NA4LSOHCBUT [Not ANOTHER 4.0L SOHC Build Up Thread!]

Hopefully this doesn't turn in to a "Jakee" thread , but we'll see....

This is the wife's 1998 Explorer Sport. 85,000 miles and she's decided it's "Mod'n Time"! She's a Daily Driver with some minor mods, but the brakes were completely toasted on a trip to Cali last September. 4,000ft elevation changes on 48 miles of twisting, ungraded dirt roads left us on the side of the road for an hour in a cloud of smelly brake fumes before I got any brake pedal feel at all back.

Obviously, we have our starting point... stopping.

Because it is a Daily Driver, there isn't any room for long down times or trial-and-error "fitting" sessions. Everything has to be comercially available, in stock and easily replaced. Since this is the first time we've EVER had brake problems (this is her second "Sport"), we figured an upgrade was needed instead of getting in to a "big-brake" fiasco. After consulting a half dozen "Pros" from various sites, we came up with a parts list.

Power Slot 8551CSR/8551CSL for the front,
Power Slot 8552CSR/8552CSL for the rear, and Hawk Pads for all.

Well, the ABS light now flashes after a sudden stop, so the parts are on order:

These are the cryo-treated slotted rotors since everyone agreed that the dimples and cross-drilling was more cosmetic than anything else. I was going to get the regular Power Slot rotors and have them cryo'd locally, but I got a good deal on them already done, with free shipping (over 64lbs!). I'll post who/where and how much once I've received them, and I'm sure they meet my needs.

I'll be doing a braking test (data-logged) as-is, and again with just a fluid flush (possible DOT 5), since the fuild is almost 2 years old. After that, the parts will be installed and properly bedded before any other testing happens. It won't be a real side-by-side comparison, since the failures were heat related, but I'm pretty sure we won't get the brakes that hot again here in Seattle.

After the brakes are done, it is a fresh set of intake gaskets and matched injectors, a custom "Y-Pipe"/Cat set up (to get the cats off the trans pan!), a Cat-Back Exhaust and a quality CAI.

The goals:
Better stopping
Better mileage
More power

 

[Jakee]

I feel you there bro.

Ahh, rocket...Is there something you need to tell us? hehehe

 

[DLIDDYFL]

Ahh, rocket...Is there something you need to tell us? hehehe

Hey rocket, you could feel him up side the head a few times for me too.

 

[Jakee]

Hey rocket, you could feel him up side the head a few times for me too.

ahhh, I'm not sure how I should take this, but I do know; you can walk over here, but you'll limp back.

 

[DLIDDYFL]

ahhh, I'm not sure how I should take this, but I do know; you can walk over here, but you'll limp back.

LOL!, I'll let Rocket fight his own battle, but lookin at his profile, I think my money would be on him.

But hey, what do I know, I can't even find the jerk that stole my truck and beat his a$$!!! Besides, he has to make you that e-water pump design first anyway.LOL!!!

 

[Jakee]

LOL!, I'll let Rocket fight his own battle, but lookin at his profile, I think my money would be on him.

But hey, what do I know, I can't even find the jerk that stole my truck and beat his a$$!!! Besides, he has to make you that e-water pump design first anyway.LOL!!!

There is absolutely, positively, NO competition between Rocket and I. He would blow the doors off me, hands down! I would be scared to go against him if he spotted me half track. Just for the simple fact that he may loose control and rear end me.


Fredness - Are you still here?

 

[rocket 5979]

Dennis,

Jakee meant nothing by it. Him, James, Jon, and I (as well as others) screw with each other allot on this board. Just keeps things fun.









"Just for the simple fact that he may loose control and rear end me."

^^^ BTW, thanks for the vote of driving confidence Jake. Hehe.

 

[DLIDDYFL]

Oh I know, I was just messin with Jakee too. It was obvious a long time ago that you, James, Jakee, Jim and a few others make this a great web site for everyone. I didn't mean no harm.

 

[Fredness]

Still alive, just changing fluids in the trans, PS, Diff, and cooling system. Next it's new injectors (0% set made from 18 tested), injector spacers and intake o-rings. Then it's time for more numbers.

 

[aldive]

Any updates?

 

[Fredness]

Sure plenty of updates. But, until now they have all been for the 133hp E85 powered Focus (The Explorer is next). Since I figured, you would rather hear about the Explorer, updates had to wait. I finally got to hit the dyno yesterday and do a baseline, 87 tune and, some tweaking time. Over $250 in dyno charges (ouch), but later runs will be far cheaper since there won't be any data logging going on at the same time. There were dozens of questions as to why certain things are done certain ways, and why it's a good idea not to follow some other groups/ideas.

So, we start with what to bring:
Laptop, spare battery (or DC-DC convertor!), LiveLink 4.17 (or better), USB cable, camera, soft drink(s), pen/pencil, notebook, tuning manuals/reference material, common hand tools, MAF cleaner, rags and a game plan.

Prestaging:
A good tune up is recommended, no oil or fluid leaks, no smoke, no mechanical issues. If you have any of these issues, you are really wasting your time and money. I recommend cleaned, regapped plugs and a MAF cleaning the week before. A clean (or cleaned/reoiled) air filter is a good idea too.

What to watch for:
The ABS light on most vehicles will come on since the rear wheels are turning and not the front, this is normal, and the light will go out a few minutes after leaving the dyno.

