ok well i have a 93 ford explorer with the 4.0 that im looking at turbocharging the moter thats in there is shot the push rods are about gone it sounds like a cummins going down the road so im going to be looking for a late modle 4.0 hear soon and a v8 kit readeater but im just looking to see if any one on hear as any advice about how i chuld go about doing my turbo kit and all i have an idea about how to run all the piping but i figerd some one on hear might have a better idea

 

What are you using for engine management? I will go pop my hood at home and look again, but I'm thinking that the best way is going to be to relocate the battery and put the turbo in the front passenger area. With the battery and the factory airbox out of the way there should be plenty of room.

 

Putting a turbo in would require some pretty severe exahust mods. To work properly you need the exhaust gases from both banks to power the turbo. So you may need custom built manifolds, and a crossover pipe that come over either under the oil pan or behind the motor against the firewall. In my opinion, thats a lot of work and probably not the best route. Vortec makes a centrifugal supercharger kit. You may not be able to find it at Vortecs site, but several other companies have these. The part # is 4FD218-050SQ. Just google the part number and you will get a list of companies that have them. Be advised the kit is not cheap, but it comes with everything you need, including the fuel management.

 

Putting a turbo in would require some pretty severe exhaust mods. To work properly you need the exhaust gases from both banks to power the turbo. So you may need custom built manifolds, and a crossover pipe that comes over either under the oil pan or behind the motor against the firewall. In my opinion, thats a lot of work and probably not the best route. Vortech makes a centrifugal supercharger kit. You may not be able to find it at Vortech's site, but several other companies have these. The part # is 4FD218-050SQ. Just google the part number and you will get a list of companies that have them. Be advised the kit is not cheap, but it comes with everything you need, including the fuel management.

 

Yeah, it takes some exhaust work, but thats not all that big of a deal. I am not sure if you can flip the manifolds on these trucks like you can a Mustang, but it wouldn't be that bad to fab up some turbo manifolds/headers and make the crossover. A turbo setup can be done cheaply if you do it all yourself.

As far as fuel managment goes, I wouldn't call a FMU a solution for that. It is simply a used band-aid. IIRC tweecer works with the Explorers

 

No, a FMU works very well, and the kits include a booster pump. You could use larger injectors instead, the computer will quickly adapt to prevent rich operation, but boosting the fuel pressure works very well and has proven to be reliable. Personally I would opt for the supercharger kit for the ease of installation and the quicker boost. But the turbo can work very well, and is overall more efficient. I don't think the manifolds can be turned upside down. The problem with routing for a turbo is the heat. You can use warp to help contain the heat. You may also have issues with O2 sensor placement and emissions with the turbo setup, I'm not sure if your year uses one or two upstream O2 sensors. If there are two then installation is much easier, but if there is just one, you may need to reroute the wiring a little to place the sensor just behind the turbo.

If you have the auto trans, you will need to place a restrictor, a tee, and a check valve in the vacuum line to the transmission modulator. The idea is that you never want boost to go to the modulator. Just place the check valve such that it will blow off the pressure.

If the exhaust mods are not a big deal to you, then by all means go for the turbo, it is probably cheaper. As far as an intercooler is concerned, they are not completely needed if the boost levels are kept fairly low, but they are a good idea. Let us know how it all goes, turbocharging a 4.0L is not a common project. For the engine management, go for the FMU and a booster pump. If you are going for a lot of boost, plan on replacing the in tank fuel pump and the injectors. The factory fuel managment can still be used. If you want or need a special computer setup, Diablosport has their V-chips which feature the ability to switch between 2 tunes or run the factory tune.

 

An FMU is a band-aid and nothing more. You sure can increase the fuel pressure, however lets assume that you are running 8psi with a 12:1 FMU. You are looking at an additional 96psi to the injectors. This is getting up there and you are still using the factory maps and whatnot. An FMU used to be a good solution since there weren't any other options. I wouldn't use one on any of my vehicles. A good tune where you can adjust the ignition and fuel tables using the various sensors is 100x better than an FMU.

As far as quicker boost goes, that is all relative to the size of the turbo. You can have a turbo that spools right off idle if you want.

Heat isn't that big of a concern. Some high temp paint and heat wrap will take care of it like you said. O2 sensors is a piece of cake. Cut the harness, solder in an extension and put it wherever your heart desires. Don't forget to add another bung for the wideband.

Intercoolers are cheap enough that there is no reason not to put one in. The air temps without one are awfully hot.

The tweecer that I mentioned has 5 different slots for tunes that can be switched on the fly. You could have one for premium, one for race gas, one for E85, etc.

