Pippin's Pricey Perpetual Project ;)

[TBS-POPS]

Re: Pippin's Pricey Perpetual Project

Nice work on the Bronco, Great work in the sack!!! Ha! Nut didn't fall far from the tree!! Young'n looks just like you!!

[CityHick]

Re: Pippin's Pricey Perpetual Project

Congrats on the little one! Bronco looks good too...

[seahawkfan]

Re: Pippin's Pricey Perpetual Project

Congrats on the little one! Might as well start building another EB for the baby!

[pippinmader]

Re: Pippin's Pricey Perpetual Project

Just a couple quick updates, pictures before and after of the painted engine bay. After Looking at Broncrick's 1977 parts bronco I noticed that Ford made the radiator opening about 1/2 inch wider on each side in the later years, so before I painted it I duplicated that idea with a cutoff wheel.

I am finally ready to start building my 1996 based 351 with a explorer front end, twisted wedge heads, lightning intake, and a comp cams roller rockers and 35-308-8 cam, the good news is it looks like it is in nice shape, although it is .040" over already. My cam and lifters came today so I think I have everything but the pushrods which I have to measure for before I order and the headers which are on back-order!

[Henry66]

Re: Pippin's Pricey Perpetual Project

Sweet!

[14Justice]

Re: Pippin's Pricey Perpetual Project

Looking great!

[Broncrick]

Re: Pippin's Pricey Perpetual Project

Great seeing you! and now I see the steering box mod. Looking great!

[pippinmader]

Re: Pippin's Pricey Perpetual Project

I am moving along with the engine project.

Engine assembly!
Installed the new cam, measured for push rods (8.00 inches), installed heads, adjusted rockers, put on intake, timing chain cover and oil pan. While I had the engine apart I verified that the rebuilt harmonic balancer was degreed right, it wasn't. Damper Dudes rebuilt it 4 degrees off, they said if I shipped it back to them they would re-scale the balancer, or I could adjust the timing mark. At least the engine is all buttoned up I can always sleep a little easier knowing there is no dust getting in my engine while I sleep. Now I am moving on the the fuel injection system, starting with the cam positioning sensor. Lars talked me into putting EDIS on my 351, he had some good reasons to go with EDIS but I think he secretly wanted to see someone else try to do it

Most of the EDIS system is fairly simple, the explorer harmonic balancer already has the pickup for the EDIS. Other than some kind of tricky wiring the only difficult part is getting the Cam Positioning Sensor (CPS) sorted out. There are multiple ways to do it but this is how I made the explorer one work. There are two differences between a 302 and a 351 distributor (same for CPS). 1. the oil pump shaft drive has to be changed from 1/4 to 5/16 and 2. hole in the 302 block is 1.5 inches and 1 9/16 for a 351. I built a sensor by first removing the shaft from the 302 sensor, measured the distance from the top of the gear to the bottom of the reluctance ring (the half circle thing that sets off the pickup). Then I chucked that shaft up in a lathe, drilled a centered hole in the sensor end for centering on the new shaft and cut it off. Then I took the center shaft from my 351 distributor, cut it off about .100" long, machined a 0.25" diameter by 0.100" tall nub in the end the same size as the hole I drilled in the reluctance ring and pressed it on. The joint is above where the bushing rides so there is no stress on it, but just in case I fused it with a tig torch from the top.

To make sensor fit in the larger 351 distributor hole I machined a sleeve (similar to an engine cylinder sleeve) that is 1.5 id, 1.57od (slightly larger than the 1.5625 ideal) and about 1.5 inches tall. The idea is this sleeve will press into the block and the 302 CPS will slide right into it. The only problem I had was that when I pressed the sleeve in it shrunk the inside dimension so the CPS fit REALLY right. A little careful "adjusting" on the lathe solved that problem!

Making sure the gear is in the right location is a little tricky, I assumed that is it is held up by the block on the bottom of the gear. I also had to machine down, in height, not diameter, the ring on the CPS that the distributor/CPS hold-down clamps to because the sleeve I made has a 0.050" flange at the top that prevents it from being driven down into the engine. To get the gear location right I just kept machining that ring down until I could feel the CPS shaft lift a tiny bit when I installed it in the block. There must have been at least 0.050 slop built into the original CPS and I kept it that way in my design so I had some leeway.

