5.0 Turbo?

How doable would a carbed 5.0 turbo be? Has anybody here ever done one?

My thoughts are towards torque/hp without mpg loss in daily driving. My clearance for a supercharger is almost non-existant up front, so I am considering turbo charging....I figure I am looking at some pretty custom exhaust plumbing, modified header{s} the intercooler, a donor turbo unit from ? something ? and some sort of sealed airbox. What do I do for the carb? Also, please educate me about anything I missed, since my understanding of turbo charging is still sort of limited. So far, I am just in the "what if, can this be done practically, and is it worth the trouble" phase of this, so I am looking for input....Thanks!

EFI would be easier, work better, and has a much higher performance potential. Just use all the stock sensors (needs to be a MAF system) and throw megasquirt on there. Then you'll have infinite tunability through your laptop and wont have to mess with trying to tune a carb to operate from vacuum through boost, which can only be far from ideal at best.

Sevensecondsuv said:

EFI would be easier, work better, and has a much higher performance potential. Just use all the stock sensors (needs to be a MAF system) and throw megasquirt on there. Then you'll have infinite tunability through your laptop and wont have to mess with trying to tune a carb to operate from vacuum through boost, which can only be far from ideal at best.

Click to expand...

Yes, EFI is the way to go from basically every positive standpoint. Mileage, driveability, power, and so on.

Standalone is one option with a Megasquirt, FAST, or BS3 unit. Another option is to swap to an ECC-V 5.0 Explorer setup from a donor Explorer vehicle and then have it tuned, or tune it yourself, through SCT Advantage. Both choices offer unlimited tuning options. Which one you go with will depend on what price you can get them for.

From just a motor-swap standpoint, the carb'd setup is definitely simpler. There is obviously much less wiring involved for one, and two, 'motor potential' of a 302 is essentially limitless. 'Motor potential' and forced induction are very different though...

An EFI 5.0 is definitely a more difficult swap, but like both Sevensecondsuv and Rocket said, the tuning is far greater. Rocket is very knowledgeable in this category - he helped me a ton on my pickup when I did my turbo. The majority of early Fox-body 'stang guys running turbo's or superchargers convert to MAF setups... save yourself the trouble and use a MAF-based setup from the start. The EEC-V + MAF setups are far more versatile, and the drivability, mileage, and tuning will be much greater in any EFI setup than with a carb.

An Explorer 5.0 is great for Rangers because of the frame/body similarities. Physically, the motor drops right in for the most part. The wiring is interesting... My truck was especially interesting to swap since it is pre-OBDII while the motor and ECM are OBDII. Had my truck been a little bit newer, we wouldn't have had to deal with defeating the Evap and emission setup. We also had to defeat the auto tranny and auto t-case since I wanted the manual tranny/t-case. Make sure that the motor you get uses the fuel system you need though - '95-'97 uses return-style, '98-'00 uses returnless.

Adding boost to a 5.0 like this will undoubtedly require an injector change, and most likely a MAF swap if you're above ~4psi. The stock 19lb injectors are hardly sufficient for the N/A 5.0, let alone boost. 39lb's from an SVT Cobra are a direct drop for any Explorer - early Exploder 5.0's require injector adapters - only about $60 for those though. You'll also need a way to tune it for the injectors and MAF, and boost. Hence SCT that Rocket mentioned. Sniper also makes a "DIY kit" that builds your tune based on specs that you enter on your setup. It's built specifically around the Ford EEC programming. Works quite well for the car savvy person. You would need a wideband gauge or dyno along with it to tune though.

Look at my CarDomain page if you want. I don't have a whole lot of motor swap pictures but I have lots of documentary on the turbo install.

I already have a 5.0 /HO in the ranger. I went from efi to the carb setup when I did the swap for simplicity (no sensors, no codes, no wire harness issues to chase) .

It's been pretty bulletproof since day 1, with no problems. I was looking to add some bolt-on power in the way of forced induction, and since there is no way I could fit a fat supercharger pulley on the front, I was considering turbocharging. Also, in me limited knowledge of turbo charging, there seem to be fewer downsides to it, as long as the plumbing is done right. I have limited room up front, but on both sides, the top, and underneath the engine I have lots of clearance.
Since I am in the theoretical stage here, I was hoping that sombody had actually already done a similar project, and could advise on the pros and cons of the setup for a daily driver...
As far as EFI goes, I am not averse to it, but I like the carb set-up because (A) everything is new-distributor, box (MSD 6A) and carb, so it all works like new, and (B) being an older-school guy, carbs are in my comfort zone. I live in Florida, so I have no elevation issues, and I don't do much hill cimbing, so the carb works out o.k.
I see turbo set-ups for the Mustag 5.0 for sale, both single and twin, so I know it's been done, with the same donor drive train I have, although its an efi set-up.
I don't know if I would want a single or a twin- I'm not racing the truck, and I don't want a ton of horses. I think a single would be sufficient, but then again....
What do you guys think?

