I've been following this thread and have been concerned that the subject Aerostar might get overloaded. I'm glad that Rojo has eased my concerns about overloaded towing. I'm also glad that there has been some shade-tree engineering improvements that have been initiated on this site, even if it's out of reach for the average Aero owner. It should have been solved before the Aerostar ever left the drawing board back in the 80s, but at that time it was just a 4 cylinder box-on-wheels made to haul a few people around. (Speaking of brakes, the rotors on my Aero need to be turned because they are inadequate and are out of true)
With all that said, there is one weight limitation on the Aerostar that CANNOT be updated. That's that little GVWR sticker that is attached by the driver's door. It probably cost Ford no more than a couple of cents, but it cannot be altered or updated. No matter how good the brakes get or how well your replacement springs are, if you overload this rating by just a few pounds, you set yourself up for a huge lawsuit, even if you are not at fault. 20-30 years ago you could haul your drag car to the strip with something that's not up to specs, but lawyers have now taken over the world. It doesn't matter how good the brakes are, a jury of 12 could never understand that and your insurance company would probably just throw you, cut and bleeding, out out to the sharks.
In the beginning post, there was wanted advice for towing. While I don't tow with the Aerostar (because of the tranny, not because I'm afraid to tow), I do have a commercial driver's license (a CDL with several added endorsements) and I am familiar with lots of weight sitting behind the driver just ready to make the vehicle squirm off the road. Wet, slick conditions with a tow behind an Aerostar can make an interesting situation, especially if the cargo could lift up on the rear of the bumper.
Rojo, good luck with your Aero and let us know how everything worked out.

 

Fire up the Tig. Next project: 8.8 3.73 LS on big tubes, plus rear wheel discs.
This brings the rear brakes up to par with the Exp fronts.
Known mods required:
- Width after combining with 44ET Exp wheels
- Spring perch and links
- Parking brake connection
- Master cylinder swap


This is a 3L73 which can still be driven by the 3L but is perfect for the 4L sohc.
There is a slight chance the 4L turns into a 5.xLV12, in which case I might be looking for some looser gearing.


This allows me to retreat into Explorer 17's rather than fuss over adapting the mbz's.
The Exp's don't look nearly as sophisticated, but in the short term it saves me time and capital equipment for turning my own adapters.



I will finally install the springs that were fabricated to my specs a while ago.
Wish I had these springs while I was doing construction.
They keep the rear end at about stock height while an additional 450lbs is loaded onto to the rear axle.
Simultaneously, I'll maintain balance by swapping in the Addco front bar.

.

 

speaking as someone who has had quite a bit of experience towing with several vehicle / travel trailer combo's, I know you won't be happy with the outcome of a short wheelbase and light TV with that trailer, but if you're dead set consider a Hensley Arrow or Propride 3P hitch setup, this will aid in making the setup much safer and enjoyable. My 0.02$ would be to go buy a nice used F150 with the 5.4 and towing gears, much more enjoyable with little to no white knuckle experiences.

 

omg those wheels look great on that! can we get a full pic of them? (sorry to be slightly off topic)

on topic:

not planning on a truck 302 or 351?? would give the potential for greater power with greater reliability. the 4.0 sohc motors have issues with the timing chains as they age and the rear chain is a massive pain to service. you can also take an AOD transmission, use the guts out of a 4r70w to get better gear ratios and power handling.

also, later explorers with 5.0's had gt40p heads, which besides the cobra's, are the most powerful mass produced 5.0's in the ford family

 

* Wheels are std Exp 2002-5. Widely available. Warning: Offset is substantially different from aero & early exp.
* 90 degree engines fell off the table, leaving the V6 and V12. The XC90 V8 is too rare to consider. The rebuilt ford V6 sohc is widely available. Rebuildable bmw V12's are available and cheap (fyi, lack of demand).
* The bmw V12 provides 325hp & 360lbft. Required intake mods will change this to 340hp and 350lbft. 6" longer than the ford V-6's, therefore requires tunnel extension, but works side-to-side.
* The 4L sohc chain rap is well known and pertains to early factory original's. Proper rebuilts are good.
* I'm NOT swapping the aero engine or towing during the coming year. I can only manage the rear axle into my packed schedule that includes engine control development for the bmw V8, mbz I4 and aero V6.
* Working out details is my hobby as an engineer type and trades Jack.

