supercharged 5.0 true fire 98 explorer sport

hi everyone, my name is tim . i live in selkirk, manitoba, canada and as if this date that i am posting this, i am 36 years old.

i bought my sport in jan 05 from a local ford dealer. it had 111,000KM's on it. this is the second sport i have owned. it was sitting on the lot for about 8 months before i came along. i am the third owner (i was able to track down the person that traded it in, and they got it from a friend, who bought it new in 98).

i started to do a few things to it after i first got it, then i found this site, and all hell broke lose! i've never been satisfied with something the everyone else has, so i started to tinker with it even more.

mods include

interior

installed factory tilt, cruise, overhead console, auto dimming mirror, full length console, with a message center (it didn't have these from factory).

white face with blue flames indigo gauge covers (they light up blue)
blue l.e.d. everything
white l.e.d. interior lights
Kenwood DDX392 Touch Screen Head Unit
alpine 4 channel amp (all four speakers)
boston acoustic front and rear speakers
alpine mono amp (for sub)
2 12 inch jl audio subs
rockford fosgate cap
passenger side one touch window down mod.
custom transfer case shifter
tripple a pillar gauge pod, housing autometer boost, Innovate LC-1 wideband, and oil pressure gauge
12v power inverter with 120v plug in a 2 usb plugs built into the center console

exterior

BMW E46 projectors, mounted into stock housings using clear lens
6000K HID head lights
angel eye "driving" lights, with 8000k h.i.d.'s
clear parking/corner lights
billet grill (powder coated by Turdle)
blacked out ford emblems
custom front steel 95-98 bumper, with 4 inch round tubes welded in for driving lights
shaved radio antenna
shaved roof rack
black euro tall lights
l.e.d. license plate lights
smoked out 3rd break light
lund rear tailgate spoiler/wing (formally from the truck "blackjack" owned by EF member Spas)
hand made roll pan (made from 3 1/2 rear bumpers, with 1/4 inch diamond plate on the top, and it is removable)
aluminum T/A differential griddle/cover (powder coated by Turdle)
Motegi Mr107 20' rims
goodyear wrangler hp p245/50 r20
1 1/4 wheel spacer in the rear, 3/8 in front
and most noticeable, black with blue pearl paint, and blue true fire (ground effects are black with blue pearl as well)

Suspension

2 inch lowering blocks in the rear, reverse TT in the front (2 inch as well)
Explorer Express rear sway bar
4 door leaf springs
rancho rs9000 adjustable rear shocks
03-05 sport trac spindles with drilled and slotted rotors

performance

5L swap
347 stroker
TFS twisted wedge alum heads
comp gold 1.6 rockers
comp cams CCA-35-556-8 nitro cam
heavily modified edelbrock victor jr air gap intake (which serves as a valley pan now)
eaton m122 supercharger (metco 2.70 pulley, and ASP 8 rib 7 1/4 crank pulley) with custom made mount with bell intercooler core
8 rib serpentine belt conversion using pulleys from a 7.3 powerstroke
custom made 3 1/2 inch throttle body elbow
accufab 75mm throttle body
4 inch intake pipe
PMASS MH90 90mm Universal 3000 KG/HR MAF
amsoil cone filter
F.A.S.T. 60lb injectors
edelbrock fuel rails, trick flow specialties fuel pressure regulator with summit racing fuel pressure gauge
walbro 255lph fuel pump
1/2 inch steel braided fuel pressure line from tank to rail using 8AN fittings
torque monster headers
2 1/2 duel pipes with flowpro duel in and out 2 1/2 single muffler
accel extreme 9000 ceramic 45 degree plug wires with boot protectors
4R70W w/2600 stall with J mod
tuff stuff 200a alternator
tuning made possible with sct pro-racer package, and tuned with major help from member [MENTION=102869]Dono[/MENTION] and [MENTION=81804]4pointslow[/MENTION]
flex a lite duel 12 inch electric fans
big 3 upgrade (4 gauge wires)
meziere innercooler water pump
2 froozenboost innercooler rads

