2015 Project Thread!

I never had the Explorer intake on with the old heads. It was during the intake swap that I broke the bolt in the old heads, so the intake was never put on.

Yeah, I've had spout out while setting the timing. I think I had the gear a tooth off, because I've now been able to set the timing correctly.

That's the funny thing about vacuum leaks. When I would run it while adjusting the distributor, I'd keep forgetting to put the carbon canister vacuum line back on the intake. It would run BETTER with it out! My heads guy said that's a big sign your MAF and injectors are mismatched. I'm pretty sure I don't have a leak otherwise though. Most of my vacuum hoses are new. I have a sample tube coming from MAC. It's coming from California, and I haven't gotten a "order shipped" notice yet, so I probably won't even have it before next weekend.

Stymee came over Friday and we messed around with different combinations. We ended up swapping to the other MAF sensor I had laying around, onto the C&L housing. That seems to have made a difference too! It runs pretty good now, the idle doesn't roll nearly as much and the ECU seems to be learning. I had old gas in it before too, so I'm sure that didn't help. I ran some fuel treatment through it, and replaced my fuel filter.

I took it down the highway yesterday, and the Explorer driveshaft swap seems to have solved my vibration problem! 70-75mph, smooth as silk! I was really enjoying the benefits of all that suspension work I did last year too. It rides so nice, and handles well too! This is going to be a pretty dang nice car to drive around!

Here's what the engine is looking like.

check that evap canister purge valve, it should not be leaking at idle. that's the bug bear problem I had with mine, I have already put three CRAPPA cheapo's on it, what do you expect for 60 bones... if it fails again, I'll throw a FORD unit on it.
I'm happy to hear to have the beast burning high quality hydrocarbons....without any vibrations, you've certainly worked hard enough.
When you get around to shoving a hydro-boost unit in there you'll have more room and a tidier engine bay. the hoses will fit the power steering pump with no problem, even the cooler, you'll just have to drill out some new holes for the booster to fit into the firewall. some guys complain about the booster rod not having the correct angle, but it will work just fine.
some guys complain about soggy pedal, but that's just what hydro-boost feels like...but boy does it work GREAT!

It doesn't leak as far as I can tell, I just kept forgetting to reattach the hose at the intake. the replacement I put on there is so big, it gets in the way when you're working with the distributor.

No way I'm doing something different with my brake booster, haha. That one I have in there ('94 V6 Mustang) was a BEAR to put in. Not even interested in messing with that again if I don't have to, haha. Although, it is bare steel and is now starting to rust. I wonder if I can brush paint it and still have it turn out decent. I DO NOT want to pull that sucker out.

well if you have the 94 v6 booster in there, then you are good to go, but just a tid bit of info....the holes are the same!!!!
i'm glad you got it running well now, do you have a car show to attend anytime soon. you should get a few look-see's with that set-up.

The holes may be the same, but I still had to slot them a LOT to get a decent angle to get that thing in there. I also had to "clearance" the strut tower, also known as beat the crap out of it with a BFH. haha. I'm sure you can see why that thing is NEVER coming out of there again.

I got it running just in time for a drought in car shows. There's nothing going on for a good month. haha

Just a tid-bit. If I were to do this on a regular basis, I would chop-up an SN95 pedal as a template, and drill the holes from the inside, then tidy-up the fox body pedal holes to match the new booster or hydro-booster. Drilling from the outside sucks and is time consuming. Banging sucks even worse.
Now that you’ve missed the car shows, you can get intimate with the detailing polisher. How did your dads car come-out?

You are definitely right about that!

True, I can do that detailing. I haven't done my dad's car yet because I wanted to "learn" on mine. Dad's is orange peeled really bad, so it will need some sanding too. Man, I just wish I had more time. My dailies really need a wax too. The other day, I put up 4 more shop lights in my garage so I have more light when I do that. No matter what you do though, it always seems like there isn't enough light in the garage.

