more advice on my 5.0

David R.

Registered User
I started a thread on here a while back for some advice on my 93 lx and got a lot of helpful suggestions. I haven't gotten around to doing anything with it until now, and I'm leaning toward 3:73's, and or a chip. I also plan on doing some exhaust. Any advice or suggestions on what to get or where to get these from? I'll be keeping my eye out for a pumpkin on here and tccoa, but I'm not too sure about the chip or exaust.
 
For the exhaust, 3/4 or long tubes for sure. You will have to pay a pretty penny for anything worth having unless you have fab skills. Go with a good 2.5" (at least) or 3" single to make it worth your time. There was an exhaust thread on TCCoA a while back that showed some good mufflers. Actually, the Summit in house brand was the middle of the pack on restriction, but had the most HP and TQ and was the cheapest of all of them.

The chip...welll...mail orders will work, but for the best results, get it tuned at a dyno. If you are going to go through all of that, get a set of heads, an intake and a cam. There are quite a few guys making 300 with the explorer engines, some moderate head work, and a TFS1 cam. Check out corral for that info.

SWS
 
What part of the country are you at?

And would you want a bare TrakLok pumpkin and get someone like DirtyD0g to rebuild it, or one already built?

RwP
 
For the exhaust, 3/4 or long tubes for sure. You will have to pay a pretty penny for anything worth having unless you have fab skills. Go with a good 2.5" (at least) or 3" single to make it worth your time. There was an exhaust thread on TCCoA a while back that showed some good mufflers. Actually, the Summit in house brand was the middle of the pack on restriction, but had the most HP and TQ and was the cheapest of all of them.

The chip...welll...mail orders will work, but for the best results, get it tuned at a dyno. If you are going to go through all of that, get a set of heads, an intake and a cam. There are quite a few guys making 300 with the explorer engines, some moderate head work, and a TFS1 cam. Check out corral for that info.

SWS

Ok I'll check that thread out. My brother works at a fab shop and I know a little so if I can rope him into helping me I'll be set. I think I probably will do a cam, explorer intake, and then not sure about heads. that all is a little down the road but, any suggestions on them? With a tune, cam heads intake, possibly gears, exhaust, and my cheapo cone air filter, any idea where that will put my rwhp? I'm just deciding if I should do anything else before I get it tuned.
 
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What part of the country are you at?

And would you want a bare TrakLok pumpkin and get someone like DirtyD0g to rebuild it, or one already built?

RwP

Not sure what do you have?
I probably wont be getting them aytime soon unless its a good deal, I'm just getting an idea.

And I'm in colorado springs, colorado. 80831
 
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aod m5r2 swap

Ok so that brings up another question that ive had. I've been contemplating doing this for a while, and I found a site that has directions for the entire project start to finish (same year and all!). I would like driving it better if it were a 5 speed, and if there is no speed limiter :D (not sure if mine has that, though it probably does). The big thing is cost. I'm keeping my eye out for a 5-spd donor car for a reasonably price. Does anyone know ballpark what it would cost if I didnt have the donor car?

Also would my aod be put under enough stress that I should do the swap if I only have the upgrades previously mentioned? My current tranny seems fine, its got 145k on it.
 
I started a thread on here a while back for some advice on my 93 lx and got a lot of helpful suggestions. I haven't gotten around to doing anything with it until now, and I'm leaning toward 3:73's, and or a chip. I also plan on doing some exhaust. Any advice or suggestions on what to get or where to get these from? I'll be keeping my eye out for a pumpkin on here and tccoa, but I'm not too sure about the chip or exaust.

Same advice as the last time.

http://www.sccoa.com/forums/showthread.php?t=119678

David
 
a built aod is the way to go, sure shifting gears is fun but a truck transmission should never have been used in a car
 
i think aod's in stockform are junk. Sure, put enough money into one you might have one do a wonderful job. But at that rate, could just swap in a better five speed.

The m5r2 is one of the best in my opinion, since it was built for trucks it can handle the beating in a sports car.

They even sell kits to convert the T-5 and i think T-45 in a clutch system like the m5r2.
 
Exhaust and a shot of Nitrous will give it a hell of a bump and most cars respond well with a wet shot with little to no modification. It's not illegal to have n2o in a car on the street here in CO as long as the bottle is closed. I ran it in sport compacts with great success when I was in high school.
 
Not sure what do you have?
I probably wont be getting them aytime soon unless its a good deal, I'm just getting an idea.

And I'm in colorado springs, colorado. 80831

I was asking because we've got yards around here that'll sell you a pumpkin (they're U-Pull-Its) for like $45, and up until Saturday 5 PM one yard will sell all the rear suspension (as in both LCAs, both UCAs, the diff, the half shafts, the spindles and the hubs - calipers, brackets, pads and springs are extra) for $50 (!!) (Afterwards they'll be $100). They have still three Mark VIIIs and one TBird at that yard. The Marks are 3.07s aluminum pumpkins, the TBird is a 3.27 open.

Alas, that's quite a bit too far for you to drive from Colorado. :(

RwP
 
I was asking because we've got yards around here that'll sell you a pumpkin (they're U-Pull-Its) for like $45, and up until Saturday 5 PM one yard will sell all the rear suspension (as in both LCAs, both UCAs, the diff, the half shafts, the spindles and the hubs - calipers, brackets, pads and springs are extra) for $50 (!!) (Afterwards they'll be $100). They have still three Mark VIIIs and one TBird at that yard. The Marks are 3.07s aluminum pumpkins, the TBird is a 3.27 open.

Alas, that's quite a bit too far for you to drive from Colorado. :(

RwP

yea they have a few junk yards around here and I keep my eye for stuff, but yea I don't want to go real far.


And I don't really want to mess with nitrous, wet or dry. I was just wondering about the tune and gears. I'll do exhuast when I get the chance, then maybe a few months down the road gears, then a cam heads and intake and dyno tune after that. Maybe someday I'll do a 5 speed swap, but hopefully by then I'll have a real sc:).
 
Ok I'll check that thread out. My brother works at a fab shop and I know a little so if I can rope him into helping me I'll be set. I think I probably will do a cam, explorer intake, and then not sure about heads. that all is a little down the road but, any suggestions on them? With a tune, cam heads intake, possibly gears, exhaust, and my cheapo cone air filter, any idea where that will put my rwhp? I'm just deciding if I should do anything else before I get it tuned.
My uncle snagged a motor out of an Exploder and had it completely rebuilt. It has stock heads (GT40's), E303 camshaft, MSD ignition, 3" exhaust, stock upper/lower Exploder intake, 75mm throttle body, 75mm mass air sensor, and Ford Racing wires...I know I'm probably missing a few things but the motor is also in a '91 standard cab shortbed Ranger. And it MOVES! If I remember right, we were guessing around 250-260 rear wheel horsepower with that setup. It hasn't been dynoed or tuned so our guesses could be way off. But that's usually around the power range that mildly modified 5.0's tend to show.
 
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