Cool to see its down to the finishing touches. I'll be waiting on the finished pics

 

Booyaa!

 

nice! hope you get the radiator problem fixed!

 

It will definitely get fixed but it will have to wait - family stuff this weekend.

 

Bob that sucks. We had the radiator trans cooler go on one of the fork lifts at work and man did that make a mess. I tried flushing it a couple of times but that didn't work so we had to pull the motor and get it hot dipped.

Good luck

 

Nice to see the electrical nightmare is over!

too bad about the coolant...

does it resemble tranny fluid? hope its just something that was in the radiator... its a new radiator right?

 

It looks milky/pink floating on the green coolant in the recovery tank. I think it's trans fluid mixed with water. The radiator is used but it was empty. I have to wait till I can take the trans lines off to see what's going on. Unfortunately, I'll be busy with other stuff most of this weekend.

 

Bob, not sure if you can answer this or not but here goes.. I was going over the VSS procedures and the parts about using the explorers G-force transducer for optimal ABS got me thinking. I basically dont have ABS right now, so do you think i can just skip using the g-force Transducer and still have all systems go?.. ABS isnt a big deal to me. I've been driving without it forever and really dont like it anyways. But I'm going to probably be putting back in my ranger carrier with a locker so i can get the signal back for the axle needed for the VSS signal, and that all i care that works so i have speedo etc.

 

I'll be interested to see how you solve this new problem!

About how many hours have you put into this Bob? What do you think right now was the hardest part?

 

I don't know but my guess is that you could set up the Ex 4WABS module for the speedometer. As far as I know, there wouldn't be any need for the g-force transducer on a truck that already has the ABS disabled.

 

I didn't keep track of the hours. The hardest part for me was getting all of the exhaust components to fit in the limited available space.

The A/T heat exchanger is definitely open to the inside of the radiator and this has contaminated both the coolant and the A/T fluid. Replacing the radiator will be easy but getting the oil/coolant mix out of the engine and transmission will take some time and effort. Luckily I didn't drive it like that so I'm hoping that there won't be any permanent damage.

 

How did the tranny cooler get open to the radiator? Is it a big crack or something small?

 

The heat exchanger is internal to the radiator. If I blow compressed air into the HE, it comes out of the radiator filler. I don't know how it failed - just deteriorated from age maybe? The radiator was used but had no external damage

 

well that stinks bob! a bunch of expensive fluid was wasted... at least you caught it right away, i think i would have been too excited to even look at it. lol

 

I was lucky that the hood was still up - I wouldn't have seen the pink stuff in the recovery bottle otherwise.

 

no kidding. good you caught it right away. driving on it like that would have deffinetly changed what you would be fixing.

 

You didn't expect to have that smooth of a first start-up, did ya? lol! Anyway, glad to hear you got all the electronics tamed and working correctly. A different radiator and some new fluids should have you back in business for a second more successful try soon.

 

Bob, when I did my swap, I got a brand new Modine Explorer V8 radiator for ~$170 from NAPA. That was a LONG time ago however. Worth a shot though.

T

 

Soo close!
I've had the pleasure.. Although the truck was a little more stock back then..

I would like to nominate this as the coolest retirement projects I've heard of in a while. Eff that golfing crap!

All that said, did I miss photos of the exhaust work? Specifically I wanna see these 'ugly' welds .. and then balk as I realize they are 4-5x better than I can muster!

 

I checked. NAPA discontinued Modine for their own "NAPA" line (Chinese). I checked with a few places today and they were all selling Chinese radiators for the 5.0L Ex. The only possible exception that I found is the genuine Ford/Visteon replacement piece but that may also be Chinese by now - I'll find out when it arrives at the dealer tomorrow.

 

This is a picture from an earlier post. There isn't much detail here but there are welds on either end of the transition plate.

 

lookin good bob

 

Guess I'm still missin' the 'ugly' part..

 

I got a factory replacement Ford radiator and installed it. After running many GALLONS of cheap ATF through the transmission and coolers and draining it 4 times, it is relatively free of anitfreeze. I'm going to run it a hundred miles or so and then drain it again and replace the filter and fluid one more time. One good feature of the 4R70W transmission is the drain plug in the torque converter. Obviously, this makes it much easier to get the transmission fully drained.

I have also flushed and drained the cooling system repeatedly but still have more work to do here. I bought a jug of cleaner designed to remove oil from cooling systems - it is a leftover from a service campaign on the Taurus/Sable. I'll give that a try next.

The engine idles and runs well. It feels sooo torquey off the line! I can't make a good overall performance assessment now because the transmission shift schedule is poor. That's because the VSS is still not working and vehicle speed is a primary shift point determinant. So, the PCM is doing the best it can without it for now. As soon as I get another ABS module, I should have the VSS worked out.

I have a CEL but the only code so far is for the missing VSS (P0500).

The trip computer is working but cannot calculate instantaneous or average fuel economy yet, also because there is no VSS. Apparently, it is using a default MPG value to predict distance-to-empty.

The exhaust has a very nice sound and rumble but it's too loud in the cab. That should improve once I get the duals extended out to the rear bumper. Right now, it is just double stub outlets directly from the Magnaflow ahead of the rear axle. I'd like to get that done soon but will probably have to replace the neglected brakes on the front of the Focus first - sigh.

 

freakin sweet! i wanna see your truck in person....