This weekend was shot, I found an explorer for my son to use as a daily driver, he wants to keep the miles off the Mustang. it's a 98 with a 4.0 and all wheel drive. I saw it Friday night when I was going home it was over in the wholesale pile, and they just parked it. A lady customer owned it and maintained it pretty well, yeah it needs work, but it’s a good daily driver.
you have to be quick around our place so.....I had a good look at it, up in the air, over bumps etc, the 4x4 motor stuck in 4x4 low and took forever to get it out, then the starter started to get noisey, so Saturday morning I went in to pull the starter and look at the flywheel. it took me almost an hour and a half to get the starter out because the top bolt was very loose, and the bottom bolt was just loose. I played hell trying to get the bolts out. I had to chase the threads on the starter bolts and the bell housing, and on the 4x4 models there is very little room to work. The flywheel was good, so I put the starter back in. the starter bolts were so loose that they cut threads in the starter housing and wallered out the lower hole in the starter…..i got it back together ok, and it starts fine for now. Then the a/c needed looking at, another hour or so, so when it was getting hot I wanted to go home, but we still had to take the decals off the back window, when I got to the wash rack they had no work to do, so instead of just removing the decals it turned into a “heavy clean” more time lost, but it looks great. Then lunch came, so I stayed for a while & ate, but my whole Saturday was ruined, all I wanted to do was go home, because I hurt my back on Friday. It was so dammed hot I thought my A/C was not working in the red one as it took a while for it to cool down inside, today should be a good day, filled with loads of housework and it all has to be done with an aching back……I was planning to do a wash & vac on all the cars, but that can wait.

Sounds like you had some fun playing with a new toy though, haha. I like those Explorers though, they make great dailies. There's tons of them around, so parts are plentiful, and body on frame, RWD, some with V8s, all tried and true designs. I certainly spent enough time working on them in the shop, as I'm sure is the case with you.

Did some detailing yesterday, check it out!

Before


After




My trunk and roof were really oxidized and dull, but the polisher brought them right back! In fact, it worked so well, I think I might go back later in the summer and try and wet sand my orange peel so it shines even better! I'm REALLY pleased with my results. I think everyone should do this, haha.

it's absolutely amazing seeing the difference! you should get some more experience and go solo!
yeah the explorers were pretty good vehicles, this one doesn't rattle when you start it either, I think he'll be happy with it. we have got to do some maintenance operations later, but for now all seems well.
I would like to try having a dabble doing the polishing, just not sure what grit sandpaper to use for the rust to come thru.....

Haha, well it may be easy, but it's also time consuming. Maybe someday when my schedule isn't quite so full.

Rust? They call that patina nowadays. haha

what did you do to your wheels, did you refinish them also?

Nothing yet. I do plan to polish them, but am not sure how exactly to do it. They're raw aluminum. I'd like to use a drill or even the polisher, but am not sure if that will leave swirls in them.

you may want to take the car down to a detailer and ask for advice, they would be the ones to consult.
when I did my wheels on the I used regular paint stripper and a toothbrush to get the clear coat off, I was going to use a buffer to polish the wheels with a soft pad, but decided against it as they wouldn't look so good against the faded paint, so I kept the matte look. the detailer will be able to steer you in the right direction.
I hope you got it running fine now.

Thanks! That's a good idea.

Well, it's running decent, but I'm STILL waiting on MAC to send that sample tube I need. I've got some troubleshooting to do too. When I was driving it around taking pictures the other day, it was heating up. I'll have to check the fuse on the cooling fan, I guess.

Some of the aftermarket cooling fan systems have the adjustable temp stings, they can be manipulated to turn off/on at different temps.
I’ve noticed that since I’ve put the 4.6 in the car, sometimes the temp guage creeps up higher than it did with the cooling fan set up from the 5.0. I actually found that while cruising at higher speeds and doing what I consider normal passing procedures with the a/c on the engine will run pretty warm sometime es.so I monitored the PIDS to see what the temp was, it was still within spec, but the needle would be higher than I expected. This is also apparent at lower speeds in towns under aggressive driving conditions, or if I just leave it running while in a drive thru or stuck in traffic, however it must be noted that there is no clutch operated cooling fan pulling air thru the radiator while driving around slow or sitting. I think that’s just the way it works, I’ve never lost coolant.
You may not have a problem, it may just be a characteristic.

That's exactly the thing, I want to be able to sit in traffic with this car. I understand what you're saying though, and that's kind of what I thought it was at first, but the more I thought about it, the more I thought it might actually be a problem, because I have the temp setting on my controller set to what I would consider to be too LOW a temp, so there's no reason it should have been climbing that high.

Turns out the fuse for the fan controller was not only blown, it was MELTED. It happened when I was trying to bubble the radiator to top it off for the last time after the engine reassembly. I had a sudden inexplicable eruption of hot coolant all over my battery and everything nearby including my fan controller and its fuse. I replaced the fuse, but the contacts got rusty, so I suppose I should still replace the fuse holder. I just hope my controller itself isn't fried too.

I found a 155lph fuel pump for 20 bucks yesterday. I guess the stock pump is 88lph. I'm pretty sure mine is a stock replacement. I dread pulling the stupid gas tank out again, but it might address my fuel pressure deficiency since putting the new engine setup in. Plus my dang pressure always bleeds down after a few hours, so this might address that.

