2000 AWD Xploder from Turbo back to NA

After getting an estimate on how much it would run me to fix up my Xploder with all new exhaust, cold side piping, and a bunch of other stuff done up the "right" way... I've decided to convert my Xploder back to NA form so that I can actually ENJOY the truck before I die of old age.

Anyways... To start it off I ordered up a MAC cold air intake (I do not have the stock intake) and sold my FMS headers on ebay.

I plan on buying a set of torque monster headers in the next week or so but am still up in the air on how I should run my exhaust from a performance "speed" perspective. I do not plan on doing much, if any, off road driving, so am looking for a setup that improves take off and speed for spirited pavement driving that sounds good.

I already have the spare tire removed (and will be keeping it off, I have free towing anyways lol)... What would an optimal setup be with the above in mind and no worry of a spare tire being in the way? True duals (straight pipe off of each header, thru separate mufflers, and out the sides), or a dual exhaust both going into a 2 in 2 out "H" pipe style muffler and then out the sides? Or something else? In all cases I won't be running any cats.

I also plan to re-tune my car since currently it is tuned for the turbo setup which obviously will no longer apply once I rip everything out.

Thank you for any input!

 

[CDW6212R]

Very good, and the pressure washer is great for that mold etc. Check the door jambs for wasp nests, that's the worst spot to find one unexpectedly.

I found a 2 1/2" nail in my front tire finally, I've been adding air daily and wondering why the leak was getting worse. I had looked many times, and thought it was from my one tire plug(in that tire). I looked this time using my purple power tire cleaner, it bubbled a lot when I hit the spot. It was a nail with no head on it, just a tiny speck of silver showing. I dug it out and plugged it 30 minutes ago. Now I shouldn't have to add air any more, that was getting old. Night,

 

[willzilla]

Congratulations! Your in to the small stuff. I'm not sure about pulling the roof rack rails off. I think it might be more of a problem getting them off than masking the whole area really good and painting them on the truck.

Mine are faded and peeled also. I'm faced with the same issue as you. I'm pretty sure I would end up stripping the screws holding my rails on.

Yeah.. the middle rails look like a huge pain and seem to be riveted down.. I won't mess with those. The longer side rails held down by the screws seem doable and less of a pain to pull off to sand and paint maybe.

Very good, and the pressure washer is great for that mold etc. Check the door jambs for wasp nests, that's the worst spot to find one unexpectedly.

I found a 2 1/2" nail in my front tire finally, I've been adding air daily and wondering why the leak was getting worse. I had looked many times, and thought it was from my one tire plug(in that tire). I looked this time using my purple power tire cleaner, it bubbled a lot when I hit the spot. It was a nail with no head on it, just a tiny speck of silver showing. I dug it out and plugged it 30 minutes ago. Now I shouldn't have to add air any more, that was getting old. Night,

I've been picking wasp nests off the truck for years now, lol. Hit a nest with wasp spray a few days ago in the opening at the end of the foot step piece and blasted it out with the power wash yesterday. Had a number of nests that I had killed in the door jambs over the years though, always a welcome opening the doors!

Nice find on the tire. My wife's van had something similar a few years ago that I had plugged though it was a small piece of hollow metal tubing that was stuck in the tire that took a good 30 min of yanking to finally get the thing out (was hooked inside of the tire).

 

[willzilla]

Ok... some more FAILURE ugh.

Attempted to get truck aligned and once again it was a no go.

It seems somehow driving the truck twice (first time I got turned back because they couldn't fit me in, second time I dropped the truck off fine) to the alignment shop (and car wash a block from the shop) has resulted in my upper control arm boots tearing... UGH.

Also... It seems my camber bolts are installed backwards... lol. Does anyone have a picture of the direction of the camber bolts? Thought I had them installed as per the manual but maybe over the years they got derp'd up.

And to top it off my torsion bolts in the back are missing somehow... No clue where I will find those :-/

Out $20 for the inspection and no alignment now lol.

It never ends...

Though, I wonder if I can just install new BOOTS instead of entire new upper control arms maybe? Not like I've put miles on the truck with bad boots or anything (maybe 5 miles TOTAL) so perhaps just the boots can be swapped?

 

[CDW6212R]

The boots can be had separately, but it's rare to see any.

I have some ES tie rod boots, urethane for when you might need to force one apart but the TRE is still good. I don't know where to find the BJ boots immediately, begin looking tough, they're out there.

The camber washers I've used come with a little picture, they do go in opposite of what seems natural.

 

[willzilla]

I sent Moog an email, maybe they can give me some details, or at least measurements so I can order a universal boot perhaps.

Googling around it looks like the camber bolts are supposed to go bolt head on the inside and nut on the outside, does that sound correct?

Just glancing at old photos (dark outside right now and about to hit the bed) it seems I put the right camber bolt with the screw head on the outside and nut on the inside (not sure about the other bolt, probably the same).. Blah.

Need to find my torsion bolts as well, no clue where I could find replacements. Googling around seemed iffy on replacements.

 

[CDW6212R]

The torsion bolts you can do best from a JY.

I bought a pair of shorter ones once, but they had no rounded tip which is needed.

Moog will not help any customers, I learned that from a BJ I had installed, and the boot was the wrong size. They do not service their products at all, they only deal with their vendors. I had to cheat and buy another pair, to "get" the one boot I needed, and return those.

Is there anything left of your two boots? I have a pair of UCA's new for my work truck to put in. I can find them and measure the boots if needed.

 

[willzilla]

I have not yet been able to jack the truck up and pull the wheels to take a look... Just going off of what they said in my alignment "inspection" lol.

I'm hoping my torsion bolts are still laying around my garage somewhere and I just forgot to toss them back on or something, though could of sworn I had.

