Explorer Motor Or Stock 5.0 Motor?

Paul Randle

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Sep 27, 2012
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orlando
So i was planning on getting the upper and lower intake and heads off a explorer but the junk yard offered me the complete motor for $395. The motor starts fine and has 80,000 miles on it. I was wondering does the explorer put out my HP then the Stock 5.0 that comes on the mustang? Or should i keep the mustang motor and just switch out the intake and heads?
 
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Agree. Good, low budget buy. Valve springs and cam need to be changed. Switch over the necessary parts from your Stang over and swap out the necessary components you would need to make the Explorer intake to work and you'd have youself a stout, nice little daily.
 
So i pulled the stats for the mustang 5.0 and the explorer 5.o

1996 Explorer
210 HP
280 Torque

1990 mustang
225 HP
300 Torgue

So i am a little confused, why a explorer motor is a good switch over then original 5.0 mustang motor?
 
The rating standard changed from 1990 to 1996. Thats why you will see that a 1992 mustang makes 225HP, while a 1993 makes only 205HP. Also, as others have stated, the camshaft in the Explorer is designed for a heavy, truck like vehicle. The Explorer motor has essentially the same heads and intake as a 1993-1995 Cobra. Change the valve springs and put a performance camshaft in there. You will probably be around 280-300 Flywheel horsepower after doing so.

Joe
 
Now I have always herd that its better to swap the Explorer intake/heads onto your Mustang 302 motor for the Mustang 302 motors came from the factory with forged pistons, and better cams, and the Explorer/Trucks 302 motors did not come with forged pistons?
 
On the Explorer cam...

I do know that the roller cam in the 5.0 Explorer is the same cam used in 351w roller engines.
Correct me if I am wrong, but I also was under the impression that the exact same cam was the Cobra cam, only with 1.7 rockers.
???? Not saying that is a fact, but it is what I have been lead to believe.

It doesn't have bad specs at all for 302 cubes. I wouldn't call it 'small' for stock standards until you use it in a 5.8.

I guess what I am getting at, is why would someone suggest swapping the later cam for a stock 5.0 cam? It just doesn't seem worth the trouble. If you already run an aftermarket cam, and want to swap it over to the 'new' engine, then fine, but stock for stock?
 
Now I have always herd that its better to swap the Explorer intake/heads onto your Mustang 302 motor for the Mustang 302 motors came from the factory with forged pistons, and better cams, and the Explorer/Trucks 302 motors did not come with forged pistons?

True on that.
If the stock 5.0 HO engine is a 'virgin', and still in great running order, you will have forged pistons in the HO up to 1992.
However, if the engine is tired, or been rebuilt in the past, the forged pistons become a mute point.
 
The Explorer cam is not the same as the '93 Cobra. It's far tamer. The '93 Cobra shared the same cam as the same era 5.oL Thunderbird/Cougar XR7. Ground for a little more jam in the lower mid ranges, but less in the upper ranges to move the heavier MN12. Also remember, the '93 Cobra got a 1.7:1 rocker arm ratio to increase lift and make up for the cam's short comings, where the stock HO did not.

The Explorer valve springs are not up to the task of handling even stock HO cam events. The Explorer engine's cam along with it's restrictive exhast and ECU tune had these engines running out of steam and shifting around the 4,500RPM mark. Any healthy running Mustang is going to shift nearly 1,000RPM higher than that and with those springs, the valves will float.

I can't speak for the Explorer cam sharing anything with the 351W truck engines as there were many over the years, but I suspect what you've heard is that the HO roller cams share the same firing order as the 351W and not the specs themselves.

The Mustangs forged pistons are stronger, it's true...but that's not to say necessary for a performance application. After all, the '93 5.0L Mustang got hypereutectic slugs, just like the Explorer and it performed just fine.

