swapped explorer intake on, runs rich/bogs, please help!

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progress.....perhaps.

I haven't had ANY time due to being on call this week, I've already put 70 hours in, and this weekend isn't even here yet.

however for a friday treat, I went straight home after work and disconnected the brake booster line from the vacuum tree and stuck that puppy in mouth and sucked like Ginger Lynn.

First observations is that it seemed to be a lot easier to suck in than sn boosters I've tried this with at the junkyards. (no I couldn't find a vacuum pump just yet. My bro has ours, and autozone doesn't have any to loan). I then sucked sucked sucked using my tongue as a sort of wratchet to build up extra pressure, then held for a moment. Moments later I tried sucking even more and could.

Unofficial observations lead me to believe my 186k mile oem booster has gone south.

I went ahead and fired her up with nothing connected to vacuum except pcv, map sensor, and fuel pressure regulator, and let her idle and revved the hell out of her. absolutely no popping and no bogging whatsoever. This is good news. I then stuck my nose up the tailpipe and got no wiff of rich fuel whatsoever, even during cold operation.

Unfortunately the tanks is just about dry and I can barely keep my eyes open, so a test drive will have to wait for tomorrow or Sunday. I will keep you all posted. FYI, this is the best this car has ever run yet with this intake, so I'm just about postive it's nearly dialed in to at least drive and play with now. I'll update further this weekend after the test drive.

If it is a bad booster, my guess is going to this bigger ported gt40 style intake had less vacuum than the oem intake, thus making a slightly leaking booster a much bigger deal.
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yea, I am worried about that. It's new, but it's an autozone replacement generic one size fits all. I'll have to see if it's coming from there.

very close, finally. I'll drive her tomorrow and update. Once I get it to the point where everything is on that I want on, I'm gonna get it dyno'd and a tune so I know where I need to be with timing and fuel pressure etc.

Here are a couple of pics. Ugly engine bay eh? Just as soon as I can stop concentrating on the motor, engine bay cleanup and restore will commence, polishing and clear powdercoat of accessory brackets too. Something I should have taken my time with before I dropped in the motor.

it's not coming along too badly for being broke.

I'm contemplating what to do now. I went out there with an official vacuum pump and squeezed the hell out of the handle, and couldn't get any vacuum at all. Either the plug on the booster (new from autozone) is bad, or the booster is. I'm leaning toward the booster.

50 proof gave me his oem one from his 86. although it's got 200k on it, it does hold vacuum. I'm not sure I want a huge project with hogging out firewall holes and knocking the strut tower, as my brake swap won't be for some time.

decisions decisions. Ironically, this was likely the problem all along, I just didn't notice it with the smaller intake, who would've thought eh?

never took it for a test drive the first time, so I never had to step on the brake pedal and never found out.

Well, I finally took it for a test drive! (with no brake booster)


First thing I did was pump the timing up to 15 degrees. I then turned right on our empty street a few blocks from my house. Not expecting much (as usual) I nailed her to the floor. First gear lit up like the house from lampoons christmas vacation. the rear end got squirly and she spun it right till 6k. It spun so damn bad, the car wasn't moving too quickly.

I shift her into second with the speed of a kid going after an ice cream cone and nail her. MY GOD, she pulled and pulled and pulled. Shifted into third gear, well now, what is this we say, I"VE GOT A THIRD GEAR. This car has NEVER pulled like this ever. It feels like a literal 100 horsepower over last test drive.

guys, thanks so much for your help on this one, this motor is actually beginning to exceed my expectations for once.