Project ST- yet another V8 swap....

Back in Nov 09 I did a V8 swap on my ranger, SVT. I was surprised at how much better the truck performed. Now the time has come for yet another V8 swap on my DD, my 02 Sport Trac 4x4, since the 4.0 is showing its age at 189k miles (and the previous owner ran it hard). I found a good candidate, a 99 explorer AWD with 168K on it with front end damage. Both frame rails were bent at the front side of the control arms. Closer inspection shown that the driver inner fender was touching the AC compressor, but had caused no damage. Everything was there, and so a donor was found.
I started out with a plan to keep this build similar to the way SVT’s build started, as close to 100% bolt in as possible, so replacement parts will be easy. With the sport trac having basically the same frame up front as the explorer, everything should transplant. I plan to add a supercharger within the next year. I also plan to keep the 4x4 by using a 1356. I have seen explorer owners do the 4406 swap, but after seeing one in person, I didn’t like how bulky it was. After looking at SVT’s doubler, I decided to go that route. By replacing 56’s shift motor with the one off the ST’s 54 shift motor, I should have no issues shifting the tcase with the original dash mounted switch. Keeping things as simple and as stock looking/working as possible is what I’m after. The ST is my DD, but will also act as part time tow rig and recovery rig (when needed), so everything needs to work, and work right.
So here is the detailed build thread. I will cover what will be needed from the donor, what will need to be changed (if anything), and what will be upgraded (not needed, but always nice). The V8 swap portion of the build is taking place as this thread was created. Progress will be posted day to day and added to the first post to keep it easy to find. I will separate the edits with the dates….
(3-13-12)
Here is what the donor looked like when it came home to the shop…







This is starting the teardown of the donor. Removal of the inner fender on the driver side was required, as the battery box was over the AC compressor. Since there is the possibility that I might rebuild the donor with ST’s original motor, both inner fenders and the core support needed to be replaced. This meant removing them prior to the drivetrain removal would make removing the drivetrain so much easier. Here is the outer fender removed on the driver side…

Here you can see the inner fender sitting on top of the AC compressor….

Here you can see the serpentine belt system and pulleys are still aligned, even though the belt has been knocked off the water pump pulley…

Here is the front clip removed (the sawzall was kind to help out on this )

The front core support and front half of the inner fenders….

Parts needed to go with the motor:
Altenator harness- This goes to the side of the distribution box in the corner of the firewall and driver fender. One side is the battery, the other side goes to the altenator. The altenator harness is wrapped with the battery cables and has one oval plug…

Here is the oval plug and battery cables on the battery end (cables were cut by fire dept when the accident happened)

Brake booster vacuum feed…

Throttle cable….

ECU and engine harness…

….disconnected at the 42 pin black plug located on top of the motor at the firewall next to the wiper motor..

Cruise control motor and cable….

That’s as far as I got today. Tomorrow will be a day going to get fluids and a trip to the junkyard, so not much will get done, if anything.

SVT

3-15-12
Got some work done today, but the rain moved in quick and shut progress down. I had plans to get the ST motor pulled today, but rain moved in around noon. So I got some work done on SVT...Onto the progress, more stuff to undo/remove. Driveshafts...

Trans X-member and tcase skidplate...



Trans shifter cable from trans...

Remove shifter cable from bracket on bellhousing...

Passenger motor mount nuts..

Driver side motor mount nuts...

I removed the radiator and didnt take pics, but the AC lines from the AC condensor on both sides, the driver side needs to stay with the motor, this will be re-used (runs from the AC compressor to the condensor)

Power steering pressure line runs from the pump to the rack, take it loose from the rack, it will be re-used...

Upper radiator hose...

lower radiator hose...

AC line at the evaporator. A special tool is needed, but with it only takes seconds to release the spring..

Fuel line located near the steering shaft. Again, needs a special tool similar to the one needed for the AC line, but a different size...

It's a good idea to keep a box handy to put all the nuts and bolts in. I kept every nut and bolt removed...

Now the motor is ready to come out...













And the motor is out...





Shortly after I got it out and on jackstands (I put a jackstand under each motor mount), it started to get dark and windy. I started picking up tools and getting things somewhat in order, and in less than 10 minutes, the rain came and quick. I had just enough time to get the tools picked up. Thats all for today, I had plans to get the motor pulled out of the ST today, but the rain cut my plans on that one. Oh well, there's always tomorrow...

