BLDTruth

I would trust this ^^^ guy, and I would also read qdeezie's thread about building a 5.0:

https://www.f150forum.com/f10/bit-in...l-302s-276512/

First post:

BDC1

I've got the linked article saved. It's a good one for sure and I agree that both sdmartin65 and qdeezie are reputable sources. There are also other guys out there though that feel the explorer is a better option. Most are blowing smoke. Some have real knowledge too. I am leaning towards the truck intake but would love to see some data if there is any.

BDC1

Even personal experience with the two would work for me. More flow is one thing. More velocity and torque can be all together different. If I'm wrong here, please tell me. I don't claim to know it all.

BLDTruth

I don't have any personal experience - lets tag @qdeezie and see what he has to say.

Ultimately though, if you choose to do some port matching and choose your heads and cam properly, you can make either of them work - it really will depend more on whether or not they fit the way you want them to. On the truck the airbox is on the driver's side and the explorer it's on the passenger side. Things like that may drive the decision.

qdeezie

The best way i can possibly contribute to this thread is to recommend looking at the numbers. Let's compare a 1994-1996 F150's numbers to a 2001 Explorer's numbers. Yes, the years don't all the way match up on the Explorer, but let's go with what we have since the engines are relatively the same with regards to the heads, intake and camshaft.

• Both have the 5.0 engine and the same camshaft.
• The intake manifold and heads are different on each engine.

What I want to point out is where the maximum amount of torque and horsepower occurs on each engine.

Yes, I agree - Some of this is "what if", but let's try to put some context around the numbers below and see if we can all come to a conclusion.

Here are the numbers for the '94-'96 F150 with the 5.0 engine:

205 hp @ 3,800 rpm w/ manual trans
275 lb-ft @ 2,400 rpm w/ manual trans
and
195 hp @ 3,800 rpm w/ auto trans
270 lb-ft @ 2,400 rpm w/ auto trans
Source: F150 Hub

'01 Explorer Engine
Horsepower: 215 hp @ 4,200 rpm
Torque: 288 lb-ft @ 3,300 rpm
Source: Google

One thing to note here is that the maximum HP and TQ numbers on the F150 is at a lower RPM. The difference as mentioned above is the intake and the heads. So now, the question is what is generating the low end torque at an earlier RPM on the F150? It has to be either the heads or the intake. Since we know that you probably won't be using those E7 heads, that narrows it down to one component. I say the intake manifold, but I'll leave it for others to decide.

Hope this helps.

Steve83

DistributorLESS is vastly superior in every way. That's why engines aren't designed with distributors any more. Same reason you can't buy solid rubber tires, or vacuum-tube radios.Why? If they're running right, they don't need it. My truck's engine came from the JY over 800Kmi ago, and it still hasn't been rebuilt (with about a million total miles now). It runs like-new. I took an '88 F150 5.0L and put it into a '75 Bronco. That truck ran for another ~200Kmi over ~13 years before being sold, still running strong without a rebuild.Good plan - apply that logic to the rest of the engine system, and keep it all together.Not really - the EDIS system is already on it, and working. Easiest is to keep there, and let it work.Ford knows a lot about it, so just trust the cam that they put in the engine.It doesn't need any support - it just works. All it needs is replacement parts occasionally, like anything else. But it has almost no moving/wearing parts to get sloppy or need adjustment. And it's already nearly-perfect, so there's nothing about it for the aftermarket to improve.The manual & auto trucks have the same heads & intake, so that's NOT what's making their hp/tq numbers different....or the injectors, or the exhaust, or the PCM programming, or 7 years of technology advances, or the way they're calculating/measuring hp & tq, or... There are a few thousand differences between a '94 F150 5.0L and an '01 Explorer/Mountaineer 5.0L - you can't just assume something as complex as hp is directly related to one part. Or even a dozen parts. It's even worse to think that you can take a part from one engine system, stick it onto another engine system, and get an improvement.

If it was that simple, Ford would have done it that way.

qdeezie

Please explain.

BDC1

The peak torque numbers are at lower rpms with the truck for sure.

We know the heads are different.

Are the cams the same in the 94 truck vs the 97 explorer?

qdeezie

I believe my post was pretty clear that I was referring to the difference between the F150 and Explorer with numbers. I posted both the auto and manual so that the OP had a clear picture on all of it in the event he did his own research on the numbers.

As for changing parts and not getting any performance improvement - No response at all.

In the short time I spent over on the Bronco forum, I observed your belief is that all Ford vehicles should be bone stock and OEM Ford parts are the only option and that you should run parts that are 20+ years old without any consideration of anything breaking down due to age. In fact, you came at me pretty darned sideways when I made a post over there about performance modifications I had made. With that being said, I have no response to you on anything performance related and I am unsubscribing from the thread.

To the OP - Good luck on your research.

qdeezie

Yes they are. The 94-96 truck has the same camshaft as the 96-2001 Explorer.