Matt's '92/'99 4X4 V8/4R70W swap!

[seth247]

after 43 individual labels and some help from jakebrake I have the wiring mostly figured out.

 

[seth247]

ok I've been looking at tach mod info.

I know from previous adventures that my tach has a terminal labeled "v8".

But what I can't figure out us whether I run my tach wire to the "v8" terminal or do I run it to the "v6" terminal. And then jumper over to the "v8"...

 

[WickedWindsor]

I used a tach from a '91 F150 / v8. It bolted right into place behind stock Explorer instrument cluster and reads correctly. From my knowledge, there aren't any v8 connections for first gen Explorers. At least not in the schematics I've had. You may have a very rare part on your hands.

 

[seth247]

I have a spare cluster In my room. I'll check it tonight and see if it has the same terminal.

Due to my extreme lazyness I am going to check on the possibility of haveing an exhaust shop make my ypipe.

Hopefully I won't get pulled over on the way to the place for noise pollution.

The landl mounts are great. They reuse the stock mount holes and I only had to drill one on the passenger side of the xmember. It does put the engine low enough to clear the hood. Though I have doubts about clearing a 1" spacer.

My only oil pan clearance issue is with the bracket for the passenger side beam of the TTB. Which I beleive is a problem that cropped up on jamie's rig if I remember correctly.

I will have to grind the bracket a bit and "massage" the oil pan.

 

[Spdrcer34]

...Awesome!

I am supposed to go pick-up a new driveline tomorrow, since the one I bought from a board member wasn't the right one. He is making good on it, so no worries there. Just frustrating...

Ryan

 

[seth247]

I forgot to mention.

Even with the new mounts, the firewall still must be pounded in to clear the pass header.

 

[seth247]

Also forgot to Mention.

It appears that the stock 4.0 radiator and ac condenser will be fairly easy to fit in. There us plenty of room to fit the rad in after some sawzall action and as far as I can tell it will all fit behind the grill.

Maybe even with some room for a pusher fan in front.

Tomorrow I will take some before and after pics if the rad support for reference.

 

[seth247]

that top socket actually says "8CyL" but the L was cut off in the picture, which was very hard to take. none of my cameras wanted to focus on it.

ok i found my spare cluster, but the tach module was missing cause the reason i bought the spare cluster was for a new tach after mine went out.

the flimsy circuit board has that 8cyl terminal. but since i dont have an actual tach module i cant know for sure that it has a pin that goes into the spot.

but obviously its for something.

 

[jakebrake]

I cut my rad support back about an inch and a half right along the raised portion. I just cut off the top then bent the botttom up to match the top and welded it back together after some paint it will look pretty stock and adds plenty of room for whatever you want to use.

 

[seth247]

I'm confused. Do you mean you cut the top of the support so the rad will sit at the same hight but moved it forward?

 

[CDW6212R]

I had an odd thought, but first how much does the radiator need to move? If the distance is about the thickness of the support, what about cutting up a different support? A new support is not expensive at all, maybe $75.

If the space is there, why not cut another support and weld the center section of one to the old. That is, cut the old one just inside the two frame mounting pockets, straight vertical on both sides. Cut the new support on the outside of those two frame mounting pockets. It's just an idea, I don't know how much is needed. Doing that would make the support very strong, and you could end up with a better looking top surface(leave some material for merging the two).

 

[seth247]

I didn't cut the top of mine at all.

Can't even tell anythings been done unless you look underneath the car.

I took pics but there at home. I'll post em tonight.

I like your idea don. That would definitely make the support rocksolid. The way I did it brought the rad in aprox. 2". And probably weakend the button of the support. But I can always bend some brackets and weld the bottom of the support back in and clear the rad.

But I'm not that worried. If any body hits me head on I'm screwed anyway.

 

[CDW6212R]

Yes, I would also not cut the top surface, I just thought of that, leave it alone. The idea just came to me because I recall learning how cheap the support is to buy.

 

[seth247]

It's a good idea. If I had a TIG I'd consider it. And your right about the replacement a being cheap.

 

[jakebrake]

As long as its moved forward the job is done I suppose no matter how you get it there! I'll have to through up a pic when i find my camera charger.

 

[seth247]

Ok heres the rad pics.

You start off with this;

You want to cut along the red lines to remove the blue shaded areas.(quik paint edit)

Then you can slip er on in there like so;(unfortunately i didnt take an after cut pic before the rad went in, ill get one tomorrow.)

Which doesn't look like much till you see it from this angle;

Which leaves you with this problem;

so you notch the frontmost crossmember, which i believe is mostly redundant (seeing as you have the big-ass welded-in engine crossmember not 10 inches away), and that leaves you with;

And there you have it. And yes, i can even get to the radiator cap if i need too

 

[Blacksheep Josh]

Closer and closer we get... cant' wait to see some vids of this beast!!

 

[410Fortune]

nice pics!!

the BII has about 3" LESS space LOL the 91+ are longer, lucky you guys!!

Just wire your old V6 tach wire to the V8 tach terminal, some V6 trucks had a V8 position, 94+ I think, I did the tach mod (jumper wire, tach with no V8 post, pre 94) on my 88 while I was in there, its not accurate...but thats because its all coming out factory 88 gages SUCK

If I was to do it over again, on BOTH of my trucks I would LOSE the welded factory radiator support and fab a new bolted on radiator support... being able to remove the entire front end makes drivetrain work a breeze... I am helping my bro in law put a new V8 in his 03 Dodge hemi... so friggin easy to work on!!!!!!!! so were both my explorer's when they were missing a core support

My BII will be having the inner fenders and rad core support hacked off, I should have just done this when I went V8 hahahaha saved $$$ use a 4.0L radiator... no room problems.. just have to bend up a bunch of tubes instead!!

Looking great, cant wait to see you up and running with a big sh*% eating GRIN!!

 

[seth247]

I hope so soon.

I should have bought that first gen 6 months ago for 500$.

Only had some kinda electrical problem and then I coulda had a fall back vehicle.

 

[seth247]