4R70W conversion and explorer front dress questions

[ricky]

hi all,been away awhile, but back to getting things together for my change over later this month..i have a decent 331 put together and am going to keep it carb'd for now,but wanting to change over to explorer front dress when putting the new motor and 4R70w/205 in..so,want to ask a few questions and make sure i'm going the right direction

the explorer timing cover is the same as a 1994/1995 mustang 302 timing cover,correct? so,i can also just go with a replacement water pump for same year mustang with 302?

I can use the explorer alt,but will have to do some wiring changes in the harness to make this work,i remember seeing a thread,telling what wires to cut and join..but cant find it anymore,anyone care to help out there? also can I use the explorer power steering pump in place of the pump I have now?

on the 4R, from what I have read,i need to go with a 164 tooth flexplate,and since mines balanced to 28oz,i need to find one with that balance and tooth count,and the converter uses the 11" bolt pattern,correct? i'm just going with a mvb for now,so no controller..does anyone make a bolt in crossmember nowadays? or is the zf crossmber the way to go,and fab up some longer brackets to reach the trans mount? i'm going to run a np205,so it should bolt up to the exsisting explorer adaptor.. sorry for all the questions,just trying to get the rest of parts I need to do the big swap..thanks!

 

[stretch]

Start with the motor. I know the Explorer water pump assembly is proprietary to the Explorer engine, in that it is shorter for the accessory drive. I do not know if the timing covers are interchangeable. I want to say no.

The 4r, I do know more about. The 205 will bolt up to the 4x4 trans with just a notch cut for the shift rail. There are several posts regarding this in CB. The BC crossmember will work, you can either redrill the holes on the mounting plates or you can make an new offset trans mount and mount the in the original location. Once again search function is your friend. You may also want to support the 205 to the frame. This is on my to do list and I believe Bax had a slick setup that seemed fairly easy to make.

I hear that the BC 6r crossmember will also work with the 4r, but that is not confirmed. It would be nice if it did, as it looks stronger than the original.

 

[ricky]

thanks stretch, i'll just get a new explorer wp and stick with the factory timing cover..i plan to run a electric fan on the radiator and do away with the mechanical fan,as the one I have,is messed up anyway

i'll do some more searching tonight and hopefully print off some pics of the crossmember mods..thanks again

 

[ricky]

ps, I have "read" about supporting the 205, i'll look into that once I get everything mounted..on my old truck (in my sig) I actually ran a factory aod,and just changed the tailshaft and used a 205..put a lot of miles on that rig,and never supported the 205 with anything..but maybe I was just lucky I didn't have problems with it..i know that sucka is heavy,from bench pressing it a few times lol

 

[KyleQ]

IIRC the explorer timing cover is different and must be used.