 

well ok the pluming in no problem looking at using a slim line fan and running the passinger side to the driver side making custom manofolds and im looking at using a FMIC as for all that i understand (this is not my first custom turbo kit iv done) i was just wondering if any one has any better ideas about the exhust side tubing. and as for the tuning set up iv used tweecer on a superchared 5.0 i bild about a year ago it worked ok but im looking at a megasquirt or a prologer for this one i like the prologer unit iv used it on a lot of hondas and outher turbo swaps iv done workes really well exspecly for the money im just looking for somthing cheep for the tune and the megasquirt will only be about 300 for every thang i need and it will do every thang i need it to and more

 

Like I said, I would plumb everything over to the passenger side there.

 

Yeah, running custom fuel engine management is a good idea, but isn't reallt necessary, since the computer can adapt to a very wide range of conditions. But it is true that you can better optimize the system with a specialized system such as Megasquirt or SDS. But running the FMU is easier to install, and has the added benefit of being compatible with the factory tune, which makes the vehicle emissions legal without further mods. But yeah, if you are running more than a couple lbs. of boost, you need larger injectors as a minimum, and I agree, for optimized performance, you need a better controller.

And yes there are turbos that spool very quickly, but there are always tradeoffs. You either use a smaller turbo which limits maximum airflow, as different combination of turbines, or use a more expensive turbo. The best systems have no real tradeoff other than price.

As far as a tuner is concerned, SDS has so very real advantages over Megasquirt, most notably in the ease of programming and the power of the controller. No laptop is required for programming. It can also directly fire coil packs. So it is more sophistocated than Megasquirt. But it is also much more costly and that makes makes it prohibitive for most users.

 

I have a 98 2wd 5speed Explorer Sport and I have done a intercooled turbo set on it ans I am useing a FMU + 24lb hr injectors with a 80mm MAF and its a drawthru then it gose in to the turbo inlet and a 307 intank fuel pump. The turbo that Iam useing is a stock Grand National turbo and Iam running about 14-15lbs of boost I also have turbo SX dule stage boost controler. As far as the the Exh goes I had kept the stock exh all the way back to last cat and came out of the and used a 2 1/2 U bend to bring it back up to the front of the truck. I had ran it the driver side of the trans the when it got to the front of the oil pan and the back of the rack and crossed over to up and in to the Turbo whitch is just behine the head light where the overflow/washer bottle what i did here is cut the two in half in stalled the overflow behind the grill and then attached it there. Then reinstall the washer bottle back in the stock location. As far as the oilfeed line gose I put a T-fitting inline where the oil sending unit is used a small AN fitting and used steel braided line about 4' long. The return line I used a -10 line and used a push lock-line and ran it back to the passanger side V-cover just like the vortech system dose. The intercooler is mounted behined the front bumper ( Iam useing the 02 ranger ( Lightning ) bumper cover I had install it just below the rad suport all the intercooler/exh pipeing is all mandrual bent tubing with all the high temp silacone hoses in Blue or black w/ t-bolt clamps . I will be takeing Pics of the system today or tomarrow and will be posting them on here and all the other Explorer/Ranger sites that I belong to. I will be didgatizing all the pipeing.
had the truck dynoed befor the installed the turbo with the small mods (24lb hr injectors,80mm MAF,electric fan,K&N air filter) and it pulled 178 rwhp. I have not been able to get back on the dyno yet. Right now I am in the Maryland area. till about Dec then I will be moveing down south.

Thank you for reading my post sorry for it being so long.

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well to start off me peronly i could give crap less about the emissions of the car i live in a small town in TN where really as long as ur not doing somthing stupid no one cares and im not planing on doing any thang to stupid outher thand boosting a 4.0 lol and u sed i could do it and all id havt to have is a FMU explane ferther (i might be rong but i thank u sed the stock computer would calobrate for the added boost?)and what kind of cheep FMU do u recomend, i like the Megasquirt becouse it will git rid of the 95mph kill sittings on the truck

and 8psi ex is urs a planes ohv 4.0 and what all did u do to ur moter its self to hold all the extra boost ur adding and i would like to see pics and posoble some drawings or diagrams of ur set up will help out alt

thanks guys

 

Have you researched a STS Turbo system yet. I think if you go to STSTURBO.COM you can research their systems. They may not have an exact kit for that explorer but you can get one engineered for your size engine. I'm not sure what it does for your fuel system though. This system is located where your muffler would normally be, so you dont have to worry about clearence except for the intake piping. Then you just run an oil line back. Some applications require NO intercooloer b/c of its remote location!

 

i dont like the remote turbo systems that much just to many places in a big area over time to develup leaks i thank i have it inginerd enuf i could make it work now i just need to sell some stuff to git some money lol

 

And a remote turbo has a major lag problem. You want to keep the intake and exhaust runs fairly short to keep the lag to an absolute minimum.