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]

even the best thought out plans can turn to hell.

been busy, very busy.
have dons truck fully done to v6 (vomit) and running now. got the safety inspection done on it, and it needed very little (which didnt surprise me, don did take good care of it). the only gremlin is getting the oil pressure gauge to work and not read nothing.
yesterday pulled evils motor out.

also forgot how heavy that supercharger, mount, and lower is. not fun trying to haul it out at one shot when bent over the rad cradle.
then it happen.......
i had sent both my damper (which is a mustang damper with a explorer wheel pinned to the the back) and dons damper down to damper dudes. it took almost 3 weeks to get there. wasnt happy about that either. ron there called me just as i pulled the motor, and the conversation went something like this.
ron - they tim, its ron at damper dudes
me - hi ron, let me guess. they still havent shown up?
ron - well, yes and no...
me - ?
ron - the box came today, it had one balancer in it. it was was the explorer one, the other is missing
me - ooooooooooooooooooooh no!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

thank you usps for misplacing my balancer........asshats. he called me again today and believes he has figured out what i need to be made. i am now dedicated to using dons motor because mine no longer has a matching balancer until i get another made, then yank the crank out to get it all balanced... this was not part of the plan. unless usps finds it, which i highly doubt will happen, im hooped for my old motor. can even fix whats wrong with it now because its pointless. if im lucky this thing will be running by august, and thats also counting on the new balancer for dons motor plays happy.

 

[Dono]

You must have been a hot mess working in the heat yesterday Tim. I admire your resolve to get things done.
I'm actually happy the crank is coming out of the motor so you can check bearings at the same time.

 

[vroomzoomboom]

You must have been a hot mess working in the heat yesterday Tim. I admire your resolve to get things done.
I'm actually happy the crank is coming out of the motor so you can check bearings at the same time.

It kinda was luck in a way. Evil sits between the house and shed. ThTs pretty much has shade from 3pm on, so I was able to be on the shade and finished everything for it around 7-8. Your truck…..I was outside until around 230am because I didn’t want to deal with the heat today.
I’m also posting this in my nice central air conditioned house

 

[vroomzoomboom]

progress is slow and painfull lol. don's motor is sitting in it now. can really only work on it on weekends because the shift i am on, and also the heat we have had here. 30's plus for the last month (not counting the humidity) which means i can really only work on it later in the evening. waiting for the damper to come tomorrow (and ups is bunch of road pirates, will never use them again). once it comes, i will have to check 2 things ron asked me to look at before putting it in place. will also need to move the crank sensor forward a bit as well. hopefully he nailed it on the balance, if not, i will have to put dons old damper in, and run a six rib belt with a smaller crank pulley and see how much boost it kills.

pretty much at a stand still till tomorrow. lucky for me i booked it off, as well as friday. want this thing pissing the neighbours off with the noise before next weekend. (well, the one neighbour has been asking when will it be running, he wants me to take a buddy of his for a scream in it lol)

 

[vroomzoomboom]

dampers came today.

ron had told me he was going to leave a little on it in case.

was able to take it to a machine shop where they took .075 off it.
also had to move the crank trigger forward a little

spent most of the day slowly putting it back together. even had it running for a few seconds then had to shut it down. it was so excited to be running again, it started peeing coolant......
will look at it tomorrow or the next day, which ever. it looks like either block heater is dripping or worse, intake gasket.

 

[donalds]

Truck was scared of all that induction and peed itself
Lmao
Everything is looking great !

 

[ahodges]

Coming along! I hope the coolant leak is something simple for you.

 

[vroomzoomboom]

Coming along! I hope the coolant leak is something simple for you.

well....just dropped the starter and ran the garden hose to the rad......not the block heater. can see a stream coming down at the back of the head, which means intake gasket.
i think im going to try and cheat this one by giving the back bolt a little more of a crank. i only torqued it to 18-20 ft/lbs. worth a shot rather then taking the blower and mount off.

 

[CDW6212R]

I love seeing the special machine work and adapting the parts.

What balancer did they use to make that one, did they do the same thing I had my shop do?

