just a little more research. i have gt40p heads and am not planning any further upgrades in this department. tomorrow i pick up an explorer manifold. is it worth spending any money on the manifold getting it match ported or opened up any considering it will only ever be feeding close to stock gt40p's. i would imagine a stock explorer will be able to supply as much air as the engine requires in stock form.

thoughts?

its currently at 163rwkw with a h.o manifold. is it too much to ask of the explorer to try to nudge 180rwkw? thats what i'm hoping for anyway. something in that area.

also is there any particular gaskets recommended or any old brand will do?

thanks guys.

Last edited by prydey on Sat Dec 22, 2007 8:21 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I sliced the plenum off mine and ported it and bolted a plate to the front like an edelbrock....but i dont really think it was worth the effort
if youve got the heads off mate id concentrate in porting them theres lots of info on porting gt40p,s and they respond really well

A little porting to the lower intake will be worth it, especially around the runners located next to the thermostat.

Also get a phenolic spacer for the explorer manifold.
I've also heard the lower manifold is worth porting.
I'll soon have your combination too.
I've already the manifold and I'm getting the heads soon.

the heads are already on and like i said i have no plans for any further mods in this area.

i have just been and spoken to bruce heinrich and he reckons they will flow every bit good enough for what the heads can handle. said if i really wanted i could match port them but even then they are not too far out and the gains are minimal.

I'm not chasing every last kw and the money spent on porting will only net single figure gains, double if you're lucky.

i'm basically just looking to finish off the combo and drive it for a few more months before maybe moving on.

Then if the porting of the lower isn't worth it to you, just change the cam to get as much as you can out of the flow of the intake and heads as they are.

if the h.o manifold is stock for the KW your getting now, the explorer manifold will flow better stock over the stock HO manifold, so in saying if you port it my guess is you will get close to wat your looking for, up the injectors and fuel reg and rails and that will get you on your way, along with the tb.

there are no gains to be had in porting the manifold if the heads are staying as they are. the engine will only use as much air as it needs and the explorer stock is sufficient.

i also asked mr heinrich if i would need to upgrade the fuel system - pump, injectors etc - and he said no.

vic - already has a fairly decent cam in it. the only issue is i bought the car already partly modified so i have no idea what the cam is. not a major issue as i'm not planning massive mods but it is nice to know what the specs are. all i got told was its a crow cam ' a couple of grinds on from au 220 cam' which is fairly useless info really.


cheers

Well believe it or not, the T220 cam is actually slightly less aggressive than the T200 cam according to Crow when I spoke with them a year or two ago. The T220 engine had some tweaking of the heads and a few other items to make up for the less aggressive cam which was designed with Ford's EPA design guidelines and is where the extra power came from - not so much from the T220 cam as it's quite mild.

Anyhow back on topic, I guess if you wanted to try and narrow down what Crow cam you might have then can I ask if you using the stock ECU or is it modified in any way?
If stock then you can chat with Crow and see which of their cams run with an auto box with stock ECU control - there might be one or two grinds but that's about it.
Whichever of their cams that Crow indicate it might be will give you an idea of what their ramp rates are like and whether a better cam could be ground for Explorer / GT40P heads to extract the full potential from your setup on a stock ECU. Or even better, get them to grind a custom cam that uses aftermarket ECU support and really get your engine to perform. For example over here in Victoria, if BPR and ACE are still offering the CAPA chip for around $500 plus whatever they charge for their dynotuning, I'd get a custom grind cam and do the CAPA chip & tune and push that engine combo as far as it can go with 19lb injectors and that 65mm TB.

running microtech ecu, mafless.

if i was to do things over again i would do things a lot differently now. this has been my first v8 and i've been learning as i go. the car was already modified when i bought it. all i've done is add the heads and now the intake.

i keep saying every modification will be the last one but there is always something else. i haven't looked at underdrives yet as i'm a little uncertain as to the decrease in charging of the battery and maybe the cooling side of things. voltage is extremely critical for microtech.
there's also the thermofan conversion and once again i've heard they don't offer the same cooling as the clutch fan although that may depend on how its set up.

getting back to the manifold, the underside of the lower is looking like its done a million miles. very dirty and burnt looking. when i took my h.o. off to do the heads it was clean as a whistle which is further evidence to me the km's are genuine (80 000). with the explorer is there any way i can remove the plate looking bit that covers half of it to make it easier to clean up. i've filled it with degreaser and let it sit overnight so hopefully it cleans up fairly easily.

thanks again guys.

Hehe... are you referring to the baffle as they always get dirty - yours and everyone elses. I've sold at least 3 explorer manifolds and they are always grubby in some way.

Under drives are fine. All tolerances of the underdriven accessories are still within limits. Only if your alternator is not working 100% will it affect your battery, but it will only affect it at idle. Your microtech thingo will be fine. Cooling is not an issue either.
Whack a set of underdrives on and get 5-10rwkws.

after pulling the h.o. out i've discovered it's not quite the straight swap i was led to believe.

firstly it came with au spacer and 65mm t/b. i thought i already had a 65mm but turns out i didn't so the au one will be going on. obviously this creates the first problem - the egr setup. can i just discard it or do i need to chase down some more parts. i know i could just use the t/b and keep the egr but its not 65mm.

secondly, there is a small coolant line connected to the back right corner of the h.o. but the hole is plugged up on the au one. can i just plug that coolant hose or do i need to swap over the connector from the h.o.

thirdly, there are number of vacuum lines on the h.o upper that aren't on the explorer. a big cry of 'help' on this one.

fouth, the explorer was missing the pcv valve. i thought i could just swap it over from the h.o. but when i pulled it out i noticed some mesh looking stuff in the bottom of the hole as well. doesn't look like it comes out. the explorer just has a hole. can i just put the rubber housing and valve in or is there something else meant to be in there?

there is also a sender at the front right which i busted the spade connector off trying to remove it. i'm assuming this is the coolant temp sensor??

last but definitely not least, if there are any s.a. members who have done this conversion or know how to, here's an easy way to get an extra carton of your choice for xmas/new years!! send me a pm if you can help.

thanks in advance

I'll try to help where I can. If you can, post some pics up as well.

1. You don't really need EGR so the easiest thing to do will be to get rid of it. You pretty much answered your own question. If you want EGR, the spacer you have will be 58mm.

2. Plug up that hole if removing EGR.

3. Take pics of this (for me anyway).. Does the explorer have bungs you can take out so you can put the other hoses/lines in?

4. The little filter does come out, just use that.

5. Can't remember.. I remember putting one in.

the large middle one is for the brake booster, the other 2 are for some other small lines coming from firewall near passenger side.


obviously it has the main one for the brake boost but not the other smaller ones. has extra one that h.o doesnt have.




this shows extra connector that is plugged on the h.o. do i just swap it and plug the explorer or do i need that one for something else. maybe i should take more notice before i pull things apart. i always manage to put humpty back together though with no left over parts.