Willzilla's 2000 5.0L AWD Turbo Xploder

Hello everyone... My name is Will, I live outside of Memphis TN, and recently (couple week now) purchased Justin146's explorer. She has a little over 100k miles on it but overall is in fantastic condition except for a few issues that he told me about before I bought the X.

Issues were... PCV valve shot and the X pukes oil on itself from the valve cover breather... Exhaust manifold leaking due to broken/twisted bolts (he gave me a brand new set of stainless FMS headers, gaskets, and hardware)... Broken fog light housing... and everything that occurs to a car that has sat for 2+ years, lol.

Anyways... I flushed out the old nasty rusted out coolant and put some fresh stuff in with some water wetter... I drained out the old oil and put in some 5W20 Mobile 1 synthetic oil and filter... Replaced the rigged up PCV valve setup with an '86 SVO Mustang PCV valve.

What I have planned... Replace all remaining fluids (ie tranny, etc)... Replace the rusted turbo piping and most of the couplers (old, cracking, etc)... Replace rotors and pads... HID match the fog lights to the head lights... Hook up the XM radio stuff... Have the exhaust manifold removed and install the FMS headers (header wrapped) and run 2.5" exhaust from each header Y piped together to 3" straight back to the turbo, and 3.5" or so pipe straight off the turbo... And lots more I'm sure.

Current issues... Door locks sometimes don't want to lock/unlock on drivers side with the remote... They click but sometimes won't fully lock or unlock... Odd... But does not happen often and just noticed it.... Big issue right now though is that I cannot make any boost over 1psi... I've already pulled off both the WG and BOV and took them fully apart, cleaned, and put them back together and re-installed them and the issue remains... Checked all couplers and piping and all looks good, I hear no hissing from anywhere either, so... Issue remains, will look into further during the week or this upcoming weekend or something...

Pictures to come... For more of a background on the X check out Justin146's original thread at http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=169060.

Thanks!

 

[willzilla]

Going to have my exhaust done up in the next few weeks hopefully... Will be going with a FULL BOAR Max Flow SS 3" in/out muffler... Hope she sounds nice and flows well!

 

[willzilla]

So... The wife went to open my drivers side door and BROKE the dang door handle!! It looks like it connects with 2 arm looking things... she sheared off the right one :-/ Sad times indeed.

 

[willzilla]

Ok... Got a new door handle, had it painted, and will have it on the Xploder tomorrow along with all new fluids (minus the tranny, I will do that in a few weeks or so). Also got a new wiper arm for the back window! Woo! Lol.

Also... Picked up a universal kit of 2" 409SS piping so I can rip out all of the old turbo piping and replace it.. Got some nice SS connecting hardware and a new 409SS straight-thru Full Boar muffler as well!

 

[willzilla]

Installed the newly painted door handle.... Damn door lock not functioning 100% now... lol, it was intermittent before, now, 100% won't unlock with the key or remote :-/ Need to look into that later.

Replaced the t-case, front & rear diff fluids with AMSOIL fluids... Now the car kind of shakes/stutters a tiny amount... Perhaps I need to add the slip fluid stuff to the rear diff? A lot of people said it might not be needed with the AMSOIL fluid, but... Thinking maybe that is where the little bit of shake is coming from? Not sure, ideas?? Lol.

Also replaced the copper plugs with copper plugs gapped .033 and new plug wires.

Also received my new 3" straight-thru full boar muffler (404SS):

Also got a universal 2" piping kit to replace all of my charge piping with, also in 404SS:

Going to have my exhaust completely re-done in May FINALLY.. Will have my FMS headers installed and run 2.5" pipe off the headers Y'd immediately into 3" pipe into the full boar muffler and then right into the remote mount turbo:

Picked up my new RPS 50mm BoV to replace the ebay one on the car now:

And also a new Precision Turbo PW39 external wastegate to replace the ebay one on the car now:

Got a lot of work to do!

Replacing the oil this weekend hopefully as well.

 

[willzilla]

Turbo project is canceled.. Too many things gave gone back.. Taking it back to NA for now and see what I can get.

Is there a complete exhaust solution available anywhere to purchase?

 

[willzilla]

Nevermind.. I will just have a dual exhaust setup done up off my FMS headers or something.. Wonder if something like 2.5" off headers into a chambered 2.5" to 3" muffler on each side and then exit out before each back tire would look/sound good and give a nice performance boost?

Going to possibly remove cold side piping up to MAF tube and then just run a mandrel bent pipe after MAF tube with cone filter and sit it before front passenger tire or something similar.. Then pull off STS oil pump and plug the oil pan, unmount the turbo and IC.. and have the car re-tuned on my XCAL3... thoughts/suggestions anyone?