2002 Edge - Manual - 2WD Snow Truck... - Member's Projects Showcase - Tech Section

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A lot of bearing wear is the quality of bearing that was used. My last brake job I installed new rotors and I used a all-in-one kit that had Bendix rotors, EBC Greenstuff set of pads, and chinese bearings.

I have about 30k on the brakes and I have re-tightened the bearings once and could probably do it again. I will be doing another brake job to replace the bearings before the pads are wore down.

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Posted: Mon Dec 25th, 2017 07:48 pm

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I'm going to get the real video camera out (decent-ish mic) and record a small amount of how it sounds currently (normal cats (x2) and nothing else but correctly length exhaust. It will be slightly tainted with the rattle against the frame, but it will give a reasonable idea.

Wednesday, glass pack should be in and i'll do another recording after that.
I drove it just under 100 miles today, once again, worked great for the job i needed this for, snow and ice :)

I will enquire further on the bearings, they're obviously not going to be as 'needy' as the turbo bearings, but they absolutely matter, so i do care.

The 3 pre-cats were introduced in either 2001 or 2002, for which mine is the latter, in the same way the engine suddenly started specifying 5w20 instead of 5w30 (guess what oil it gets)

I believe it's all Caf© standards related, ie. un-needed (outside of government statistics) Pre-cats are only there for cold startup, to catch more emissions when the normal cats aren't up to temp (reaction requires high heat)
This engine and it's emission control system does not take into account the 3 pre-cats, they were just slammed on their, hence the problems they cause.

Short version of all that is that the engine was never designed to run with 5w20 or with another 3 mini cats shoved against the engine - worst place for cats as far as the engine is concerned? next to it, though it's the best place so far as cats are concerned.
Rally cars have their cats right on the tailpipe piece, trust me, makes a large difference in power etc.

I didn't have to change down going up the regular hills on the way home today, previously i'd have to drop to 4th, push the pedal hard, and it'd still loose speed up the hill, now it's no problem!

Gonna make this post a little more exciting, Christmas presents, well, one for now, some lovely new 06+ mirrors :)

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Posted: Wed Dec 27th, 2017 08:44 pm

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After the exhaust work from last week, today was for 'refining' the mess i made.

I had asked the garage to just find and order me a cheap glass pack so we could just put it in the same place the stock ~22 inch muffler was.

The sound on this engine is a little odd, it's a V6 alright, but it seems to have a maximum sound level, ie. it's maximum db output peaks maybe 2500-3000RPM, it doesn't sound any louder the higher up you go.

Anyway, this is what turned up, didn't expect anything this fancy as i literally asked for cheap/basic.

Certainly didn't expect it to be painted bright freaking red!!

Most internal baffles are flat holes against the glass packing in the baffled area, these have little "cups" to help take more gas into the baffled area.

It stands out somewhat, it won't take much road dirt to stop that!

I took a brief video before i left, but it's on my phone and only includes a cold start (video camera was dead)
I'll get another video of it on a cold start with the new glass pack, but the short version is that it sounds a lot better, takes out the bass you don't want and smooths it a little more, i'll take it :)

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Posted: Fri Dec 29th, 2017 01:26 pm

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RiggerWings
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I'd love to remove my pre-cats. Especially if it helps with power and fuel mileage. I've seen aftermarket headers but nothing to remove the cats.

Did any of those cats have O2 sensors in them?

That cherry-bomb doesn't look too horrible. I would have to paint it black though. Like you said, I'm sure a few miles will have it black enough.

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Posted: Fri Dec 29th, 2017 02:47 pm

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No, pre cats aren't part of monitored emissions as they don't really do anything once the vehicle is warmed up, they just get in the way/restrict.

The two *actual* cats are still there, they start at the cab front and there are two in line which are monitored.

I'll try and grab another pic of the cherry bomb, it's raining a lot so i can't even film the new sound (nothing special but wanted to show the comparison)

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Posted: Fri Dec 29th, 2017 06:11 pm

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I didn't know Cherry Bombs were still being made.

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Posted: Wed Jan 3rd, 2018 09:42 pm

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In the middle of trying to upgrade/repair/replace stuff, so i'll have some write ups and videos soon.

For now though, my regular indicator bulbs with very little of their orange film left on them, needed replacing.