Transfer case

4406 manual shift from a 97 F150
modified stock trans cross member to accept 93 mustang 5L polyurethane tans mount
double cardan rear drive shaft

because of all the "fun" i had doing the bodywork, and some other things to my truck, i have nick named it "evil dora" or if you like, just plane "evil"!
and now the thank yous

my buddy gord leiss, who let this thing sit in his garage for 3 months while i did the body work to it. he also gave me a hand with some of the prep work, and painted it for me

kevin willson for doing the true fire http://affordableairbrushing.ca/

Joe Bukoski for letting me do the 5L/4406 swap in his garage

now people from this site, weather they knew it or not, they helped

BIG THANKS to tara a.k.a. explorersport77 for pictures of her truck. wouldn't been able to build the roll pan with out them!

ExplorerSport77's X "Hotness"

jon a.k.a. Turdle for selling me some real swanky rear shackles, as well as powder coating the diff cover and sending them up to canada. as well as much needed info on v8, and 4406 swaps as well as doing the grill and showing me how its done.

don aka dono for the help with the tuning, and wideband, as well as the supercharger

andy aka ahodges for some parts, and any help i needed for all the go faster goodies

5.0 swap - w/ 4406

jad2411 for finding me a link for my hidden antenna

ryan a.k.a. MustangP51 for doing his write up on making l.e.d.'s for interior lights, and how to make projectors

P51's HID Headlight (Projector) and Fog Conversion (PICS)

and N3ELZ cardomain page for L.E.D. switch and cruise pod mods

http://www.cardomain.com/ride/296394/2002-ford-ranger-regular-cab/page-6
http://www.cardomain.com/ride/296394/2002-ford-ranger-regular-cab/page-12
http://www.cardomain.com/ride/296394/2002-ford-ranger-regular-cab/page-23

bob a.k.a. rwenzing for showing me speedhut's sit for the gauges

Gauges, Custom Gauges, Tachometers, Speedometers, Shift Light, Pod

Buzz4x4 for his write up on blacking out ford emblems

How to Make Your Own Custom Ford Emblems

the late aldive for his write up on one touch down passengers window mod

http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=141027&highlight=touch+passengers+window+mod

BIG COUNTRY, for his write up on how to install a auto dimming mirror

http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=84968

BIG COUNTRY, 98formulaLS1, and Ryon40 for there write ups on how to install a message center

http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=225017&highlight=BIG+COUNTRY
http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=80670&highlight=message+center
http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=245085&highlight=Ryon40

MountaineerGreen for his 4406 swap write up and "Custom" Driveshaft for a 4406 and 4" Superlift on the Cheap " (even tho its lowered

http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=166726&highlight=awd+4x4+swap
http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=185232

Simon, aka blueka for his "pickle" thread, and help anytime i picked the phone up the phone on the 5L swap

http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=271813

Jon, aka 4pointslow for any MAJOR technical advice i have needed

http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=219092

i wish i could find who did the write up on the overhead console install, but here is the link

http://www.explorer4x4.com/overhead.htm

Russ aka NICE59FORDF100 for his help on the wiring, and what to watch out for electronically.

hopefully one day, i will be able to help people on here just as much as the people that i have mentioned above!

plus you know you have done something right when.....

your truck (as well as corkey) wins truck of the month

http://www.explorerforum.com/forums//showthread.php?t=296023

is the feature truck on the fun hump day radio show (starts roughly around the 30 min mark)

http://explorerforum.podbean.com/2011/03/23/19-vroom-zoomboom/

and you drive 26 hours ONE WAY to the carlisle all ford nationals in june 2010 and 2011, and grab second place in the s.u.v. all category!

then in 2014 you go back to the same show you have been to 5 years in a row (nothing by most, but its one hell of a long drive) and take first!

