“Thunder” 1998 Expedition Build Thread

[MISTERgadget]

Absolutely beautiful but I am a little bias.

What's next for this beauty?

Motor!! my problem so far has been that the cylinder head guy and now the engine builder are not as fast as the body shop and everyone else lol

Engine builder has all the parts needed now so hopefully that comes together by the end of February, I have some odds and ends I need to get so I can do them before/at the same time the motor goes in, basically the upgraded fuel pump and fuel system bits, new motor mounts, true trac diff, gauges, gonna do all new o2 sensors, water pump, PS pump. All the stuff that's good to tackle "while you're there" doing the motor swap.

 

[MISTERgadget]

Got a couple other small things ironed out

Installed a Moroso transmission pan (adds 2-3 quarts of capacity) along with fresh fluid and a new filter. Will look good with the matching Moroso oil pan

Got new front and rear swaybar endlinks and new front shocks on too. I had been driving around with stock length endlinks with a 3" drop, so the swaybars weren't sitting level. Used shorter OEM style endlinks up front and Hellwig adjustable endlinks in the rear, it's amazing how much flatter the truck corners just having everything setup correctly. Turn in felt improved as well.

 

[MISTERgadget]

Shortblock is finished! Heads should go on shortly

 

[ArmyRover]

Shiny

 

[MISTERgadget]

Builder sent me this picture and says it'll be all buttoned up by the end of the day!

Full specs on the motor:

Iron 5.4 block bored .020" over
ARP Main studs, side bolts
Ford Racing Cobra Jet Crank
Manley H-beam rods with ARP2000 rod bolts
CP forged pistons with coated skirts
Romeo 8-thread ported PI heads
1mm oversize intake and exhaust valves
CNC ported by Performance CNC (cncport.com)
Crower springs and heavy duty retainers
Custom Bullet cams spec'd by Todd Warren
Moroso oil pan
Ford Racing oil pump (13-14GT500 spec) with Boundary billet steel oil pump gears
Ford OEM timing chains, guides, tensioners

 

[ArmyRover]

Never ceases to amaze me how wide the Mod motors are

 

[reece146]

Not much you can do to make a 90º V engine with overhead cams narrower.

 

[Texpedition]

My new bumper has arrived and the bumper cover is on its way. I need to purchase new brackets for the bumper and need to know if the brackets in the very back of your pic are needed and where they go. Can you help me out?

Here you can see all of the parts needed for the Lightning bumper cover - Since I'm starting with a 98 I needed a 99+ grill shell, behind it you can see the Lightning bumper cover (just the cover) and behind that, a 99-03 F-150 / Expedition steel bumper. I painted the steel bumper with black VHT epoxy paint to try and keep it from getting rusty or pitted down the road. Behind the bumper itself, towards the right, you can see the brackets and supports that bolt onto the steel bumper to give it the shape to support the lightning bumper cover.

Here's a detailed look at what goes behind the Lightning bumper cover

I added switchback LED turnsignal bulbs and yellow foglight bulbs at the same time

[/QUOTE]

 

[MISTERgadget]

My new bumper has arrived and the bumper cover is on its way. I need to purchase new brackets for the bumper and need to know if the brackets in the very back of your pic are needed and where they go. Can you help me out?

I'm not sure exactly which bracket you're referring to, you do need all of them. The things in the very back on the right are trim pieces that fill between the grill and bumper, without those you have a pretty ugly gap. I think the 98 ones were not compatible with the 99 grill shell IIRC.

These are detailed instructions with pictures from when Ford used to sell the Lightning bumper as a kit from Ford Racing:

http://performanceparts.ford.com/download/instructionsheets/fordinstshtm-17957-l54.pdf

You can find all the parts here, you need the two braces and the 4 parts called "reinformcements" as well. Upper and lower on each side.

https://lmr.com/products/Ford-Lightning-Front-Bumper

 

[Texpedition]

Wow! Thanks for all of the helpful info. I'll go through the parts list to see what else I will need.

 

[MISTERgadget]

This shows the back as well

 

[houlster]

So, next step was some of the easy cosmetic tweaks. The door strips and Eddie Bauer trim on the doors are simply held on with double-sided tape and removing those greatly cleans up the sides so off they come! An eraser wheel made quick work of the cleanup.

...

Looking much sleeker with the clean flanks now

I think I may be doing this soon. I like how it came out and both strips on my driver's door are starting to come loose...

 

[z168]

looking good. What are you plans for side skirts? because of the low overhang of the front bumper, its begging for matching skirts

 

[MISTERgadget]

Agreed, I'm brainstorming on a couple different options, most likely I'll get Harley bars and have them painted to match, the closest I could get with ground effects is a replica kit for a supercrew and it would have to be modified and interfere with the fender flares, so seems like the best bet will be a simpler path rather than hacking everything up

 

[z168]

I agree. Man cant wait to see you finish this

 

[MISTERgadget]

One small in-between update before I get to more juicy stuff in the coming weeks. I will be picking up the motor this weekend!

The exhaust system had a some drone around 1700-1800 rpm that really wasn't bad from the driver's seat, barely noticeable. Unbeknownst to me - in the 2nd and 3rd rows, especially on the passenger side - oh wow, was the drone bad, it seemed to bounce off the glass and just kinda zonked your skull. I had never actually ridden in the backseat of the truck until the other day when my sister joined my wife and I in the truck and mentioned it, and yep it was bad. Off to Danny at SFMC to the rescue, of course I didn't want to mess up the gorgeous exhaust he built for the truck in the process of zappping the drone. I had him stainless TIG weld in two Vibrant 3" Ultra Quiet Resonators, the drone is gone and the tone smoothed out without making it too quiet, and as usual they are beautifully tucked in and integrated to the rest of the exhaust.

 

[z168]

Beautiful - you gotta post a sound clip! Any future plans for electric cut outs?

 

[MISTERgadget]

No plans for cutouts, I'm a little weird in that I like cars to sound good but not be too loud, it kind of kills it as a sleeper if I were driving around with cutouts open

I've got a soundclip before the resonators went on, let me see if I can find it!

 

[MISTERgadget]

Here's a clip from when the exhaust was first completed on the truck. The tone is a little smoother now, it's quiet at idle and cruise.

 

[MISTERgadget]

Big updates!

Picked up the motor from the builder, got it back home and tucked in the garage for some paint and detailing to come before it goes in.