 

Update. Everything Aero is on hold due to schedule.
* The Explorer 8.8 diff, axle, brakes and springs stay on the shelf until Fall '15. Low priority and also waiting on more engine torque to counter the migration from stock 4.10 to 3.73.
* Still shifting between V6 engine plans. A Vulcan make-over, the SHO, or the SOHC. Fyi, a 3.2 SHO was brought in but might get either torn down for the Vulcan make-over or get tossed in favor of the 4L SOHC. Well, at least I've killed the V12 option. Fall '15 time frame.
* I'm having an ongoing struggles with my A4LD frankentranny, so I'm bringing in a 5R55E for a plan-B path. Regardless, the tranny shifts will need to be adapted to the final engine plan. Likely I will do a custom controller to be shared with a parallel 722.6 tranny project for my MBZ. Summer/Fall time frame.
* 16" LTC wheels are working out well, therefore the fabrication of correctly engineered adapters for the 17's have been taken off the calendar and the 17's (with 225/55 kumho's) stay on the shelf.

Edit:
The decision is to go with the SHO 3.2L DOHC. It's in my garage already and looks pretty, otherwise I would do the 4L SOHC.
In the short term the SHO is a built-to-tour engine. 220 bhp & 215 ft-lbs, 7K redline, forged crank and pistons.
Next year I will investigate transitioning it to built-to-tow.
That requires knocking the compression ratio down a bit and installing twin turbos. Targeting 260 bhp & 280 ft-lbs.



***** Follow-up *****

 

Finally, after 6 years, towed something.
Road test at the bottom of this post.


So let's review the original wish list (post 1, this thread) versus what has actually happened in the interim.

Got some items checked off...
- Hitch & associated electrical
- Brake upgrade
- Front sway upgrade
- Exhaust upgrade
- 17" wheels. Couldn't sell the 15's and 16's, so they were tossed (!) during shop clean up.

Items on the list that didn't happen, and probably won't...
- Explorer axle swap. Was tossed during shop clean up. Would have been difficult and risky to modify, to length and with Aero mounting points.
- Rear disc brakes. Retained from explorer axle, but probably won't bother.
10" drums are sufficient and a swap would be complicated.
Explorer pieces were salvaged from the axle, and Aero-axle retrofit brackets were developed.
Also collected a master cylinder and bias valve.




Projects not on the list that did happen...
- LSD refresh, with helical technology vs orig clutch pack.


- Gearing swap, from 4.10 to 3.73. Now turning approx 2200rpm @55mph.


- Vulcanstein engine. A refresh and torque upgrade to the standard Vulcan.


Current to do...
- Rear springs, to boost rate, reduce sag when loaded. Pic is of an attempt, but failed the dimensions of the pigtail ends.


- ECU swap. After many years, still in development.

- Engine swap, target still not decided.


SHO, shown with 5R55E.


- OR turbo the Vulcanstein. This GT2052 is currently in inventory, fit tested, will need an additional.


Backstory: recently cashed out of an expensive neighborhood, bought something for half the amount.
The good news that, as far as Aero projects are concerned, I now have unlimited funds.
On paper, the working space has also improved and therefore I retained all my engines.
The bad news is that I'm still stuck with no free time.

*** Road Test ***
Here's the road test / review, formerly over on the tow hitch thread.
Also check out the excellent Safe Towing Limit for Aerostar.
***
Test rig...
From U-haul @$19/day, a "5x8" (actually 5x9) open. Says their docs: 1000 lbs empty.
900 miles over 2 days on flat interstate and gentle rolling state highway, some casual Los Angeles traffic.
Loading added 250 lbs to trailer, plus 1000 lbs cargo to van, minus all seats except driver (iow's minus 400lbs from std curb).
U-haul Inc has the standard curb at 3400 lbs (I've heard elsewhere 3600).
So with 170 lbs driver, net combined mass is 3400 curb +170 driver + 1000 cargo - 400 + 1000 trailer + 250 cargo = 5420 lbs.
This compares against 8000 lbs limit, for 3L engine & 3.73 diff & (tiny) trailer area, according to owners manual.

Performance...
FYI, mileage. $4.20/gal, CA, boutique, holiday.
19.5 mpg empty, no A/C, flat@55. IOW's no significant change from van alone.
16.5 mpg full, slight hills, @58. or $0.25 / mile. IOW's cost of doing business.