 

[vroomzoomboom]

still nothing new. getting very frustrated with this again. there is a miss that james cant track down. he is thinking i have a back coil. i have spares so i am going to try swapping one or both tomorrow. i wanted this thing to be done for or around july 1 but i can see it not happening. the coil swap is a bust, going to check the wires as well. after that, might have to switch to a ls coil set up. its funny when someone tells you thats the easiest way to do it, but they arent footing the bill. especially when you know others have had theirs running with factory coils.
once again i think going to this holley garbage was the worst idea i have had to date.

 

[Turdle]

Hopefully when the bugs are worked out, you'll appreciate the improvements.

 

[410Fortune]

I agree! A dead miss sucks! We are frustrated with you, hoping it can be remedied and then things will smooth out

 

[vroomzoomboom]

so i went there today to see if i can do anything. we started off by taking a infrared head gun to the header tubes. found 6 and 8 running way cooler then the others. pulled the plug out of number six. i wish i took a picture of the plug. one haft was black, the other haft was clean, and i mean dead center of the electrode. tested the plug wire, ohms seemed to be ok. measured it up against a spare i had, and it was almost dead on. tried changing coil packs (didnt think it would make a difference but worth a try) didnt change anything. reversed 1 and 6 at the coil. no change. new plug, no change. had the truck running and unhooked the injector from the harness, no change. ok, lucky for me a friend has a noid light. put that on the injector harness, lights up.
the only other thing we couldnt check was the injectors.
so whats going to happen is he is going to put evil in his trailer, and bring it back here tonight for me. what im going to do is this. when i bought dono's truck and all his parts, he also had a set of 60 siemens deka injectors. i am going to send those out and have them cleaned and tested, then swap them for the FAST 60's that are in the truck now.
i am also going to drain the tank and put new gas in. wont hurt. as well as i am going to pull the passengers header off and try to fix it (have a crack in it someplace and the tick is driving me nuts).
im also going to pull the intake and blower off to make sure i didnt block any injectors off trying to seal the upper and lower together. i am also going to try to seal it up a different way as well.
i am going to try to have all this done for next weekend. tall order, i know but i have friday booked off as well as we get monday off as well so we will see how things go.

 

[Turdle]

Might want to check compression on those 2 cylinders compared to 2 others, ..

 

[410Fortune]

You can do it! yes before you pull it apart check compression, is a valve not opening or closing?

 

[vroomzoomboom]

was able to work on it, but not until later on (have a friend that had surgery a while back and cant lift anything heavy. guess who his mule is). blower and intakes are ready to pop off, then i lost motivation, and brain function. which leads me to ask, anyone know if you can do a compression test with the intake and trottlebody off? asking for a friend.

 

[Turdle]

Yes, that will work fine.

 

[allmyEXes]

If you compression test shows that a cylinder or two are low, pull your valve covers and watch the rocker arms and push rods to make sure that you are getting full travel. Could some camshaft lobes got damaged incidentally?

 

[vroomzoomboom]

If you compression test shows that a cylinder or two are low, pull your valve covers and watch the rocker arms and push rods to make sure that you are getting full travel. Could some camshaft lobes got damaged incidentally?

it has backfired hard enough the entire town heard it. the thought of a bent pushrod has crossed my mind at somepoint.

 

[410Fortune]

Odd you say this.
My buddy rich that I do these trucks with had shoulder surgery 4 weeks ago…
I’ve been his mule! Mowing the grass weed whacking (10 acres) taking trash driving places… he would do it for me!
You are a good friend. Good things happen to good people. Let this sucker run on all 8 and smoothly!

 

[ahodges]

I'm still watching a rooting for you Tim. I need you to get back to AFN next year so I have more motivation to go as well. You are doing all the things I know to check. Last 2 things are compression and fuel.

