96 5.0 needs a new motor

[Centaurus5.0]

Bah!

I think you'll have to heli coil it now or get a new lower. The intake bolts don't need to be very tight, just enough. Do you have a torque wrench?

When I was talking about the cracking sound earlier, I meant when first loosening the bolts that have been on since assembly, not when re tightening.. if you hear a crack when tightening, something went wrong, like cracked the intake.

The Explorer intake is all you need.

 

[AWD96spoon]

Bah!

I think you'll have to heli coil it now or get a new lower. The intake bolts don't need to be very tight, just enough. Do you have a torque wrench?

When I was talking about the cracking sound earlier, I meant when first loosening the bolts that have been on since assembly, not when re tightening.. if you hear a crack when tightening, something went wrong, like cracked the intake.

The Explorer intake is all you need.

I have 2 torque wrenches and neither of them go low enough. Not sure there is enough material in the area to drill out enough for a heli coil. If it's not cracked then I am confident I can just barely drill the hole enough to cut new threads. I'm pretty sure there was damage done to a thread when removing the bolt on the initial tear down because it pulled the thread the other day with much less force than used on the others, which is why I didnt think much of it at the time. I'll look it over in the morning and should have it fixed tomorrow if it's not cracked.

 

[shucker1]

I always put a touch of grease or Never Seize on everything during reassembly.

It helps to prevent getting stuff torn up.

Another time consuming but useful step is to run a chase tap in every hole and then blow them out with air.

Little bits of rust or corrosion is what usually starts problems with bolt holes.

Not sure there is enough material in the area to drill out enough for a heli coil. If it's not cracked then I am confident I can just barely drill the hole enough to cut new threads.

I think you are right on this one. I doubt you will be able to go to the next Metric size up in that area. I think that hole is M8 X 1.50?

Perhaps an SAE bolt would work back there?

 

[410Fortune]

the bolts in the lower intake that go into the water jacket get thread sealer on them
You can tap them one size larger been there done that
You must use the correct combo of upper and lower intakes together, your EGR is plummed inside your upper intake and the feed comes through the middle of the lower, the 98+ intake changed and does not have this feed (There are 3 different intakes for the 96-01 explorer)
Tuned in to see how this goes!

 

[AWD96spoon]

I always put a touch of grease or Never Seize on everything during reassembly.

It helps to prevent getting stuff torn up.

Another time consuming but useful step is to run a chase tap in every hole and then blow them out with air.

Little bits of rust or corrosion is what usually starts problems with bolt holes.



I think you are right on this one. I doubt you will be able to go to the next Metric size up in that area. I think that hole is M8 X 1.50?

Perhaps an SAE bolt would work back there?

Yeah I'm going to a 5/16" bit and 3/8" tap. Just picked up my new bolt and am about to take the upper intake off and see how everything looks.

 

[AWD96spoon]

the bolts in the lower intake that go into the water jacket get thread sealer on them
You can tap them one size larger been there done that
You must use the correct combo of upper and lower intakes together, your EGR is plummed inside your upper intake and the feed comes through the middle of the lower, the 98+ intake changed and does not have this feed (There are 3 different intakes for the 96-01 explorer)
Tuned in to see how this goes!

Hopefully I wont need to remove the lower intake but if I do then the spare upper and lower that I have are both from a 96 with the egr hole in them, they are just really dirty. I've also got another intake spacer going to be here today just in case the one that's one there is damaged.

 

[Turdle]

If you do have to use one of those lowers, get a can of easy off grill cleaner ( oven cleaner in black can) . Go to a car wash bay, spray it down with the cleaner inside and out, let it soak and foam then use the soap function car wash wand and rinse. You will be amazed how quickly it cleans this way. The remaining gasket material will be softened up and come right off.

wear a good winbreaker or rain jacket and use a face shield because you'll get a lot of back spray.

 

[AWD96spoon]

Well I've got the upper off and just what I thought, not cracked and the bolt did not crossthread, just pulled threads. The hole in the upper intake is not big enough to accept the larger bolt without drilling it slightly out, but the threads at the bottom of the hole in the lower intake are still fine as the bolt was not long enough to engage all of the threads in the hole. So yesterday i overnighted another intake spacer from summit in case this one was cracked and the new one is only 3/8" thick and the one I got the first time was a 1". I think if I clean out the debris in the hole and use one of the bolts from the 1 inch kit in that hole then the height difference from the thinner spacer, should be enough to get the bolt down into the good threads down in the bottom of the hole and still have enough thread engagement not to need to drill everything out and cut new threads. Here is a picture of the hole, kinda hard to see the bottom threads in the picture but there is a good 1/2" of clean threads at the bottom.

