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!

 

[4pointslow]

Cow

Get that cash Cow sold!

 

[vroomzoomboom]

tell me about it! i hate looking at it sitting in the driveway! that and if i want to take evil out, i have to jockey it, and my ranger out of the way just to get to it! my book has arrived at "my u.s. mailing address", hopefully early next week the usb will get there and it all can be sent up.

 

[vroomzoomboom]

came home last week, low and behold, the mail man stuff a box in my mail box, YAHOO my pro racer package came in! (thanks again [MENTION=17822]Turdle[/MENTION] for helping me with that, and be damn lucky i lost your paypal info!).
the bigger beauty of this is that don has had his for a month or so and already knows his way around it. today we both had some time and started playing around with it. the irony of this all is that i bought this so i dont have to do any remote tuning any more and what do we do? im sitting in the truck with it running and don is logged into my laptop remotely while sitting at home making some changes to it, and watching the datalog as we start messing around with the maf transfer and air fuel ratio lol. he says we made some progress, but have a long way to go yet. glad i have real awesome neighbours (who are moving soon as well, which really sucks) because i warned them i would be making a lot of noise in the back yard. what i failed to tell them was i would end up winging it up to almost 5000 rpms and they never complained once.

i did however notice that she was breathing a lot of hot air however lol

 

[vroomzoomboom]

so things kinda stopped for a few weeks. don had some problems with his truck, and i was helping him deal with them. i also stepped out of my comfort zone and picked up a new cash cow (well, my son also wanted to go in with me on this one). picked up a 06 mustang from a co worker that needed to sell it.

needs some work, but its nothing i cant handle. it also gives me the chance to start passing the torch down, and showing my son some of the things i have learned over the years, and allow me to spend some time with him.

however, most things have calmed down now. i asked don if he would mind coming by and helping (pfff, helping.....he's the one thats doing all the work) tune today. it worked out perfect because my neighbours are away, and it was really nice out. he also wanted to be here to see what the truck was doing in person. the last time we where doing this, i was telling him something was off. the truck didnt run right, and was real rich, but he couldnt see it in the datalogs. low and behold when he tried his first change, the truck would run for 2 seconds and die. what he discovered was somehow the stock tune was being loaded in, and not the base tune that came with the racers package. after he figured that out, he started tweeking. and was winning big. granted, we are only at the stft stage on idle, but i can even hear the difference on how it runs. we played around with it for a few hours, and called it day. there still is a loppy idle issue when its in gear, but i think what we are going to try is turning off the egr system to see if it clears up or not next time we have at it.
at one point i had to turn and laugh at don, and i had said this "there is way too much technology sitting here in a almost 20 year old truck lol!"

 

[vroomzoomboom]

so after a brief halt in tuning (to get the mustang in shape, and up for sale) don was able to help (or do if you like) some more tweeking for me tonight. we also firmed some shift points up in the trans as well.
let me say this. this truck has never totally scared the crap out of me.....till tonight. lol
granted once again, i have my tires on that i park it with/use for the winter, and yes, the streets are a little dusty, and the air is cooler for better boost, but when you lay 2 solid strips of rubber (in 2wd mind you swinging left and right), for 200+ feet, your eyes get real big, real fast! and the meth kit isnt running as of yet to tune the truck without it. IMO, he is now at or further along from where james left off. there is some ping right now that we will work out im sure in the next adjustment. however, there is still one problem that isnt going away. this last tune, we shut the egr off to see if my surging idle will go away, and there was no such luck. its still there. this will give me grey hair to no end. i, in my mind cant figure out what it is. no vacuum leaks, egr was off, i do have good vacuum when driving, any suggestions?

 

[vroomzoomboom]

oh, and to put even more pressure on myself, i booked my holidays for AFN today....

 

[ahodges]

 

[gmanpaint]

Just a wild guess here. Since you had shift point issues, and a surging idle, have you checked the vac modulator on the trans? Even if the line is on, the diaphragm might be blown.

 

[vroomzoomboom]

Just a wild guess here. Since you had shift point issues, and a surging idle, have you checked the vac modulator on the trans? Even if the line is on, the diaphragm might be blown.

We were just firming the shifts up a little. Didn't really feel like there was a shift kit in it.
I don't think that trains has a vac modulater in it, they are electronic everything as far as I know, but could be wrong

 

[2000StreetRod]

no vacuum modulator

The 4R70W transmission is PCM controlled. There is no vacuum modulator.

 

[4pointslow]

Afn

oh, and to put even more pressure on myself, i booked my holidays for AFN today....

About time. LOL

 

[Dono]

Last night we firmed up the shifts on the trans shift pressure (Still not enough).
The surging idle is going to be a tough one. The fuel trims at start up and low rpm's are perfect, so that's not the issue.

A small piece of me is concerned that the vacuum bypass hose isn't big enough for the larger M122.
Once we have all the standard tuning dialed in, we will focus on this surging issue. Logging idle valve duty cycle, etc. will help us understand whats happening.

 

[ahodges]

Does the surge at idle ever smooth out if you let it idle long enough?

 

[vroomzoomboom]

About time. LOL

Still have to look and see if it was approved. Especially after what I did to my Forman last week. They hate when shop stewards beat up on them lol

 

[gmanpaint]

Well poop. Was just a guess. lol

Besides egr, the mechanical items that come to mind are the IAC, DPFE.

Tps, & air & coolant sensors are all I can think of, if it's not programming.

 

[vroomzoomboom]

Does the surge at idle ever smooth out if you let it idle long enough?

It does, but it's almost at the point or is at the point where it wants to stall. I know what what your thinking, big cam, lumpy idle, but don't think that's it because when in park or neutral it smooths out

 

[vroomzoomboom]

Well poop. Was just a guess. lol

Besides egr, the mechanical items that come to mind are the IAC, DPFE.

Tps, & air & coolant sensors are all I can think of, if it's not programming.

I have change the iac (with one I know works) it didn't change, the DPFE I never thought about however. Then there's that word again......tps.....I will admit, I never did change it. I would think (but not know for sure) it would show up in the logs, but I am not ruling it out. Coolant sensors are good, gauge sweeps, and I can see the temp in the logs. Also I did replace the egr with a new one in the fall. The same time I changed the cam synchro if I'm not wrong

 

[Turdle]

Wondering if this might help. Adjustable IAC plate

 

[Dono]

There is some info on things to log in the Lasota training manual. Hopefully when the time comes we will be able to tune around the issue.

I have been seeing where surging issues with superchargers come up from time to time. I will look for a thread or two and post the links. Maybe some of the results will help lead us to a resolution. I'm sure there is one, but it is going to be a bit of trial and error to figure out.

 

[vroomzoomboom]

Wondering if this might help. Adjustable IAC plate

I remember you telling me James had a similar issue tuning turdle when you had it and it was something he found with the egr system, but had to do a lot of digging. Guess he never told you what he did eh?