It seems to work but I won't know for sure until I put it all together and see if the engine runs

The last picture on this post shows what I found when I took the thermostat housing off of my donor explorer motor. Someone put in the thermostat in backwards, I wonder if that is why it was in the junk yard?

[pippinmader]

Re: Pippin's Pricey Perpetual Project

I trial fit the engine a couple weeks ago and found that space for the hydroboost was going to be very tight and I could not use the stock explorer oil cooler. The hydroboost space was limited by the extra height of the 351, tall valve covers, and I think the TFS heads are 3/8 taller than stock also. The intake manifold fit but only if I removed the 1 inch phenolic spacer. Since I really wanted to run the hydroboost, oil cooler, and intake spacer I decided to modify to cross member and motor mounts to mount the engine about 1 inch lower. I notched the cross member to clear the cooler and idler pulley. I cut off the stock motor mounts and made a custom set of extreme ones. Now the engine is in! The hood just barely fits with the 1 inch spacer, so I might end up with a 3/4 inch one. Now for lots of wiring and plumbing.

[crawlin68]

Re: Pippin's Pricey Perpetual Project

Engine looks great! You're making a lot of good progress. Nice work!

[Action]

Re: Pippin's Pricey Perpetual Project

Nice job!

[Cheesenip73]

Re: Pippin's Pricey Perpetual Project

Looking good. So you are grafting the explorer items onto your 351? I couple of weeks ago I picked up a 96 explorer with the 5.0. I have a 351w in it now. Is that what you are doing? Looks great. Watching and Learning!

[pippinmader]

Re: Pippin's Pricey Perpetual Project

Finally making some progress. Got the hydroboost installed with a custom bracket that rotates it 90 degrees and angles the whole unit about 10 degrees towards the driver’s side. With some modification I was able to use the hoses and reservoir from the 2004 Superduty that I used as the donor vehicle for the hydroboost and master cylinder. The rear brake circuit has a Wilwood proportioning valve. I installed the transmission cooler from a 1996 Explorer between the core support and grill as the cooler for the steering system and a filter in the return line

For the fuel system I used an electronic fuel valve from a 1980s ford diesel. The low pressure pump is a Carter, the accumulator is made from a 6.9 liter ford diesel fuel filter (spin-on cartridge) that I tapped for a NPT pickup. The high pressure pump is a Bosche from a late 80s or early 90s Ford pickup. I ran the stock 1996 Explorer high pressure filter and 5/16 steel fuel line, if I have fuel problems I may have to upgrade this to 3/8.

I have finished making the wiring harness. I started with a 1989 mustang harness, integrated in a 1996 explorer engine harness, a 1992 crown Victoria EDIS harness and relays. All told I have about 30 hours in taking it apart, soldering it back together, and re-looming it which seems to be about par for the course. I am crossing my fingers and hoping it is all done right. The coil packs are mounted behind the engine (like a Ch**y) on the fire wall to keep the engine compartment as clean as possible.

When doing a complex project like this I often think “why doesn’t anything ever just work?” well sometimes it does . I was worried that installing the 90mm lightning MAF was going to be a ducting nightmare but I found that the original tubing from the 1996 explorer worked PERFECT. The filter end was 90mm, it was even the right length and had the right bends, it was amazing and saved me hours to custom make one.

Still have the fuel pump connections, VSS wiring, exhaust, radiator/fan shroud, and custom tuning the ECU chip. Maybe this thing will make noise this month!

I will post some better pictures when I get home tonight.

[pippinmader]

Re: Pippin's Pricey Perpetual Project

IT"S ALIVE, well kind of.....I got it to run for a total of about 1 second before I shut it down. Everything is wired up but I haven't tuned the ECU for the EDIS, injectors, or MAF yet so it was running on the EDIS base timing, over fueling, and underestimating the air flow rate. Also I don't have the radiator or serpentine belt installed........but IT MAKES NOISE!!!(lots of noise since I don't have any exhaust either) after I shut it off all the dogs in the neighborhood started barking and my wife ran out to check on me because she "heard something explode!"

[Broncrick]

Re: Pippin's Pricey Perpetual Project