Quite the difference with an amber LED.

LED on the left, obviously.

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Posted: Thu Jan 4th, 2018 12:50 am

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Found and changed out my flasher relay (indicators) today for one that is LED friendly (stops hyper flash).
Looks like on '04 on, trucks, it's on the left side of the drivers foot-well, above the ODB port.

For my 2002 truck, it's located on the right side of the drivers foot-well. See the vertical black box in the middle.

Here's a closer shot of the black box.

There is a clip on the top and bottom of the case, here it is removed - i had black electrical tape holding mine shut, possibly a fix for it rattling? I didn't replace it, so i'll have to see if it causes a problem.

Here the old relay (blue) and the new one (black) - i bought an iJDM Toys version for around $10.

Here it is fitted, so you can see where the relay sits.

There is a slight height increase on the new relay, so the top clip on the cover doesn't re-attach, i might just leave the cover off, but the bottom clip secures this well enough on it's own so far. (top clip shown)

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Posted: Sun Jan 7th, 2018 12:32 am

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RiggerWings
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I'll have to keep the relay in mind if ever I decide to go LED.

I usually only see the hyper blink on motorcycles, they change to LED signals and then blink superfast. I hate that, so good on you for fixing it!

I'm afraid to mess with the bulbs though. I've have the Mustang for 10 years and except for one of the brake lights (3 on each side) all the bulbs are stock.

With my luck, as soon as I change something I'll be burning through bulbs.

Last edited on Sun Jan 7th, 2018 12:35 am by RiggerWings

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Posted: Sun Jan 7th, 2018 01:07 am

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Yeah, hyper blink is stupid, it clearly looks like the fault it is ;)

Right, back on some kind of track here - Managed to finally edit a video cobbled together from crap and puke.

I'm sorry but i had to use two different cameras on two separate days, audio was all over the place and they're just not great examples, but it should give some idea where it's at.

First, here's the picture of the glass pack fitted

And here's a short video of the before and after

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Posted: Sun Jan 7th, 2018 02:47 am

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Really cranking out the videos tonight, i think i'm starting to get the hang of it.

Here are my exploits in replacing the front indicators with LED's - my old incandescent bulbs didn't have much of the orange film left on them, and as you can see, aren't nearly as bright as the LED's replacing them.

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Posted: Sun Jan 7th, 2018 05:16 pm

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RiggerWings
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So you have no cats at all now along with no mufflers, just the cherry bomb?

Sounds good though!

I've wanted to do something with mine but I don't want it to be too loud, just slightly more than stock and maybe some easier flow.

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Posted: Sun Jan 7th, 2018 06:51 pm

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No, the truck came with 3 pre-cats (small cats for cold starts) and 2 main cats (the ones your truck needs/uses for general emissions.

The only other thing on the exhaust was the 2 foot long muffler in front of the back axle.
I removed the 3 pre cats, this made quite the difference in how it drives and feels (much easier and less restricted feeling) Obviously i replaced the muffler too.

I too wanted slightly more than stock and maybe some easier flow... I hadn't planned on removing the pre cats when i decided to get the muffler straight piped, but when i was there, we just went ahead and did it.
I'm glad i did, but it obviously made it louder than i had wanted - cats, like turbos, quieten down exhausts.

If i was recommending to others, i would say get a slightly larger, but still straight through muffler, leaving the stock cats is fine, but removing the pre cats is, i think, a real boon to this engine that was never designed to run with them.

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Posted: Sun Jan 7th, 2018 07:34 pm

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Alright, as i showed the last video, i did the blinker mod in case i needed to drive the truck before the new LED's arrived - and also because it has been on my list :)

Even though i knew what to do and had seen many how-to's on the subject, i wasn't quite ready for just how easy it was :)

You need to connect the striped wire from the back of the indicator to the black wire on the wide marker - you don't cut this striped wire, just connect to it.

I just used little connector blocks, for the low power etc. not having soldered connections isn't as important.

Here you can see the blue block connectors you just place the wires inside and squeeze with pliers.

Again, you connect your extra wire, i used red here, to the striped wire from the indicator, but the black wire on the side marker light, cut that off as close to the harness protector as possible, tape it up inside the tube there and connect the other end of the red wire to the black wire on the side marker light.

