New guy here.

[NVRDONE]

Whats up guys. I'm getting to the point in my project/DD that the motor swap is next on the list. As you can see by my join date i have been gathering info on the 5.0 swap for quite a while.

Here is my truck:



Here's what I did with it so far:
Belltech Drop beams with stock springs, Limited Slip Explorer 8.8 with rear discs (rebuilt the clutch packs and replaced seals and bearings and used all new brake components with calipers off of a truck with 40k on it), Belltech Nitro Drop II Shocks, polyurethane bushings everywhere except the body mounts. I also installed crystal headlights, a Summit Racing roll pan, black bumper, 4x4 valence with Fox Mustang fogs and a functional cowl induction hood. There is a FX4 dash and door panels inside too.

I plan on using a '97 Explorer RWD as my donor (best case) or start piecing everything together (worse case). I have a pretty decent sized list of all the parts Im gonna need. Rear axle is taken care already. Im also planning on using a T5 trans. This is gonna be a budget build to be reliable as my daily driver. So a intake, exhaust, and dyno tune is gonna be the performance toys for a while. I'm looking at trying to spend around $1k-1,500 for the swap. I'm also planning out a month to get everything done right.

The only thing I'm still not certain on: I'm going to be using a SCT XCal2 (Bought already) to turn off the auto trans controls. And I'm still looking into that if by doing that I'll take care of any Check Engine Lights. The garage I get my inspection done at said that as long as the computer passes the state scan he doesn't care what, or whats not under the hood. So I need to have cats, probably gonna use some Magnaflow Spun high flow converters.

So has anybody swapped in a Completely Explorer Based powertrain with a manual transmission, kept it OBD-II, and have it pass a computer scan at their state inspection?

[Toomanycars]

welcome .. nice looking truck ya got going there ..

[NVRDONE]

Thank You much. I want to get the motor swapped in and solidly running before getting it repainted, as you can see some body work has been done already. Going with the Black it came with from the factory.

[cgrey8]

I know nothing about SCT Xcal, although there are people on the EECTuning forum that sell both SCT as well as Moates stuff. And I do know they've mentioned they can make pretty much anything pass OBD-II tests simply by widening the thresholds that mark something as "fail" so wide nothing can make it fail anymore even if the thing is puffing black smoke and will barely stay running. It seems with OBD-II, the EEC is trusted implicitly by the state computer scan and unless the tester makes the decision to do other tests (they rarely do), if the EEC says PASS and there's something in the exhaust that looks like they might be CATs, then it passes. That said, it makes passing 95-older (non OBD-II) actually more difficult because they have to pass the sniff test.

Now why do I bring this up? He's worked hard to get the Moates Quarterhorse datalogger to support all the popular EEC-V (OBD-II) computers out there for Ford including all the parameters (and necessary hacks) to do whatever he needs to do. What I don't know is if SCT exposes all those same things to the user in Xcal or the professional's version. To know for sure, you might want to PM him with those kinds of questions. His username over on the EECTuning.org forum is POPSRACING. His name is Adam. He knows Ford tuning like nobody's business. And I believe he's actually up there in the NY/NJ area...

[NVRDONE]

Good news!!! I'll get over there and shoot him a message asap. Thanks alot for the lead!!

And some garages around here used to do massive checks for everything. But NJ passed new rules recently that say as long as the computer passes and there are no major safety issues the vehicle passes. So it just became quite a bit easier to do the swap. The only big rule I have to follow is "The motor has to be the same or newer year of the vehicle its getting installed on and it has to retain all emissions equipment that came on the motor."

[cgrey8]

That sounds like pretty much how Georgia's emissions rules are. From what I understand, Georgia's rules are looking for vehicles with obvious problems that the computer and/or sniffer can report as well as doing the visual CAT inspection and the gas-cap test. Stock vehicles that are in bad need of repair are easily identified. Most of the time, it's a clogged EGR valve or bad HEGO. So the tests do a decent job of catching those vehicles each year.

