6daze project

[6daze]

vacuum system

Before the upper and lower can come together I need to figure out the vacuum system/PCV. As you can tell from my first post the oil fill on my stock valve covers was hitting the upper manifold. So I picked up a pair of aluminum valve covers for a Mark 7 at the junkyard. These cleaned up nicely and put the oil fill on the passenger side, eliminating clearance issues.

My goal with the vacuum system was to use the stock explorer system as it was. Ford built it that way for a reason, right? It just didn't work for me. Ford had a 3/8" hose coming from the center of the upper manifold (facing foward), turning 180*, teeing with another 3/8" hose coming from the rear corner of the upper manifold and then going to the PCV in the lower.

There was just way too much stuff on the driver's valve cover for it all to fit. I ended up eliminating the tee and hose that connected to the middle of the manifold. I turn one of the metal lines and hooked that up to the PCV. All other ports are capped except the fuel pressure regulator. Dont just cap these! They will create a leak. Tap and plug the unused holes!I am running hydroboost so I didn't need any other sources of vacuum.

PCV sits in the rear of the lower manifold. It sits snug into a grommet that slids into the lower manifold.

I pulled a fitting of an junkyard explorer for the fuel pressure regulator. It fits on a 3/8" metal line and has two connections for vacuum. I will plug one and use the other for FPR. I also picked up the small vacuum line for the FPR, that sucker is tiny.

pics of underside of the manifold, front of manifold, FPR fitting, pcv grommet

[6daze]

TB mods

I wanted to use the Explorer TB since it matched the bore of the upper manifold. It does require a few mods to work correctly however.

First I modified throttle linkage mount. The explorer uses a different "butterfly" to attach its cable to the TB. This might be because the explorer cable runs around the front of the motor rather than the short "S" curve of the mustang. I am using the stock mustang cable and need a way to attach it to the TB.

I used the well proven and document "Lars throttle cable mod". I ground off the end of the shaft of a junk TB and pryed it off. Once I ground the explorer shaft and pryed off the butterfly, the "junk" butterfly slid right on. I was about ready to throw some tacks on when I decided to mock things up.


WOW, something ain't right. I had the stock cable bracket mounted to the EGR eliminator plate behind the TB. The cable would just not line up.

Apparently the "junk" TB I found had the ball mount on the wrong side of the butterfly. See pic. This ball attaches to the cable and needs to be on the manifold side of the TB, not the MAF side.

Fortunately I had another "junk" TB with the correct butterfly. A little more grinding and some tack welds and I was good to go!

My TB also had this small plate between the TB and IAB. Anyone know what this is? Do I need it? (third pic)

[6daze]

more TB mods

Found an interesting article here for the mustang crowd:

http://www.veryuseful.com/mustang/te...orer65mmTB.pdf


The next step for me was to deal with the crankcase vent. It appears most EFI cars have a nipple on the oil fill going to the throttle body. This allows the crankcase to be "vented" yet remained sealed.

EFI motors must be sealed, ie all air must go through the MAF so the computer knows how much fuel to add. If the crankcase was vented to open air (like mine was) then air could technically get in the motor and mess up the fuel/air ratio. At least what the computer thinks the ratio is...

So I had three options;
1) just cap off the nipple on the oil fill- have seen it done with unknown effect
b) run a hose between the oil fill nipple and the stock explorer air tube (some stock explorers are vented this way, mine was) or
III) drill out the boss on the TB and put a port in to run it in stock 5.0 fashion.

Some explorer TB will have the port already, mine did not.

I choose to add the port to the TB. I had a junk TB sitting around from the bellcrank swap ready to be used. I inserted a screwdriver into the port on the junk and with a couple of twists it came right out!

Next I centerpunched and drilled out the boss. I started with a long skinny step drill bit with long gaps between sizes. I carefully went up to 3/8". Once the first 1/4" was drilled out to 3/8" I switched over to a standard drill bit so I wouldn't drill the hole oversize with the step bit.

I mixed up a little JB Weld and let it sit for the night. In the morning all looked good until the TB slipped out of my hands. It didn't fall far but enough to jar loose my newly installed port

The port came off with the paint that was on the boss. I think the JB didn't like being attached to the POR 15 and then to the aluminum. I am going to try again directly to the aluminum. If that doesn't work I will just tap it and put a threaded fitting in!

Last was the TPS. The article above states the explorer TPS uses a different resistance range than other TPSs. I am not sure of this but I swear other people are using the explorer TPS with the stang computer. Not sure if this is causing problems or not. I am going to pick up a explorer TPS just to test this.