Carbs are great for NA engines, but they really just don't cut it for forced induction. It's because carbs operate with manifold pressures at or below atmospheric pressure. When you add forced induction you all of a sudden have vacuum all the way to maybe twice atmospheric (which would be 14.7 PSI of boost). A single carb simply can't work good over that large of a pressure range.

Besides that, EFI is much more well documented.

mudranger said:

I don't know if I would want a single or a twin- I'm not racing the truck, and I don't want a ton of horses. I think a single would be sufficient, but then again....
What do you guys think?

Click to expand...

Go with a single. You do not need a twin turbo system to meet your goals. Single turbo is much cheaper than a TT as well. Less fabrication in most cases too.

also to make forced induction on a carbed motor work as well you will need to get a blow through carb, a standard carb just wont get the job done. if i ever win the lottery i actually plan on setting up a 347 twin turbo into a street ranger lol just cause at that point money would be no adversary

Carb can work great with boost. They be modified for a blow threw set up. My twin turbo 302 ranger is EFI megasquirt.. but theres people who build carbs that work great with boost. If your interested in that, try turbomustangs.com. you should be able to find out who to buy the right carb set up from.. if you buy the carb from the right people its a lot easier then doing EFI setup IMHO.

Twin turbos can be done cheaply.. With a ton of know how, research, time, and work. I paid 75 bucks for my 2 turbo's they work great.. it was more fabrication work, but its was done on the cheap.. less than 1600-1400. thats with injectors,fuel pump, megasquirt, stainless turbo manifolds, AEM Wide band O2 sensor, boost gauge, fuel pressure sensor, 12x25x4" FMIC intercooler, aeromotive FPR, DSM 1g blow off valves, and much more.. I bought some overkill stuff in there.. some of my parts are capable of 1000hp.. sadly I won't be affording the parts to put anything more than 500 hp I can make now to the ground... I will probably keep it down around 400-450 to the wheels in fear of eating my drive train for breakfast...

If going turbo find someone on the turbomustang.com or elsewhere and take over his failed project.. just do your research and inspect the parts etc.. what ever you find for cheap I'ld go with... Generally single turbo is a lot easier.. On the other hand I can find 10 turbo's just like mine for cheap..

ttfiveohranger said:

Twin turbos can be done cheaply.. With a ton of know how, research, time, and work. I paid 75 bucks for my 2 turbo's they work great.. it was more fabrication work, but its was done on the cheap.. less than 1600-1400. thats with injectors,fuel pump, megasquirt, stainless turbo manifolds, AEM Wide band O2 sensor, boost gauge, fuel pressure sensor, 12x25x4" FMIC intercooler, aeromotive FPR, DSM 1g blow off valves, and much more.. I bought some overkill stuff in there.. some of my parts are capable of 1000hp.. sadly I won't be affording the parts to put anything more than 500 hp I can make now to the ground... I will probably keep it down around 400-450 to the wheels in fear of eating my drive train for breakfast...

If going turbo find someone on the turbomustang.com or elsewhere and take over his failed project.. just do your research and inspect the parts etc.. what ever you find for cheap I'ld go with... Generally single turbo is a lot easier.. On the other hand I can find 10 turbo's just like mine for cheap..

Click to expand...

One item you would want to take into account is mudranger's limited turbo knowledge as stated in his first post. While it gets allot cheaper for those of us who know how to pick out the good used item's and/or get dealer discounts it is still pretty hard for those newer people out there. Mudranger seems to be in this position so it will likely be very hard for him to put something together for cheap and have it work really well too. In some cases a person really gets what they pay for when they buy from one of us dealers. While I cannot speak for all, I can say that some of us offer pretty outstanding customer support for those people who want to buy parts and receive tech advice but build it themselves.

Not a rbv but its my old car. volvo 740

im using a holley projection throttle body fuel injection system on my blow thru twin turbo347, carbs do work and there is extensive knowledge posted over on www.turbomustangs.com about blow thru setups

fastranger347 said:

im using a holley projection throttle body fuel injection system on my blow thru twin turbo347, carbs do work and there is extensive knowledge posted over on www.turbomustangs.com about blow thru setups

Click to expand...

sexy............