88 GM Box Upgrades. Heads, Cam, Exaust

[Mr.Blue]

Next time you're at the junkyard check for a exploder intake..........easier to find than a HO one there................they also come with a 65mm tb that can modded to work...........gonna need gears, shift kit and ideally a new stall to make it work really well

[andrew_mccaffrey]

Thanks for the roller confirmation!

I have yet to find a 5.0 explorer in the junk yard I frequent, maybe this week I'll drive out to one of the other nearby yards. I doubt I'll buy a torque converter. I'd like to get one of the valve bodies that silverfox makes, if that's what you mean by shift kit. But I'll probably wait a bit since I just had the transmission rebuilt when I bought it. For gears , I recently put a new clutch kit in the junk yard 3.55 lsd I picked up when I had my 93 grand marquis. So I'll put that in eventually, but for now it's just the lsd 3.08 rear end

[pantera77]

Your gonna want a new convertor, the stock one is laughably low.

[andrew_mccaffrey]

I'll look into torque converters I guess. admittedly I don't much about them. I have never driven a car with a non stock TC, I guess I always figured it would make it less comfortable to drive because it wouldn't kick in until it hit a higher RPM. But if they help as much as people say they do then I guess they're worth a look.

[89TownCar]

Better get to the Explorer fast if you find one..the GT40 intakes are like the first thing to go on them. They're super popular with foxbody guys

[andrew_mccaffrey]

some pics of the project thus far. (i dont know if there is a protocol for posting pics, if im supposed to link to another site, etc. so let me know if i need to change that way i did it)



wrapped most of the exhaust with heat wrap today. picked up the heads from the machine shop yesterday, they shaved .005 off to surface them and are in good shape. while I was there I ran into a guy who happened to have a set a 93 cobra R roller rockers and push rods that he let go for $75 (My Lucky Day!) I haven't put them all on yet, just two, so i could see the difference.

[andrew_mccaffrey]

if i find a 5.0 explorer ill probably just buy the whole engine. the pick and pull yard will sell an engine with all accessories required to run for $160. Im just i could find a few people who would like some of the stuff off of it. plus maybe it would give me a good reason to road trip somewhere to drop it off. I work schedule is six 12 hr shifts in a row and then eight days off. I can get pretty bored sometimes in eight days.

EDIT: well I guess it'd be like $210 with the core, but still.

[Mr.Blue]

In my local yards exploders outnumber HO's 4 to 1 at least..........NEVER any mustangs and a mk vii occasionally pops up..........there are 3 in my local yards as of last friday, admittedly all the intakes are gone but i hadnt been out there in a few months after buying a house so i was just doing a "inventory" check...........one was a '96 so i'm eyeing my 4th. set of junkyard gt40's lol..........moral is just keep your eyes peeled

[andrew_mccaffrey]

I was planning on picking up a mark 7 ECU for the HO firing order. How will this work with regards to the MAF conversion? Can I follow the steps outlined in this thread? http://www.grandmarq.net/vb/showthre...deletion/page2 or is there something else I need to do? if someone could point me in the direction of a thread that covers all of this if there is one that'd be great. I'm sure there is one here I just can't seem to find it.

[pantera77]

I was planning on picking up a mark 7 ECU for the HO firing order. How will this work with regards to the MAF conversion? Can I follow the steps outlined in this thread? http://www.grandmarq.net/vb/showthre...deletion/page2 or is there something else I need to do? if someone could point me in the direction of a thread that covers all of this if there is one that'd be great. I'm sure there is one here I just can't seem to find it.

You need a mass air computer for a mass air swap.

Decide what your doing engine wise first before you worry about a mass air swap.

[andrew_mccaffrey]

These will be my cam specs. Advertised Duration (Int/Exh): 276/284, Duration @ .050 (Int/Exh): 210/218, Gross Valve Lift (Int/Exh): .525/.525, LSA/ICL: 112/108. Which is too far past stock to stick with SD, so I was told. I also have the 1.7 cobra roller rockers, a 75mm thottle body and a 75mm upper intake manifold. I am currently debating what to do about the EGR. delete it or have the spacer bored out to 75mm. I have E7 heads that will go on as well.

I had originally read that I needed a mark7 ecu to keep my cruise control and I was only finding limited information surrounding MAF sensor and cruise control.

[turbo2256b]

i BELIEVE SOME mARK 7s had mass air. You should have those heads ported to work best with that cam. Stock E7 heads only flow about 140 CFM ported by a good shop 220 at .500 lift. With the right intake and TB 65mm would need 25# injectors to work best.

[andrew_mccaffrey]

Ill see about getting the heads ported, not sure how much it costs. will 19# injectors suffice? or are they necessary to keep the AFR stable?

Does anyone ever use the Explorer ECU? maybe thats a dumb idea...

[andrew_mccaffrey]

At this point it just seems like a tune would be the easier route to go. But I don't really even know where to start with that, even after some reading on here it's still pretty confusing. From what I have read it looks like I would still need to get a new ECU in order to tune it. Is that correct?

[pantera77]

Mark VII's were all SD IIRC. Don't spend money on porting e7's, have at it yourself, there's a few DIY guides on them out there. Otherwise leave them stock and save up for some heads that actually flow half decent. 19#'s should be enough, the heads will be the choke point.

Explorers use a completely different ECU, not compatible at all.

You'll still need a mass air computer for a tune anyways.