Turbo Questions

[seanpyl]

I'm looking at getting this for my 93 Ford explorer XLT.http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Ford-Explorer-T3T4-Turbo-Charger-Kit_W0QQitemZ270413850794QQcmdZViewItemQQptZMotors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories?hash=item3ef5ebe8aa
I guess my question would be is it even possible to turbo charge this particular engine? And if so will this kit work? I'm also installing a new cold air intake that should be arriving on friday this week. http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=270468886411&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

Any feedback would be appreciated and my technical level at this point is about a 0. I'm having a friend instal everything and I'll just be watching and helping in whatever way I can.

 

[hopelessexploder]

I would stay away from turbos IMHO. They require alot of technical stuff and if you say your technical level is '0', then definatly not. I have always been into 5.0 Mustangs, and had pieced together a turbo kit for it, i know a good bit about them. And the rule of thumb on the Mustang forums was to stay away from Ebay turbo kits because of the cheap chinease turbochargers they supplied with the kits. Also, they never seemed to fit very well, always had problems with intake piping blowing apart, turbo bearings burning up, turbo seals giving out very very quickly, etc. There arent very many true 'bolt on' turbo kits even made for any model cars and require to be tuned very well, its not something you can just slap on your car and then haul azz into the sunset, you need to go have it taken and tuned on a dyno to get the fuel curves right, get the ignition curves right, etc. Plus im pretty sure a turbo on a 4.0 will make enough power to blow the A4LD to pieces in no time.

 

[jd4242]

its been done a million times so ill be that guy to tell you to SEARCH!!!you wouldnt need the cold air if you get a turbo also,it would not fit!!HERE SOME HELP START HERE, http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=52

 

[seanpyl]

My question was WILL THIS ONE WORK with a 93 ford explorer XLT. Anyone?

 

[hopelessexploder]

You can turbocharge any engine.
But to answer question about will the kit work or not. Yea, itll probably work. But how hard it will be to make it work and how long will it work should be the question, judging by the info they supplied on the listing, it definatly isnt just a bolt up kit. Looks like you better have a welder and some basic fabricating experience. And looking at all the pieces it comes with in the pics and the fact it doesnt come with any instructions, and probably not a parts list either. You'll have no clue if they even sent everything you need.

-We are the parts supplier, not mechanic. We can try our best to help with generic questions, but it is best to consult a professional turbocharger installer with specific questions.
-There are no installation instructions included. The install is simple and most customers install it themselves in a weekend. If you cannot figure it out or feel uncomfortable with the installation, please have a professional assist.
-Most of these parts are direct bolt-ons. Some are not.
-The piping needs to be fitted up. Because of the bends and couplers included, it should be simple.
-The T3 turbo flange needs to be welded to an adapter pipe or directly to the stock manifold.
-To run this on a street car, the turbocharger down pipe will need to be connected to your existing exhaust. Expect to fabricate an adapter pipe or have an exhaust shop connect them.

And i dont even see any exhaust tubing. Yea, it comes with a downpipe, but what about an exhaust crossover tube? Y-pipe?. Turbo exhaust manifolds? (unless they want you to flip the stock exhaust manifolds around to face forwards, which you may not even be able to do on a 4.0) And it doesnt list any of it on the parts list either.

Your best bet is to contact the seller and ask if it will work on your engine. Thats your best bet.

 

[deamon3]

Why turbo a 165 hp 85mph truck? The 1000 is better spent on a better engine/car , plain and simple. I'm not sure what your trying to achive.

 

[seanpyl]

Why turbo a 165 hp 85mph truck? The 1000 is better spent on a better engine/car , plain and simple. I'm not sure what your trying to achive.

It was a thought. I'm not sure what YOU are trying to achieve by responding to this post.