SVT


3-21-12
It's a good idea to change the trans filter while the motor/trans is out...

I also pulled the tcase off the trans so i can get the motor/trans in the engine bay. I also will be switching to the 1356 tcase that will give me 2wd and lowrange capability...


SVT

3-26-12

OK!!! Had some good progress today.I didn't get as many detailed pics as I wanted to today, but the removal is straight forward and won't go into too much detail removing the 4.0. I will cover the important things related to the v8 swap, but removal of parts is basically the same as the donor..Here is the ST with the hood off. This is the last time it will run....Under the power of the 4.0 that is...

Here are the radiators side by side. The original 4.0 is on the left, the 5.0 on the right. Believe it or not, the 4.0 rad with auto and a tow package is a single core radiator There is a possibility the previous owner of the ST swapped radiators, but in the condition I received it, its a single. The 5.0 is double row, and is the same size (heighth and thickness of end tanks), which means direct swap



Unplug the battery harness at the distribution box...

My helper. Who knew redheads were good at wrenching

Here is the altenator/low oil sensor harness...

Going....

Going....

GONE!!!!!!!!!!!!

The empty engine bay. Notice the motor mounts, the position of the bolt pattern...

Here is the driver side. The 4.0 mount is in place, I'm holding the 5.0 mount...

Removing the motor mount on a 4x4 equipped SALA suspension requires lowering, but not removing, the front axle housing. Near the driveshaft flange of the front axle housing is one of two bolts on the driver side that needs removed. The other is just below the motor mount, seen in the pic...

It's tight, but a shallow socket with a regular ratchet can remove the single 18mm nut holding the motor mount in place...

If you have a flex head ratchet, like I used here, it makes removal a little faster as it gives you more room...

Here is the mount removed. You can see the nut that is used to retain the mount in place....

Here is the 5.0 mount in place...

And this is where the bad news starts....For my viewers anyway. My battery died on my phone, so the pics end here. The passenger side is slightly easier. There is one bolt holding the passenger side axle housing in place, located right below the motor mount. There is an access through the framerail right above the halfshaft. I used an 18mm deepwell socket with a 6" extension and a flex head ratchet, but a regular ratchet can be used. With both motor mounts swapped, I took some measurements and compared them to the measurements from the donor's mounts. The measurements were the same I also measured from the motor mounts to the firewall on both sides on both the donor and the ST. What do you know, again, the measurements match up. It's looking like this will be a 100% bolt in swap. With the motor out, I wanted to do some past due scheduled maintenance (fuel filter) I got the old one out, only to find out that the replacement filter was the wrong diameter size. The replacement filter was about 2/3 the size of the original. Didn't think nothing of it, since it has two inlets, one 3/8 and the other 1/4, and one outlet (3/8), until I tried to hook up the engine side. The engine side uses 1/4 size line, the filter housing was 3/8...A quick look at the part numbers at both the box and the new filter, both were different numbers. It appears the filter was either swapped by mistake, or someone wanted to pull a prank...Either way, I was down for now. With the 4.0 out of the way, the 5.0 was now ready for its new home. With the motor and trans attached together and complete, it they went. Things were going good til I got the crank near the core support. Then I remembered when I did SVT's V8 swap I had to remove the upper intake to get the motor in, and had said the motor and trans needs to be separated to be installed. Well, looks like I'm taking another upper intake off to install. Seeing how this is the third ranger V8 swap I've done personally, and all 3 I had the trans connected to the motor and all 3 had to have the upper intake removed, you would think I would remember this, especially since I just did a ranger V8 swap barely a month ago!! Anyways, with the motor in the engine bay, the motor mount plates are sitting on the mounts like they are suppose to. The valve covers are right up against the firewall, and between the water pump pulley and the condensor (condensor was not removed for engine removal/installation, only the radiator and fan blade) there is between 6-8 inches, maybe more. Looks like I will be able to use the 5.0 rad with the stock mechanical fan I haven't measured, but a quick look at the trans mount looks like it will fall in the stock location, so no trans mount mods needed. Once I got the motor on its mounts, I called it a day. Tomorrow I will get pics of the motor in place and the rest of the install. I had pudding face BIG TIME once the V8 was in!!!
Here is a pic of the oil filter housing Ford used on the non-oil cooler 5.0 engines...

And here is a pic of the oil adapter housing used on the 2.9L engines....

