Explorer Intake and Head Help !!

Explorer manifolds will fit any Ford production head you can bolt on a 5.0 block with the exception of the canted valve Cleveland heads. ET5-?, ET6-?, ET7-?, GT40-? heads will all bolt on without any changes or adapters.

Use an Explorer manifold gasket kit.

The primary differences between older Explorer manifold and later models was the EGR setup. Do a search on Explorer or GT40 intake manifold and you'll find a very long thread that tells all about the various EGR setups and how to mix and match them.

Any questions about what gasket set year can be resolved using the Autozone parts lookup, WWW.autozone.com. It's free and you can see when the model year switch for EGR was made.

The FMS stainless steel shorty headers fit both stock & GT40-P heads without any mods.They are supposed to provide clearance to the spark plugs when used with GT40-P heads

The regular GT40's will work just fine, versus the GT40P heads. They're the same "as cast" head as the cobra, with different valvesprings. I wasn't aware the FMS headers would work with both the "P" style, or stock heads, but the 94-95 guys are either stuck with the GT40P specific headers, or certain brands of longtubes. In my opinion, you should get the GT40 heads over the ported stockers. You'd see an increase with the E7's, however if you ported the GT40's, you'd pass them in flow pretty quickly.

You will also need to drill and tap the ACT bung out for the sensor, but its no biggy. I am running a ported explorer on my set-up.

Wow, for that little money, pull every set you can find, and start selling them!

there is a lot of information about the explorer intake and heads here.

http://www.badassmustangs.com/forums/index.php/topic,6876.0.html

fastfordguy said:

yeah if i see another explorer down there with the v8 im definitly pullin intakes and heads and sellin them, i will use the money to make my 88 5.0 even quicker.

whats the ACT bung by the way?
that i will need to drill and tap

Click to expand...

View attachment 500368

I bead blasted the lower at the plant, I left it like that. I painted the upper with leftover paint from my car, so it is color matched. Here it is


View attachment 500348

This is probably the second time I have posted this for the same user, but here goes...

The ACT (Air Charge Temp) sensor will probably need to be moved. The GT 40 lower manifold isn't drilled & tapped for it to go into the intake like the stock manifold was. There is a boss cast into the GT 40, but a machine shop will have to drill & tap the new manifold. The best spot for the ACT is the air box if you don't do the drill and tap thing. You get to cut and splice the 2 ACT wires in order to make them long enough to reach the air box. Solder the wire extensions on the existing wires & use heat shrink tubing to cover the splices. Offset the place where you cut the wires so that you don't have a big bulge when you put heat shrink over the 2 wires to cover & protect them. The air box gets a hole (5/8" or so) for the ACT drilled about 1 1/4" down & 1/1/4" in on the front top side near the upper radiator hose. A brass fitting nut from Home Depot or Ace Hardware secures the ACT into the air box.

If you are very clever, you will find that the ACT connector comes apart so that you can remove the pins. A very small screwdriver releases the lock in the front of the center insert, while another small screwdriver inserted in the back pushes it out. Once the center insert is out of the connector shell, the pins come out easily. New pins are available from AutoZone in a $5 electrical pin kit for Fords. Crimping the pins on the extender wires saves you from having to splice them twice: once to put the connector on and once to extend the wires.

6 ft black 18 gauge wire
6 ft green 18 gauge wire
6 ft 1/4" heat shrink tubing
1 ft 3/16" heat shrink tubing

Measure the 2 extender wires & cut them to length, crimp one set of pins on them. Then mate up the extender pins with the wiring harness & slide the 3/16" heat shrink tubing over them & shrink the tubing. Then slide the 1/4" heat shrink tubing over the pair of wires and shrink the tubing. When you are done you'll have about 1" of wire left without heat shrink tubing on it to strip & crimp the new pins on. Stick the new pins in the old connector shell, assemble it and you are done. It looks as good as factory. Some wire loom can be used to enhance the "Factory Look".

Use the TPS and IAB from your old throttle body. All the EGR passages were there and fit OK. Use you old fuel rails and regulator. You will probably need a new EGR spacer adapter and gaskets. Without the EGR spacer, there is no place to mount the throttle linkage support bracket.

I used the stock water lines on the Explorer manifold and they connected up to the EGR without any problems. I made a “U” out of ½” copper pipe and sweat soldered it together. Then I used it and some hose with clamps to bypass the leaky heater I have. You don't need heat very often here in Central Florida...


Also see http://www.veryuseful.com/mustang/tech/engine/ConvertingExplorer65mmTB.pdf for modifications to adapt the 65 MM Explorer TB to a Mustang

for modifications to adapt the 65 MM Explorer TB to a Mustang

Vacuum line connections:
One large vacuum line from the upper front goes to the carbon canister

One large vacuum line from the rear goes to the vacuum tree.

One small line in the front feeds the Smog pump solenoid control valves on the rear of the passenger side wheel well..

One small line in the rear goes to the fuel pressure regulator.

One small line in the rear goes to the EGR suction regulator.

One large line in the rear goes to the PVC valve.



My favorite trick that saves time and effort is the stay in place gasket. Be sure that you scrape (don't use a wire brush) all the old gasket material off, then clean all the surfaces with acetone or MEK.

When the surfaces are clean, use weather strip adhesive on the head to manifold surface, and on the side of the gasket that mates to the head. Follow the instructions on the tube or can and when it gets tacky, press the gasket down on the head.

Clean the area where the rubber rails mount to the block in front and in the rear with more acetone or MEK and do the same trick with the weather strip adhesive that you did to the heads.

Coat the rubber seals and the gasket area around the water passages with lots of Blue Silicone gasket sealer and put it together. Wala! no leaks, and no gaskets that shifted out of place.

If you reuse the injectors from your old setup, a repair kit is available from most auto parts stores if needed. Coat the injector body "O" rings with oil before you use them and everything will slide back together. Take the other advice you got here and run with it.

Fuel injector seal kits with 2 O rings and a pintle cap (Borg-Warner P/N 274081) are available at Pep Boys auto parts. Cost is about $2.74 per kit. The following are listed at the Borg-Warner site ( http://www.borg-warner.com ) as being resellers of Borg-Warner parts:

http://www.partsplus.com/ or http://www.autovalue.com/ or http://www.pepboys.com/ or http://www.federatedautoparts.com/

Most of the links above have store locators for find a store in your area.

Use motor oil on the O rings when you re-assemble them & everything will slide into place. The gasoline will wash away any excess oil that gets in the wrong places and it will burn up in the combustion chamber.

jrichker...I am not trying to argue but I have heard that moving the ACT to the airbox has created idle issues. Is this true or just a "net rumor"? I honestly don't know. I have just read things about it....

I relocated my ACT to the air inlet piping upstream of the throttle body -- no idle or any other issues associated with that change on mine.

The Explorer's, the 94/5 Stangs had the ACT in the airbox -- but the computer is programmed for that and expects to see MUCH lower ACT temps than the fox computers. Moral of the story is you can move a fox body ACT about any where you want away from the intake and it won't make a big difference. However if you move the ACT from the airbox to a WARMER location like the intake on an Explorer or 94/5 ecu -- it will make a BIG difference - much poorer performance as the ecu thinks the car is operating MUCH too hot and it will pull timing and add fuel to compensate.

bubba-dough said:

jrichker...I am not trying to argue but I have heard that moving the ACT to the airbox has created idle issues. Is this true or just a "net rumor"? I honestly don't know. I have just read things about it....

Click to expand...

Mine seems to work quite well located in the stock airbox. I have no idle problems apart from a cheapo Advanvce Auto Parts TPS that acts up occasionally.