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Ford Explorer Community - Maintenance - Modifications - Performance Upgrades - Problem Solving - Off-Road - Street
Explorer Forum Covers the Explorer ST, Explorer Sport, Explorer Sport Trac, Lincoln Aviator, Mercury Mountaineer, Mazda Navajo, Ford Ranger, Mazda Pickups, and the Ford Aerostar
Isn't that where the air cleaner is, the other side of that?
I've got an external filter on my 99 that I might have drilled the holes without the front end on it. It's mounted where the front body mount is, the pocket above there I put three holes/bolts in.
Don, I like that spot under the air box (Or at least where the air box would be) for ease of installation.
It just isn't as protected as inside the inner fender though. Its probably worth the struggle to get the pump a bit more protected.
I took the mount off the pump, and used it as a template. Then drilled two holes from the engine bay side, then bolted the pump in. Was a little bit of a change lining them up and threading the bolts, but it's in there. I should make a small plate on the bay side one of these days, but today isn't looking good. Tomorrow isn't either
Yea, I'm going to try to have everything on hand for piping and taking a run at mounting the pump for December 29th now. I 'think' I will have that day to myself and the truck will hopefully have sat in the garage over Christmas so it will be dry.
Nice warm garage, radio, working on the truck getting some alone time. Sounds like a Christmas gift to me.
Well, not much has happened, other than taking out my crank thrust bearing again. I'll post on that as I learn more. On a side note, pull time was about 6 hours even with people hanging around me wanting to visit while I work. I'm a bit of an introvert at times, so I'd rather be alone rather than have the distractions. In fairness, I'm not dealing with frozen, rusted bolts.
I had a bit of time to myself tonight, so I started upgrading my intake piping from 2 to 2 1/2". The pipe pictured is the pipe going around the wheel well.
There is a transition before the Maf, but instead of being 2" to 3" its now 2 1/2" to 3". Much better. What I'm hoping to accomplish is lower intake air temps with less transitions (The intercooler under the truck is 3" in and out also, so the 2-3" transition was happening twice. Between that, and the crushed 2" pipe, I was below 2" pipe size at the rear of the truck with ****ty flow.
On my list( while the motor is out) is mounting the meth pump, and removing the 2" crush bend piping from the turbo to the inter-cooler on the frame rail.
Very nice, there's a big difference in area/flow from a 2" to 2.5" pipe, huge difference truly. I'm sure that will help quite a bit. I hope you get the thrust bearing issue solved this time also.
That new pipe looks real good!
I hope the thrust bearing failure cause is something simple and inexpensive.
6 hours is pretty fast for pulling an engine too.
Ok, so here's the back half removed piping. Not much here, basically 2 3 foot sections that are bent up far more than any picture could show. Keep in mind there is a section of around 3 feet between the frame rail and running board that has the inter-cooler and blow off valve piping.
Its tricky running the pipe up nice and high over the diff on the inside of the frame rail, then down and around the frame rail after the leaf spring, but before the muffler. No room there at all. Before, the pipe was run under the leaf spring right at the frame pivot. This barely worked with 2 inch piping, and there is no way I'd do it with 2.5 inch.
So, I ended up much closer to the muffler than I'd like. Also, I ended up with a 45 degree silicone elbow super close to the muffler. That won't work for me. I'm back to silicone intakes for a 2 foot tube with a 45 degree bend in the center. Once I get everything mocked up to my liking, I'll wrap the intake piping that's close to the muffler in header wrap.
It's a good thing that the motor's out anyway, as I can order exactly what I need. From my first "best guess" I'm going to have quite a bit of 2.5" pipe left over, not much for silicone joiners or clamps though.
If I could get pictures from under the truck I would, but its all but impossible to get a good one without a lift. I'll maybe get one of the problem area by the muffler next time I'm under there.
Ok, piping upgrade complete.
I'm including pics of what I had to do getting the larger charge pipe over the frame rail.
No idea how the header wrap is going to hold up under there. I don't see myself banging the pipe as I don't go wheeling, and have 31.5" diameter tires. Going to take some stupidity for me to bank that pipe. Please look past the oil spattered muffler due to crank movement and rear main seal leaking, lol.
I think the slight trade off will be well worth it.
In between the 'Honey do's' I was able to sneak some time in on the Water/Meth setup.
Why stray from the pump mounting location that seems to work for everyone?
It's not vacuum/pressure tested yet, but no leaks so far.
I do have a question for you guys though. Where did you run the wires thru the firewall?