 

[rhauf]

Well about a month or two ago, i decided it would be a good idea to turbo a first gen explorer w/ a 4.0 so i bought a very similar turbo to the one you're looking at (that turbo is the right trim size etc for a stock 4.0 to make good boost starting around 2k by the way)

anyhow, i bought the turbo alone and fabbed up all the exhaust plumbing and everything for it. i even started doing a little build thread.. i'll put in a link if i can find it.

the result was, the turbo spooled right away, but as soon as the boost started (even at just 1psi), the engine leaned out really bad, ran horrible and lost power. so i learned i needed an FMU, possibly a modified ECU (not easy to find for a first gen X since not many people mod them) and larger injectors. of course i planned to have the transmission rebuilt and beefed up a bit to handle the added load as well (along with a larger transmission cooler etc) ... i also planned on rebuilding the engine with pistons from a later engine (say a 96) and the 91tm heads from the early 4.0, in order to lower my C.R. some so i could run more boost and not detonate.. oh and of course also run head studs and upgraded head gaskets... anyhow i'm just trying to give you a bit of an idea of what will be involved, it's not like something you can just plug together and it works, it's a bit complicated. and definitely not a project for a beginner.

i was in the process of figuring out how to tune it, when i stumbled onto a v6 from a mustang with a vortech supercharger on it... oh and an AOD from a bronco w/ transfer case... so i decided to swap out the stock explorer engine/trans and run the mustang/bronco combo, since they were in good working order, dont require expensive rebuild/modification, and it gets me out of having to figure out the fuel delivery problem under boost.

oh and here's a little video i took of the X driving around some with the turbo arrangement. this was the first day i got it running, just to test it out some. the sound is bad on the video but at least you can see some.

by the way, i dont think it's a bad idea... it's definitely not easy, and if you do it it will require a lot of determination, and probably will end up being quite expensive (expect to blow head gaskets etc)... but you'll learn a lot too. everybody told me it was a bad idea when i started as well... and maybe it was (since i never finished) but i would have kept working on it if i didn't get this other engine combo. i also had a bit of a problem with the turbo's bearing seals leaking oil into the exhaust (the smoke you will notice in the video) because of the angle i mounted the turbo at... oops.. well what can i say I'm a turbo amateur.

 

[eXcali]

It was a thought. I'm not sure what YOU are trying to achieve my responding to this post.

That's a quick way to get all your future posts ignored... If you want to spend $1k for a pile of junk, and yes without instructions or you being experienced with installing that part it's just junk.

If you want to spend $1k for a turbo to put on a $500 vehicle go for it, hell enuff rubberbands and ducktape and it can make it work. Will it add any significant increase to your HP or top speed? No... Will it likely blow out a weak 1st gen explorer tranny, yes it most deffinately will in time.

I personally think it's downright silly to spend $1,000 + install costs when you can pickup a 5.0 motor for $150 and have more HP. But, it's your money.

 

[deamon3]

It was a thought. I'm not sure what YOU are trying to achieve my responding to this post.

Hopefully save you a lot of time / work / money on something that isn't going to , well , be very fast/powerful in the end. I mean it's a 16 year old grocery getter , not really race car material.

 

[rhauf]

That's a quick way to get all your future posts ignored... If you want to spend $1k for a pile of junk, and yes without instructions or you being experienced with installing that part it's just junk.

If you want to spend $1k for a turbo to put on a $500 vehicle go for it, hell enuff rubberbands and ducktape and it can make it work. Will it add any significant increase to your HP or top speed? No... Will it likely blow out a weak 1st gen explorer tranny, yes it most deffinately will in time.

I personally think it's downright silly to spend $1,000 + install costs when you can pickup a 5.0 motor for $150 and have more HP. But, it's your money.

gee you're sure a Debbie Downer. It's not always about whats more practical. besides, it could be argued that turbocharging the 4.0 is more practical, since it will probably be more fuel efficient than a v8, it wont require an expensive engine/trans swap, and it will pass smog if he needs it to. and since when does the resale value of the vehicle determine weather it's a good candidate for hotrodding? if this were the case i wouldn't have a plethora of modified old trucks (with aluminum heads and superchargers and whatnot) laying around.

from a practicality standpoint, a 4.0 SOHC would make about 50 more horsepower than the OHV version... about the same power increase as the turbo will give. but it wouldn't have the coolness factor, plus the OHV engine is a better engine IMO (its actually one of my favorite V6 engines) it's not a bad engine at all. and the trans can be modified to handle the extra power with an HD rebuild kit and extra cooling. (or a 700r4 swap)

 

[rhauf]

Hopefully save you a lot of time / work / money on something that isn't going to , well , be very fast/powerful in the end. I mean it's a 16 year old grocery getter , not really race car material.

the same could have been said for model A's and T's in the '50s when they were being reborn into "hotrods"

 

[deamon3]

A hot rod implies that you would totally overhaul a vehicle with nothing left original except maybe the body/styling.