 

[vroomzoomboom]

I'm still watching a rooting for you Tim. I need you to get back to AFN next year so I have more motivation to go as well. You are doing all the things I know to check. Last 2 things are compression and fuel.

trust me. every end of may, and begging of june suck for me on facebook with all the afn posts lol. not sure if i will ever get back there with the price of fuel, and the exchange rate on our so called dollar. i think the last time i went it cost around 800-900 in fuel and that was with the 302 and m90 on it

 

[vroomzoomboom]

blower and intake are off. it truly amazes me how heavy that thing is.

years back when i was helping dono with his truck, we were going to put tmh's on his truck. i remember the passengers side looked and was a major pita to do. fast forward to today, i had a idea im going to try.

i remember the heater box was one of many things in the way with hes headers. at the moment, there was no freon in my a/c plus i had to drain the coolant as well, so why not pull the heater box off to pull the header off (i have a crack in it someplace that that i need to find and weld), this looks a lot easier then poking threw a wheel well, and lifting the motor up. times gonna tell, and that project will be tomorrows mental breakdown err job.

 

[4pointslow]

Looks easy to get to now! LOL. Great idea that might help working on this to be a little easier.
Why do you think the headers keep cracking?

 

[vroomzoomboom]

Looks easy to get to now! LOL. Great idea that might help working on this to be a little easier.
Why do you think the headers keep cracking?

this is the first time ive had a header crack....i think. i would say its because when the exhaust was built, they might have made it too tight or didnt brace it (?) well enough and over the years of heat cycles it has shrunk enough to make it so it is now putting pressure on the header pipe.

speaking of headers, i couldnt get it off today. a hour or so after getting home it rained small farm animals up here! hail, lighting, massive thunder! even had a tornado watch happening, so i had to stick to the grunt work of cleaning gaskets off.

prof she wasnt happy. also ran into a small problem. what i didnt know up until tonight was dons old injectors are ev6. the holley harness i have are ev1. i have 2 choices to make. somehow by a miracle find adaptors or (and if anyone knows for sure i can do this) redo the harness using the pins from it and put them into a ev6 connector.

 

[4pointslow]

If I remember correctly, the pins are different. I cut my old ev1 connectors off and soldered on the new ev6's.
They make adaptors, but I'm sure they will cause problems down the road when they come loose or something to that effect.
I would not use them unless your injector connectors are easy to get to when everything is all back together if that makes sense.

 

[4pointslow]

 

[vroomzoomboom]

i had a few places tell me to spice the connector in. i have to tell them its a holley harness that i DO NOT want to butcher up.
yes, those are the adaptors that i am after.

so lets go after the good news. i made a few posts on some facebook pages i am on and had a few responses. anyone who responded however is a min of 4 hours away....pass. called around this morning and found a speed shop that had them. even more lucky, dono works near the store, and picked them up for me, i then had a friend who was coming home picked them up from don's house and brought them home (dono is about 20 mins from me but i wanted to get going on evil).

my idea about pulling the heater box turned out to be a win! i was able to get at all of the bolts with no problems. even the real hard ones were no problem. was also able to pull the header out effortlessly.

this is when reality didnt slap but backhanded me across the face....

i tried to find a crack in the flange. couldnt see any soot. grabbed a flashlight and looked everything over very close, still couldnt see anything. i have a block off plate made for storing motors with no manifolds so i bolted it on with a gasket on one end, and figured i would just try filling the header with water just to try.....found the leak...

thats inside the collector. see the top? that has rusted or something away allowing a leak. more then likely these are garbage now.....joy. i have one of dons old headers here, but they fit like garbage. i will have to take them to work to see if i can heat up a pipe and bend it some (not hammer it because that still wont clear).

back to the connectors for the injectors. after finding the header leak i figured i would put the injectors in the intake with the rails and ev1 harness. well.....when i went to plug the adaptors in, they sold me the wrong ones. they sold me a ev6 injector to a ev1 harness. yea, i have that already. looks like i go for a drive tomorrow to return parts and see if i can get the correct crap i need.


evil - 2
tim - 0

 

[410Fortune]

So the leak is where all 4 primaries come together? The tmh is supposed to have a pyramid there to boost velocity
Looks like yours has broken off! What the heck!

I would think that area could be welded back up? It doesn’t look like rust?

All of this is to replace injectors and fix the exhaust
Leak. Did you do a compression check?