Upper/lower explorer intake swap sensors not matching up, need help!

[Stealthlead]

Hi,
I'm doing a lopo to HO intake swap (upper/lower intake, egr spacer, throttle body) and the throttle body hose and air temp sensors are not on the HO intake (I think its just a GT40 intake). You can see here from the lopo;

The hose on the right and the sensor on the left are not on the HO intake;

The throttle body hose obviously goes to the throttle body and sends coolant through it so I would think this is pretty neccesary and that air temp sensor will probably throw a code if not plugged in. What did you guys do? I could really use some help! And also I know the intake swap isn't going to give me much power without the heads, cam, etc. I just knew my lower was leaking in shit and I wanted to take care of it.

Best Regards

[gadget73]

You're dealing with a later (98+) Explorer intake, not an HO intake. The HO lower is the same as the lopo lower. I hope you've got the correct upper, or this has no chance of working. Also not 100% on this but I'm relatively sure the lopo EGR spacer cannot be bored out enough to mate up to the Explorer upper. You're left with either using a Lightning part, or modding an HO part to allow the throttle cable brackets to attatch.

the hose is for the EGR cooler. You don't need it. Just seal off the other end of it where it goes to the heater pipe.

The sensor you're basically going to have to stick in the air pipe by the throttle body. You have a later intake without the boss there. If you're very careful you might be able to drill and tap it, but if you miss the intake is basically scrap metal. Also just fair warning, this does not have EGR so you're going to have to remove the vac line from the EGR valve to prevent it from opening and leaning out the fuel mix.

[Stealthlead]

Well, shit. My tb and spacer are fine I have some bored out explorer egr spacer I think and the throttle body is ready To go but I thought I had the right intake. Guess ill clean the stock one up and throw it back on it was SUPER dirty. It's not a huge deal ill just resell it. I wanted a better intake anyways

[gadget73]

The HO upper bolts to that lower without any problems. Use the bored out stock EGR spacer and a modified HO throttle body and you're good. I did get some gains from an upgraded lower and a stock HO upper on my stock HO motor, but I'm not sure you'd get much out of a lopo motor by doing that. The stock lopo upper does suck pretty bad though.

[mcninetyone]

I almost had this same problem when I put an Explorer GT40 in my box. Fortunately I ended up with a 96 engine which had the lower intake with the boss I could drill out. From mid 97 and up the intakes did not have the boss!.

[pantera77]

You can bore out a lopo spacer to 65mm, but it gets damn thin. I wouldn't recommend it.

So your not doing a full HO swap right now?

If your still sticking with a lopo for now (e6 heads and stock cam), you can't run the GT40 (Explorer) intakes anyways. It's been tried by a few members before and it ends up running like shit.

A stock HO upper intake (60mm opening vs 50mm on the lopo uppers) along with a HO throttle body (60mm) and having your stock EGR spacer bored to match (I believe it needs to be bored to 63mm to match everything IIRC) will be a surprising improvement.

[Stealthlead]

Alright,
so after reading the first post and finding out I don't have the boss lower I decided to not go through the hassle of rerouting the tb line and the atv sensor or whatever and decided to clean out and put the lopo back on. Although it was technically considered to be a bad day since I wasn't able to put the HO intake on as intended, it was very beneficial to clean and re-gasket everything and replace the distributor cap/rotor. The lower intake was in horribly dirty condition (I never knew the intake was silver lol) as well as almost every sensor not to mention the lower intake gaskets were leaking horribly and possibly the culprit of many problems. Here are a few pictures;

The lower is off

You can see some of the horrible corrosion in my heads on the very right or near #4 port. My heads are not in very good condition but got cleaned as best they could. However after removing the distributor and peering down into the crank everything looks pretty good down there, although its not like there was a great view.

Anyways, after reinstalling all the plugs, vacuum lines, etc. (of course one of them snapped) it was quickly apparent the timing was off with the distributor as the car was popping (or igniting to early I think) and it also sounded horrible, like a diesel or something. It turns out the timing was 2 degrees off the originally marked position with the distributor. Thankfully I had someone there to help me adjust it and test it out so it didn't take more than an hour. So now its running great and idling great and has noticeably more power (although of course my driver side header is still leaking a little -.-). All of the sensors were completely covered and clogged with sludge/grease etc. However, I think the idle air control valve (or whatever is on the right side of the EGR spacer) needs to be replaced as it looked to be in pretty bad condition. Also while cleaning the injectors we came across something strange... they had been obviously spray painted by whoever serviced them last (when the car was in possession by my grandparents).

