Recently I picked up a 2000 explorer engine + trans with complete engine and body harness for 300 dollars. It is supposed to be low milage. The tail housing is for 4wd but I found an AODE tail housing and shaft for 50 dollars. From where I'm standing what would be best to put into my 88 bird (331 stroker carb'd lots of down low torque that wraps out around 5500) 3.73 gears. The car is meant to be a driver. Currently I'm rocking a full manual VB c4 but it chirps the tires everygear change and has little to no town manners.
Full plans for the car are semi often driver that powers around curves, straight line is secondary. Gas milage would be nice, doing blower and fuel injection on it in the next few months (fuel injection any way, blower will have to wait my compression ratio is a little high)
I can get a full manual VB for the 4r70w for 625 or a controller will cost me around the same + 500 dollars for a high performance VB. So looking at 1-1500 range for controller, or 625 manual VB (which I'm iffy about controlling 4th and lockup with a switch)
I can buy a wide gear ratio broader performance built AOD for 1900 (no torque convertor this way so add that to cost)
I can buy a different aod from them minus the wide gear set for 1600.
I'm open to suggestions. If the transmission doesn't get used, then it and explorer motor are going in 88 ranger.
If I neglectad info let me know, just kinda throwing this together as I think of it.
For simplicity a aod would work. You don't mention hp on the 331, I guess your stuck on an auto?
HP is 450 ish, and Ya I prefer an auto.
Its Coast's 331 kit with afr 185's 58cc and comp XE 264 cam (think that is all right info may be wrong somewhere)
I only ran at the track once and did a 9.33 with a 1.5 reaction, spun off the line and walked sideways into second. That is my first and only time at the track, 1/8th mile btw.
Get a Moates Quarterhorse and put the fuel injection/4r70w in the bird. :evilgrin: The engine harness and computer would work with that, but you would probably need to go with a tfi distributor in the tune, since the crank trigger/balancer may not work due to how your 331 is balanced. More specs on the setup are needed.
Hope this helps some.
Mike
28 oz balance so ya that is a no go on crank trigger, I'm looking at doing a Mass flo efi setup in the near future.
Imho, Quarterhorse is cheaper and would allow you to do much more than Mass Flow Efi. It might not require more time to install and wire up, plus you may only need a tfi distributor. Check out and post up what you are trying to do over at eectuning.org There are some very smart people willing to help.
I know it sounds silly but I'm afraid I'll start doing the swap for fuel injection and get in over my head. Besides the intake and injectors are smaller than what I need, with Intake + throttle body + injector cost, then quarter horse and whatever others I need (laptop but I can get a super cheap one I'm sure) I'm probably not terribly far form 2944 for the mass flo.
For $2944 you could have a FAST XFI sytem on it
For 1200 I can get a complete computer and harness from painless. Injectors and intake on me though. MS is pretty cheap also. EEC Tuning looks to be on par with MS for the cost. The Mass-Flo is supposed to be hands off which is what is appealing to me (Scared of Electrical widgets for some reason)
Are you running FAST on your car? I don't know anyone that has personal experience with it.
I have put FAST on my car Pretty user freindly compared to the blank start file of the MS
To go even further off topic (:hick:) how much power/modifications can the EEC-IV electronics handle? Ie at what point is it advisable to switch to an aftermarket EFI vs chipoing an A9P/A9L?