Planning to install this weekend. Will update with details later.




2000 EB 4x4 5.4L

 

Fedex delivers in the morning.

Saw a 160 degree thermostat option (stock is 195) on Kenne Bell site tonight that will enable an extra lb of boost. Don't know if this is standard in the kit or not.

I'll call the dealer in the morning to see what they think.

We're planning on installing Saturday. I'm figuring about 10 hours if nothing major pops up.

 

Don't mind me if I drive over from Flower Mound and switch 2000 EB Expy's on you, just in time for installation

I'm envious!

 

FamilyRide:

Would you settle for a test drive when it's installed and running good?


Got the shipment today. It's a very heavy box. Read through the instructions at lunchtime. Doesn't look terribly difficult but I'm sure there'll be at least one or two items that will cause trouble.

Found that I need some Denso Iridium spark plugs. There are two suppliers here in the Dallas area. Hope they have some in stock. The kit included a 180 degree thermostat. Also, need a Ford fuel disconnect kit. Pep Boys says they have one for about $5.

There might be more. I didn't have a lot of time today to go over the material.

I went out and got some numbers for a before and after comparison. I drove about 15 minutes up US Hwy 75 to McKinney and back and averaged 16.0 mpg on the overhead computer. I also ran five 0-60's and averaged 9.67 seconds. The temperature was 53 degrees and the humidity is 71%.

Now I just need to burn off that last quarter tank of 87 octane before Saturday morning.

One more thing: the installation requires an impact wrench to remove and install the alternator pulley. Luckily, my buddy that's helping with the install has one.

 

So? How, or is it running yet?

 

My buddy and I started the actual work at 10:00 AM Saturday morning and finished at around 5:00 AM Sunday morning with only a short break for lunch. Needless to say, my wimpy, soft, "computer geek" hands are not a pretty site.

We worked diligently the whole time and had all the necessary tools. There was only one major snafu that held us up for a period so if you figure 19 hours minus around 2 hours for the snafu, the entire installation would normally take 17 hours. That doesn't include the chip installation or the spark plug change.

Turns out that the snafu is going to cost me much more than two hours though, as now I have to remove the blower to redo a seal.

I've spoken with the dealer about the issue and he is going to inquire to Kenne Bell about the incident. What actually occurred was that the front mount plate for the blower had three threaded holes for allen head bolts that are inserted from the bottom up that were not fully tapped (threaded). Two of them were just a tad short and the third was a full 1/8 to 1/4 inch of unthreaded hole. After fighting to get the bolts started we finally decided to remove the blower for inspection and that was when we found the quality control oversight. We made a quick trip, bought a tap, and brought the plate into spec. I got into trouble though because I didn't fully clean the plates and redo the Permatex Gasket Maker. I touched the material to see if it had cured yet and it still seemed quite tacky and in a semi-liquid state. Obviously, I was wrong on that one. After completing the installation the engine fired right up but soon began to idle rough and 25 miles later the "Service Engine Soon" light was on. The actual code was a "P0401 Exhaust Gas Recirculation Flow Insufficient Detected" but I spoke with the dealer today and he suggested testing for vacuum leaks with a can of carburetor cleaner by spraying on suspect areas to see if the idle suddenly picked up. I did and it did. The front left and right sides have leaks. I couldn't test the front because of the massive tensioner and mount plate.

I will attempt to remove the blower and redo the seal tomorrow. That will also give me a chance to install the Denso Iridium plugs with less interference.

There are other items about the installation that I would like to document but I'll save them for later.

On the plus side, I have a very powerful machine now. One of the things that most bothered me about the Expedition drive train was the tendency to downshift to a lower gear when I really just wanted to apply more pedal and power to the current gear. I found many times that after accelerating through first and lifting slightly to allow the shift, when I again applied pressure to the pedal to get a nice pull in second gear the transmission would kick me back into first and a racing engine. In most transmissions that I've experienced, once you get past a certain speed, the transmission will not downshift no matter how far down you pressed the pedal. With the Expedition, it will downshift even if you only have a couple of hundred rpm left to the shift point. It's like the decision to downshift is purely dependent on gas pedal position, rather than a combination of pedal position and speed. That, combined with the mushy shifts has been a sore spot for the 6 years that I've owned the two Expeditions. Now though, I can accelerate aggressively through first up to around 3,500 rpm, back off the pedal momentarily, and then push down once again during or after the shift. I get a very strong pull through both gears without the annoying and upsetting racing of the engine. Just good, strong power throughout. And this effect is not limited to first and second. Third gear pulls very strong also with only light pressure on the pedal. The only distraction is the whine of the blower. After two days I'm getting used to it though. It sounds vaguely familiar to a power steering pump that is low on fluid which is probably why it was unsettling to me at first.

