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Everything is here. Im halfway into the rebuild of the trans. Im lucky to have another to rob parts from. Its my first transmission rebuild.
The 5.4 e-bay headers look good, but i have to chop and replace the flanges. Cant drill them with what is there. The port is also too large to stay sealed with 2v gaskets. This will be my first with welding stainless, too.
Shouldnt be long before its all getting bolted in the truck. Im so ready to drive this thing. I couldnt have done it without mitchell on demand and you tube.
Still progressing along. Im done with the trans. About $500 into the rebuild. I saved money using an older parts transmission I had laying around. Good thing, too, because the Alto regular clutches and the aftermarket drum caused some tolerance issues. The other trans had some different thickness steels and snap rings so I could correct it all.
My next post should be some pics of the china headers with new flanges welded on. Probably should have bought the 4.6 ones and bent them to fit.
I'll be pushing the truck up into position this week to drop the engine, trans, and all the other good stuff in place. Im hoping to have it going this month.
One bummer I found is I need an A/C from this era truck to use the factory lines. It may get close to the price of the transmission rebuild if I dont get lucky at a local junkyard.
Everyone who reads this is just waiting to see if it works, I bet.
AVOID the chinese headers on e-bay. They will probably not fit. I took some of the tube out when i put the new flanges on. If they were up higher like the 3v 5.4, the passenger side would hit worse. Ive had to dent and chop the crap out of the passenger side, and I still have to shift the engine to the driver side some. I wish I just spent a little more for the pace setter ones and built my Y-pipe.
BTW, engine and trans are set in the truck. Im hoping to have it mostly together by this weekend and order the computer. Im awaiting fuel tank straps currently. Already got the hose and fittings needed to adapt the van fuel rail to the stock truck fuel line. Its getting there. Plan is to have it done by the end of the month. Im swamped with work and only have evenings to work on it. Maybe a weekend day to put into it. I have to stop tomorrow at a yard and see of I can get the A/C parts I need. Its good knowing people that can call you when a truck comes into the yard.
Damn truck is a decade old and will be the nicest one I've had to date. But, is a lot of work.
This will be my last post till the truck is running. I thought posting here would be fun, and I would get some feedback. I've been a member of one of the oldesr, and most popular, Ford truck forums for over a decade. It definitly has more mechanical members. Sad to say, I should have done this thread there. I have found a lot of usefull information here, though. This is a great forum.
Anyways, Im closer and closer to running this truck. Previous company swaped a Focus EVAP canister in. I figured out how to plumb it in. I got ahold of the A/C parts I need. I found a pinhole in the used gas tank I purchased. Luckily, I have plenty experience fusing HDPE pipe for geothermal and had scraps here to repair it. Fuel line was a bear to deal with, but got it done. The Y-pipe is amazing. I put it into a 3.5" bullet muffler with a spiral insert to tame the noise.
Because our clients at work held payment, my work did as well. Im looking at around 1/2 of blue book to have this running, the way I want it together. I do regret doing this. But it will be done.
It's a good project, and I look forward to seeing the update that it runs. There are several mechanical people here, but this project outside of any normal repair or upgrade.
I have been driving the truck for a while now. I was not able to reset my password for some time and gave up after several attempts on different computers.
It was a long process to figure out the tuning. Ended up all I needed was the larger injectors from the same year 5.4(36/39lb?). And using a Spectre MAF housing with no inserts(4"). With that, and the Predator performance tune, all my readings are spot on all the way around. No extra tuning required. I did end up adding more advanced timing.
It's a beast. The tight limited slip in the rear makes it want to spin around real easy. It pulls extremely hard for a basically stock motor with higher compression. I just went over 100k miles. The torque converter lock-up is not functional right now. I got another pump stator housing and a upgraded bushing to correct it sitting on the shelf. Just need to drop the trans and install it. With that, and somewhat aggressive driving, it averages 14.5 mpg on 87.
This weekend, I just installed new leafs, coil springs, and Bilstein shocks all around. They lifted the rear 1-1/2" and I lifted the front 2". Rides amazing with the Bilsteins. All the factory shocks blew out.
I'm very pleased with the end result. I have to let off and keep fethering the throttle to maintain any speed 60mph and below.
Glad to see you've put in the work needed to have a dependable motor. What did you have to do for all the in-cab electronics to work?
Nothing. All wiring is the same no matter what motor you have.
on another side note, I'm helping a friend put in a dyno this winter. I will be able to use it some time near the end of winter and see what this really makes.
All is well with the truck, except the trans. I lost 1st and 4th suddenly. Fluid was still clean, so I did nothing but local trips, with no highway use, for the past month+. Today, I dropped the pan to pull the valve body.
I replaced the check ***** in the valve body, when I rebuilt it 50k miles ago. I had both types in the kits I bought to rebuild it. I mistakenly chose to use the rubber ones like OE. A couple are smaller than they should be, and one was stuck through the separator plate. A few of the valves are also sticking. So, a teardown of the valve body for cleaning, and polishing... again
Hopefully this will also restore lock-up, as well, since the pressure valve for that was a pain to get loose and out of the valve body. I had to clean that bore and polish the valve down quite a bit to get it to move freely again.
A side note, my buddy's dyno is getting set in the pit in about a week. So it's about halfway to being done. I'm curious to what this 2v 5.4 is making. I'd still be happy with numbers around a stock 3v.
Certainly an interesting build, it's cool that you got it all together. I probably would have just sold the 2V 5.4L and found a junkyard 3V 5.4L to rebuild. Probably wouldn't have costed much additional money in that instance, but saved some work later on. Either way, glad you got it working they way you wanted it to.
03-31-2017, 08:44 PM
