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192K views 113 replies 6 participants last post by  RangerSVT 
#1 ·
This is Brandi's dad's jeep that I have been working on thats at my shop. its a 2002 jeep TJ (wrangler). It originally had a 4.0L engine with the NV3550 manual trans. The trans is similar to a T5, but in 4x4 flavor. At about 118,000 miles, the motor spun a bearing, and so a motor swap was born. It was decided to swap in a Ford 5.0L from a mustang. So, I sourced a motor and cleaned it up...














Then it was decided to do a slight upgrade. At this time I bought an M90 for my V8 sport trac, and was agging him on that once I did mine, we had to do one on his. Well, it kind of backfired on me as he handed me the $$ to get him an M90 right there on the spot. Well, my mad scientist wheels started turning, and I upgraded before I upgraded. I decided to sell him the M90 I had and upgrade mine to the M122. Here is the M90 mocked up on the motor...




So the fabrication begins of making an adapter plate to bolt the charger to the lower GT40 intake....










At this time, a decision was made to move the jeep to my shop so I can finish up the small details. Up to this point it was at his house, 2 hours away, and I worked on it on the weekends when I was up there...


Next came fabricating the intake tube...










Here is the charger upgrade painted and completed. Higher flow injectors installed, and the charger mounted along with the intake and throttle body. The serpentine belt is next, and at about 104" in length, its one looooooong belt. Still need to get that...






I'm also doing a hydroboost brake system upgrade....




Why do a hydroboost conversion you ask? The normal vacuum brake booster provides about 1800 psi of brake pressure. The hydroboost system provides about 3500 psi of brake pressure. Much better brakes with less pedal effort. It's a win win. If you think hydroboost came on only big trucks with big brake needs, think again. This unit came off an astrovan. lincoln mark 7's, astrovans, 96+ mustangs, as well as 3/4 ton and up trucks use hydroboost. This is about where I'm at with this project...

SVT
 
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#29 ·
We pulled a 96 explorer 5.0 and trans a couple months ago. We will be using the ex setup, switching to OBD2. Also going to use a 205, doubler later.

Fyi, for those interested, the difference between the explorer FEAD and the mustang FEAD is exactly 2 inches. We had almost 2" to move the engine forward, so I should be able to move the engine forward almost 4 inches for better driveshaft alignment. Just got to check for oil pan clearance...

SVT
 
#33 ·
Well, done a little work on this one. Got the trans and tcase pulled, pulled the engine harness & ecu, it's a standalone painless unit. Gonna try to pull the motor tomorrow. Im really hoping to fab a completely new intake adapter, and sell this one, we'll see...

SVT
 
#34 ·
You bolt the adapter on first, then the SC. The two front bolts you access through the hole for the blower cutaway, the two center holes there are two small holes to access with an allen wrench, the two rear holes are accessible as the rear of the adapter is V shaped...

SVT
 
#35 ·
Shane, take a look at this. It's an early to mid 80's bellhousing, forget what trans I got it from in the junkyard, but it looks like it will bolt to a T5...



SVT
 
#36 ·
Got some work done on the jeep yesterday. Went to pull the supercharger off the motor, found the cap screws are starting to get surface rust on them, so they're getting replaced for stainless ones...



Got the motor pulled...



Here is the adapter on the motor...



Its got to be moved back 2"...



Here's a shot of inside the front of the adapter...



Since going to the explorer electronics, there's no dizzy, so that gives us more room. Here's a few shots showing the clearance using mustang style fuel rails. Using the explorer fuel rails, it can dropped a little more, but they will be pointing on the wrong side if this was going in a mustang. I've got a solution to that, and with my solution I could lower the supercharger even more. As it stands using the stock mustang rails, I'm dropping it 1.25"...







This is the fuel pressure regulator. It will clear for the mustang crowd, but for the explorer FEAD the charger is getting both lowered and moved back. I will have to do some minor clearancing, but I've got the material and room to do it...



With the adapter and charger on the explorer FEAD engine, you can see just how far the pulley sticks out...





