lil_Blue_Ford
Well-Known Member
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Supporting Member
V8 Engine Swap
TRS 20th Anniversary
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- Joined
- Aug 6, 2007
- Messages
- 8,329
- Reaction score
- 6,146
- Points
- 113
- Location
- Butler, PA, USSA
- Vehicle Year
- 95
- Make / Model
- Ford
- Engine Size
- 4.9L
- Transmission
- Manual
So I have a more generalized thread on my swap in here, but I’m kinda done with that side of things and want to focus on the motor. I ended up with a motor out of a 98 Explorer and am trading the fuel rail and electronics for a set from an 00 so I can make things easier. The original plan was to swap stuff over to essentially make it an 00 engine and just drop it in and go. That lasted until a spark plug broke off in the head and after several hours of patiently working on it, broke an ez-out. So the heads came off because I broke bolts in the other head. Also had a couple water pump bolts break, so I’m thinking I’ll pull the timing cover to deal with those. Have all new stainless bolts for putting things back together. Amazingly the cylinders still have beautiful crosshatch in them and only one or two have a couple light scratches.
Because of recent injuries, it’s going to be a slow process working on this for awhile, which brings me back to my desire to do some upgrades for better performance. I already have a set of Torque Monster headers for it and it will be getting a custom stainless exhaust. I also know someone who should be able to tune for whatever I do to it. But that’s about where my knowledge largely ends. I’ve heard of things like roller rockers and improved cams and such, but I have no idea what all of my options are for improving performance or what is worthwhile and what isn’t. Ideally I want to be able to run this mostly on 87/89 pump gas. If I have to I’ll run 93 and I’ve been noodling on the idea of eventually adding a fuel cell for high octane gas (93 or higher), but such a thing would be awhile down the road. It’s going to be more of a dd/toy rather than pure race truck, but I’d like to wring whatever power I can out of it. Trying to go with e-fan and electric power steering as well.
Because of recent injuries, it’s going to be a slow process working on this for awhile, which brings me back to my desire to do some upgrades for better performance. I already have a set of Torque Monster headers for it and it will be getting a custom stainless exhaust. I also know someone who should be able to tune for whatever I do to it. But that’s about where my knowledge largely ends. I’ve heard of things like roller rockers and improved cams and such, but I have no idea what all of my options are for improving performance or what is worthwhile and what isn’t. Ideally I want to be able to run this mostly on 87/89 pump gas. If I have to I’ll run 93 and I’ve been noodling on the idea of eventually adding a fuel cell for high octane gas (93 or higher), but such a thing would be awhile down the road. It’s going to be more of a dd/toy rather than pure race truck, but I’d like to wring whatever power I can out of it. Trying to go with e-fan and electric power steering as well.