Lifted and supercharged 08 XLT

[Hickman98]

I'm an the proud owner and builder of this 08 XLT Explorer. First a little background of it and myself. I live 20 miles North of Louisville Kentucky. I work at the same Ford plant that my Explorer was built at Louisville Assembly Plant (LAP). I am luckily married to a semi understanding wife that tolerates a good part of my time in the garage.

OK enough about me, on to what we're all here for.... The Explorer
It is a 2008 XLT 4.0 4X4
Some before, after, and general info
170xxx miles on the body and engine
I rebuilt the transmission myself last summer (2015) because of a broken intermediate band and have around 15k miles on it. I also ground the servos shafts and put o rings on them in March to help with 1-2 shift and holding OD.

It came with axle code 45 ...3.55s and open diffs.... It now has 4.10s and a Trac-Lok in the rear.

It now as of has 5.5 inches of lift with 33X12.50R22 Atturo M/T's and 1 inch wheel spacers. I did a combination of strut spacers and body lift. I had to to a little front inner fender trimming after installing the wheel spacers. I did all of that last November and December (2015).

After pulling my boat a few times this spring I decided to go ahead with my next upgrade. My tires weigh 72 lbs each without the wheels. That added weight especially when pulling anything made this thing slow to get going and to stop. I went to ceramic break pads and that helped with the breaking.
For the going issue I installed a Super Coupe Eaton M90. I built the the setup myself including the intake and elbow for the throttle body. I am currently running 5 lbs of boost and a canned tune. In the next month or two I plan to upgrade my fuel pump and injectors, and get the Pro Racer software then go up to 8 lbs of boost. I am waiting until I upgrade everything take it apart to clean up and powder coat the parts I built. Right now it's bare metal but I promise it's temporary.

On to some pictures.... I will add more over the next few days as I go through my backups and find any worth posting.

It's not a street only kinda build.

Added bonus of these wheels.... I can change the breaks without jacking it up much less taking the tires off.

Preview

More to come.....

 

[RIV Customz]

Interesting build but what are you welding with? Looks like you are running a little cold.

 

[Hickman98]

Interesting build but what are you welding with? Looks like you are running a little cold.

I had actually run out of Argon and was nearly done, so I finished a few welds up with Flux cored. I'm going to tear it all apart soon. I'm going to clean it all up, redo those few welds, and tweak a few things.

 

[RIV Customz]

I hear ya. Running outta gas is a pain. I keep 2 bottles so that when one runs out I have the spare which buys me some time to refill the empty one. Looks like you are using carbon steel material. Any worry with rusting?

 

[Hickman98]

Good point, having a second bottle on hand would be a good idea. Once I get the time I plan to pull all of the intake parts I built off. I am going to make a few adjustments, fix a few welds then buff them down and powder coat all of the steel parts. Hopefully rust won't be an issue for a long while.

 

[RIV Customz]

Not sure if you'll need it but they make high temp powder coats.

 

[Hickman98]

I haven't looked into the temps ratings, thank you for pointing that out. I will look into it so I dont run into any bubbling or peeling issues.

 

[RIV Customz]

I have NO idea where to get it but guys at work were coating their exhaust tips with the stuff.

 

[Hickman98]

Hopefully the guy I am going to have do mine will have or be able to get it.

 

[RIV Customz]

Grind all the pieces nice and clean. Carbon steel usually comes with a blackish layer on it like shown in your pictures. You want all the surfaces clean before getting coated. It will bond better. If the shop sand blasts all the pieces first then grinding clean is not as much of a necessity although I would still do the grinding. Just like with normal painting, surface prep is key. Once powder coat chips, there is no easy fixing it other than trying to touch up with paint which will look like crap and won't prevent further cracking. You could also make your parts out of a non-rusting material like 316 stainless or preferably the same material as the SC but that will almost certainly be more expensive.

 

[Hickman98]

The guy that is going to do it for me is someone I know and he has the stuff at his house to do it. It will all be sand blasted to get the coating off but I am still going to do some grinding on it. I have seen chipped powder coating and you're right, the only way to fix it and it look good it to redo the whole part. The SC case is aluminum and I would love to build my parts out of that. I just do not have the setup at home for that kind of aluminum work. My welder claims it can weld aluminum just by changing my gas and wire. I dont know how well I believe that plus I would rather tig weld an aluminum intake. A tig welder is more on my dream tool list than my use it enough to justify the the price tool list.