For now I am using the stang TPS. It is not as wide as the explorer and needs to be modified to fit. I just took a drill bit and opened one hole a bit. It is easy to see with the TPS in front of you. The explorer TB also uses larger bolts to hold the TPS in. I used 10-32 bolts to secure the TPS.

I did not need to modify the shaft inside the TB for the TPS to fit. It just slid right over and bolted down.

[crawlin68]

Re: 6daze project

Nice work you are doing here. I remember doing all of this back when I did my EFI. Everything looks great!

[904Bronco]

Re: 6daze project

Nice work you are doing here. I remember doing all of this back when I did my EFI. Everything looks great!

Ditto That!

[6daze]

Decided to bolt the upper manifold to the lower...I have most of the stock hardware but am not exactly sure what goes where....

The upper uses six bolts to mount to the lower. All of these are 5/16" diameter, course thread. The four on the driver's side are 6.5" long. The one in the front is 2" and the rear bolt (stud?) is 1.25" long.

The rear bolt I used is (not sure if it is the factory location) has threads on top of the bolt. I am not sure of the correct name for this fastener.

I just tightened these down snug as I don't want to strip the lower manifold.

The gasket I used between the manifolds came in the "master" set from Napa.

[crawlin68]

Re: 6daze project

15 to 18 ft lbs. is all those bolts need. I know that doesn't feel like much, but it's what the factory specs call for. The two small bolts with the studs are used to attach the lower to the heads and are used for a ground cable to attach to. All of my bolts that attach the upper to the lower are just regular hex head bolts.

[6daze]

TB to upper

With the JB weld finally dry, it was time to mount the TB to the upper manifold. I ordered gaskets from Napa for the TB. One was for the "EGR housing to TB" part number 61082 and the other was "EGR housing to intake manifold" part number 61081.

In retrospect I probably could of got away with two of the 61082 gaskets. I think they were a little cheaper.

I used four 5/16" 1.75" bolts to mount the EGR plate and TB to the upper manifold.

I used the stock screw to mount the throttle cable to the bracket.

I didn't know I needed the factory throttle cable bracket until I started mocking things up. It makes total sense to use it, I had just never read that anywhere (or didn't pay attention). These brackets are on almost all 5.0 cars. They are plentiful in the junkyard.

I used some socket head screws I had laying around to mount the bracket to the EGR plate. I reccomend getting all this little hardware from the junkyard, it saves a lot of time.

[6daze]

Re: 6daze project

The two small bolts with the studs are used to attach the lower to the heads and are used for a ground cable to attach to. All of my bolts that attach the upper to the lower are just regular hex head bolts.

Cool, thanks, I have also seen those "studs" mount the EGR elbow to the upper manifold. There was another bracket mounted on this stud.

[6daze]

Maf

Got the TB mounted, throttle cable attached, it just sits on the ball on the bellcrank and a small clip slides over it. Plugged in the TPS, IAB and connected the crankcase vent to the oil fill neck.

I learned quite a bit about MAFs this week!

A while back when I first started shopping for EFI stuff, I grabbed a MAF off a 5.0 car in the junkyard thinking it would work fine. I didn't pay much attention to the plug style at the time. During my mock up stage I discovered that I had a rectangular plug on my MAF but the RJM harness has a oval connector.

So I figured I can just wire in a new connector or just swap out sensors(MAF is two parts, housing and sensor). I choose to just grab a new sensor from the junkyard and put it in my existing MAF housing. It looked just like sensor I had but with an oval connector.

Well then I discovered a thread stating that the sensor must be in the stock housing to work right. Back to the junkyard I go. I found the car that I pulled the sensor from and the MAF housing was still there. It was a 91 Thunderchicken with a 3.8 V6. I read somewhere that it will work as it has the same part number as a Mustang. It also has a 55mm bore. Turns out the housing that I pulled way back, as far as I can tell, is exactly the same. But the new one is a little cleaner and has a nice screen in it.

I made a small plate to mount the MAF. I needed to get it off the fenderwell about 3/4" to mount the air filter. I started with a piece of scrap aluminum and put a couple bends in it.

Next I made a template of the MAF mounting holes and transferred that to the plate. A couple of holes and I bolted up the MAF with the three stock bolts.

I set the air filter on the MAF and connected the air tube to the TB. A couple of bolts through the fenderwell and it was done! I needed to be careful where I put the filter as I was starting to interfere with the hood. If it was any farther foward the filter would rub on the hood brace.

I used an AEM dryflow filter part # 21-204DK. I have used K&Ns for years but got tired of cleaning them. I switched the diesel over to AEM and am so far happy with it. The price is reasonable through Summit/Jegs etc.