I wanted to get the motor, trans, and tcase in the jeep. It ran later than I wanted to, but its in. It's just sitting in there, as I need to build motor mount plates as well as a trans crossmember...



As you can see, its nightfall, about 730. I also had stripped the motor of the harness, and swapped out the injectors and fuel rails for the 24 lb squirters and mustang fuel rail. I could have made the explorer rails work, but this engine was already setup and running using the mustang rails, so they will stay...

SVT
 
#37 ·
The center was modified to fit an nv3550 jeep transmission. Its the same setup that advance adapters makes for jeep V8 sbf conversions. It uses an external slave, but the housing has the bosses to mount the slave, rather than making the mount for the T5 slave setup....

SVT
 
#39 ·
Got the grille back on...



Got the motor almost level, installed the rad and electric fan...



Motor repositioned...





I called it a day after this. Worked on three projects today. Need to fab motor mount brackets, the trans crossmember, modify the supercharger adapter, then work on the harness...

SVT
 
#40 ·
Been out of town all week, but while I was collecting parts at the junkyard today I picked up a couple for the jeep, I needed a water temp sensor and a trans dipstick tube, as both of these were damaged on the replacement motor. Hope to get some progress done next week...

SVT
 
#41 ·
Got some more parts for the jeep. Got a set of twin stick cable shifters and a pair of comp cut rear fenders. A pair of Artec dana 60 axle trusses are on order, as well as link tabs & brackets. Ive got a set of ORI struts sitting on my floor for the jeep, 14" up front, 16" out back. A set of grooved 37" BFG baja tires have been ordered with pvc beadlocks. Things are getting serious. Pics up tomorrow...

SVT
 
#42 ·
Here's the ORI struts...





Here's the comp cut fenders...



Here's the np205 cable shifted twin sticks...



Not included with the shifter, these were custom made for this jeep by the owner...



SVT
 
#44 ·
So I started working on this again, This is how the adapter plate was originally made....



Here is where the top plate needs to be to line up with the new setup...



Notice the big gap in the front. Two ways to fix this, weld in a filler piece like what was done on the rear, or get a new plate, so guess what was done?



While this one is twice the thickness at 0.750", we got a hell of a deal on the piece as it was a throwaway, so it was used. Another problem I had was the bolts used was starting to rust...





So replacements were sourced, and we added some bling...



Yep, stainless steel hardware is now used to stop the rust. Here they are installed...





So with the lower adapter in place, my next problem was the fuel pressure regulator. The adapter was trimmed down in height about an inch as the return line connector on the fuel rail prevents going any lower. The original adapter plate was fitted around the FPR. Here it is in its original position....





Here is the new adapter plate....





So as you can see the adapter plate needs trimming...



While waiting for the owner to decide whether to cut it by hand or CNC it (which would take about a week or so), I mocked up the supercharger in place and set the belt on to figure out the routing...



And for grins and giggles, I brought out the monster to see what it'll look like sitting on the motor...











As you can see, this sits way farther forward than the M90. So a different adapter will need to be made to fit this M122. Just so you know just how big this monster is, here it sits next to its sibling, the M90..



The owner got in touch with me, and decided not to take the time to CNC it, so it was done by hand. Here is the piece cut out...



Here is the plate sitting on the adapter, showing fitment around the FPR...



Here it is mocked up in position...





So with everything lining up, I got measurements where it is, and pulled it back off so it can get welded up. Unfortunately I'm out of Argon so I won't be able to do it. I'll bring it to the owner so he can take it to his work and have a co-worker weld it up, which brings me to a stopping point. In a couple of the pictures, you might be able to see the trans dipstick tube was replaced, as the original one was damaged when the motor was removed from the donor, as was a couple of the sensors. I might be working on this tomorrow afternoon if I have time. I gotta make custom motor mount plates since the engine has been relocated forward almost 3 inches. Not pictured, but I got in two axle trusses from Artec, one for a superduty 50 thats going in the front, the other to fit a full float 60 thats been drilled out to fit 35 spline shafts, more on that later in the build as I assemble them with new parts...

