Building 4.0 power

[DeanMLFlame]

i'm somewhat new in the power building arean but i have some good knowledge. And i like speed and power! So far i've got an american thunder cat-back. Motorvation TBS (Only for throttle response) and a custom cold air intake (Filter element is between frame and inner fender well...true cold air)...what others built-ons can i get for more power. oh i have a tight budget of around $650.

Any thoughts​

 

[lifted4.0]

i love the JBA headers that i just put in

 

[woodyedmiston]

How to use your $650

Put it in the bank for a while. Go through and read as many of the performance strings you can find on this site. Take a look at the Technical Library for your engine.

Before you buy something, ask for opinions or experience with that specific product in the appropriate forum. Then go to the Want To Buy section and put in a post and be patient.

Oh - save your $650 until you have done some research. Headers are not a bad choice BTW - but satisfy yourself first by doing some reading. There are no quick fixes for lots of extra horsepower.

 

[86_cookiemonster]

Put it in the bank for a while. Go through and read as many of the performance strings you can find on this site. Take a look at the Technical Library for your engine.

Before you buy something, ask for opinions or experience with that specific product in the appropriate forum. Then go to the Want To Buy section and put in a post and be patient.

Oh - save your $650 until you have done some research. Headers are not a bad choice BTW - but satisfy yourself first by doing some reading. There are no quick fixes for lots of extra horsepower.

X2,
I have to agry with woody.
Trust me, I am a guy who tried to "rolling resto" and basicly nothing got done on my truck. It wasn't untill I started saving my money, and making a good plan to fallow that I was able to get it put together. A lot of the info i used, came from various threads on this website.

 

[wahlstrom1]

Headers are a good gain for the money on an 4.0L OHV, and for the money you have if you can find someone you trust to do the work properly (and cheap! or for beer etc) you have just enough money for a cam swap, I suggest the 422.....

-andrew

 

[Ranger44]

Do RESEARCH. That is the best advice. I've reserched, and am still researching, and will not build my trcuk till I've finished.

Save the money till you know what you NEED to get what you WANT from your truck. Good luck!

http://www.therangerstation.com/forums/showthread.php?t=25632&highlight=Performance

http://www.therangerstation.com/forums/showthread.php?t=25009&highlight=Performance

Don't be afraid to search and ask questions.

 

[86_cookiemonster]

Headers are a good gain for the money on an 4.0L OHV, and for the money you have if you can find someone you trust to do the work properly (and cheap! or for beer etc) you have just enough money for a cam swap, I suggest the 422.....

-andrew

I would have to say that headers are one of the last things you do to get the motor to have more power. There are other area's of the motor that need to be opened up to make it breath better, that will provide a better improvment in performance.

When you are trying to build power, things like headers and cold air intakes, are all tiny gains, where you gain 10ths of a secound in the 1/4 mile.
When you are just starting out you need to take off secounds, start by going for the large gains.

From what I have learned by listening to knowledgeable people like Bird, AllenD, and such, you are going to see a good improvment in power by porting and polishing the heads, mainly the exhuast port,
a 422 cam, and from what i have heard from various sources that is good for anywere from 30-40 horsepower. then you bolt on headers, so that you can take full advantage of the better flow through the motor.

 

[Kansasipi]

When I removed the belt driven radiator fan and installed an electric fan with an adjustable thermostat. I think it cost under $100 and the two advantages was less load on the belt and the fact I can adjust the eng temp. Normally I set it for just under 180 and get pretty good gas milage but if I want a little more power, not overwheming, I turn it up to 195 and you can tell a differance and it burns a little hotter.

But you have to keep in mind the 4.0 has been designed for low end torque, to get high end torque you got a long row to hoe.

 

[Yellowsplash]

I would have to say that headers are one of the last things you do to get the motor to have more power. There are other area's of the motor that need to be opened up to make it breath better, that will provide a better improvment in performance.

