2000 5.0 Explorer Swap Into 98 Ranger 4.0

[Craig0320]

To my memory I never unhooked anything from the ranger condenser only thing I used was the explorer suction line

 

[Craig0320]

I got the obx headers installed. I will do a write up on them within the next couple of days.

 

[Craig0320]

Here is my experience with installing the OBX 5.0 headers in my 1998 torsion bar ranger.
First off buy a good set of header bolts. You will not be able to use a regular bolt.
I bought a set of ARP header bolts.
Part number-400-1212
Length-1 inch
Thread-3/8-16
I used a 3/8 ratchet and extension stepped down to a 1/4 drive 3" extension with a 12 point 3/8 socket to tighten all the header bolts.
My buddy let me use his lift to do the work and it was extremely helpful. He helped me out a lot with the install also.

Ok, here we go.
Passenger Side Manifold Removal

First thing we did was remove the front wheels and inner fender wells from the truck. It is a few 8 and 7mm bolts to get the fender wells down. The passenger side has one 13mm nut to remove. Once they were out of the way there was a lot more room. After that I dropped the collector bolts out from the bottom with little effort. There are 4 and they are 15mm heads. I had to drop my trans bracket to get to the exhaust hanger bolt to give me some wiggle room. Once that was done I went back to the passenger side and started to remove plug wires and spark plugs. Next I removed all of 8 of the exhaust manifold bolts. They have 14mm heads. There is one manifold bolt behind a heat shield with three 8mm bolts holding it on.
The manifold slid right out of the fender well with no issues. Once the stock manifold was removed I pulled the old gasket off and cleaned everything up.

Passenger side Header install

To help keep the gaskets in place I glued them to the headers with yellow weather-strip adhesive. It makes life a little easier. I had to loosen the motor mount to where the nuts were even with the top of the stud. Make sure to tighten the motor mount nuts down before you install the header to the block. I also had to cut the exposed shock stud off and bend the high pressure a/c line up an inch or so for the header to completely clear and slide in. All the holes lined up perfect. Here is my mistake that cost me lots of time. Before you install the headers make sure there is enough room from the side of the exhaust pipe and the bolt head to get a wrench on and also for spark plug clearance. I had to heat three spots and bend the pipe in for a wrench to clear. Also you need to install the 5th and 7th bolt first. I had to pull the header back from the block enough and gradually tighten those two. I ground down a wrench for the bolts behind the pipes and used a pry bar to get my final turns out of them. My other major issue on the passenger side had to bend the pipe back to be able to get a spark plug socket on the number 2 plug. Once that was done we installed all of the plugs, insulated, and zip tied wires for routing as needed. I wrapped the number 2 plug boot with titanium header wrap and haven’t had a problem. I also added some adhesive backed thermo shield on my power booster and evaporator housing.

EGR TUBE INSTALL/DELETE

The supplied egr tube was too short and the old one was too long. We installed the supplied egr tube by screwing the nut to the header side all the way down and tightening the egr side nut to where the egr valve was lined up with the intake... Once we had the positioning down we took a buckeye and sliced the tube about 70% through. This allowed us to twist the tube and match the egr better to the back of the intake. We pulled it off and brazed everything up. We installed the tube and realized that we needed another gasket to seal the air gap because it was a hair off. So I got pissed off and just blocked the port on both sides. There is your delete. For now I am going to leave it off. I will deal with it later.

Driver Side Manifold Removal

I disconnected the steering shaft. It is one bolt and it just flops out of the way. Removed the two 13mm bolts holding the heat shield on the back of the a/c compressor it gives you just enough room to get to the first bolt in the manifold. Removed the dipstick out of the block. There was one bracket on the last bolt that had to be removed which had nothing attached to it so it wasn’t a big deal and was easy to take off. After those few things I removed all the bolts and pulled the manifold out.

Driver side Header install

Before we installed the driver side we heated a couple of pipes so we could get a wrench on. Once satisfied installation began. I have to say a little wiggling and it went right in. I checked that all of the plugs cleared the pipes and they did. If I remember correctly the 2nd and 8th bolt had to be started with the header slighting away from the block. The only way the 8th bolt went in was without the washer. Other than that a socket went on all the other ones. I installed the bolt on piece last. It went right together. After that the plugs and wires were installed and routed and insulated according. I used some titanium header wrap on the pipe closest to the firewall were it was touching the insulation. We fired it up and no leaks anywhere. YAAYYYYY!


