Some questions on LOPO upgrades...

[merc91]

Alrite i've been doing a ton of reading and i'm new to all of this but I am quite mechanically inclined. I'm going to school to be a machinest so i will have a few basic machining tools to use. But I'm totally new to the engine building and part swapping business. The motor only has 43k on it but they were steady... the motor didn't see years of rest or anything.

-GT40P heads off an Explorer and those "special" headers to match
-Mark 7 ECM
-19lb injectors
-HO throttle body
-HO upper intake
-Bore EGR spacer to 63mm, and flip lever arm due to rotating the upper intake
-cam
-new rocker arms since explorer heads need pedestal not stud mount?
-adjust spark wires for new firing order

-OK from what I have seen i'm leaning towards an explorer cam vs the mustang HO... I would like your opinions on that, and what years of exploder cams do I need, and did they have HO labeld motors or GT40 or will any cam due from certain years?

-Is it worth putting on an explorer lower and upper intake, or will an added HO mustang upper do the job just fine? I won't be getting any aggressive porting done just a "refreshed" set of heads.

-What year Mark 7 ECM should I grab, I have my eyes on an 87 and I believe I saw all 87's had HO's so I should be good... or could it be a lopo? its a ways away so i can't read the motor to see.

-i can still most likely use my lopo's pushrods and lifters correct? and will I need to get new timing gears and chain or am I all set with my lopo's?

-About how much HP can the lopo's pistons support safely? Not going N0S or anything stupid but just making sure these mods will not cause bigger problems... no knock and hardly any oil burning at all in the motor right now either.


Thanks allot in advance, this won't be happening until winter most likely due to $$... or lack there of haha, but I will be accumulating parts allong the way as I find good deals. The car can only be off the road for maybe 3 or 4 days and theres not many parts shops around so I need to prepare well to make everything go smooth once the motor is apart.

[1987cp]

5.0 Exploders were sold from '96 to '99. '98-'99 got the superior "P" heads (casting number F7ZZ, versus F3ZE for the regular GT40). The cam is really pretty tiny, but it'll work great with your stock transmission governor. All V8 Explorers from the same year had the same engine.

Lowpo cast pistons will be fine for any foreseeable street combo you're likely to be throwing at the car.

[mrltd]

Alright I've been doing a ton of reading and i'm new to all of this but I am quite mechanically inclined. I'm going to school to be a machinIst so i will have a few basic machining tools to use. But I'm totally new to the engine building and part swapping business. The motor only has 43k on it but they were steady... the motor didn't see years of rest or anything.

-GT40P heads off an Explorer and those "special" headers to match
-Mark 7 ECM
-19lb injectors
-HO throttle body
NO, get the explorer TB
-HO upper intake
No, get the explorer intake
-Bore EGR spacer to 63mm, and flip lever arm due to rotating the upper intake
-cam
-new rocker arms since explorer heads need pedestal not stud mount?
They are both pedestal. Nothing new needed.
-adjust spark wires for new firing order

-OK from what I have seen i'm leaning towards an explorer cam vs the mustang HO... I would like your opinions on that, and what years of exploder cams do I need, and did they have HO labeld motors or GT40 or will any cam due from certain years?
The explorer cams are all the same.

-Is it worth putting on an explorer lower and upper intake, or will an added HO mustang upper do the job just fine? I won't be getting any aggressive porting done just a "refreshed" set of heads.
YES, the explorer intake is worth it.

-What year Mark 7 ECM should I grab, I have my eyes on an 87 and I believe I saw all 87's had HO's so I should be good... or could it be a lopo? its a ways away so i can't read the motor to see.
Can find them FS here, or just check the catch code on the ECU.

-i can still most likely use my lopo's pushrods and lifters correct? and will I need to get new timing gears and chain or am I all set with my lopo's?
Gotta check the valve lash, you might need new pushrods.

-About how much HP can the lopo's pistons support safely? Not going N0S or anything stupid but just making sure these mods will not cause bigger problems... no knock and hardly any oil burning at all in the motor right now either.
Tons, as long as the tune is good.


Thanks a lot in advance, this won't be happening until winter most likely due to $$... or lack there of haha, but I will be accumulating parts allong the way as I find good deals. The car can only be off the road for maybe 3 or 4 days and theres not many parts shops around so I need to prepare well to make everything go smooth once the motor is apart.
Good luck with that!