[6daze]

Re: 6daze project

I used a junkyard Barometric Pressure sensor and mounted it to the middle of the firewall. I have heard good things about new ones so it is on the list...

I have a 8LG computer that I pulled from an 88 Mustang. I believe this was an automatic car but I cannot find it on the RJM site. I connected the trans plug into the black "auto" plug.

The intertia switch also came from the junkyard. I found several different types but looked for one with a rectangular plug. I also gave it a tap and made sure it popped up.

The wires for the interia switch are red with a grey connector. They come out of the wiring loom inside the passenger compartment near the computer. Unfortunately the wires are way too short to do anything with the switch. It is just hanging out in space with nothing to mount it to. I will just cut and extend these wires to put the switch on the kick panel.

Don't have a tach yet so I just sealed the green wire off.

I connected MIL and MIL PWR together with a Radio Shack LED. It is a small red LED that I put in the column cover.

Using a ZF so no need for the Baumann Transmission controller.

Connected #1 to the computer. I built a small bracket to hold the computer in front of the fresh air intake. I looked around quite a bit for a good place for the computer and am still open for ideas. I wasn't real excited about removing the heater to put the computer up behind the dash. This is probably the best place for it but with my luck I will need to get to the computer!

I will get a pic up when the computer is mounted.

[6daze]

Re: 6daze project

For power there is a 10G red wire with a 3/8" terminal on it. I connected it to the starter solenoid.

There is also a 18G purple wire with a 1/8" terminal. This wire needs to be connected to a "start signal". I used the "S" terminal on the starter solenoid.

For my 3G alternator I had to buy a seperate harness from RJM. It did just plug into the EFI harness and the alternator. I needed to eliminate a few wires from my original 3G modifications. On the 3 wire plug near the starter solenoid, I only have one wire left. It is the larger black with yellow stripe.

I don't have AC yet so I just left the blue AC wire alone.

[6daze]

Re: 6daze project

Per RJM instructions I ground the terminal for the fuel pump to prime the system. What a sweet purr!

I needed to fix a couple leaks but that was to be expected...

Next I set the TPS voltage. I found some thin pins at a craft store to puncture the wire. I placed the pin in the green wire and hooked up the voltmeter. Positive to the pin and negative to the battery. It is much easier to use alligator clips rather than the probes on the voltmeter. I moved the TPS around until the voltmeter read .98 volts.

To test it I turned the bellcrank to WOT and watched the voltmeter. It only went up to around 4 volts. I thought it should go up to 5 volts. We will see if this is the cause of any issues.

[6daze]

Re: 6daze project

A few little things:

I bought new bolts for the thermostat housing from Summit. The part number was ARP-450-7402.

I thought all was good until I set the housing up to the manifold....The bolts were too short to go through the Explorer housing and into the manifold. That housing is thicker where the upper bolt is...went to plan B: used the stock housing. I will save the Explorer housing for the serp conversion!


New plug wires: the Ford Motorsport wires were a great deal;
FMS-M-12259-M301

New cap/rotor. I bought the wrong one...I believe it is for a non-efi motor but did have the large stud style cap. I used the cap on my "recycled" distributor but needed a new rotor. The EFI rotor rotor has a smaller diameter shaft and has an additional "key" that locates it in the distributor.

Part number FMS-M-12106-A302

Ran a self test:
put a jumper wire in between STI and the battery negative. Turned the key to run and the check engine light came to life!

I got codes 81, 82, 84, 85, 33, 53 and 95.

53 is TPS circuit failed above 4.5 volts

95 is fuel pumps disconnected. Not sure on this one...

Next I put a jumper wire in between the fuel pump connector and the battery negative. When I turned the key to start, the fuel pump came to life! I let it run for about 30 seconds.


Pulled the SPOUT connector and connected my timing light. With crossed fingers and a fire extinguisher I turned the key to start. On the third turn she fired right up! I think I am a tooth off on the distributor as I had to turn it clockwise almost as far as I could to get it at 10*. It should be fine however.

I turned it off and plugged the SPOUT back in. Ran a engine running test and got 94, 44, 33 no big problems here!

[6daze]

Front shocks

I sold a set of used 7100s that were too short for my lift on CB.

Reality set in and I realized that I am not racing Baja and probably don't need reservoir shocks. I also probably cannot feel the difference in 360/80 valving and 255/70. So I got a set of much cheaper 5125s. I went with the 12" travel.

I purchased them through ebay from a local shop. downsouthmotorsports.com

He deals a lot with the desert racing folks and seemed very knowledgable. They were $155 plus tax and free shipping.

I bolted these up to the F250 mounts and it rides like a dream!

I need to get the rear mounts fabbed up for longer shocks now...