However anybody that's doing major mods to their vehicles have some fairly strict guidelines on-paper. But in practice, the only thing that matters is the tests. For instance, all emissions controls must be on the engine. But they don't indicate what all is considered an emission controller. Obviously things like smog pump and EGR are, but some vehicles don't have a canister pruge valve. Others do. My truck originally didn't have either a smog pump or canister purge valve. It didn't even have an EGR. The only thing it had was a passive charcoal canister. The canister plumbed in to the throttlebody. The 97 Explorer engine DID have a purge valve and fortunately, the 89-93 Mustang computers did too so it made adding a CPV easy. But my 97 Explorer engine did NOT have a smog pump. Although the stock computer did expect it. So that was an emission control in the computer I had to disable. From a purely technical standpoint, was I supposed to find a way to make a smog pump work? As far as I'm concerned, the original engine in my truck didn't have one. The engine I put in didn't have one nor did it have provisions for one on the accessory brackets or the heads. So deleting it from the computer was my only option. I did keep the EGR. Unlike smog pumps, EGR actually does offer some fuel economy benefits. When I experimented with E85, the benefits were huge. E85 gets noticeably lower fuel economy than gasoline. But it got even worse when I experimented with the EGR on and off. Having it on got me a whole point higher. With gasoline, it's not quite .5 point, but still worth having and maintaining. And if it happens to keep the exhaust a little cleaner, well I'll feel good about that I guess. But as it turns out, the smog testers don't look nor care if it's there or not from what I've heard from the machine shops and performance people in this area.

Georgia also has the rule that only an engine of the same year or newer can go into a vehicle like your state does, although there is an exception. The exception is if the engine is older, it must pass the emission standards of the vehicle year, not the engine year. I guess that's good for me since the machinist doing my new 331 screwed up my Explorer block and had to replace my block with another he had laying around. From what I can tell by the casting numbers, it's an E7 block which means it's possibly as old as 87. Although Ford used the E7 indicator for a number of years, so unless there's a serial number stamped on it somewhere I haven't found, I don't know what year it really is. It doesn't really matter though. The block doesn't decide how well the engine burns. Assuming all sensors are good, how clean the engine burns is more a function of the heads, compression ratio, cam, injectors, and computer tune...not so much the block. And all of those components are much newer than my vehicle year.

[NVRDONE]

That sounds exactly like NJ. As far as the equipment is concerned I have all that figured out. But once I get a all clear for the CEL's and inspection I'm going to start the swap.


Here's a question for everyone. For exhaust systems I'm trying to figure out what I should go with. I plan on using 65-70 Stang Tri-Y headers with the O2 sensor bungs installed in the collectors, Magnaflow high-flow converters, and probably Magnaflow or Flowmaster 50 series mufflers. Now whats everyone's ideas behind using a H-Pipe or a X-pipe? Also using two Single inlet/outlet mufflers or a single dual in/out? (This has probably been asked before but having it all in one thread makes it tons easier so I apologize). I plan on running the exhaust out the side Lightning style. I would do duals out the back but my rear suspension is going to be a explorer setup complete with the explorer rear sway bar and the shock crossmember so routing pipes will be really tricky.

So far I have read that a H-pipe will give me better low-end power with a throatier sound whereas the X will give top end and a raspier sound. Granted this is all on Mustang forums but I guess it should still apply somewhat to the Explorer motors. And being that this truck will be my Daily Driver most of my driving will be in the lower end it sounds like I should go with the H-pipe. I want the truck to have a nice deep throaty sound but no being insanely loud, some cities around here give me trouble with my 4 banger and my Flowmaster 40.


Here is what I'm planning on the exhaust looking like: (Photo credits go to 89Ranger5.0 over at RPS)




He is not running cats obviously, I'm thinking of putting mine right after the header collector. Would the heat from the converters hurt the O2's being so close? I also plan on putting flanges right after the headers and before the mufflers so I can take that section out if I need to drop the trans in the future.

[cgrey8]

The common question of X vs H. On a Mustang, this is probably a lot more relevant than on a Ranger where you typically run both banks of exhaust down the passenger side of the truck anyway. The EASIEST thing to do for Rangers is the X pipe. Notice:

With both pipes already parallel, it just makes installing an X easy. And even if you installed a "skinny H" pipe, the tone difference between the X and H is probably not going to be that noticeable since the crossover in the H just isn't that long to produce any significant tone difference. Add to that, the Xpipe is going to be the smoother flow scenario since it will evenly distribute both banks of exhaust into both downstream mufflers thus any flow resistance you might would've gotten from the mufflers would be reduced by having distributing both banks across both mufflers. At high RPM/Loads, it's probably not that noticeable, but at mid-to-high load at lower RPMs, you don't have both banks dumping exhaust at the same rate all the time. And from a fluid dynamic design, X pipes guide flow where H pipes would tend to create sharp changes in flow direction. Although the H pipe is probably better at handling reversion and probably where the vast amount of the tone change comes from in the 1st place.