Are you following what I'm thinking?? But why would you ask I swap em out?? Ford swapped all explorer 5.0 motors to the 820S style filters which are smaller than the FL1A filters used on previous 5.0's. Also, when I bought the oil filter relocation kit from TransDapt for SVT, I had the straight block adapter left over since TTB rangers need the 90* block adapter. I plan to get another dual filter housing and a couple of lines and going with a dual filter setup. Also, some EFI 5.8 motors had the sandwich style oil coolers, which I could also install between the adapter housing and the relocation block adapter. This gives me some options. I still need to mount my additional trans cooler next to the stock location cooler, as well as install my external trans oil filter... Enjoy and stay tuned for the upgrades...

SVT

3-27-12

Got some more stuff done today, but I had a bunch of interruptions and didn't get as much done as I'd hoped. I started with the electrical under the hood. Mainly the altenator harness. The altenator charging circuit is slightly different from the donor to the ST. Here you can see the ST 4.0 altenator harness. Power goes from the altenator to the power distibution block located on the driver side firewall, crimped to the same terminal is the wire that goes to the battery, and from the battery to the starter...

Here is the section removed from the 4.0 harness that will be re-used. Notice the two fuse links at the end of one of the cables? The other side of the fuse links goes to the altenator output...

This is the explorer 5.0's altenator harness end, notice the altenator output is not tied to the battery side...

....This is why. The explorer's circuit uses a high amp fuse rather than the fuse links the ST uses....

After finding the correct length, I cut the altenator cable and soldered the fuse links to the altenator cable, therefore combining the ST end with the explorer altenator end...

Here is the finished product, complete with heat shrink with the sealing glue inside...

The cable ends made up with eyelets crimped on. I prefer to solder the cables into the eyelets/battery lugs, but I didn't have any way to heat up the solder...

And the finished battery cables....

The ST altenator harness has the AC high pressure switch circuit along with the low oil sender circuit. The explorer has the high pressure switch circuit in the fenderwell harness. The reason is on the 4.0, the ST has the high pressure switch is on the back of the AC compressor...

The 5.0 explorer has the switch in the high pressure line, near the condensor...

Here are the pressure switch wires that are in the altenator harness. The red/yellow and black/white wires is the circuit, however the black/white is shared by another circuit(ground side), and is in the plug. Only the red/yellow wire is missing from the 5.0 harness. I haven't yet, but later I will use the 4.0 harness plug (since the plug itself has the provision for the wire, all remaining unused pins are sealed/not drilled through the plug) and just re-pin the plug...

Here is the clearance between the radiator and the water pump shaft....

...and the clearance with the stock mechanical fan in place. There is a little better than 3/4" clearance at the top of the clutch blade (the trans is still not mounted and is sitting a couple inches low, so when the trans gets mounted, it will level out the clutch blades to radiator)....

Here is the fan shrouds, on the left is the 5.0, the right the 4.0. Notice the cutout on the right shroud for the single row radiator. It will not fit the 2 row rad, so the donor shroud is used...

Here is the shroud in place. Looks like it came from Ford this way. For now, I will run this setup. Later I plan to swap to an electric fan to improve fuel economy...

Here is the heater control valve. It is designed so when you turn on the heat from the climate control panel, it opens allowing hot water to travel from the engine to the heater core. These are known to leak and is only one more moving part to fail. I simply and easily removed this out of the system. The heater hose coming into the valve was removed and placed directly onto the heater core. There is a vacuum line coming from the cab to operate the valve. I would just plug this line off, however the previous owner already removed the valve from service and plugged the line...

The power steering return line from the ST is a little short from reaching the reservoir, so the donor return line is used....

The front bumper is removed, but not necessary for the swap. I chose to make a simple upgrade while I performed this swap. I am adding a second trans cooler as I have two spare stock coolers. I'm going to add one next to the stock location on the right...

Here is the second cooler mounted in place...

Wait a minute, why does this look different, I thought they were the same coolers...This is why. The ST cooler has a 2" mounting plate under the cooler, lifting the cooler up higher to get more airflow....

Here is the cooler I added...

I decided for the time being to leave it like this. Later I will modify the bracket to lift up the cooler. Here is the oil filter housing I will be using for my external trans filter. I wanted to install the filter on the hot side of the trans line (before the coolers), but I would have had to cut the trans line coming from the trans, as its one continuous line from the trans to the radiator. So I put it after all the coolers...