In total it took 13 hours to install these. A few hours could have been saved.
1 hour was from my buddy dropping a header bolt down my exhaust pipe. We had to cut the pipe out and reattach with a sleeve.
2 Hours were spent on the egr tube. Which if it would have fit right and you were going to delete it anyway then take these two hours off.
I spent around 10 hours on actually installing the headers themselves including routing and insulating everything. I expressed my disappointed with having to heat and bend some pipes to my buddy in which he replied. (Son, I’ve been doing this for 50 years. There has been many times I’ve had to modify something on a header when installing them. That is why they are custom.) So this made me feel a little better.

At the end of the day was it worth. After driving the truck for around a 100 miles so far I will say yes. The torque is constant through the gears and dang you can feel the performance increase. These headers really opened this engine up. I hope this write up helps someone.

 

[SumoPsycho]

THANKS!!
[emoji106][emoji41][emoji106]

 

[Craig0320]

Np. Hope it helps.

 

[fastpakr]

Random question for Craig and others that have done the swap - ever heard a high pitched whistle like this?

https://youtu.be/d_3PFWdBq-M

 

[Craig0320]

It sounds like a very small vacuum leak from a gasket on the intake or something also is that injectors I hear firing or lifter clatter

 

[fastpakr]

Not sure what you heard. Right now there is no exhaust after the first stage of catalytic converters. Could have been just that...

I'll definitely check the intake bolt torque. Hopefully it's just the upper to lower. If not, I'll pull the upper and go ahead with the intake spacer that got skipped previously.

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk

 

[Craig0320]

I'm not getting internet on my PC until Monday everything sounds different on my phone. Also if you had a semi bad idler pulley before you tore it down and it set up you could have got rust build-up inside of there and you could be hearing a dry bearing it has happened to me before

 

[fastpakr]

All the pulleys except the balancer are new. The noise is definitely from the back of the engine in the general vicinity of the EGR valve.

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk

 

[Craig0320]

you could have a crack in the iGrommet that the PCV valve sits in EGR valve definitely could be the culprit to

 

[V8 Level II]

I'll definitely check the intake bolt torque. Hopefully it's just the upper to lower. If not, I'll pull the upper and go ahead with the intake spacer that got skipped previously.

Be careful if you're going to use the phenolic spacer. It's OK to torque the long center bolts to spec but the tabs on either end of the upper intake are not strong at all. Without the rigid aluminum lower to back it up, one or both tabs can crack away from upper.When using the spacer, it is better to snug up the two short bolts (front and rear) lightly and not go to full torque. Sealer on the gaskets should take care of any potential leaks.

Noise could be throttle valve, IAC or vacuum leak. Check for upper intake cracking as noted above - also possible before adding the spacer. Check the PCV on the back of the lower. Grommet can get hardened with age and leak.

 

[fastpakr]

Be careful if you're going to use the phenolic spacer. It's OK to torque the long center bolts to spec but the tabs on either end of the upper intake are not strong at all. Without the rigid aluminum lower to back it up, one or both tabs can crack away from upper.When using the spacer, it is better to snug up the two short bolts (front and rear) lightly and not go to full torque. Sealer on the gaskets should take care of any potential leaks.

Noise could be throttle valve, IAC or vacuum leak. Check for upper intake cracking as noted above - also possible before adding the spacer. Check the PCV on the back of the lower. Grommet can get hardened with age and leak.

Thanks for the info. I haven't started it up again yet (trying to chase down an oil pressure issue that I'm pretty confident is the sender but need to resolve before firing it up again).

In any case, I've swapped the IAC from the 3.0 since it's the same part and appeared at least cosmetically to be in better condition. Once the oil pressure issue is resolved I'll test fire it to see if the IAC fixed it. If not, I'll try running it for a minute or so without the serpentine belt so I can eliminate some noise sources. That will also make it easier to use carb cleaner to locate an intake leak. I did check each of the vacuum supply points and capping them off didn't eliminate the noise.

The PCV grommet appeared in good condition when I was assembling the engine. I put a bit of RTV on it to seal it securely on the intake, and installed a new valve.

Also ordered an EGR spacer since that was the reason the intake spacer didn't get installed originally. If the upper has to come off to resolve this, I'll be careful with tightening the bolts.

Thanks again for all the suggestions.

 

[Craig0320]

I am going to mess with my egr tube this weekend and try to get it installed.

 

[Craig0320]

I am thinking about getting rid of my 50 series flowmaster and getting something different. I don't want general lee load but want something in the middle. The 50 series is considered mild/stock.