From what I have learned by listening to knowledgeable people like Bird, AllenD, and such, you are going to see a good improvment in power by porting and polishing the heads, mainly the exhuast port,
a 422 cam, and from what i have heard from various sources that is good for anywere from 30-40 horsepower. then you bolt on headers, so that you can take full advantage of the better flow through the motor.

I disagree...the stock manifolds on an OHV engine are a log type manifold and are quite restrictive. The addition of headers is a good starting point to help open things up and flow more by scavening the cylinders properly to help pull in a fresh air charge. While it is true that basic bolt on parts arnt going to net you very big gains, there isnt much you can do without getting "into" the motor itself, which costs money. Unless you are ready to drop a few G's, I wouldnt look into anything crazy like the 422 cam. There are supporting mods you must do to get the gains out of it. Port work, valve springs, retainers, etc... Since you already have a cat-back (I assume 2.5 in size), the headers should compliment the engine nicely, but as said before, dont expect miracles...Its a ford 4.0, not designed for speed. Proper gears would give you more of the "power", or realistically, the torque you crave.

 

[turbo cat]

i disagree the oem manifold are not that restrictive. as for shorty headers on a 4.0 the gain is going to be so little its a waste and long tubes would be the only way to go to help build power. not to mention that the exhaust ports on the earlir 4.0s were bigger than needed. If you look at the oem manifolds you can tell that they have a pretty large ID and dont pinch down much. the main problem is the restricted intake ports and lower intake manifold. if you look at the ports there tiny and smalletr than the exhaust ports.

I would sugest leaving the oem cam /shortblock together. then get a pair of NEW head castings (so they woulnt crack) and have them ported along with the lower intake port matched. Slap on hardened rockers and treated push rods and you would have a strong better flowing top end. That would help the problems from factory (weak castings and poor valve train design. The rotating assembly is stout from factory so your fine there. Then save up and find a blower. Boost is the only way your really going to get any speed and power out of a lil old iron 4.0 (on a budget)

If you blow that 650 on headers or other expensive bolt ons your going to get nowhere

there are quick fixes out there on a budget for power Ive spent maybe 150$ on the parts to turbocharge my 4.0. its also still not yet tuned but is a blast to drive everyday. I havent been driving it lately as im getting ready to bolt in some new heads and valvetrain to take care of some of the factory issues

 

[Bird]

i disagree the oem manifold are not that restrictive. as for shorty headers on a 4.0 the gain is going to be so little its a waste and long tubes would be the only way to go to help build power. not to mention that the exhaust ports on the earlir 4.0s were bigger than needed. If you look at the oem manifolds you can tell that they have a pretty large ID and dont pinch down much. the main problem is the restricted intake ports and lower intake manifold. if you look at the ports there tiny and smalletr than the exhaust ports

Another one..........................

Ever put a set of these heads on a flow bench and done a bunch of testing? I'm sure glad all the top engine builders don't subscribe to the 'it looks big enough or too small' methodology of power research.

"don't pinch down much"................sheesh - slice one of these heads open and take some 'real' measurements instead of your highly calibrated eyeballs.

FWIW, the intakes flow twice what the exhaust ports flow - the ford engineers actually got them just about right - port them much and the flow numbers actually go down.

I will agree with one thing you said - some long tubes would make a definite difference - the shorties work, but not well until the main restriction (the exhaust port) is remedied.

And boost is never a bad thing.

Bird

 

[turbo cat]

are there any threads around here of flowbench tests preformed on a 4.0? As far as my plan goes im just slapping on a pair of new heads and working toward the fue lsystem and timing to dial the tuning in so i can psuh it farther.

 

[Kansasipi]

header option

I have to agree with those who feel headers are not a huge starting point. A 4.0 only has about 145 hp to start with and when I installed Hookers on my 4.0 I had more of a sound improvement than a performance gain. Not to say they didn't help but my problem was using headers out of necessity.

