1997 Mountaineer 5.0 for Coil-near-plug swap

[decipha]

the xdf file isnt different, its crai8 as well

whats the purpose in writing over the file?

yeah its pretty common for ecus to get updated when a vehicle goes in for service

read the comments for each parameter and it will tell you what its for

[ATPCR]

Michael,
I see now that my '99 pass car bin file says CRAIB and not CRAI8.
The file I was suggesting writing over Is another '99 PCM.
I'm familiar with flash bin file upgrades.
I'm reading each parameter and wondering if some need changed and would some have inconsequential results.
There are some that I'm not sure if they need changed. I've eliminated the CATS and rear o2 sensors so of course I would want to turn those off.
Also I've eliminated the EGR.
I'm curious as to whether the gear ratio or tire size needs to be adjusted. The '97 Mountaineer has 3.73 gears and p235 70 r15s.

[decipha]

thats all up to you as the tuner and how involved you want to get with

but yeah you have to use the crai8 file since you cant edit the craia craib or any of the others.

[ATPCR]

Fuel lines completed. Ford spring lock to AN fittings and SS braided hose. Upper fittings are opposite of the lower fuel line connections.

Lines removed again to install power train wiring harness.

[ATPCR]

A quick update for the couple of you following. Through the winter up to early April, I was rolling along pretty good until the project came to a screeching halt. The oxygen & acetylene gauges that I need to heat up the salt rust exhaust flange bolts are missing. Less than two years ago, I used them to remove a notorious broken 289/5.0 Windsor water pump timing cover bolt. I separated the hoses, tanks and gauges. I put the gauges in a safe dry place in my shop. I have spent an unknown number of hours looking for them and my brother has too. Even some tension has come about from the situation. I've been busy at work, on work projects working on a carbureted 351 Windsor 4 speed '69 Mach 1 and my wife's 4.0 SOHC Explorer blew a hose and that required partial tear down to access the factory plastic thermostat housing. FoMoCo? why do y'all make some of the parts for your vehicles the way that you do? Now aftermarket aluminum thermostat housings are available.

Today as I was mulling over what is the Mountaineer c-n-p project hold up, I decided to order a new set of oxy/acetylene gauges. The old ones will show up when I'm not looking for them. My truck gets to go on the 4 post lift the week of June 24th. It will occupy that spot until I'm done and can start it back up for the first time in a few years. I will be building the front half of the exhaust system that will work with my coil brackets. Anyone that has worked on a 1997 Explorer/Mountaineer has seen the wacky exhaust headers may understand my issue. The "Godzilla" coils are pointing at a few of the header tubes. For now, I have some manifolds off of other Fords. A V-8 Mustang II manifold for the passenger side and a 1995? Ford 5.0 manifold for the drivers side. I have little steering u-joints and some DD steering shaft for if i have to route the steering shaft around the truck manifold. The powertrain harness is ready with the exception of crimping on the coil connectors. I May have said it before, I used the '97 MM harness and modified it including repining the pcm connector to work with the 1999 Crown Vic P71 PCM. First fire will be with it, and I will be monitoring the AFR with a gauge hooked to a wideband o2 sensor. After that I will be using some files acquired from this site to get into the tuning aspect. I'm sure that I will have a lot of questions when I get to that point.
One question now. Can I split the signal coming from the wideband sensor to go to the gauge and the tuning equipment?

[ATPCR]

I'm working on and with the truck. I purchased a 1996 F-150 5.0 exhaust manifold. There was a plug in the large hole on the back that was for EGR.
I have the drill bit and tap that could be used to make an 18mm O2 sensor hole. For you guys that have done this, from your experience, would
this be a good spot or a bad spot foe a WIDEBAND O2 sensor? I wondered if the really hot exhaust gases would cook the sensor leading to an early failure?

[ATPCR]

I have a good spot about 20" from the collector of the manifold that is in an accessible spot. Headers would be nice to have if there were any that would fit my application. I'm talking to a guy that builds headers for turbocharged vehicles about a log style header for my normally aspirated engine.

[BOOSTEDEVERYTHING]

I have a good spot about 20" from the collector of the manifold that is in an accessible spot. Headers would be nice to have if there were any that would fit my application. I'm talking to a guy that builds headers for turbocharged vehicles about a log style header for my normally aspirated engine.

There is a guy who used to build headers for these things. Torque Monster headers if you can find a set still. Also, Ford Performance used to have a set of shorty headers specifically for the explorers that aren't easy to find, but do pop up from time to time.

But, in response to your question about sensor placement, It should be fine where you pointed out, but you'd want them to be mounted about the same distance away from the merge point of the manifold/header on both sides. N/A engines don't get hot enough, or shouldn't, to cause premature sensor failure.

[ATPCR]

@BOOSTEDEVERYTHING The guy building the Torque Monster headers still exist and has a wait list for the ~$900 set of headers. the over and under twisty design that is patterned off of the stock headers, interferes with the coil brackets and "Godzilla" coils that I'm using.

A company called Advanced Adapters used to make a set of headers that fit the Ford small trucks all the way back to the early '80's Rangers
and Bronco IIs. I called the company and they don't have any plans of having anymore made. If someone has a beat up, rusted out set of them,
I would like to have them to show the turbo header fab guy. These may fit the Gen 1, 2, 5.0 Explorers and gen 3 Explorer 5.0 conversions.

As far as narrow band O2 sensor placement, I have 2 choices. 20" from the manifolds or 36" at the front of the added cc's I'm adding them so that
I can get a local exhaust guy to even touch the truck to add duals out the back. Bung holes exist at the front end of the new catalytic converters.

Still my question is about the wideband sensor placement. Is the collector area of the exhaust manifold, too close to the cylinder head?

[BOOSTEDEVERYTHING]

If you are using just one wideband sensor, that placement should be fine. If I remember correctly most 302 pushrod engines tend to run more lean on one side than the other naturally when all corrections are turned off, I could be mistaken on the engine, but you could verify that with the narrowband sensors while logging and correct for that in your tuning. The readings at lower rpms may jump around a bit and be slightly unreliable because of the close proximity of the exhaust pulses from the cylinders, especially with larger cams, but shouldn't be bad enough to affect tuning. Maybe Decipha could chime in If I am wrong, Please feel free to correct me.