I mounted the filter housing to the lower front core support for ease of changing. It's high enough to be safe from obstacles should they arrive, and easy enough to reach. Here is the filter and coolers mounted and plumbed ready for action...

I didn't get any pics and didn't cover it, but the upper intake is back on the motor. The gasket was not damaged when the upper intake plenum was removed, so it was re-used to save some coin. It's only 6 bolts and is straight forward. Tomorrow I will get a couple pics of it and show the location of the bolts. Only thing left under the hood is the throttle cable and the engine to firewall ground. Stay tuned as tomorrow I will cover installing a low range tcase. Should be starting it for the first time tomorrow...

SVT

3-28-12

Along the fenderwell behind the ABS pump the harness is attached to the inner fender by a bolt. I unbolted the tab securing the harness to give me the needed slack. This was temporary as I had intentions of making an extension plug to give me the necessary slack (More on this later)...

Here is what the throttle cable looks like that passes through the firewall. There are two clips 180* from each other that release the cable and allow it to be removed...

Here is the 5.0 cable installed..

After some trial and error I found out the 1356 tcase I intended on using will not fit the wider explorer framerail like I thought, so I had to resort to using the stock explorer 5.0 AWD case, the 4404. For now I will not install the front shaft and just have rear drive. I will source the much larger 4406 and swap that in. The good news is the the trans cross member is a bolt in swap, no mods were needed...

The 4404 tcase is about 1.25 inches longer than the 1354, but the V8 trans is 1.5 inches shorter than the ranger trans, so my driveshaft fit with no mods. The one thing I did have to do was swap tcase output flanges. For some reason my tcase, which was not the original ST's case, was swapped out at some point in its life for a smaller flange. I either had to swap out driveshaft flanges, or swap out the output flange on the tcase. One nut and 30 seconds later, the flange was swapped. Here is the 4404 flange on the right, the 1354 flange on the left. Both share the same size and spline count, so they were swapped...


3-31-12

Okay, so as ya'll know, its running. But lets take a look at what it took to get there. Since I like detail, here is how to take a plug apart to release the pins for removing/installing pins. First, take the cap off. There are clips on each corner...

Then pull out the lock tabs....

This plug has 3 individual locking tabs. Take out all 3..

Here is what the plug looks like with the lock tabs removed. If you look closely, each pin has a small lock tab that can be pryed away from the pin, releasing it...

Here I am releasing the lock to release the pin. If the lock tab was in place, the lock for the pin would not be able to released...

While holding the lock away from the pin, pull the pin out from the back side...

Since I am extending the harness so the 42 pin plug will reach, and look like it came from the factory like that, I had to cut and splice quite a few wires. I could have taken and used crimp style connectors, but they would have not been a secure connection. I chose to solder and heat shrink each and every connection. Here is how to make a good tight secure solder.
Before you start the process of soldering, start by putting your heat shrink tubing on the wire and slide it down at least 8-10 inches, or as far away from the solder joint as possible...

Take the two wires to be soldered together and strip them back about 1/2"....

Push the wires together until they are touching the opposite wire's insulation, where they are somewhat weaved together, like this....

Then, take a piece of solder and wrap it around the bare section of wire, wrapping it tightly. This makes the solder joint nice and tight and neat...

Then, take the solder gun and with the solder gun at temp, touch the joint to be soldered. Within seconds, the solder that you wrapped around the joint will melt and flow through the wires, soldering the wires together....

After the joint is soldered, slide the heat shrink over the joint and apply heat. Be sure to overlap the joint on each side to protect the joint...

Here I am about 2.5 hours into extending my harness, about half way done...

And here is the harness completely extended...

Here is the original 42 pin harness plug with about 10" of wire left. Since I had the 5.0 donor's plug, I cut off the plug with about 20" of pigtail. In doing this, instead of cutting and adding wire to an existing circuit and having two solder joints, I cut the original harness at 10" long, leaving me 10" of additional wire, thereby extending my harness by 10"...

I've got most of the harness wrapped back up in the original wire loom. Tomorrow it will be done, hopefully by noon. After I get everything back in place, I need to check for leaks and fluid levels. Here is where I called it a day. The sun went down and the mosquitos starting coming early (At least something finds me sweet )



4-1-12

Swap is now officially complete. I'd say it took me maybe 1.5 to 2 hours today to finish, if only those damn mosquitos would have stayed away...Oh well. Here is the engine bay with the harness finished and in place...





