Tearing into my 5.0L Explorer engine, question

[rubydist]

Stainless bolts with anti seize are considered the best option on the wp.

Most of these sbf motors still have crosshatching visible on the cylinder walls even after 150k+ miles, so usually a hone and new rings makes it good again. If you measure the rod journals carefully, you might want to get bearings that are .001" undersize so you don't have too large of clearance there. The mains usually are still good with standard bearings in my experience, but its worth measuring those up as well.

 

[scotts90ranger]

Spent more money... ended up with that scratch and dent (says busted up packaging) cam from Amazon, there's several posters on here with it talking about them running strong so we'll try it... Got the Trick Flow spring kit from Summit and new cam bearings... all that mess should arrive between Saturday and Monday, last things to come will be rod bearings and PCV grommets so hopefully I'll get a lot done in the next week, annoyingly it's supposed to be like 105 on Monday...

I'll learn from fastpakr and check the cam markings before I drive it home

 

[scotts90ranger]

Here's a random pic dump from the last few weeks shenanigan's. I remembered on Tuesday that the head bolts were torque to yield so I ordered some of those... I tell ya, it's getting expensive to even half ass things anymore! The parts pile is missing some things like the cam and cam bearings... I have everything in house to finish the project. Last week I welded up the motor mount posts, this week I found my thread insert kit and put an insert in the one that was super stripped out so it should be good to go now.

You can see the difference between the stock cast manifolds and the OBX headers that I've had for like 4 years and haven't put in... those things are goofy looking... One of the pics you should be able to see the wedge of metal missing on the motor mount pads from the THOUSANDS of miles of the engine just sitting on the mount without bolts... I took a bunch of pictures just for assembly reasons so I didn't have to remember everything, one is my brilliant timing mark . As you can see the thing was gross before cleanup. Also the dumb water pump bolt, the second bolt I welded to it got it out but it still wouldn't come out of the timing cover so I had to use some tools wrong to get it out...

 

[scotts90ranger]

It's getting closer to being in finally, the parts pile is WAY less overwhelming... Got the pistons in Saturday, got the heads ported a little and on on Sunday then found a worn push rod and rocker on #2 exhaust valve so got a new push rod and rocker for that and started to get more assembled. At the moment it has both valve covers, oil pan and timing cover installed... Oh and engine mount plates, it now has TWO of them mounted to the block solidly instead of just one...

This thing was FILTHY, if it wasn't for cleaning parts it would have taken 1/3 the time... It's not perfect but it's good enough and it's clean in the areas that matter the most... I still gotta get under the hood with a wire brush and get some goo off of things so it's less gross when it goes back together...

I'm sure I would have been faster if I were like 10 years younger but I also know more now so how many better choices am I making? Given those choices are expensive but still... we have a valve spring pressure thing at work so I'm going to take one of the stock ones and test it just to see how much that Trick Flow kit is gaining versus the like $90 sets that were out there...

 

[scotts90ranger]

Well, it runs, idle is unstable until the IAC gives up and just idles high, I'll see what I can do on that, I'm sure it's the overlap in the cam, whatever, it's done... Drove it to work today, did fine, there were a couple drips under it at lunch but could have been out of or off of the trans bellhousing...

 

[rubydist]

What cam did you end up putting in it?

 

[scotts90ranger]

I ended up with the Comp 35-349-8

The more I think about it the more I think the IAC might be dirty or something, it seems to stick high then slam low, sometimes it'll idle fine at 800 in gear then chug down to near stall potatoing out like big cams do, but it's also stuck high while moving, foot off the pedal it will idle in gear at 35mph which it's never done before... sometimes it will slam down to a normal idle, most of that screams physical IAC issues, I'll look tonight or tomorrow...

The indicator showed 15.5mpg by the time I got home after around 70 miles yesterday, not horrible... we'll see...

 

[rubydist]

That cam should idle just fine as it is not much different from the stock one.

My experience with sticky iac is that its not worth the effort to try to clean them - they just get sticky soon again. I'd just replace it and move on.

 

[scotts90ranger]

Yeah, I probably will... we'll see if I can get one on the way home...

 

[scotts90ranger]

Yep, wasn't the IAC, the hardened candy cane of a front PCV hose had come unplugged from the rear elbow thing that's in there... replaced that with like 3' of 3/8" hose and it idles just fine... I put a new IAC in since I had it... We'll see how it runs with some more time on it.