H.O. Upper stuff swap on LoPo - Does this produce noticable gains?

[pantera77]

It's probably for the best, the few people who have put explorer intakes on lopo's had nothing but problems. Too much intake, too little head.
The coolant lines to the EGR spacer are useless, I delete them on every car. I don't blame the guy though, shops exist to make money, not piece together customers parts.

I think I have a spare HO upper laying around. If you want it, it's yours for cheap. Throw the TB an EGR spacer on it.

[DerekTheGreat]

Dibs on the throttle body and spacer! I have one one but it's in VERY rough shape and is going to require some serious love to be in any kind of shape to put on a car.

That said, sorry to hear about your bad luck, although I'm sure a few of the guys here could offer you some insight into what needs to be overcome to install your stuff. I can't imagine this is anything insurmountable Derek, as we both well know that others here have done probably every variation on this swap. I've yet to dig out my manifold and actually compare and map what's going to need "customization", but I'm sure none of it is all that difficult. Meanwhile, i'll see what I can figure out and perhaps collectively, we can make this happen for you. If I wasn't a million miles away I'd drop by after work, lol.

Thanks Mr. Khead, I'd certainly appreciate your help if possible! I know Vic is always willing but I hate to trouble people with my crap so I farm it out. That stuff is yours. You'll be very pleased with the TB & spacer, Dave painted them and they are very nice.

It's probably for the best, the few people who have put explorer intakes on lopo's had nothing but problems. Too much intake, too little head.
The coolant lines to the EGR spacer are useless, I delete them on every car. I don't blame the guy though, shops exist to make money, not piece together customers parts.

I think I have a spare HO upper laying around. If you want it, it's yours for cheap. Throw the TB an EGR spacer on it.

Well those thoughts were indeed in the back of my mind and those are the reasons he was apprehensive about it. He wanted to leave the car alone and said he'd feel better about doing something like that if the cam & heads were different but as it was, he didn't think I'd be happy once it was done. I did bring up the coolant lines to the TB being useless and being an old timer, he disagreed and said he could see that if the car wasn't a DD and driven on nice days but if they weren't necessary, why did Ford put them there on this and future designs? I wish I would've known about that sooner though! I wouldn't have bought the damn intakes! Didn't know others had problems with the GT40 stuff. I was originally going to do the HO upper swap though but was swayed to GT40. Oh well. Yes, I'd like the HO upper, that is if it doesn't need to be sand blasted or anything like that. If it's already bare, cool, as I have the same paint that was used on the TB & spacer. That swap I can do myself but I didn't feel confident yanking the lower manifold and putting it back on with no leaks. 65mm TB & spacer on 60mm manifold? Thought I'd get laughed at for that so I was just going to sell that stuff and go for HO garbage. My car has ticky lifters and rather than totally waste money I'm having him throw some new ones at the car. Said the engine is very clean, no sludge anywhere & the EGR ports weren't clogged at all.

[gadget73]

In areas where it gets really cold, the heater thing can be useful. I did some testing on it a while back and I got about 15 degree hotter air temperature readings at the ACT sensor with the lines hooked up vs lines unhooked after making the same drive. You live far enough north that it might act retarded in the winter without it. Most of the rest of us simply deleted that and never gave it a moment's thought. Mine has been gone for near on a decade now. Even when I ran an HO intake, the thing leaked coolant into the motor so I unhooked it.

That said, its a simple matter to drill and tap the port. 1/4 NPT tap and whatever the drill size is for that.

[DerekTheGreat]

I know of no machine shops around here that would tap something for me. I've never tapped anything short of ass So I'd need training and the tools. I was thinking of taping out the original alternator I picked at the JY for my 3G conversion but it was the same deal, I called around and nobody would touch it. Pantera stated people had issues with the GT40 intake on a NoPo, wonder what they were. I'll get me a HO upper one day.

[gadget73]

meh, its easy. Its aluminum too, makes it a bit easier. Only thing remotely tricky is making sure you're in the right place. I believe there is a casting boss back there though, so you're good on that. I did the 3/8 NPT hole for the intake air temp sensor (you need to tap that one too BTW) with a basic hand tap.

But yeah, its not really the intake you want on a lopo. I suspect its a case of too much airflow for the ECM to deal with. You run into the same problems on HO motors with better heads sometimes. Just mentioning that the need to thread 2 holes shouldn't be the real deciding factor. The fact that it doesn't work well is more of a reason.

[DerekTheGreat]

The two holes needing to be tapped wouldn't be such a problem if any of you guys were closer, I'd show up with the manifold and a case of whatever it is you prefer to drink

In the end I guess I'm glad I didn't end up with that manifold on the car due to possible complications with the ECM. Should I use that Lightning throttle body with an HO upper or just use an HO TB? Reason I'm curious is the Lightning tb is 65mm whereas the HO upper & tb is 60, right?

[knucklehead0202]

The lightning TB would be fine, maybe a tad on the big side but leaves you room to grow later. I'm in a slightly different boat because I DO plan to swap heads, and I also have a Mass-air computer. At some point i'll be going with an HO-type cam and firing order as well, but probably not for a while. I have a Typhoon intake, basically a knock-off of the edelbrock performer/rpm 1, so it's WAAAAYYYY too much intake for a stock LoPo. I figured on installing it with heads, 1.7 rockers, a lighting TB/spacer, and a bigger intake tract and MAF. I figure with the exhaust I've already done, this stuff should really wake the car up, hopefully. Flip side of that is it could run like total shit, lol. If you plan to stay mild, I'd just whack on the HO upper, lightning TB, and maybe later some 1.7 rockers. Should run fine with a little extra pep, but no weird running issues.

[gadget73]

just watch that the blade doesn't hit on the smaller EGR spacer. If you have the Lightning spacer, you're fine.

[DerekTheGreat]

Thanks fellas, based on what you've said I should be alright seeing as I've got a Lightning TB & spacer. Looks like that garbage isn't for sale I really hate selling stuff so I suppose I could hold on to the manifolds for when I do get around to a full HO swap years down the road.

[knucklehead0202]

There ya go. I bought a crapton of stuff for my whale that never got put on. In fact, it's still in my garage but eventually i'll get it sold off. If I were smart I'd put it all up for sale here I suppose, but I have to dig all the shit out, put it in one place and take pictures. Ugh....

[DerekTheGreat]

...In fact, it's still in my garage but eventually i'll get it sold off. If I were smart I'd put it all up for sale here I suppose, but I have to dig all the shit out, put it in one place and take pictures. Ugh....

This. Then I gotta deal with craigslist people and all that, not worth the headache based on previous experiences.