Tomorrow ST is getting exhaust, I'll get a vid of what she sounds like


8-26-12

One of the most important components to allow the speedo to work is the G force transducer, which basically tells the ECU how hard the vehicle is braking. The Trac does not have this, but the donor does. It's located on the frame rail just under the driver side front door. This is what it looks like...

The reason is the path the Vehicle speed sensor takes. In the Trac it goes from the VSS in the rear axle to the ECU, and a signal gets sent to the ABS pump/module and the instrument cluster. The donor works slightly differently, as it goes from the VSS in the rear axle up to the ABS module. The ABS module in conjunction with the transducer then sends the adjusted signal to the ECU, which then gets sent to the instrument cluster for speedo operation. There are three wires on the transducer that need to be hard wired into the Trac. The orange/black wire ties into the ABS module pin 14, which is black/orange...

After this connection was soldered, it was covered with heat shrink...

From this point I had to remove a pin from the plug, so here is how to dismantle the ABS plug. Using a small flat screwdriver remove the endcap on the plug..




Here you can see the release tabs holding the pins in place...

The yellow wire connects to pin 13 which is the brake pressure switch going to the ECU. This wire is no longer used and was removed from the ABS module plug, which is a black/white. The orange/white goes to pin 1, there is no pin in this location, so one had to be added. I grabbed a pin from another ABS plug from the junkyard. Pin 19 on the ABS module, gets spliced into pin 32 on the grey firewall connector to tie the new VSS output into the speedo and cruise circuits...(Bad pic with no closeup, but this is the location of the grey plug, they both appear black, but thats just the cover, you can see the color of the plugs when looking at them at an angle)

Rather than drilling and locating the transducer in the factory location, I chose to make the mounting and routing wires easy on me and mounted it just behind the battery on the inner fenderwell. Notice the arrow? This must face forward, and the sensor must be level. Well, after this was done, I took it for a test drive, and both my speedo and cruise control now works as it did...

I also noticed a big improvement in the way my transmission shifts, as well as about a 2 to 3 mpg improvement in fuel mileage. This is due to the ECU now being able to detect speed and correct shift points as well as engage to torque convertor lockup at speeds over 45 mph, which is what my ECU has been programmed for in my custom tune.
SVT

looks like a lot of fun... one time i seen a sport trac with something whistling under the hood goin sideways down the road.. sure a v8 will make it fun like that one looked!

Yeah, but it will be better behind the wheel!! Plans are to take the dana 60's under SVT and put them under the ST when I get the new axles for SVT. Not gonna run anything bigger than 35's, but planning to run 33's. Staying with the 4.10 gears thats in them, but the rear 60U is getting a Yukon locker (Grizzly) and the front will get either a TrueTrac or E-locker....
SVT

Awesome project! IIRC, these only had the 4.6 as the V8 option, right?

I'm subscribing for sure.

First Page!

shane96ranger said:

Awesome project! IIRC, these only had the 4.6 as the V8 option, right?

I'm subscribing for sure.

Click to expand...

Correct, but the Gen 1's (01-05) only had one engine option, the 4.0 SOHC. In 06 the Gen 2's started having 4.0 or 4.6 as engine options...
SVT

Awesome havent seen a sport trac buil up yet

The SAS/60's wont be anytime soon. The twin screw will most likely come before the axle swap. Also going to give the front a makeover hopefully this summer. Stay tuned for that one...
SVT

My mom used to have a sport trac and I loved that thing, but she slid off the road and bent the frame. Good luck on the build!

Scribin!

Update. Check back to the first post to see the progress. I had more planned for today, but the weather disagreed with me. After I pulled the motor, I did manage to get a couple shots of the shock mounts. I'm thinking I might be able to use these for my coilover mounts for when I SAS the ST, what ya'll think?? I plan to fab a bracket that will bolt to the shock bolt hole, but allow me to use a double shear mount to my coilover.



I'm not going for insane amount of flex with this one, probably a 10 or 12" coilover, maybe even an 8"...

SVT

I would just bend some tube and build a new mount, most stock brackets are lacking

^agreed

I would normally agree, but this bracket looks pretty beefy. It's almost 3/16 thick, and the way its formed there are no flat spots on it giving it extra strength. I won't know if i will use it or not til I get the front suspension cut off and the axle in place. Knowing my luck it won't work anyways...


SVT

In. I know someone that could use some Explorer parts....cough cough....