though. thanks

 

[410Fortune]

Dixon Brothers is the only shop currently that makes a true long travel coilover kit for your A arm truck 4x4 or AWD.

Others are rumored to be following suit shortly, but have not hit the market yet.
Superlift makes a drop down bracket lift kit that retains the torsion bars and RCD makes a drop bracket kit with coilovers that eliminates the torsion bars.

Places like Blitzkreig and Baker motor sports will gladly make you a long travel A arm suspension I believe, but they do not sell a semi bolt on kit........yet.
Camburg and Mcneil are two of the big names who are supossedly working on a bolt in kit, release is sometime in 2006???

 

[FROADER]

I like the "headlights" on the Baker Explorer.

 

[rynstvy]

Dixon Brothers is the only shop currently that makes a true long travel coilover kit for your A arm truck 4x4 or AWD.

Others are rumored to be following suit shortly, but have not hit the market yet.
Superlift makes a drop down bracket lift kit that retains the torsion bars and RCD makes a drop bracket kit with coilovers that eliminates the torsion bars.

Places like Blitzkreig and Baker motor sports will gladly make you a long travel A arm suspension I believe, but they do not sell a semi bolt on kit........yet.
Camburg and Mcneil are two of the big names who are supossedly working on a bolt in kit, release is sometime in 2006???

thanks for the info, but i'm thinkin of making my own a arm set up, it doesn't seem it will be that hard. just alot of double checking. by the way my ex is 2wd right now i would love to figure out a 4x4 set up to jump with

 

[410Fortune]

2wd? Oh man why didn't you say so.
2wd long travel is ALOT less then the 4x4 (cv joints) to build

There are MANY kits on the market for your truck, from mild to wild! Some research is in order.

Check out the offerings from places like Camburg....