BTW, that Xpipe I'm showing there on my truck I picked up off eBay for like $40 shipped. And yes, it did smooth the tone out. I bought it thinking it would help a tad with fuel economy. I can't say it did. I can't say it did anything other than changed the tone. I honestly can't say it gave me any more power, but any power gains to be had probably were minor on a stock engine in the 1st place where the exhaust wasn't the power-limiting area of the build to start with. But I'm glad I put it on there just for the experience and the pics.

[NVRDONE]

Great info, you have helped tons! and thanks for the pic. Are you running 2.5" pipe?

I'm pretty sure my exhaust system will consist of:
65-70 Mustang Tri-Y's
Magnaflow High Flow Converters (http://www.summitracing.com/parts/MPE-59956)
Flowmaster 50 series mufflers
And probably a X-Pipe looks to be the easiest.

Hopefully that will give me the sound I'm looking for while also keeping the sound police off.

[cgrey8]

My exhaust is a hodge-podge. The couplers at the headers are stock 2" I got out of a junkyard. So the pipes from the headers down to the CATs are 2". However because the X-pipe had 2.5" inlets, the exhaust guy went on the outside of the CATs with 2.25" and expanded that pipe to fit in the 2.5" inlets on the X-pipe. Then from the X-pipe into the mufflers with...I-don't-know-what-what-that-is. And then from the exhaust to the tips back down to 2". Far from ideal, but it's what it took to fit all my mismatched stuff together.

[NVRDONE]

Okay. The Tri-Y's I'm looking at have 2.5" Collectors so I'm probably going to run 2.5" all the way out to the tips. I'm going Lightning style like I have now so it will be a rather short system.

[87sc302]

I am running the tri-y headers and single flowmaster dual 2 1/2 inlet and outlets.
With the single muffler I did not see need for H or X pipe.

http://www.streetfire.net/video/v8-rang ... 148680.htm

[cgrey8]

If I had it to do over again AND I was putting money into expensive mufflers, I'd go that route too. One muffler serving the part of 2 as well as serving the purpose of an H/Xpipe. That's probably THE simplest way to go.

But my mufflers and Xpipe together were probably cheaper than just a single 2-in-2-out muffler by any of the brand names. At the time, I just wasn't looking to put a lot of money into the exhaust. In fact, I went there with the intention of getting glass packs but the guy talked me out of them. I really wish I'd stuck to what I wanted because I miss the glass pack sound. The turbo mufflers have a rumble, but it's just not the same as the raw exhaust sound you get from glass packs.

When these mufflers rot out from rust, I will be going back for some glass packs. And I also want the exhaust tips bent out to the sides, not pointing straight out the back. One of the things I really miss is being able to hear the exhaust when I go under bridges or past the sides of buildings. I'm actually hoping the exhaust rots out sooner than later so I can get the setup I really want. My running the engine lean at cruising loads is certainly not slowing down that process. Water in the exhaust does enough damage, but the extra oxygen in the exhaust from a lean burn tends to rust out the system a little sooner than it normally would otherwise.

[Teddyzee]

Welcome

Not sure if you've seen my exhaust, but it's just how you describe, and identical to 89Ranger5.0's, except there is no crossover.
I'm using Flowmaster 40s.

Here is an old pieced together exhaust we made, but you can see the O2s in the collector. They are horizontal and JUST fit:


The rest of it:




Both tubes go over the crossmember, your truck has different stuff than my Supercab, obviously... But they are up above the frame, too.




And if you're wanting to use Explorer stuff and a manual trans, I don't see that it matters at all if you find a 5.0 2wd or AWD.

[NVRDONE]

The main reason I said RWD is that I figure they're probably cheaper than AWD trucks with similar mileage.

I'm probably going with that exhaust setup. I have a couple notebooks full of notes and sketches. I have all the mechanical aspects figured out, probably not ALL I'm fully expecting stuff to come up. Here is a quick craptastic sketch I made up:


The converters I picked out are only 8" long so I hope I can squeeze them in behind the headers.

Now all I need to figure out is the wiring. I figure for the initial swap I'll just use the Explorer harness as-is (with the necessary changes of course) and probably pick up another harnesses and make a nice one with all the unneeded circuits removed and the big plug extended, like you did Teddy.

I'm at a crossroads of buying a 97 Explorer EVTM and start making notes or waiting until I find a donor. I figure can always resell the EVTM if I wind up buying another year and at the very least hope that some of the notes I make will crossover to the different model year.

I'm also adding a gasket match and polish to the intake manifold for some performance. I've been practicing on a 3.0 aluminum manifold I have laying around and feel confident to do the job on the V8 manifold.