As for the intakes.. I'm going to provide pictures so there is less confusion because I think I am using the wrong term when I am referring to them as gt40's;

As you can see pictured above are the upper and lower intakes. They were bought separately from the tb and spacer. They are from the same vehicle which I'm told is an explorer. I was under the impression the HO intakes are the same as gt40 intakes but I now realize I must be mistaken.. I guess those are just explorer intakes.

backside of the upper


That is the EGR spacer. I can't remember but I'm 90% sure its a bored out lopo spacer. Whoever said it wouldn't fit the tv bracket I'm pretty sure is wrong.. when I had my lopo spacer off I compared it and the only difference is that the bored out spacer is not quite as wide. The EGR housing however is the same so I doubt this is a problem.

There is the throttle body. I bought it ready to plug in. I just measured it (by the blade correctly this time I believe lol) and its 65mm. Its noticeably larger than the stock tb. I hooked up the tb and spacer to the explorer/ho intake and it all mounts up just fine, no fitment issues or anything.

So I guess now the best thing to do would be to sell the intakes, keep the spacer and TB and get either an HO intake with the boss port or a bigger/better intake altogether? (suggestions welcome). And no I am not doing the HO conversion right now because I am planning on swapping engines in the distant but hopefully near future. I just wanted a bit more power for now to sustain my ridiculous driving habits. But as Pantera77 said, if it won't run very well with an intake swap alone then it will be pointless to do so I'm left with two options I believe which are either doing the HO conversion altogether or wait and drop the new engine in it.

Thanks for the responses and help guys.

[87gtVIC]

HO intake looks indentical to the stock lopo intake but has an HO stamped into it underneath the intake plenum cover.

gt40 intake is what you have above.

there are also gt 40 tubular intakes and gt 40 cobra intakes. The cobra intakes se no egr spacer.



the egr spacer you have up there is lopo spacer bored out. Works fine with throttle cable bracket because it came off of a panther.

[mcninetyone]

The Explorer GT40 stuff is slightly larger than the HO stuff.....so
It looks to me that all you need now is an Explorer/GT40 lower intake from a 96/early 97.
And the GT40 heads from the same Explorer and you've got your matching parts and boss you can drill out. (this is what I did)
Explorer GT40P heads from a 97.5+ model Explorer will give you an exhaust manifold problem.
I you want to use stock parts I would think an Explorer/GT40 engine as is or with maybe a cam swap is the way to go.

[Stealthlead]

I'll just deal with the lopo for a while and get the trickflow type R down the line. It looks to be the best option that is reversible. I can always grind down the plaque on it too when it drives me nuts being backwards

[mcninetyone]

I'll just deal with the lopo for a while and get the trickflow type R down the line. It looks to be the best option that is reversible. I can always grind down the plaque on it too when it drives me nuts being backwards

You don't have to grind down the plaque.
Just get an early Mustang HO plaque, it won't read backwards and it will have.....5.0 Liter HO.....on it. (they look great)
It will fit perfectly right where your Explorer upper has that 5.0L V8 plaque.

[87gtVIC]

Though if he decides to go the TF route the letters are cast into the upper intake.

[gadget73]

Just don't put a fancy Trickflow intake on a stock motor. it'll likely lose a lot of low end torque, and thats all the lopo has going for it.

[packman]

I'll just deal with the lopo for a while and get the trickflow type R down the line. It looks to be the best option that is reversible. I can always grind down the plaque on it too when it drives me nuts being backwards

The backwards lettering (rotated intake) will let you know that you got a TF intake on your engine while driving...........or parked with the gf and/or wife. LOL All levity aside, it sounds like you just stepped onto a very slippery (mod'ing) slope; N-JOI



Packman

[Stealthlead]

Lol yeah I'm planning to throw the type R right on top of the lopo. While I'm at it ill throw the tws heads on it and call it a day :p Seriously though I was talking about grinding down the type R, not the explorer. The backwards text would drive me nuts, and a gf=less money and time which is bad for the box :s

I'm just going to deal with the lopo for a while. I've been looking into those fordstroker 347's, heard nothing but good stuff about them. lol slipping down the slope of modding.. I'm afraid so :/ what can I say.. I love my box, want to build power into it and am willing to pay for it. 347 thread inevitable :p