On the extreme side of things, we were able to make a couple of hard runs fully through first and second without any pinging whatsoever. After that the temperatures must be building because I heard some noise. The Denso Iridiums should help out with that somewhat since they're a cooler plug. I'm gonna wait to get the new 0-60 times until I get the vacuum leaks fixed. I'm hoping to get into the low sixes but that might be wishful thinking.

One final note: On the way home from my buddy's house tonight I must have been driving aggressively enough to create some attention because as I pulled up to a light, a late model, regular cab Chevy pulled up next to me and something told me that he wanted to show me something about his truck and it's superiority to mine. I was right because when the light turned green he squealed the tires and jumped out about a car length ahead of my not-so-subtle departure. Well, something obviously broke down in my head because an instant later my foot slammed the floor with reckless abandonment. I guess the next thing that came to mind was that I felt bad for taking advantage of him and his normally aspirated truck. I'm sure he was very proud of his vehicle before tonight.

 

Wow, I can imagine having that extra power. Must be a pretty good feeling to compare old to new!

Well who knows, maybe one day I'll SC mine if I don't cross over to deisel before then!

Keep us posted on how it goes! And congrats!

 

I'm sure you will used to it. Over on the 'L' forum those guys have come to LOVE the blower whine and actually confess to being addicted to the sound. lol

Man, now I am so motivated to do this to mine! Good luck w/ the new SC and thanks for taking the time to give us the details on your new mod. Hope to hear more again.

 

You think the KB whines, you should hear the ATI !!!
Congrats on the KB.

You should get those plugs in ASAP. What size pump did you get, 1.5, 2.0, 2.2 ??? Did you make any fuel mods to support the 8#'er ?

 

Got the plugs in. This site helped tremendously in finding tips to make the plug change go a lot smoother. No matter what you do the rear passenger plug is a real pain.

Don't know exactly which pump I have. The plate on the front reads:

TS Series
D-271-12

I didn't make any fuel mods for the 8 lb kit. Just used the same that come with the 6 lb kit. According to my dealer (Bob Kennedy) the system should be fine. I am having to add a water injection kit though, as I get pinging after a couple of hard romps. I ordered the Aquamist 1s kit today for a very good price from a dealer in Austin.

 

Gripes about the Kenne Bell installation:

1) Untapped Threads - Big quality control mistake by Kenne Bell. As stated in my previous post, the three front holes in the blower mount plate were not fully tapped. This mistake cost us hours of installation time, frustration, and money for extra tools.

2) Installation Manual - Although most all the information is there the photographs are dark and sometimes hard to make out. Some professional photographs and a technical writer could improve 100% very easily.

3) Boost a Pump mount - I made sure to clean the top of the fuse box before attaching the Velcro strips but they virtually fell off anyway. When we pulled the other side from the Boost a Pump unit they came off almost as easily. To be fair, we were working in 40 degree temperatures. I used rivets instead of velcro.

4) Electrical extensions/connections - The manual recommends soldering to extend plug connections several times. One of those times concerns a splice point that is way back under the firewall (I crimped a connector instead). It just seems that If I pay $3650 for a kit that I could get custom pluggable extensions. I'd pay extra for that if I had to.

5) Chip Installation - The manual doesn't make any mention of how to remove the computer to add the chip. It only shows you how to clean the contacts on the computer and install the chip. This site helped tremendously in that regard.

6) The Boost a Pump supplement is a hand drawn diagram. No big deal really.

7) Required Tools List - The manual includes several supplements and one of them requires a "die grinder". That tool is not on the main list. Again, the information is there but unless you study the documentation fully like you're preparing for a final exam you'll miss things like this. After working for around 17 hours straight and thinking we were getting close, it was no fun finding that we would have to cut one inch from a heater hose nipple and do a custom fit to make room for the bypass valve. Luckily we had a Dremel tool on hand.

