Embarrassing story; call for help.

[U235]

Guys, I've got a sad story for you all. A buddy of mine and I both got out of work today, and we were both headed in the same direction to get home. Seeing that he was driving his mother's Jeep Grand Cherokee(his wrangler is in the shop), and feeling very confident about my new Exploder, I challenged him to a race, and he eagerly accepted. I don't know if he lied to me about his engine size, but the short of it is...

My 1998 Ford Explorer, 2wd, 5.0L

got smoked, by a

2003 Jeep Grand Cherokee, 4.7L.

I don't know if he's jerkin' my chain regarding his engine size, or maybe it was just a fluke, but it sucked. I've already decided that I'm either going to pick up and install a new cold air intake (either K&N or KKM?), and maybe get a new exhaust system installed. My dilemma is that I want to do my own modifications. I don't want someone else to trick out my Exploder. I want to be able to take pride in doing these things myself, and I feel that knowing how to work on a vehicle is invaluable knowledge.

I realize that 16 years old may be a bit late to be picking up an interest in automobiles and whatnot. But, if anyone can recommend some mods that are

1) Relatively cheap,
2) Will improve performance (at least enough to notice a little),
3) And can be performed by a beginner,

I would be very thankful. Thanks for any help you guys can provide.

 

[BlackMounty]

Installing one of these along with a set of these will make you go way faster.

 

[U235]

Sarcasm is a dirty thing, buddy.

 

[EXPLODER 69]

The K&N will do mor than an exhaust. I have done both to my dodge truck and found the air intake provides more power. the exhaust would sound good while providing a little more power. if u did and exhaust. keep it strait. the more turns the less power. I would recomend getting two cherry bombs and put one off each header. The biggest thing in the stock exhaust tht hurts power is the cadi. eliminate it and wou will get abt 20 more horse. it will make it louder though

 

[2000StreetRod]

+25 hp for <$20

I did the throttle cable mod and replaced my stock air filter with a cone air filter. Testing on the dyno showed a max power increase of more than 25 rwhp.

 

[KPSquared]

Installing one of these along with a set of these will make you go way faster.

He's kinda got a good point though man... Your question has been asked 1000 times on this forum and every other forum out there. Which means it's been answered 1000 times. There is a TON of info already on here that will tell you EVERYTHING you need to know.

Don't forget your buddies Jeep has a curb weight of 3669 and the plain 4.7 Liter has 235 HP and if he happens to have the 4.7 H.O. he's pushing 265 HP. Your Explorer is somewhere b/w 3900 and 4100 lbs and had 215 HP from the factory. So, your buddy has more power, a lighter vehicle, and a newer vehicle with probably less miles on it than your Ex. You'd probably have to do a LOT if you wanted to beat him in a race.

There are lots of performance upgrades you can do to your truck. With a limited budget, there are not going to be as many that will make any difference...

As far as 16 being to young to take up an interest in vehicles, that's insane... you're at the perfect age. A ton of guys had no interest in cars until they started driving them. This is a great time to start, heck, some guys don't start till 30 or 40...

Don't worry about getting beat. It's not a big deal and if you're doing it in town on public roads, you're gonna get somebody killed eventually. Worry about making your truck run well, learning how to properly maintain it and have a rig you can be proud of. All the info is here, I promise...

 

[coonerboy]

That shouldn't embarrass you. Just remember that '03 is a more modern engine that is more powerful. The 4.7 is an OHC design that would be a competitor with the 2002+ 4.6 V8 explorers. If you put your ex against an older(94-98) 5.2 V8 equipped Grand Cherokee you would have a more even match.

I agree with the other posters, don't worry about who has a faster SUV. Keep it well maintained and be proud of what you have. Your 5.0 is a proven engine that has survived the test of time over generation and generation while your buddies 4.7 has only been around for 10 years. That says alot about what we have.

 

[Fusion213]

Search is definately your best friend. I also recommend reading as much as you can about automobiles. My "spark" in automobiles didn't even kick in till I was 17.

 

[U235]

Installing one of these along with a set of these will make you go way faster.

He's kinda got a good point though man... Your question has been asked 1000 times on this forum and every other forum out there. Which means it's been answered 1000 times. There is a TON of info already on here that will tell you EVERYTHING you need to know.

My bad. I didn't mean to sound snarky or rude, I suppose that's just how I come across sometimes. I've been around tons of vBulletin websites, and I know that search is my best friend. And I searched around for a while. But the problem I ran into was there ARE tons of threads for people just like me, but they sort of threw me off. Ya know, there's no, "This is how to make your Exploder totally awesome" thread. There's a thread on CAI, exhaust systems, and so on, individually. And within those threads, ya know, people get really technical, and they lose me there. I guess I was looking to create my own "This is how to make your Exploder totally awesome" thread. My apologies guys, I'll search around more thoroughly next time before starting a new thread.

