Completed Project My 98 super charged EX

[4pointslow]

Lowered Rear with mono leafs

I lowered the rear of the truck today.
Took the metal spacer plates off the bottom of the leafs and put them on top between the leafs and the rear. I removed 1 spacer plate off each pack also.
It is a little over an inch drop.
It handles fine but there is a little driveshaft vibration at 80mph. I will look into what shim I may need to correct the driveline angle since the vibration was not there before.

 

[4pointslow]

Before and after

Before and after lowering.

 

[delexploder]

Nice stance , other than the vibration how's it feel?

 

[vroomzoomboom]

as i mentioned before, your truck seemed to sit high for what ever reason from what i remember. but that does look better! has it bottomed out at all or are those rancho's worth there weight in gold. are you going to shave the bumpstops?

 

[4pointslow]

Handling

Nice stance , other than the vibration how's it feel?

It feels like it handles better, I don't know how to describe it but it is noticeable.
When I lowered the front alone it felt kind if unstable, lowering the front by itself lowers caster so maybe that's what I was feeling. I have only done a crude garage alignment with a "Joes Racing camber gauge" and a tape measure.
Hope to get it on an alignment machine at work someday.

 

[4pointslow]

Shocks

as i mentioned before, your truck seemed to sit high for what ever reason from what i remember. but that does look better! has it bottomed out at all or are those rancho's worth there weight in gold. are you going to shave the bumpstops?

I have shaved the front bump stops, the rear may not need it. The rear has not bottomed out yet, have to drive it some more.
I have the shocks on the loosest settings. The front did bottom out once going over railroad tracks. I will have to drive it some more and experiment with different settings. Not to concerned with bottoming out though, I just want to see what it is like at the track. Got to get that pinion angle straightened out and two tires put on (one looks to have a nasty dry rot crack and wont pass tech inspection).

 

[Dono]

4pointslow, what are you seeing for iat's at wot?
Im sitting here being lazy, trying to find the energy to go pull my front bumper and see what I need to do to mount my intercooler rad and pump.

I know your using w/m spray also, but am just curious. I'm sure it will provide motivation for me.

 

[4pointslow]

Iat

Water methanol and intercooler. See Temps in picture below.

 

[CDW6212R]

Good work, and next you need the EE rear sway bar. That will make a huge difference in handling. Look at the rear end links too, the bushings in them will fall apart eventually and then it'll feel very loose in back.

 

[Dono]

Awesome temps!
I can just imagine where you would be with 15lbs boost and no cooling.
Sorry for the slight hijack.

 

[4pointslow]

EE sway bar

Good work, and next you need the EE rear sway bar. That will make a huge difference in handling. Look at the rear end links too, the bushings in them will fall apart eventually and then it'll feel very loose in back.

How thick is that EE sway bar? I would like to compare it to the one in my truck if you know the size. I would suppose it would come with new frame mount bushings to accommodate the larger diameter.

One of my trucks had bad end link bushings on the rear sway bar, I can not remember which one it was. I bought the Moog replacement ones and they were missing some bushings, there were 4 instead of 8 in the box. There were bolts for both sides though. I showed the guy from Advance auto parts and he opened another box and gave me the 4 bushing from there and sent that box back as defective. lol, got to love it.

 

[delexploder]

I'm dragging my feet on doing mine but it needs to be done soon , I have an energy suspension kit

 

[CDW6212R]

The EE rear bar is huge compared to stock, it reduces the back end sway a bunch.

My end links of my Mountaineer lasted about 185 miles before showing some wear. But I only looked at them because the 99 Explorer end link bushings were shot before 140k(I found them late). The new links were about $20 each I think.

Here's a cool picture of the EE bar, from above.

 

[4pointslow]

Sway bar size

Explorer Express still has the sway bars for sale.
The rear one is 1.125 inches.
I will have to measure the sway bar on my truck to see how much difference there is.
Then again it would be heavier and I don't road course race. lol.

 

[vroomzoomboom]

its a big time difference in diameter. there is another company that makes rear sway bars that are just like the EE ones.
http://www.summitracing.com/int/parts/hel-7648/overview/year/1998/make/ford/model/explorer
if i can remember i will crawl under evil tomorrow and see what the diameter of my EE bar is

 

[delexploder]

its a big time difference in diameter. there is another company that makes rear sway bars that are just like the EE ones.
http://www.summitracing.com/int/parts/hel-7648/overview/year/1998/make/ford/model/explorer
if i can remember i will crawl under evil tomorrow and see what the diameter of my EE bar is

While you're under there would you please measure your rear driveshaft for me with a pic or two , I'm doing that next

 

[vroomzoomboom]

While you're under there would you please measure your rear driveshaft for me with a pic or two , I'm doing that next

It's a double cardon, but if you want it, I'll measure it. That and I lowered my truck 2 inches so it might be a little sorter as well

 

[delexploder]

Yea it would at least get me in the ballpark , I guess I should ask josh if he is still around , sorry for the highjack

 

[vroomzoomboom]

k, so after being distracted by my own truck for a few hours and forgetting to measure the bar, i just ran out to take a look. its 1 and 1/8 inch in diameter. sorry, too dark to get driveshaft measurement

 

[4pointslow]

sway bar

That would make sense since I posted the size they have listed on there site 6 posts ago as 1.125 lol.
I plan to measure the stock size this weekend unless someone beats me to it.