The only other balancer(aftermarket) that I've seen which might be usable to make a 28oz version, is from ATI. I was hesitant to dig deeper when I saw the prices of those. There was another brand which was made in modular parts, you can buy the core balancer and change the weights or pulley type separately. I forgot which that was though, I misplaced the link I thought I had saved.

 

[vroomzoomboom]

well i tried cheating this one by cranking the bolts a little more.....
FAIL
yesterday i went out to start working on it. first discovery, a cat trap is coming. for the second time in as many years, the idiots that live next door, their cat used evils hood as its scratching post. NOT IMPREST.
i started taking everything apart. i had just pulled the blower and intake off when i heard thunder. normally i would welcome this, but with the top of the motor off, and me wanting to work on it.....then i started feeling rain drops on my back. i quickly packed it in. wise decision. it started raining not cats and dogs, but farm animals. but wait theres more! as i stood in my shed hiding for cover, i started hearing "tink......tink......THWACK.....tink tink tink TINK" just what i needed....hail.....thank good it was only pea size.
storm blew over, back to work. i was looking everything over, and avoided another disaster. when the coolant was leaking, it also filled one intake runner on number 4 cylinder. i mean to the top! glad i didnt try starting it, or i would have had more problems. was able to get the blower back on torqued 3 times, then called it. went out today, tried to torque it once more, but the wrench clicked and the bolt didnt move. next step, fill it with water. no leaks! yay! for ***** and giggles, i also pulled the plugs on bank 1 just in case coolant got into the cylinders. wise decision number 2.
put all the plugs back in, then fired it up. it ran pretty good for not having a correct tune in it. let it get to temp, blead all the air out of the cooling system, then another for poops and giggles (as well as i cant remember what oil was in it) dropped the oil. wise decision number 3. it looked milky and i am going to guess due to the coolant leak it had.
buttoned everything up, got cleaned up and took it for a quick ride. to me, it felt like it lost a little punch, but then again, it was lighting them up all the way through first and some in second in 2wd. i did see however that it lost 1-2 pound of boost, and the vacuum is also a lot lower then before. don figures, and he had a good point that this motor probably flows more air then my old one. this motor also is 9.5 to 1 if i am correct and the old motor is 10.2 to 1.
the only concern i have right now is blowing the block heater out. my old one did that when it went into boost, and i had to make a strait strap out of stainless to hold it in. i forgot to do this to dons motor, so time is gonna tell (and it normally tells you at the worst time to).
might have to go for a drive tomorrow with it to dons place and let it drip oil all over his nice concrete driveway for old time sake. we will see.

 

[4pointslow]

Glad to hear it is up and running!
Looking forward to hearing more as you get it dialed in.

 

[vroomzoomboom]

last week i put a end to the spinning threw first and into second gear by buying new tires. was a tad overdue. now i have traction again.
today i tortured both don and evil. today we (well don at least, i just drove the crap out of evil) started retuning evil to dons old motor. oh, it is also 93F or around 34C out. why would i want to tune when its that hot? easy. if you can make it live in that heat, it will live with no problems.....well, hopefully. don made a lot of progress, can feel it pull again in mid to high rpm. low still feels a little doggish, but i also think that is from the heat.

 

[4pointslow]

Any idea what temperature the intake air temperature was hitting for a high?
What tires did you get?

 

[vroomzoomboom]

Any idea what temperature the intake air temperature was hitting for a high?
What tires did you get?

real high. like 150-180. i also think the sensor is getting heat soaked as well. i have it at the back of the lower intake below the supercharger. but as i said, i dont want to tune it when its cold out, then have it ping when its hot out and split the block.
i bought the same size as i had before. 245/50 r20. the same brand, goodyear but sport not hp. its nice not having the back end kick out when i want to drop a gear and disappear.