 

[rhauf]

I realize that 16 years old may be a bit late to be picking up an interest in automobiles and whatnot. But, if anyone can recommend some mods that are

This is funny, nobody gets their license until 16 and its hard to become interested in cars unless you grow up in a family which is very automobile oriented, which i guess is fairly common.. but i didn't. i got my first car at 17, did my first engine work (carb swap) about a year later, 2 years after that i had fixed up an old scout and rebuilt the engine, now a few years later I've built quite a few stock and performance engines (including 700+hp supercharged strokers) and thrown together a few off-road rigs which do pretty well. and i'm the go-to guy for hotrod builds, and i work part time as a mechanic. yet i didn't even know what a carburetor was until i was 18. my point is, you're 16 and you think you're old.. i remember when i was 16 i felt the same way.. now i'm 28 and 16 seems really young. i'm sure when i'm 40 i'll feel the same about my age now.. and when i'm 70 i'll think 40 was young etc. its all perspective..

well now that I've rattled off a bunch of stuff you weren't asking about.. how about some ideas for speed on you're car. first off, i'd nix the "cold air intake" idea, because you're stock intake system IS a cold air intake, many "aftermarket cold air intakes" are actually hot air intakes because they suck air (hot air) from under the hood (those ones with the filter exposed for instance) now a k&n filter in place of you're stock paper filter wouldn't hurt.. a good exhaust system (starting with headers) would also help a little. but neither of those things will make a whole lot of difference. if you want it to be way faster, you're going to have to consider either forced induction (supercharger, turbo, etc) or upgrading heads and cam. lower gear ratios in you're axles will give you a nice jump off the line as well, usually gaining you a couple car-lengths over stock in a street-light race for instance.

oh.. and add an aftermarket transmission cooler, even if you keep it stock, it'll help the life of you're already over-stressed transmission quite a bit. and change the trans fluid once in a while (25k miles apart minimum) i have a trick for changing trans fluid in 10 minutes.. if you're interested ill tell ya.

 

[U235]

lower gear ratios in you're axles will give you a nice jump off the line as well, usually gaining you a couple car-lengths over stock in a street-light race for instance.

How does one go about this? And is it gonna hurt my top end?

 

[TekMan05]

I can't speak for your story but before I was tuned I raced a 2005 4.7l Dakota crew cab that was loaded with passengers as well was I along with Subwoofers and I beat him by several truck lengths. Maybe your truck needs a tune-up as well along with the Cherokee probably being a lighter vehicle anyways!

 

[Mbrooks420]

There's not a whole lot you can do for improvements. The major bottle neck on the 5.0 is the exhaust manifolds, and fixing that is no cheap date. I wouldn't spend the money on anything exhaust Your other problem is you need much more power than him(his mom) to overcome the weight issue. Just race his Wrangler next time As for the gearing, a gear swap is $$$. Since your a 2wd you could look for a complete rear end, and swap in a factory 4.10, but the rewards/investment is prob not cheap enough to warrant it.

 

[U235]

Hehe, think I'd have a better chance against the wrangler?

 

[Mbrooks420]

I think you would destroy the Wrangler, as long as you stick to the pavement.

 

[Glen4X4]

Check in the "need for speed" section on here. To start I would put new plugs and wires in it, CAI, headers, then go for a high flow cat. Those couple things will increase your performance. And what was said before will help starting off the line is higher gear ratio's. Be careful "racing" I remember 5 years ago when I first got my license I thought it was cool racing red light to red light and speeding around but there is a certain time and place that should happen, just don't want y'all gettin hurt.

 

[U235]

I try to be careful. I spend the majority of my driving time trying to save gas as opposed to trying to haul ass, I just feel that sometimes I should flex my muscles, which are apparently smaller than I thought. We were on the highway late at night, little traffic, and lots of 4-lane-wide road to horse around on.

Headers and exhaust: I don't know what I'm doing, or how to install them. Is that something a beginner should be tackling? I have friends and family that are a lot more knowledgeable, I just don't want to get in over my head. It is, first and foremost, my daily driver. And as far as a high-flow cat exhaust goes, is THIS this type of thing I should be looking for?

I sure hope the $289 price tag is worth it.


And as far as headers, I've seen a lot of people recommend the Torque Monster Headers. Should I assume that these are the best for my explorer? Those also carry a hefty price tag, but if it's worth it... I'm not opposed.

 

[Glen4X4]

What I get from reading that is, that exhaust system connects behind the cat. Take things slowly....not sure if the headers is something to tackle yourself, if you do make sure you have plenty of PB Blaster or JB80 it penetrates through rust because usually exhaust bolts are rusted and a royal pain to break free and sometimes the bolt head its self will round off.

 

[Mbrooks420]

You probably wouldn't need to upgrade the cats. As for aftermarket ones your truck has 4 stock. A custom exhaust could trim this to a couple of high flows. Some people remove the rears. The Torque Monsters are the only header made for the 5.0 in an Explorer. Not an easy job.

 

[coonerboy]

That "this" catback is the one I installed on my ex. Very nice product. Dont expect a huge performance gain, but for the money, I feel it was worth it. Oh yea, do some searching on E-bay. I got mine for about $100 less than what explorer express sells them for. I did get my CAI from them though.