[gadget73]

Not all 87 Marks had an HO. The 87 LSC is the 200 hp HO, the Bill Blass and base models had the same lopo your car already has. Check the code on the ECM to make sure you're getting the right stuff. 88+ is really what you want in order to retain cruise control anyway.

As for the cams, the HO cam has a little more up top, the Explorer has a little better on the bottom. The Explorer cam starts to run out about 4500, the HO will pull to 5000ish. The HO cam has that 'kick in the ass' feeling when it comes on around 2800, the Explorer cam doesn't do that, it just pulls basically from 2000 on up. The HO cam feels faster because it takes off at 2800, but track times don't really show it all that much better. My car runs a 16.02, and Scott's does a 15.91 in the quarter. Different days, plus he iced his intake before that run so I'm inclined to think side by side on the same day under the same conditions it would be a pretty darn close race.

[Lincolnmania]

need a lightning egr spacer or a modded mustang spacer to use the explorer/gt40/cobra intake.....bored lopo egr spacer wont seal....has been tried

they made 5.0 v8 explorers/mountaineers from 96-01 mikey

[1980c10]

You can also do what I did for the egr and get a mustang egr delete plate and do a little fabbing on the stock throttle cable bracket to maket it work.

[merc91]

-so I am going to go with an explorer cam

-How much extra HP / Torque will the explorer upper and lower intake + the throttle body make over HO setup with the lower RPM range explorer cam?

-Will the mark 7 ECM hook up fine or will it require some work with the wiring setup?

-My lopo's timing chain and gears, along with existing fuel rails are fine to use in the swap right?


Thanks a ton for your help, andy

[mrltd]

someone hasn't read the stickies....

Yes same timing chain,same fuel rail, plug and play with ecm.

oh ,and as for the intake... The stock HO intake is a bottleneck on a STOCK HO!!!!

[Lincolnmania]

i would replace the timing chain and gears

[ironstealth]

explorer cam is nice for a ford part,but in all honesty, go with a crane or comp camshaft. the explorer cam is torquey,but thats about it. 1.7 rr's would be nice on an explorer cam though. If i remember correctly, a lopo cam's lift are .237int/.247 X 1.6. The explore is more like .260int/.280ext x 1.6. The ho is .278int/.278exh. Trying to quote the mustang bible here at work when its at home.:confused:

[merc91]

I have seen keep the timing stuff and I've seen replace it. I'm assuming it's just a good idea to replace because of wear, not because they aren't compatible.

I'm looking for a good torque cam in the lower RPM's where I will need it, and suited for a heavy vehicle. It certainly looks tempting to go with a comp, but I also don't want to play it to tight with valve clearances or lose any low end torque.

In a couple years this car will be seeing a carbed 351 crate and new tranny... so as long as my merc can get out of its own way quite well until then, I'm happy. I don't want to cheep out at all, and sacrifice the job quality, but spending too much "extra" money on a motor that will be gone in a few years doesn't make sense. If I was keeping this motor I would definitely use an after-market cam like you suggested and the best intakes/throttle body... And it's my DD to collage and I'm out in the country so its 20 min drive each way on stop and go country roads so I have to keep it's milage reasonable, not good, just not horrible. haha.

If you had to ballpark guess, how much HP does the explorer intakes and TB make over HO? If it costs me an extra 300 bucks to get another 10 or 15 hp, I will probably pass... but if it's closer to 30 hp in the RPM range I will use, then It makes perfect sense.

[1987cp]

they made 5.0 v8 explorers/mountaineers from 96-01 mikey

Oops.

Was I right on the years for the head castings, though? F3ZE '96 and '97 only, then they switched to F7ZZ for '98?

[gadget73]

early 1997 has the F3 heads, sometime during the model year they switched to the F7 head. I have an internal EGR intake from a 97 P head motor, and Scott has GT40 (non-P) heads from another 97 motor. My P heads also came from a different 97 engine.

[HotRodLincoln]

This thread is somewhat confusing to me. I don't read threads very well. So if I take the cam, heads, and intake from my mountaineer engine, and a Mark 7 ECU, aside from checking the valve lash It's like a day or two worth of work? Or would it be easier to stick the whole mountaineer motor in there? I don't wanna pull my engine... Which makes the cam thing kind of tricky.

[Lincolnmania]

it's a weekend project to swap the heads, cam, etc........iirc your townie has uber low miles correct?