Cleaned up the Exploder upper...

ratio411 · Feb 20, 2013

and it turned out better than I thought it would.
Always nice when that happens.
I was going to drill/tap the 2 additional plate holes needed, but now I think I am just going to cut the head off the 2 spare screws and epoxy them to the plate, just for looks...

mikestang63 · Feb 20, 2013

Very nice. Took me about 8 hours worth of work stripping, sanding, and buffing to polish mine.

What are you doing about the vacuum lines and the IAT . I see your lower has the boss in #5 to tap. As you don't run an EGR are you going to plug the EGR hole in the lower.

NIKwoaC · Feb 20, 2013

I always liked the looks of the Explorer intake. Good work.

ratio411 · Feb 20, 2013

mikestang63 said:
Very nice. Took me about 8 hours worth of work stripping, sanding, and buffing to polish mine.

What are you doing about the vacuum lines and the IAT . I see your lower has the boss in #5 to tap. As you don't run an EGR are you going to plug the EGR hole in the lower.

The lower has never been retrofitted to a Stang.
It came out of the u-pull and has been on the shelf since.
The upper spent some time on a Fox, and has been cleaned up a couple times in stages.
I just did the final cleanup, grinding off some ugly bumps and casting flash, before a nice paint job.

I am on to the lower next.
The other lower that was original to the upper is still on one of our cars, with a Cartech upper.
On that lower I tapped the EGR hole on top and put a pipe plug into it.
On this lower, I am just going to use port blockers at the head, and not worry about blocking the EGR port anywhere else.
The first thing on my list for the lower is drilling and tapping the IAT boss.

ratio411 · Feb 20, 2013

I want to have the lower bead blasted for a natural look, but I don't have access to a blaster anymore, so I might just go ahead and paint it. The only problem with that comes when you spill oil or gas on the lower... which will happen sooner or later.

mustang 88 · Feb 20, 2013

what is the measurment of the opening on this intake?

ratio411 · Feb 20, 2013

mustang 88 said:
what is the measurment of the opening on this intake?

I don't know the opening size.
This one is unaltered from stock.
They use a 65mm TB, so I would think that is the minimum...
This intake has run with the stock 65mm TB bolted straight to it, without any sort of EGR or spacer, and it operated fine.

mustang 88 · Feb 20, 2013

cool stock opening on a 5.0 is 58 mm I found upper and lower at pull a part for $12.83 each

NIKwoaC · Feb 20, 2013

My old Explorer intake measured something like 68-69mm at the opening. It was basically a quick edge break with a Dremel away from being a perfect match for my 70mm TB.

ratio411 · Feb 20, 2013

mustang 88 said:
cool stock opening on a 5.0 is 58 mm I found upper and lower at pull a part for $12.83 each

It's pretty easy to make the Explorer TB work on a 5.0 if you grab that too. Easy 65mm TB.

7991LXnSHO · Feb 21, 2013

Did you use high temp ceramic paint or powder coat? If ceramic, did you do the baking step some list on the can? I have heard the under hood temp bakes it on, but I do not believe my car gets that hot under there.

I have the same worry about the lower. I hope the ceramic paint holds up on the lower too. NAPA, if they have a machine shop, can dip and bead blast for less than my time is worth. The last time I cleaned one, the cleaning dip took off the layer of paint AND most of the powder coat. A little bead blasting put it in good shape to refinish.

Mustang5L5 · Feb 21, 2013

Those intake are sexy and highly underrated.

They may all use the same lower intake (GT-40, cobra explorer) but i think the upper has the greater potential for big flat torque lines due to a larger plenum volume compared to the Cobra and GT-40.

I have one i bought for the lower intake to have ported. I already have a Ford OEM Cobra upper, but part of me has considered running the "cheap" explorer upper instead

Gearbanger 101 · Feb 21, 2013

Looks good. Not sure I'm crazy about that pre-'87 manifold plate though. I actually kind of like the look of the stock Explorer plate.

I almost hate to sell mine, but damnit if I don't have this Trick Flow Track Heat staring me in the face saying "mount me...mount me" on a daily basis.

*take that any way you wish.

mikestang63 · Feb 21, 2013

After I opened up the intake to 70MM and cleaned up the ports, I polished my explorer intake and plate. I painted the lower with ceramic VHT.

ratio411 · Feb 21, 2013

7991LXnSHO said:
Did you use high temp ceramic paint or powder coat? If ceramic, did you do the baking step some list on the can? I have heard the under hood temp bakes it on, but I do not believe my car gets that hot under there.

I have the same worry about the lower. I hope the ceramic paint holds up on the lower too. NAPA, if they have a machine shop, can dip and bead blast for less than my time is worth. The last time I cleaned one, the cleaning dip took off the layer of paint AND most of the powder coat. A little bead blasting put it in good shape to refinish.

The paint is VHT (or was it Duplicolor? I don't have it in front of me) 500* 'engine paint' in aluminum.
It turned out 10x better than I thought it would. Especially when I was spraying it. The paint came out thin, swirling with different shades of light and dark no matter how much I shook it up, and ran everywhere.

Once it dried though, it was level, consistent color, and seems solid without being 'thick'.
I was impressed. I think I am going to do the lower and valve covers with it.
It was on sale at advance for $5 a can, and it only took 1/2 a can to do the upper.

ratio411 · Feb 21, 2013

Gearbanger 101 said:
Looks good. Not sure I'm crazy about that pre-'87 manifold plate though. I actually kind of like the look of the stock Explorer plate.

I like that early plate better than the later ones.
I think one reason is that it is textured.
This one is off a non-HO Fox-Bird, and I'd rather have the HO plate, but it is what it is.

mikestang63 · Feb 21, 2013

ratio411 said:
I like that early plate better than the later ones.
I think one reason is that it is textured.
This one is off a non-HO Fox-Bird, and I'd rather have the HO plate, but it is what it is.

I like the original 5.0 HO or the 5.0 V8 plates best. They look very nice when shined up.

View attachment 141410

ratio411 · Feb 21, 2013

mikestang63 said:
I like the original 5.0 HO or the 5.0 V8 plates best. They look very nice when shined up.

Image is not working.
I assume it is of the same plate I am using, as it is the 'original' 5.0 plate?

Gearbanger 101 · Feb 21, 2013

ratio411 said:
Image is not working.
I assume it is of the same plate I am using, as it is the 'original' 5.0 plate?

No, he's talking about this one here from the '87-'93 cars....

View attachment 134287

Yours was the non-HO intake plate.

This was the 1986 Mustang HO intake plate...

...and this one here from the Explorer....

View attachment 134289

ReefBlueHatch · Feb 21, 2013

I bought mine off CL for $50 and it was already tapped for the ACT. Mine came off a car that had a minor fire under the hood, so it looked awful. I used aircraft stripper and a power washer - had it bare in no time. I also painted the lower and it's holding up great. I'd eventually would like to replace the upper with a tubular or a Cobra.

And BTW, my opening is 70mm.

Cleaned up the Exploder upper...

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