Make plans well in advance, I actually scheduled for last Saturday, two weeks prior. Just so happens we got 4" of snow last Saturday, following massive flooding the week before. So, Friday I called to verify and then again on Saturday. Showing up early was well worthwhile as I got to see a twin-turbo Z05 Corvette... sweet.

I had the X3 loaded with a modified stock profile (no limiters), an 87 profile and a 93. This allows for a quick transfer of files and a minimum amount of wasted time while strapped to the roller - that gets costly! Now, the vast majority of my dyno experience has been lowered Rangers, Explorers and Focii with "Z" series tires, so the standard procedure is to SLOWLY row the stick through the first 4 gears (all 5 speed O/D), then stab the throttle at the lowest RPM you can get without lugging the engine. On an auto, I have a special profile that locks the TC and trans in 4th gear, deselect the O/D, and set the IAC up a bit to keep it from stalling on the dyno. Rev the engine to just over a grand in neutral and drop the selector in to "D". With the extra IAC air and the RPM's, it is enough to get the roller moving (preventing an embarrassing stall!) and your off in high gear with minimal losses and no silly 4,800 RPM "flare" from the TC.

But, this is the first time I'm testing a lifted truck with 32" mudders. These are "S" rated tires which were recently balanced. This puts them at approximately 112mph, and the Focus (with 3.8:1 gears and 24" tires) hit 119mph, easily. We know most Ford trucks have a speed limiter at 87-95 mph (with factory tires), and that should be over 100mph with the 32's. So, since I'm doing a dyno article for another forum, I figured I'd go Barney-style; deselect O/D, drop it in "D" and stab the throttle.

Here is the ugliness:

What do we get out of this spaghetti bowl? Well, we can see that first gear is completely useless, the time is too short to glean any useable data. Second gear is nice, starts reasonably low and gets well over the magical 5252 (TQ/HP crossover) and shows until HP tails off. Third gear is a little weak, it starts late (just before the 5252 convergence) and ends normally. Fourth is by far the sweetest gear for real numbers - unless you have a stock limiter. The limiter, in this instance, hit at 105mph, and at 4,860RPM's - much too soon. The reason for the 105mph speed limit? Start with 1 divide it by the 28” tire, times a 32” tire = 1.14 x the 92mph limit = 104.88mph - coincidence? Not! Notice the rapid drop in HP/TQ numbers? They correspond with the rapid increase in the AFR (18:1) since the PCM pulls injector dwell time to limit speed and rpm’s. Major problems for nitrous and forced induction folks - this would be blown head gaskets for sure.

The other obvious signs are the radical spikes (increase) in HP/TQ at each shift. These are not only unsightly, but they fool the dyno computer in to thinking they are the peak HP/TQ numbers. The readouts stated that my peak numbers were 200.1HP and 221.23TQ, completely wrong. The true numbers were 181HP and 188TQ. I plugged these in to the “Rogue Dyno” and got 181HP and 189TQ - Hmmmmmm…..

Remember, these are "unlearned" bone stock PCM numbers, the torque numbers are low, but I attribute this to the lack of learning.

What's the verdict, what did we learn?
-Safety first: 2nd gear only runs for any non-speed tires. I still prefer 4th gear for better data, but 2nd is perfect for mudders.
-Rev/speed limiters are pretty evil, annoying and unsightly.
-The Excell dyno works dead-on if the factory torque limits are untouched.

...more to follow...

 

[Jakee]

Fredness - It's going to take awhile to digest all this, but thanks for sharing.

Nice to see you back.

 

[Fredness]

Now, for contrast, here is what most people expect to see:

This is a bone stock 3.0L Ranger, Auto with the TC locked using that 4th gear trick. Sweet huh? No guessing, the computer posts everything you want/need. But, there is no way to get this with an auto trans (and "S" rated tires!). So, how did that first run come about if there are rev-limiters speed limiters and other evils in the stock PCM? Easy, you pull up a bone stock profile and change only the IAC, limiters, TC lock and trans lock functions. No timing tweaks or fuel tricks. While it is tough to get in there and resist the urge of changing everything, this way ensures a true before/after scenario. This means much more work on your tuners part, but one look at the results and I'm sure youll agree, it is worth the effort.

So, what to do? Put the selector in "2" and go. No fuss, no muss, but there may be some TC flare...

The before and afters here are a showing the added fun of a 75mm MAF and 14" K&N cone filter.

Notice, run one (-002 actually) is typical, late open loop. The AFR stays at 14.63:1 until 4,100RPM's when the TPS is well past 663 and the open loop timer has run out. Then it drops to 12.5:1. Run two (actually #14 of 15 runs that day) has WOT instantly rewarded with 13:1 for the duration of the run. While 11rwhp and 12lb/ft of torque may not seem like much, this has a stock exhaust and is running on 87 pump gas with no mods.

I have 3 more runs to process, but they are all "D-stab" runs (put it is drive and floor it). They have some cool "tells" of their own like rev-limiters, load and AFR. To be continued...

 

[Fredness]

This is run 1 (limiters) with run 2 (87 tune, no limits). Notice the 4th gear run is much longer, and goes 22mph faster than the tire ratings? Now, this is with oversized tires, and it will be regeared for 4.30's with the 33's, but the top speed will still be well over the limts of the tires.

This should MORE than settle the debate of 2nd vs 4th (or 1:1) gear runs for those of us with oversized tires.
If you have "Z" rated radials and want to have the "best" data - go in 4th.

"RogueDyno" appears to be off by 4% with the increased output.
Start at 181HP, end at 188hp, increase = 3.8%, so this might be the problem.