I also got my new rebuilt injectors today so those are going on as well. Haven't pulled the valve covers yet but am about to now.

 

[AWD96spoon]

Bolt hole.

 

[shucker1]

You could always get a longer bolt from Fastenal or McMaster Carr and keep your 1" spacer.

I can't remember if the back hole is blind or through hole.

 

[AWD96spoon]

You could always get a longer bolt from Fastenal or McMaster Carr and keep your 1" spacer.

I can't remember if the back hole is blind or through hole.

It's a blind hole, and I am going to keep the 1" spacer and may change it out in the future but for now I'm going to use the 3/8" spacer as it will help with fitting the intake in place under all the wires on the firewall.

 

[AWD96spoon]

Also found another vaccum leak that I hadn't noticed before on the litte rubber cap on the bottom of the upper intake.

 

[AWD96spoon]

Well I have fixed my bolt hole, my upper intake is nice and snug with no leaks, and the bad hoses were replaced except one that I could not source so I had to make shift patch until I can find a good replacement. Haven't run the truck enough to verify that it wont throw another DTC but it is idling much better and running smoother now. It is also coming down from WOT without dying now. I rented a uhaul truck and tow dolly and am dropping it off in the morning at the transmission shop. Not sure how long it will take to get done at the shop but after that it will be just odd and ends to get it ready for the 3 hour drive back home. I cant wait yo get this thing tuned because it sounds so great right now.

 

[shucker1]

Cool.

Good Job on the bolt fix. Longer bolt was the trick?

 

[410Fortune]

No he used a shorter spacer

The intake spacer keeps the whole upper intake much much cooler since it is no longer riding on the metal lower intake/engine
It also increases the length of the intake runners slightly which gains torque.
So a reduction of 5/8" is not going to cost you much torque and it will still keep the incoming air charge cooler = more power.

Those old brittle plastic vacuum lines are a pita! I am often replacing them with updated vacuum hose and fittings.
I always bypass the hot water feed to the upper intake, to me that is just more plumbing and water that can leak.

Nicely done! At least all the bolts are fresh so your trans builder can zip it apart and zip it back together
Fingers crossed! (Been through this many times myself)

 

[shucker1]

I always bypass the hot water feed to the upper intake, to me that is just more plumbing and water that can leak.

Did the same to mine.

Your talking about the (2) lines that come off the heater piping and go to the bottom vacuum port right of the upper intake?

I can see no logic behind that .

Copy on the shorter spacer. Plastics or Pheonlic Resins are great insulators.

 

[Turdle]

My scangauge verified the small coolant hoses to the intake allow coolant flow over the ect when the heater bypass is closed. with those lines blocked off the coolant hits a dead end and will not circulate over the ect, which is mounted in the heater bypass assembly. erroneous ect pcm readings will result.

 

[shucker1]

My scangauge verified the small coolant hoses to the intake allow coolant flow over the ect when the heater bypass is closed. with those lines blocked off the coolant hits a dead end and will not circulate over the ect, which is mounted in the heater bypass assembly. erroneous ect pcm readings will result.

Thanks Jon,

Never looked at it that way.

Jumper hose it will be.

 

[Centaurus5.0]

Sometimes you can find these kits for under $20 on ebay.

OEM NOS 1996-1998 FORD RANGER EXPLORER THROTTLE BODY INTAKE VACUUM EMISSION TUBE | eBay

Hard vacuum plastic lines? Yeah. Those are a bit harder to find nos.

 

[AWD96spoon]

Well the truck is at the transmission shop until further notice, but I did notice that my fancy little blue hose going to the factory oil cool is leaking no matter how tight I get that dang hose clamp. So instead of trying to make it fit I'm just going to get an oil filter relocation kit and do away with the factory oil cooler completely as previously discussed on here. Does anyone have a part number or a link to a good kit? I'm also ordering that I take hose kit above. Should do a good job replacing all the hoses I've been having problems with up top. I'm hoping the transmission builder will have it fixed by next weekend so I can go get it and try to get it all ready to drive. Anyone know of a shop in oklahoma or texas that can tune these older trucks? I'm having a hard time finding anyone who will even tune fords and the shops that do deal with fords are using cobb not SCT.