As long as you're not making major power with, or running excessive amounts of nitrous, or boost through the engine, the hypereutectic pistons will hold up just fine. They'll run quieter and consume less oil to boot.
 
the explorer motor is almost the exact same as the 93-95 cobra, with the exception of the cam, upper intake (use it), valve springs, and timing, oil, and valve covers (and some of the related parts, you'll see if you get it). the explorer cam is TINY and tuned for low rpm torque, even the stock mustang cam is better, a lot of the gt40/p/explorer guys go with something like the tfs1, b-cam, or something in that range, and any of them require a spring kit (~$100-150 new for the tfs kit, fairly simple to install). only thing you have to watch out for is if its a p-headed motor. not a big deal if it is (they actually make a touch more power), but make sure you have the right headers otherwise plugs and wires are going to be a bitch (ask how i know........).

the hyper pistons wont really be a problem on a n/a or low boost setup, same as the 93-95 mustang ones (supposedly they're about .020" deeper in the hole, not a deal breaker, gives you a bit more valve clearance).

if you have the stock mustang motor still, take the timing cover, fuel rails, and distributor (the explorer uses a distibutor-less ignition) from it, and it'll drop right in.

now whether its worth it or not depends on what kind of shape your stock motors in and what youre future plans are. if you do go the explorer route, be aware that theres going to be probably another $200-300 or more worth of stuff that needs to go with it (cam if youre not using the mustang one, springs which you'll need either way, other odds and ends that go with a motor swap). if youre stock motor doesnt have a ton of miles, it may be more worth it to just grab the heads and intake and be done with it, and then sell off the explorer short block with the mustang heads and intake on/with it.
 
I like ratio411's and chuckman's advice the most, but honestly, it doesn't seem like the forged pistons offered in the HO motor really made a huge difference in comparison to the hypers. People run just as much power and boost through them, it seems. So, if the HO engine is tired, swap in the explorer. I've always heard that an Comp 270HR is a good cam for a GT40 motor, and I'd probably make the swap, or go custom as I usually do. There's no denying that the explorer motor's induction system is considerably better than the HO's. So, I'm actually a little surprised that it isn't rated higher than 210.
 
yeah my stock motor has 155,000 original miles on it. is that considered a lot?
Yeah that's getting up there. I've seen higher mileage 5.0's than that, but I'd prefer to go with the Explorer engine.

And who cares about the forged pistons vs hypers. You're not boosting it or shooting nitrous to it so hypers are better for your application.
 
There's no denying that the explorer motor's induction system is considerably better than the HO's. So, I'm actually a little surprised that it isn't rated higher than 210.

like said, the explorer cam is tiny, puny, and pathetic. <.450 lift at the valve and not really made to go over 4500rpm, if that, in an ~5-6k lb vehicle with a power-sucking automatic and transfer case. also remember that when these 5.0 explorers were new, they basically just used the parts bin stuff. the gt40 heads were just the freshest iron heads, the short block was the newest assembly available, the intake was the newest production casting (well, the lower was), and it just used basically stock h.o. truck valve train (iirc they started merging the last f-series 5.0's into the roller/h.o. package, probably to keep a single production line on an engine about to be replaced). these motors were basically used to effectively reduce the per-part cost from all these new molds/tools that had come out for the lightnings and cobras.
 
There's no denying that the explorer motor's induction system is considerably better than the HO's. So, I'm actually a little surprised that it isn't rated higher than 210.

One look at the stock exhaust on the explorer and you'd see why. Those Explorer specific headers are amongst the worst design I've ever seen. They actually crimp down to about 3/4" in a few places. And again...we've got the cam and valve springs to deal with. I'd imagine that additional 1,000RPM that the 5.0L HO pulls is where a lot of the horsepower difference is made up between the two.
 
so the "upgrade" here is the gt40 heads, the upper and lower intake with the larger throttle body and...? so unless the 5.0 motor is limping it would actually be better to just swap those parts on it than rebuild that explorer motor. correct? so why not buy the whole motor, strip the good stuff and put it in the 5.0 and store the rest of the motor for later out in the shed for when the old 5.0 finally quits?
 
I guess it really depends on your definition of better.

IMO, it's easier to pull an engine out of the car and swap parts on a stand than it is to do a H/C/I swap with it still in the engine bay. The TRW forged pistons that were found in the pre-'93 Mustangs weren't really anything special. None of the Ford V8's (save for the supercharged models) got forged slugs again after that and plenty of them are running moderate power adders. They weren't exceptionally stronger than the hypereutectics that replaced them, and they were noisier to boot. So, is the current Mustang power plant really any better? Not so much so that I'd chose to give up an engine with nearly half the mileage because of it.
 
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