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!

 

[Turdle]

Yeah, that.

 

[vroomzoomboom]

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?

Yeah, that.

damn......now that you both say that. i remember turdle and i talking about that once and how bob said nobody could copy his header because of that....im going to have to look at the other one i have. i called the guy that did the welding on the innercooler mount (he does a lot of racecar stuff) said it can be fixed but would end up cutting the end off knocking everything out of the center, building it back up, and welding everything back together.
and no, i havent done a compression test yet, so that bomb still ticking away. i took today off and the only thing i have managed to do is go around in circles. cant even find the adaptors i need locally so i am going to end up waiting until next week for them.

 

[Turdle]

Just screw the thing in the hole and crank it. Duh

 

[Turdle]

Kinda wanted compression with valve covers installed.

 

[vroomzoomboom]

Kinda wanted compression with valve covers installed.

patients grasshopper. i am waiting to sneak into work so i can try bending my spare header. will probably do the compression test after that.

 

[vroomzoomboom]

@Turdle

that is number 6 cylinder. this one as well as number 8 looked to be not firing because of low temperature on the heat gun. number 8 was close the the same for compression. i only did the one bank and they were within 10-15 psi of each other.

i also had to do this. this was a gut punch.

this was on dono's truck. when he got the header it didnt fit great. he had to clearance the valve cover for it to work, but the other problem was he couldnt remove the valve cover with the header on (trickflow talls, same as the ones on this motor). i was going to try to heat and bend the pipe with the quicker heater upper but it didnt work, so i ended up having to smash it. ugh. looks like i will be trying to get new ones if i can find robert.

 

[Turdle]

The dents in the tubes should not hurt performance, but I would address the corrosion.

I Thought the headers were constructed from stainless.

 

[vroomzoomboom]

The dents in the tubes should not hurt performance, but I would address the corrosion.

I Thought the headers were constructed from stainless.

thats what i thought to. when i had the guy look at the broken header, i also said i dont think its stainless because stainless doesnt rust. he had said unless its (insert what he said here) stainless because that will rust.

 

[Turdle]

You can cera kote those yourself. It'll be black but yeah

 

[donalds]

400 series stainless steel will rust a magnet will also stick to IT IT is stainless steel factory exhaust systems are usually made of this type of stainless steel
Your exhaust tubes do look like they are made from 400 series stainless steel

 

[vroomzoomboom]

been kinda dragging on putting everything back together. then again i wont have my adaptors here more then likely Thursday. header is back on however. everything is cleaned up and ready to go back on. its been a billion degrees outside all weekend as well so that doesnt help, nor does rain. i managed to get this put on however.

a extended oil pressure sending mount that has 2 ports. i saw this on 410's ranger build. i didnt know they made something like this. i can now run my oil pressure gauge on the pillar and the one in the holley screen. what a pita to put in however.

part number if anyone wants to get one.

 

[vroomzoomboom]

well, lets recap the last week and a bit shall we. my adaptors came in on saturday (never knew fed ex dropped on saturdays up here). the problem with that was i had a friend that i have known since being 6 come to town. i also told another friend that i have known since i was 15 i would help him with his sons truck. so sunday i was able to work on evil. had pretty much everything together but the coil packs on, and the intake elbow and throttle body on when i started to fill it with coolant. when i did that, i could hear water dripping. low and behold the intake was leaking once again. after pulling everything all apart again, i sealed the water passages on the gaskets, put the mount and supercharger back on, torqued it and let it sit for a day. yesterday i retorqued it, and tried filling it with water once again. no leaks! once again started putting it all together again. tonight i finished and tried to start it. well, it now runs worse then before....i know it will run a little rough for the first bit because i had to use some Vaseline on the injector o rings, but thing thing will not give me a break! getting very tired of this. i also noticed that the vacuum is around 5 and not 13-15. i am going to look in the tune tomorrow and see what injectors are in the tune. maybe that will make a difference? calling holley is a joke so i wont even bother with that. james (my tuner) is tying to get ready for miles of mayhem and leave friday, so i am not even sure if i want to bother him at all either.

 

[4pointslow]

Check for vacuum leaks.

 

[vroomzoomboom]

well i was able to talk with james before he left for miles of mayhem (yesterday was the last day and i believe he placed second in his class) and had told me that he had SD injectors entered into the tune. he also thought that the sync was one tooth off. i have pulled the cam sync out and tried 180 out, and straight up, falling and rising with no difference. it also has barely enough power to move up and down the driveway and will stall anytime you give it any throttle. i was going to break down, get a msd cam sync plug and convert everything to ls coils. that stopped me dead in my tracks when i fount out there are 4 different coils for gm, and the coils would cost close to 900 cnd, and thats with no brackets, or wires. this was a bad idea.

 

[Dono]

The rising costs of EVERYTHING sure cuts in to the fun money. Thats for sure.
Do you really think moving to LS coils wold help in this case?

 

[vroomzoomboom]

The rising costs of EVERYTHING sure cuts in to the fun money. Thats for sure.
Do you really think moving to LS coils wold help in this case?

ill say! i sold a truck this week. i was going to put it for one price, and figured i would bump it up a grand because i could always go down. was i wrong! the first day my phone blew up, in the end, i saved it 2 days for one guy to drive 3 hours to have first crack at it. in that time i had one other person say they would buy it if he didnt, 4 others that wanted to leave a deposit sight unseen, and i cane remember how many want to come look at it!!
i cant say for sure anymore. it has stressed me to the max again with it. its starting to reach the point "throw money at it till it runs", because that always works, right?

 

[Dono]

Lol....I seem to remember I tried the 'throw money at it till it works'.

 

[allmyEXes]

Does this mean that you sold your blue flamed Explorer?
Ford 7.3 "Godzilla" coils for coil-near-plug would work well because of their fire time duration. Am I stating this correctly?
ADDED: 40 minutes later..."Spark burn time duration"
Explanation

 

[donalds]

What you sold it ehh?

 

[410Fortune]

No he sold a different truck not his beloved sport

We need this thing to run!!