Smooth when loaded, just glides along on the flats.
The 3.0L Vulcanstein got the job done.
On the flats, was able to cruise in OD with TC locked, even with the new 3.73 gears (vs orig 4.10 set).
Was able to get up a 3% grade at 55 in 3rd.
Could do higher speeds OR steeper grades flat out in 2nd.

No problems with the Frankentranny (upgraded A4LD) that I just serviced.

During a panic stop was able to lock my (upgraded Explorer) brakes.
Very mild incident.
Seemed balanced too, could not tell if it was my fronts, rears or both.

Suspension...
The Aero is a low ride compared to typical tow vehicles ie real trucks and SUV's.
A typical trailer is therefore set up to be compatible to the truck/SUV and this includes both ball and chains.
Second problem is the miserable spring rate on the Aero, whereby even light loads sends the rear lower by several inches.
The result on this test was rear axle in deep compression, bump stop issues and a tail high trailer.

 

what was done to the engine and does it work well with the stock computer?

 

Yep, left out a few project links.
Will go back someday and add.

Vulcanstein is a fresh build from new or NOS pieces, including the block.
Block is 1992+, with roller lifters.
Crank is 1995+ for diminished NVH.
Pistons are from 2002, giving it slightly higher compression.
Matched injector set.
Fresh plugs, etc.
Noticeably smoother, stronger.
Smooth operation is appreciated because, when towing on grades, it might be necessary to run near redline for extended time.
No ECU mod required.

 

Would a 4 liter engine have been better for towing with its higher torque? Could you have made similar mods to a 4 liter engine (Colgnestein) to make it run better than stock?

 

Sorry, Vulcanstein twin-turbo wins that contest, has to get dialed back to say 270 lb-ft, to stay within the 5R55E.
For smoothness, the SHO wins.

*** Re: Why not Cologne? ***
It would be nice to see a more engine, but not essential for my higher calling which is actually Grand Touring.
Trailer towing represents an activity within the GT lifestyle.
If an engine is not the ultimate tow'er, but otherwise checks off my other GT boxes, then I'm still a happy camper.

For those who are already in a Vulcan, adapting the Cologne would represent a half step among other choices.
If I am a slave to output specs, then the choice is the Vulcanstein TT.
If don't stay in the Vulcan, then I have to start collecting accessories for the next target, incur the pain of adaption.
At that point I'd want the result to be more interesting and unique, either the 3.2L SHO or the 4.0L SOHC.
Fyi, I've already amassed all accessories for the SHO and, until now, did not have space and spare coin for the SOHC.
In either case, I'm waiting for my shop to suddenly appear, and a break in my schedule.

*** Side SHO ***
Following the initial reject notice, development continued, prototype pieces were fab'd to solve the half dozen issues.
My logistics problem has been that the machined parts are complicated, take several days on my dumb mill.
Had to set the project aside because I could not iterate and precisely converge the design, then fabricate for others.
Am waiting to set up a better machine shop with CNC equipment.

Thermostat manifold, manually machined by me


Test fit into the SHO valley.


Exhaust bracket, to fit new headers to the Aero


*** Re: Cologne updates? ***
Sorry, not familiar.
If this were my game, then I'd do the same research, looking for NVH and CR updates vs model years.

 

I guess a twin turbo SHO would be better than a TT Cologne. You can tune the turbos to provide low end torque, and take advantage of the SHO's high revving capabilities. How are you going to get it to fit into an Aerostar's engine compartment?

 

My last towing adventure...


...killed my U-joints.
At the end of the trip, it was like driving on corrugated concrete.

Gave my local shaft shop the shaft.
Spicer joints plus balance, $160.
Best money I've spent in a while.
The van is now much smoother and quiet.

 

Rojo, I was wondering if you ever did anything to enhance the stock transmission crossmember? Even under normal load, the bushings get pretty stressed. So if you're towing, do they get destroyed?

 

Nothing to enhance, but I was up to date on bushing freshness.
No troubles to report.
****
This is also an important point about maintenance.
The towing session did not suddenly kill my U-joints.
First I drove a quarter million miles over 30 years, THEN the towing session killed my U-joints.
****
Wish I had a camera at the shaft shop.
The tech gave the joint a wiggle, yanked it apart using no tools, dumped onto the counter a pile of black dust and needle bearing fragments.
"There's your problem, dude."
He probably does that same routine to a dozen people a day.
So everyone, get your U-joints refreshed and shaft balanced.
Solved a lot of seemingly unrelated noise issues.