I know that there were more issues but this gives the general idea. Read the manual several times and make notes on the main procedure to reflect the changes from the supplements.

I still can't figure on why it took a full 19 hours to do the installation. Sure, two of those hours were due to a screw up with the kit but other than that things went fairly smooth and we had all the necessary tools. There's just a lot of little things that must be done and constantly referring to the manual slows you down.

 

Before and After Performance Figures:

Conditions
Before - 53 degrees and 71% humidity
After - 30 degrees and unknown humidity

0-60 MPH
Before - 9.67 secs
After - 6.6 secs

Note: I only did three runs. I'm getting detonation after the blower warms up. My dealer says that with the colder air my boost could be around 10 lbs. I'll post more times after adding the Aquamist water injection.

Highway Mileage (cruise control at 70 mph)
Before - 16.0 mpg
After - 14.5 mpg

Note: Something about this is not right. The only thing that I can think of is that the colder air (23 degree difference) in the second run is causing more wind resistance on the tall 4x4 frontal profile. The numbers for the highway mileage should not be that much different. I'll try again in warmer temps.

 

Vacuum Leak/Service Engine Light Fix:

I mentioned in my previous post that after finishing the installation and firing the engine up that it idled fine at first but after a few minutes began to idle rough. Then after some time the Service Engine Soon light came on. Now I know what was going on. The plastic EGR vacuum hose was routed too close to the EGR pipe and it melted shut. I replaced with a rubber one and rerouted. No more rough idle.

I also mentioned that I had vacuum leaks from both sides of the blower mount plate. I had thought that the make-a-gasket had been alowed to cure too long before mounting the blower and that was what caused the problem. While I probably did wait too long the real reason for the leaks was that we used a standard Allen bolt in the rear of the adjacent plate instead of the supplied "rounded head" Allen bolt which would have allowed for another 1 mm of clearance for the intake to the blower. This kept us from fully seating the blower and its mount plate. Yes, I feel stupid admitting this mistake.

So the only outstanding issues are the detonation and the tea kettle whistle at boost. Don't think I mentioned that yet. I get a small but very high pitched whistle at certain low boost conditions. We're gonna take a closer look soon. I'm expecting delivery of the water injection kit in a day or two.

 

skyhook8, congrats on your install. I agree, the KB manual has alot to be desired. I read it a dozen times before install and still made some mistakes during. I moved my vac lines around 3 times till I was happy. I think the biggest pain was having to extend the wiring harness for a couple of the plugs. Its better to do them all at once than as they come up, cause some are hard to work around once everything is bolted up.

Overall I am very happy with the KB. I barely notice the whine / whistle. That is very normal. The ATI was around 125 db at idle! YIKES !!!

I'm not sure the injection kit is the answer. With 8 # of boost, I would be careful of a few things. You should not need that with the outside temps you are stating. Are you seeing any Service Engine light? What codes if any are you getting? Here a few things I would check.
1. Octane. Make sure you are using 92 +. Lo octane will definately cause this. Maybe try some 104 race octane boost, see if it helps.
2. Did you have the fuel system tuned? ie. FMU setting , A/F ratio setup properly? Sounds like you are lean. The additional boost alone is enough to cause lean condition detonation.
3. Chip tune. Major benefit to have a good burn. I'm not too fond of the stock KB burn. I use a Diablo black chip. The chip is probably not calibrated for the additional boost you may be seeing from the cold weather.
4. Remember, the Boost a Pump and FMU are only band aids. Larger injectors and higher volume / pressure fuel pump will definately improve the system.

Just some suggestions! Sorry for the long post.

 

Service Engine Light is gone since repairing the EGR vacuum line.


I've been running 93 octane. I put in some NOS boost the night I ran the 0-60 times but still got pinging.

Can I have the KB chip tuned? Also, how do you tune an A4WD vehicle. Dynos only accept 2WD, right?

The Aquamist will be here tomorrow so I'm committed to that. If nothing else I'll get the benefit of keeping the system cool over multiple runs, towing, etc. I don't think that the fuel is a major issue since the first couple of romps on the throttle are fine. It's only after it heats up that I get detonation. Today we had rainy weather here in Dallas and I was able to push it much harder before any pinging. Thanks for your help.