SVT
 
#45 ·
Very nice man. I am having the same problem with all my allen bolts I used on my rebuild. Guess I am going to have to throw some coin down on stainless as well.
 
#46 ·
Some updates today, but not as much as I had hoped as its 96* in the shade, I really need to get an air conditioned shop. I got some mustang equal length MAC headers thats replacing the stock mustang headers (no pics). I started today by going over all the plugs on the engine and deleting all the ones not needed, like emissions. Ended up changing the throttle body, one cause the explorer TB is larger than the mustang, and two, cause the IAC and TPS sensor plugs are different. I also had to change the IAC sensor as the plug on the sensor was broke off. The TB blade operates different from the mustang, so I'll have to fab a different bracket....



Then I started pulling the harness apart and deleting all the uneeded circuits, including all emissions, air ride control, AC cutout switch, etc from the engine harness...



I also need to redo the 42 pin plug as the ecu is getting mounted inside the cab, so it'll need to get rewired so the engine harness can be removed easily by disconnecting the one plug...



Now comes the fun part of rewiring the plug, so its cut, strip and solder time. I quit for the day since the temps were getting in the danger zone, literally. Plan to get the wiring done tomorrow morning when its still kool. I need to get some wire as I need to extend the ecu plug to engine harness by about 3 feet, including tieing into the vehicle's wiring so the engine can function...

SVT
 
#48 ·
So today im continuing the wiring, which I think this has been the most complex wiring I've done in my career. Trying not to start completely from scratch I started with an engine harness from a 98 explorer, pulled enough apart to delete the emissions, which is the EGR and DPFE, then started removing the wires/circuits that wouldn't be used, like air ride control, AC clutch, etc. After looking at whats left, it didn't look like I could fit all the remaining engine and trans circuits through the 42 pin plug. So I went through it again, wire by wire, and came up with 41 circuits that had to go through the 42 pin plug. It would make it easy on me to run the alternator excite/charge wire through this connector as well, so that makes # 42. Talk about cutting it close!
In the meantime, I thought it feels like its cooling off. I look up, clear skies. I knew it was supposed to rain later today, so I go check the thermometer, and its reading 78*, it was 96* an hour earlier. The temp dropped almost 20* in 15 minutes. I thought this can't be good, so I picked up my tools and soldering equipment, come back outside and its black! Less than 5 minutes later its raining. Looks like I called that one at the right time.
So with progress cut short, all I can do is plan. I've got it down to 60 circuits coming out of the ecu, 5 are grounds, 2 are vpower, so technically its 55 circuits, 13 are staying in the cab, 2 of which are for the fuel pump, and 41 are going to the engine and trans. I know, I know, 13 and 41 don't equal 55. Some circuits are shared, going both in the cab and out to the engine. I've got to extend the ecu harness by 26", all 55 circuits, then I got to find a 16 pin connector I can use to connect the harness to the in cab circuits. Not all 42 pins are used on the connector, so I have to source some male and female pins so I make the connections. In all, I've got over 100 wires to solder, heat shrink and connect. Planning to have a good bit of it done tomorrow. Gotta love what I do...

SVT
 
#49 ·
Also, posting this to remind myself, I did some math and I need to swap out the injectors. The 24 lb squirters arent enough for the power this thing will be making. I got some 30 lb squirters going in its place. Not planning to push this motor past 463 hp, as this is what the 30's will supply at 90% load. Not a good idea to run them more than that. I'm shooting for 400hp, so the injectors won't be overloaded. This isn't a track motor, and will rarely, if ever, see full throttle use as its in a DD and offroad truck built for low speed crawling. The most this motor will see is likely under my command while tuning...

SVT
 
#50 ·
Motor is completely stock 97 explorer, except for the intercooled M90 on top of it. Might only hit about 350 unless I drop a cam in it, but I'm not worried about it. Like I said, its a daily driver and full load/full boost driving will be rare, and for a very short timeframe, so any stressing the block will see will be minimal...

SVT
 
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