When I purchased my 4.0 it was from a wrecked donor that did not have usable manifolds and for the short time I used the system off of my 2.9 but it had no cat, another long story, and I wanted a legal system without paying an arm,leg and at least one cahone....

Headers were $200, cat was $360 plus ox sensor was $110 and I fabricated 3 feet of pipe to turn out in front of r/rear wheel and it looks and sounds good but I didn't get any huge hp gain. What I did get was at the low end and not top end torque.

But I am well satisfied just not having delusions of grandur...

 

[Yellowsplash]

Do YOU have headers? Is there any first hand experience with your biased opinions? Bird is exactly right, like always. Its not the size of the port, but rather the flow characteristics. As I said, theyre log style...if you had general knowledge of flow characterisitics, you'd recognize that these arnt the best flowing. Why spend the hundreds of dollars to get a set of heads p&p when your going to be running factory manifolds. Defeats the purpose of increasing flow. I like to start with supporting mods before I tear into bigger and better things...and with only $650 to spend, I dont think a turbo setup is a good start, let alone on a 4.0 at all. btw, I have a few turbo vehicles, one of which is heavily modified...soo lets leave a discussion about forced induction for another time. If you can piece together a blower setup on a 4.0 without tuning, your asking for trouble. I would rather maximize the volumetric efficiency of the motor in stock form so its at its maximum potential before modifying internals.

If you could get ahold of a set of "properly" ported heads for only $650, that would be fantastic, but in the real world professional porting costs money. Heads from morana or supersix are over a grand for the set. As sensitive as these heads are to port, I wouldnt trust just anyone, but bird of course, to port them.

the main problem is the restricted intake ports and lower intake manifold. if you look at the ports there tiny and smalletr than the exhaust ports.

Once again, as bird said, the intake ports flow plenty. But in your case, go ahead and port the hell outta them. Its your motor, right?

If he were OBDII, I would recommend a programmer from doug at bamachips to get the most out of his current setup.

As I said before, if someone wanted to spend a few grand at once, then yes, p&p heads would be great. But for $650, you arnt going to get anywhere reliably. Face it, its a 4.0.

 

[turbo cat]

actually i dont have headers but i have bought headers for many other motors V6s and V8s and the gain never exceeds the price. I have oem manifolds flipped forward that Y into a tiny 50 trim T3 with a .48 AR housing. As far as porting yes porting them may hurt velocity if you dont know what your doing. (the trick is to find someone who knows the stuff as i do know a guy who is a head specialist and has ported new 4.0 ohv castings) for a street NA 4.0 ohv it would be a waste to port the heads as the gains would never be worth the cost of doing the work and if not done correctly it can kill the velocity. however on a boosted application porting the heads will make a big difference as the boost of course as seen on the gauge is the measure of restriction.

its just my 02 that spending over 1000+$$$$$ on headers and porting heads to increase tyhe output of a NA 4.0 ohv is a wate of your money $$$$$ as in its not really worth the investment. I see guys spending over 5000$$$$$$ on NA v6 setup to completely flow, cam, and build the motor up to see maybe 40 more hp. To me 40 hp for thousands is a waste of time.

Like i said a 4.0 has a stout bottom end why build it. they rarly break and when they do you can find full long blocks for under 100$ from rangers and explorers being parted out all over.

As far as manifolds go they are not that restrictive and you dont habve to be a engineer to see that. Compared to some applications like the 5.0s with crappy crushed primary tubes on the oem headers. yes you will see a small gain with headers maybe 3-8hp but is 3-8 hp worth the cash?

ANd yes unted with boost is playing with fire but ive been playing with fire for months on end already probally at least 10000 on the rig since the turbine started to spin the 4.0 is just a 4.0 but its a tough motor. When i first bought the exploder it had a blown HG and right after i bought the truck i had to haul up a hill when the 4.0 overheated and sparked the "death rattle" and after tearing the motor apart the HG was blown out everywhere, severely cracking the heads and valves...yet the bottom end was good to go