Here's what I'm saying man. The quickest, cheapest and easiest way to make an Explorer run 12's.
Stock 5.0 2wd
255 Fuel Pump
250HP Shot Plate Kit
Colder Plugs
maybe head studs and gaskets if you wanted it to last more than a pass or two.
Gut the piss out of the interior
whack the exhaust off after the primary cats
Slicks
Good-ass tune
Pump and Nitrous Kit could be installed in a day. Another day or two for dyno tuning. With someone who knows what their doing with the tune (I'd take it to Lidio at Alternative Auto), the motor will hold together for a minute. It would most likely blow the head gaskets, but it would still click off a mid to high 12 in the process. If the bet was in the thousands, that would pay for the kit and pump, dyno time, fuel and hotel money for the trip, and a new 347 when I got back home. The truck would of course be trailer'd. The slicks would be borrowed.
I had a buddy that sprayed his stock block 5.0 GT with a 200 shot all summer street racing (went though 50 bottles) and when it got torn down to put in an A4 block, there was absolutely nothing wrong with the pistons (they were actually clean as a whistle from all the spray). We know the stock block can hold 500-550hp with a good tune when boosted or with nitrous. A 250 or 300 shot on a stock explorer 5.0 would put the power in that range. The 4R70W and rear end are beefy enough to hold the power as there would be no trans brake slams happening to snap something. It would all come down to how long the head bolts would hold out before stretching and blowing the gaskets. Either way, if the bet was high enough, a new motor would planned for and paid for.
This is all hypothetical of course as we are just having a friendly conversation with a little sh** talk mixed in, but I am saying that with enough money on the line, it is not impossible to turn a daily driver into a 12 sec time bomb in a week, and with the right friends willing to make a buck and see a show, the money could be gathered quicker than that.
BTW, 13.1 is pretty damn fast for a 4.0 SUV...