 

[vroomzoomboom]

well the biggest thing that has been gnawing me in the back of my mind is.....is don's old motor hurt or not. i have noticed that it didnt feel like it pulled like the 347 i had in it. don has also sworn it was hurt but we both couldnt prove it. he sent me a message the other day, and we both agreed the cam in his motor was much bigger then the one in my other motor thinking their might be too much cam in it. he has also done some more tuning for me over the last couple off weeks to get ready for today. what was today?
the drag strip.
i only was able to get 2 runs in due to a lot of people being there, and the track staff taking their sweet time at doing everything (very frustrating when you have to pay 80 bucks to end up sitting around waiting to run with a empty track in front of you).

so this was my second and last run against one of my buddys. he has a 95 gt with a trickflow upper end and cam, as well as spray (small shot, also my arch rival, but he knows i will help him anytime he needs or asks so its all good). he's a little bummed for 2 years in a row i have spanked him at the track lol



that was my slow run.

this was my first and fastest run.....ever....

there was a little bit of a tail wind, but i will take it.

so now i dont know what to think. the butt dyno is telling me its a dog out of the hole, don also had said it felt the same to him in his truck, but when i look at the slips, its very close to being on par with the old motor. BUT don's motor was dyno'd at just under 500 hp and torque. either one of 2 things, my old motor was more then i thought it was (box stock trickflow heads, and 10.2.1 compression vs fully ported trickflow heads, and 9.5.1 compression). i also noticed on the run that was video'd at the top end it was around 11.7 on the wide band (sorry don, bonehead me forgot his printer cable so i couldnt get any datalogs) and the boost started at around 9 1/2 and ended at around 10 1/2 to 11lbs at the end of the 1/4 (which also makes a hell of a sweet sound to lol). will probably go back once more before the track closes for the year. might even see if i can drag don out with his mustang (hint hint) as well.
i do have a couple of things i want to tend to with it as well that have been bugging me forever (one is a low volt problem and sorry john, still havent been able to video that either) and some other issues.
i also have a replacement balancer coming from once again ron at damper dudes to replace the one that usps lost. not sure i will get to getting the crank out of the other motor and having it balanced before the winter or not just yet. however, i could always rebuild it in my spare bedroom......hmmmm.....lol

 

[4pointslow]

Nice work Tim! The truck sounds and looks awesome! Great time slip!
I am so glad you posted this, I was getting real bored as I put my projects on hold for a while.

What stall speed converter are you running?
The lower compression might be what you are feeling out of the whole.
If you get a chance to datalog at the track please send me the file to look at.

I would definitely rebuild that engine in the spare bedroom, I have car parts(just boring ones) in my dining room right now. LOL

 

[vroomzoomboom]

Nice work Tim! The truck sounds and looks awesome! Great time slip!
I am so glad you posted this, I was getting real bored as I put my projects on hold for a while.

What stall speed converter are you running?
The lower compression might be what you are feeling out of the whole.
If you get a chance to datalog at the track please send me the file to look at.

I would definitely rebuild that engine in the spare bedroom, I have car parts(just boring ones) in my dining room right now. LOL

its also dons old converter. circle d 2800 stall.
hard to say if its compression related or not. i am also sorta thinking i have new tires on it, so i have way better traction, where the old ones would spin and allow the rpms to climb faster out of the hole as well. who knows. i also noticed i did conquer another problem which was it hitting the rev limiter on the 1-2 shifts as well. i also didnt change plugs before going there either, not sure if they were fouled or they cleared themselves out, this was a last min thing on going there. don was saying looking at the last log, the o2 sensors were close at wot, but far off at lower speeds. i know i have a header leak on the passengers side (i couldnt find a crack when i put them on, and there are new gaskets as well) which is a head scratcher because you would think they would be out all the time.
also the tone his motor makes in the truck sounds very mean. was at a cruise night last weekend. rolling past some random people, one guy shouted out "whats in that thing?" i responded with "just a 302 and a cam". he called me on my bs with "ya, right! that sounds pretty beefy for a 302." lol

 

[vroomzoomboom]

my buddy that i was racing in the video found this. this was from my first run

 

[ahodges]

Nice work Tim! It sounds like you are getting it dialed in pretty good now!

 

[vroomzoomboom]

Nice work Tim! It sounds like you are getting it dialed in pretty good now!

the problem, fast isnt fast enough. i always told myself this isnt a drag truck, but it slowly is looking like i have tossed that out the window.