supercharged 5.0 true fire 98 explorer sport

[vroomzoomboom]

my machinist was a busy guy. flex plate came in friday, that night he balanced it and also ultrasoniced the crank. man, did that come out spotless!

don, you nailed it when you said what flexplate

pretty much the same as yours, just more holes for different mounting. i will however have to drill them out a little. way too tight!

i also started to lock the crank down. was pretty surprised on how it came out. this is the main cap bearing from june 2017, and god knows how many redlines....

this was today

also, end play from june 2017

today

how i got pretty much the same measurements on the same parts from 4 years ago baffles me. especially on how bad a abuse this truck (and i know don will back me up on that to!)
couldnt go any further because i could find a piston ring compressor till late afternoon, and i wanted to take evil out for possibly the last cruise night of the year as its getting pretty cool out. it did however show some kid in a 05-10 gt what a explorers tail lights look like. he was able to keep up for the first 10 feet however.
speaking of brakes and such, evil also decided to cut cruise control from its list of comforts. now i get to find out if i have a bad BOO switch, or BPP. nice thing is a have a truck at work i have been picking parts off so i will rob them tomorrow or next day. hopefully i will fix that before it gets parked for winter. i also want to get the pistons in on the weekend as well, then i can decide if i am going to use my stock tfs heads, or wait and use dons fully ported ones. will have some time to think, comp cams backordered my cam....wonderful.

 

[vroomzoomboom]

well.....crap

been picking away at the motor for a bit (and also waiting for my cam to come in, which it finally did). i had all the pistons in, but wanted to pull 6 of them because i wasnt sure i staggered the rings right. well this is what number six looks like. the good is its not making contact with the cylinder wall, the bad.....im putting it back in. i dont have the cash to do a complete rebuild (after just balancing the crank to) so once again, add to the broken stuff i did to this motor, and see how long it lasts in the spring.

 

[donalds]

Just can't catch a break

 

[vroomzoomboom]

Just can't catch a break

oh i have.
broken parts, bank account, knuckles, dreams....

 

[Dono]

broken bank account, for sure. Tell me why we do this again?

 

[vroomzoomboom]

broken bank account, for sure. Tell me why we do this again?

because hotroders, and car guys make the worst financial decisions, thats my story and im sticking to it

 

[vroomzoomboom]

this is the gimpy piston in the cylider. hopefully it holds, that and who knows how long its been like that.

both heads are on now. i almost forgot to put the lifters in first. that would have really sucked if i torqued the heads down THEN remembered. will hopefully finish it next weekend.

 

[vroomzoomboom]

heres my little update. it was gnawing at me about putting a gimp piston in. i also learned that mls gaskets dont go to the top of the heads, and leave a small gape between the head and block. so well over a month ago i ordered a single piston to replace the damaged one, and 2 gaskets. well, jegs somehow dropped the ball, and ordered the wrong piston (even after me giving them the part number i got directly from mahle) and after waiting 3 weeks for it to come. i have had to re order the piston again, along with a ring pack that i am waiting pretty impatiently for at that, and it also looks like i am going to learn to file rings now to. kinda aggravated on all of this. i wanted to have the motor back together before it got cold up here. now i will have to heat the gas chamber up which i really dont want to do, because the block will frost over while doing it, then thaw and sweat. i also cant leave it apart till spring because everything will flash rust, and i have soaked it now twice in oil.
joy.....

 

[Dono]

Situation normal. Tell me again why we do this?

 

[vroomzoomboom]

Situation normal. Tell me again why we do this?

because it really screws with peoples minds when you click off a 12.55 and hit 109 mph! lol

i will say this, its looking more and more like i will keep your motor in evil. getting to the point i really dont want to swap it over lol

 

[Dono]

By spring you might find some renewed energy.
I'm glad your replacing that piston.

Also, I don't envy you on file fitting the rings. That looks extremely time consuming and tedious. In the gas chamber doing this won't be fun.
I hate winter, I've just never been able to embrace the so called 'beauty'.