Your attempting to just simply add more power to an old engine w/o addressing any other aspect of the vehicle. You also mentioned that the turbo may provide a 50hp increase. When fords current v6 is only a 3.0 liter and produces 65 more horse power w/o any type of turbo. It just goes to show that the old 4.0 is just not a great engine.

It's really not the car to turbo. Get an old mustang or something , heck even an old crown vic maybe , but just not this.

 

[eXcali]

gee you're sure a Debbie Downer. It's not always about whats more practical. besides, it could be argued that turbocharging the 4.0 is more practical, since it will probably be more fuel efficient than a v8, it wont require an expensive engine/trans swap, and it will pass smog if he needs it to. and since when does the resale value of the vehicle determine weather it's a good candidate for hotrodding? if this were the case i wouldn't have a plethora of modified old trucks (with aluminum heads and superchargers and whatnot) laying around.

from a practicality standpoint, a 4.0 SOHC would make about 50 more horsepower than the OHV version... about the same power increase as the turbo will give. but it wouldn't have the coolness factor, plus the OHV engine is a better engine IMO (its actually one of my favorite V6 engines) it's not a bad engine at all. and the trans can be modified to handle the extra power with an HD rebuild kit and extra cooling. (or a 700r4 swap)

Nice name calling there, is this the 3rd grade now??.... My point is the OP didn't have to respond the way they did. You don't come asking advice, then snap when someone gives it.

The coolness factor would be 0 when your sitting at the side of the road with your turbo charged rig and a blown tranny.

I can install a new tranny and motor in a day easy, a kit like that with no instructions and requires unknown fabrication will no doubt take longer.

 

[eXcali]

the same could have been said for model A's and T's in the '50s when they were being reborn into "hotrods"

This is like putting a turbo kit on a station wagon, it's going to take far more work than just the turbo kit.. Please don't compare a 1st gen with a hotrod.......

 

[rhauf]

to me, the more nay-sayers there are about my personal crazy projects, the more motivated i become to do it, just to do something different...

i never said the 4.0 was a high horsepower engine, i just said i liked it. it has a very nice torque curve for a heavy vehicle, and it's simple and well made. (i know some will debate this) but that has been my experience.

 

[eXcali]

to me, the more nay-sayers there are about my personal crazy projects, the more motivated i become to do it, just to do something different...

i never said the 4.0 was a high horsepower engine, i just said i liked it. it has a very nice torque curve for a heavy vehicle, and it's simple and well made. (i know some will debate this) but that has been my experience.

Like I said, let the OP buy it. It's not my money.....

 

[rhauf]

This is like putting a turbo kit on a station wagon, it's going to take far more work than just the turbo kit.. Please don't compare a 1st gen with a hotrod.......

i was comparing a 1'st gen with a model a/t... figuratively (a model T was an old slow car in the '50s.. they were souped up, and a first gen now is an old slow vehicle, which could be souped up as well)

what's with everybody being so negative? not everybody elses project has to be you're vision of "the best idea ever" if you're not into it whats even the point of saying you don't like it, and then constantly arguing about it's not in you're taste, etc?

and by the way, whats wrong with a turbo station wagon? why does a car have to be a muscle car, or import sports car to be applicable for horsepower related engine modification? are there some kind of guidelines here that i don't know about?

i do agree that it's probably not a good idea for the OP to buy the turbo, but only because it will probably end is disaster/failure and loss of money due to his lack of skill, if he were a more experienced mechanic, then i would think it's a good idea (if its a project hes interested in)

 

[deamon3]

ok , if what we say is not impotant...


Then think about it. If that turbo kit fit perfectly , and worked with no problems.... It would be no faster then just a standard honda , or any small import. And no more powerful then fords standard v6 escape. That'll be the result.

 

[rhauf]

ok , if what we say is not impotant...


Then think about it. If that turbo kit fit perfectly , and worked with no problems.... It would be no faster then just a standard honda , or any small import. And no more powerful then fords standard v6 escape. That'll be the result.

That is true, but it would be faster than another explorer of same vintage, and it would be a technical achievement to the OP for being able to make it work. plus, the turbo would sound cool (as it sort of does in my video of one running like crap)


and a honda or pos escape wouldn't make as good an off road vehicle IMO either.