I glad you found the problem, it sucks when you have no engine cooling system!! you may want to relocate that fuse holder. like I said, mine runs warm when I spank it town. I had been waiting for a complete cooling system from Tucson, a girl named Rita was supposed to get me one from the yard, I hadn't seen her for a while, then the other day she stopped by, she told us she has some evil kind of very aggressive cancer. I'm hoping she's going to beat it, but only time will tell. in a strange kind of way, I'm willing to wait, because I want the parts from her, she has always been good to me, and it makes it worth the wait if she recovers. she's nutty as a fruitcake, and she always brightens up my day. I've lost of a lot of friends in the past two years; enough on that.
i'm hoping your fuel pump solves the problem, don't forget to change the sock filter on the pump. I've had some fairly good luck with used pumps, it just depends on how long the pump has been siting around dry, and hope nobody dry tested it.

I'm sorry to hear about your friend's cancer.

Yeah, I replaced and moved the holder so it's farther away from the radiator cap, as well as easier to get at without removing the battery. My fan did come on after a short drive, so I think we're okay on that front now.

BUT, now my stupid EGR spacer coolant lines are both leaking. I don't know if maybe they're the wrong kind of hose or what. I remember when I replaced them, I just used general vacuum/fuel line or something because the store didn't have coolant hoses that size. Not sure how I'm going to solve that one yet.

I picked up the pump yesterday, and it's new in package, and the package was very dusty. So, it's likely it's been sitting dry for a long time. So, you think that's a problem? I wouldn't have thought of that. I'd really hate to pull my stupid fuel tank only to find I'd installed a bad part.

I think you should be ok with the pump, they usually pre-lube them. I wonder if power steering return hose would work if you cant find the small heater hose. somebody has to have it.

Okay, sounds good about the pump.

I went on a wild goose chase yesterday looking for 1/4" heater hose. I know it exists. I've seen pictures. I went to Napa first and they said they don't have it, and can't get it. I went to O'Reilly next and the counter lady said they don't have it in an "I know what I'm talking about" sort of tone, so I just left it at that.
And then.... I went to Auto Zone and made a fool of myself. I asked the guy if they had the 1/4" heater hose, so he brings me back to the bulk area and shows me they don't, but do have that size fuel hose. I tell him I think that's what I have now, and it didn't really work out. So then he brings me over to this other display and hands me a Prestone brand packaged 1/4" hose that's 2 feet long. I say hey, that's perfect, and walk out with it. Well, I get it home, and it says right on it "FUEL/EMISSIONS HOSE". I'm like WTF??!!!! Prestone is a COOLANT brand! The guy had to have thought I was an idiot. It was cheap though, and looks to be higher quality than what i have on there I guess, so I may still use it.

have you tried your local ford STEALER-SORRY I MEAN DEALER. they may be able to get the correct hose you need for the exploder intake. if not I know a walking catalog parts guy from FORD, he may be of assistance.
heres the reason why o riely doesn't have it.


Edelmann - Multi-Purpose Hose



Edelmann - Multi-Purpose Hose


$59.99  Each  

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availability

(520) 417-1541


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Online:  Currently Unavailable  

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1 year limited warranty
•I.D.: 1/4"
•Length: 25'
•A Superior Quality Hose Recommended For Fuel, Oil, Air, Water, Lube & Many Other General Purpose Applications. Constructed For Long Life & Extra Duty


Part # : 814-25R   |  Line: EDE



see the part # above, the will have to get a roll of hose 35 ft long, sell you a couple of feet, and keep the rest.
ypu may also try jegs/summit.

Yeah, Summit only has the big long rolls like that. I'd never use the rest of it before it rotted away. I wonder about those reinforced hoses Russell and Earl's sell. You know, the ones that are their sort of entry level, before you get into the braided stainless. I don't know. I may end up just using the stupid Prestone one. I'll probably call O'Reilly's again and see if any stores have it locally or something, or can get it.

I bought some spring clamps on ebay, since you can't get them through normal channels for some stupid reason. They won't tear up the hose like the worm drive ones do, I just hope they're strong enough not to leak, and I get enough of the right size.

My stupid sample tube is FINALLY supposed to show up today, almost a #$%^&* MONTH later...

I took a break from the car the past week or so. I've been planting bushes and trees in my yard. It's a relatively new development, so there's very little of that here. I did manage to dig a hole and hit my sprinkler system hose smack in the middle. (Sigh), that would only happen to me. haha

I decided to have the guy who did my heads send me some 1/4" heater hose. I don't want the local stores to get my money even if they CAN get it, but just don't want to. Screw them.

Some people have suggested just running with the fuel hose and keeping an eye on it, but that's not the way I do things with this car. I don't need one more thing to be paranoid about added to the list.