 

[vroomzoomboom]

my little update.

piston and ring set finally arrived.

had concerns they would be a different weight but according to mahle they are the same as the pistons that i have now (there is a change up in how the rings are in this one).

had to buy a ring gapping tool for doing ONE set of rings (lucky for me i was able to sell it to a co worker who needed it, so it only cost 10 bucks in the end). i have never gapped rings before so we will se how this goes......or blows. i did gap them to .025. the ones that these replaced looked like they were gapped at .022. didnt want to chance it, and once again mahle recommended i gap them to .025 with it being a forced induction moto.

had the week off between christmans and new years. and because the powers at charge has scared most of the world, and our government here, christmas family dinner was canceled for the second time in as many years, i spend christmas putting the motor back together. side note, for those that live in the warm part of the world, that green thing to the right in the picture is called a snowblower. be happy you dont know what it is or how to use it.

once again, evil is sleeping again this winter. i had a new years tradition in where i would jump in it close to midnight and go for a drive, but i found it was kinda harder on it with the stroker and blower on it. even though don drove his truck in the winter (and this is his old motor in it right now), she will more then likely stay in this spot until it warms up......in march or april.......

i am however still buying and selling trucks. i even managed somehow to quit smoking again (hope i can kick it forever). the cost of it was pretty expensive, so who knows, more money for go faster parts. or a house with a garage would be pretty nice! lol

 

[4pointslow]

I vote for the house with garage, better make that a heated garage.
My garage is not heated, I have a small electric heater, but it barely does anything.
It was warm here until January and I managed to get a water pump done on my Ranger.
Now it is cold and I wont be doing anything until it warms up, which is probably March or April here too.

Are you going to put your engine back in when it gets warm?

 

[CDW6212R]

Very nice pistons, those are the best and lightest I'd bet.

I'd vote for the house, garage, and/or a car port and add a heater to it. I have an issue with my house AC, and I bought a 30,000 BTU heater to replace my decorative fireplace insert. The heaters are now as little as $200 or so for that much heat, and can be had for natural gas or propane. This type I got is a ventless design, efficient enough to run a long time indoors in most cases.

 

[vroomzoomboom]

I vote for the house with garage, better make that a heated garage.
My garage is not heated, I have a small electric heater, but it barely does anything.
It was warm here until January and I managed to get a water pump done on my Ranger.
Now it is cold and I wont be doing anything until it warms up, which is probably March or April here too.

Are you going to put your engine back in when it gets warm?

it will be heated for sure, or insulated at the minimum. even my shed can get pretty chilly (to the point the propane tank starts to freeze while the heater is going). the only thing is i would have to sell this house and buy another, and i can live cheep here.
i dont think i am going to put this motor back in for now. looking at the 1/4 time slips, dons motor is making a lot more power this motor. unless something happens to dons motor, this motor may end up staying on the stand for a little while. im also kinda kicking around the idea of a holley terminator x system still. idk, i get too much time to think on what to do to this think over the winter.

 

[Dono]

I'd love to see a Holley system in use. I think its super cool that you can use a wideband in each bank and let the holly keep wot afr's at whats commanded.
I'd be interested as to how easy or hard it is to control the 4r70w trans.

It would be a fun project.

 

[CDW6212R]

From what I've read, the high end Holley systems do very well with the engine and the 4R trans. I wish they made one that would control the 2012+ 6R80 also, that one is expensive for the stand alone controller.

 

[vroomzoomboom]

I'd love to see a Holley system in use. I think its super cool that you can use a wideband in each bank and let the holly keep wot afr's at whats commanded.
I'd be interested as to how easy or hard it is to control the 4r70w trans.

It would be a fun project.

SWEET! now i know who to get to put it in!!!! think of the fun, working on your old motor and all

there is a guy on market place that has a system up for sale, but from a foxbody so i dont know if that would even work or not.

 

[Dono]

Id think if its off a 302 windsor with the 4r70w it would.
What do I know though?

I'm not sure how it interfaces with stuff like your gauges, air conditioning, that sort of stuff.
You might end up with having to make a holley digital dash work....no idea.

 

[CDW6212R]

I think the Fox Mustang version is mainly about the wiring connectors, to make them plug and play. You'd have to remake the connectors for sure, and the wire length will be for the Fox, which has the PCM in the right kick panel. You could contact Holley for the actual details, it might be a great deal.