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Posted: Sun Jan 7th, 2018 07:47 pm

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Fixed my front indicators, much better :)

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Posted: Sun Jan 7th, 2018 08:12 pm

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Picked up a straight white 3156 LED, i figured i don't need extra reversing lights, but brightening the ones it comes with would help in darker areas when reversing a longer vehicle.

It's actually quite hard to tell the difference in brightness here, you can mainly see the difference in colour, a much cleaner/clearer light is now emitted - you'll have to trust me that it was much brighter, about twice the brightness.

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Posted: Sun Jan 7th, 2018 09:07 pm

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RiggerWings
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I'd love to remove my pre-cats. It seems you had some custom stuff done though. I wonder if I can buy that same down pipe without cats already in it.

Also, those LEDs look awesome. And the blinker mod is pretty cool!

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Posted: Sun Jan 7th, 2018 10:08 pm

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Alright, tail/brake/indicator lights all replaced.

I was curious how the same brand LED's i originally used in the front would work in the back, honestly, no where near as bad as the front/amber lights were.

As you can see, just running tail lights, the LED on the right was much brighter than the old incandescent on the left.

But once i put the new LED's in on the left side, you can see that it's clearly brighter than the other LED.

Here's a video showing the brake/indicator functioning, i'm looking for difference between the tail light brightness and the indicator/brake light brightness.

Even though the original LED had a pretty good difference between the low and high, the newer LED had both a brighter low, brighter high, and bigger difference between them.

Lastly, notice the old incandescent bulb difference between high and low wasn't actually that good.

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Posted: Sun Jan 7th, 2018 10:11 pm

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RiggerWings wrote: I'd love to remove my pre-cats. It seems you had some custom stuff done though. I wonder if I can buy that same down pipe without cats already in it.

Also, those LEDs look awesome. And the blinker mod is pretty cool!

It's technically custom i guess, but it's not hard for any place that does their own exhaust work, they just cut out the little pre-cats and weld in regular pipe.

I can't remember exactly when the pre-cats were introduced, i think maybe 2001 model year - find someone here that has a 2000, they should confirm no pre cats (you can see one of them very clearly underneath) and you should be able to buy the down pipes for that year without them.

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Posted: Sun Jan 7th, 2018 11:03 pm

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Nice sound with the Cherry Bomb. Did eliminating the pre-cats cause any codes to pop up?

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Posted: Sun Jan 7th, 2018 11:09 pm

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No it did not, pre-cats are not part of the emissions system as far as the engine is concerned.

They're only there to operate during cold startup (cats work when they're hot, and it takes a few minutes for them to warm up)

The problem is that once they've done their "useful" stuff for the first couple of minutes, they're just restrictions in the exhaust system.

As far as engines are concerned, the worst place for cats is close to the engine, with the best place being right at the end of the tail pipe.

Because the cat reaction is heat based, the best place for cats, is closer to the engine.

Rally cars are run hard, so the exhaust gasses are hotter, their cats are in the end of the exhaust.
Regular cars have their cats just before the halfway point, this is a trade off for performance and emissions.

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Posted: Mon Jan 8th, 2018 07:56 am

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RiggerWings wrote: I'd love to remove my pre-cats. It seems you had some custom stuff done though. I wonder if I can buy that same down pipe without cats already in it.

You don't need to remove them and replace with pipe, they can be cleared out. The 2 right under the inlets are easy, for the one that goes across you need to drill a hole in the pipe at the curve so you can get a rod in there.

I was faced with this since the left one had self destructed and clogged the little horizontal one on my sons 02.

We brazed a little plug in the hole afterwards, the truck gained an amazing amount of HP.

From experience, you can keep the original downpipes. It does make the truck louder, like 3 "fart cans" in a row so if noise is a factor go with custom pipes. If HP gain and wallet are a factor......

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Posted: Mon Jan 8th, 2018 08:50 am

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Jim, can you confirm that the 2000 models don't have the precats?

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Posted: Mon Jan 8th, 2018 10:26 am

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Neither of my current 2000's are 3.0 so I couldn't say for the 3.0. That was regarding my sons 2002

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Posted: Mon Jan 8th, 2018 01:19 pm

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Yeah, that's right. Yours are 4.0s. Maybe someone else will see this and post an answer.

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