 

[willzilla]

Have been under the weather for a few days now and haven't had a chance to pull the wheel(s) off yet to check out the upper control arms.

Hopefully I'll be feeling a little better and can take a look soon.

Plan to take some measurements and then order up replacement boots and try to clean up the ball joint as best as I can and install new boots while hoping they were not contaminated to bad in the couple total miles put on the truck lol.

 

[Turdle]

Rockauto has very cheap upper ball joints without the arm. Like 5 bux gets you a new boot.

Or, possibly use a tie rod boot?

http://www.rockauto.com/en/catalog/...0l+v8,1362462,steering,tie+rod+end+boot,10659

 

[willzilla]

Rockauto has very cheap upper ball joints without the arm. Like 5 bux gets you a new boot.

Or, possibly use a tie rod boot?

http://www.rockauto.com/en/catalog/...0l+v8,1362462,steering,tie+rod+end+boot,10659

Yeah... I am/was considering just the ball joints but figure I will delve into the boot issue first when I'm feeling better and see if the ball joints are still ok and perhaps the boots slipped off or something dumb happened and maybe new boots (or cleaning and re-installing them) is a cheaper option.

Thank you for the link... Are those boots the correct size? I will measure the ball joint when I get a chance to be safe.

 

[willzilla]

Felt good enough to pull the wheel and yank the upper control arm on the driver's side... Looks like simply from sitting for the past 4 years (and a few months lol) or so the dust boots on the MOOG upper control arm ball joints has dry rotted badly. Wow.

Is there a way to prevent the rubber from falling apart in only a few yrs? Does driving it and re-pumping grease in every year help maintain longevity of these things?

Here's how it looked when I dropped the knuckle...



Much worse than I was anticipating lol :-/

Here is what they looked like when I installed them back in May 2013 (LOL)... I greased them up with AMSOIL Synthetic Poly Truck Grease #2 (http://www.amsoil.com/shop/by-produ...ic-truck-chassis-and-equipment-grease-nlgi-2/) grease until slight swell AFTER installing them (maybe I should of greased prior to installing onto the truck?)...



This is how they looked when I did my brakes a few weeks or so ago (pulled an old picture).. And they look shot (and I didn't notice or realize it) so it appears they were bad from sitting not from the couple miles of driving...



And this is the entire control arm off the truck... Shot all the hell :-/...

 

[CDW6212R]

That seems wrong to have the rubber fall apart from a few years of non use.

I noticed one of mine of my Mercury is torn similar to that. Mine are probably ten years old though(all four new then), with a good 50k on them I guess. I've considered replacing the uppers again, which run about $60 each.

 

[willzilla]

That seems wrong to have the rubber fall apart from a few years of non use.

I noticed one of mine of my Mercury is torn similar to that. Mine are probably ten years old though(all four new then), with a good 50k on them I guess. I've considered replacing the uppers again, which run about $60 each.

Yeah.. 4 years of sitting... And the rubber completely disintegrated.. these are supposed to be the quality MOOG upper control arms and ball joints too (K part number not the R).

 

[willzilla]

Is the ball joint possibly able to be wiped clean (pump a bunch of grease through it and wipe it up as it pours out to flush contaminates), check if it's still good (if it's semi-hard to move it's good? My old OEM ball joints were shot and just flopped around lol. If this is possible I could then possibly just install new boots once cleaned?

 

[CDW6212R]

Yes, if you've barely driven it like said, sure, the BJ's are fine, and pumping some grease through them will push out any little stuff you can't wipe away.

 

[willzilla]

Got some more work done on the Xploder. Noticed more coolant had leaked out. Realized I never re-torqued my bottom water-pump bolt. Got a couple good turns on it to tighten it up. Checked for leaks. Gone. Drained coolant for the hopefully last time (still a partial mix of distilled water, rad flush, and 50/50 coolant), added 3 more bottles of 50/50 coolant and water wetter and ran the truck for a good 30 minutes. No leaks (for now lol).

Cleaned up the driver side ball joint and the ball joint feels solid. Pushed some grease through it and moved it around and cleaned up the grease again.

Ordered 2 sets of energy suspension dust boots (in red) of slightly different sizes to hopefully assure a good fit.

Measurements of the MOOG ball joint was:

1.9" base diameter, 0.8" pin diamter, and about 1" pin height (to the pin lip that the MOOG pin has.. the bellows rubber boots go past this and crush down past it but the energy suspension boots are not bellows so only measured up to the pin lip).

Ordered both:

Front Ball Joint Dust Boots Part Number: 9.13130

Tie Rod Dust Boots Part Number: 9.13119

Time will tell, lol.

 

[CDW6212R]

I like the choices, hopefully those will work.

 

[willzilla]

Sadly both sets of poly boots were a fail on the Moog ball joint. Was able to get one on and bolted the ball joint back into the knuckle nice and tight and drop the lower control arm back down and the boot lip would slip off. Other set was even worse. UGH.

Also was down a little coolant since last heat cycle... No coolant stains anywhere so no idea what is up with that.

Ending up ordering replacement Moog ball joints (MOOG K80012) from Summit.. Another $70 flushed lol.

 

[Dono]

Dont worry about the loss of coolant yet. that's going to happen for a little while as pockets of air work out.
I had the same fears you are having, but after a few top up's the coolant level stabilized.

 

[CDW6212R]

Yes, get the good coolant mix in there, and then keep an eye on things.

I have a weeping on mine right at the vent hose next to the cap, or else a tiny crack right at that nipple. I'm losing a handful maybe each day, bothersome but I haven't found my tiny hose clamps yet. I have two new radiators, so I'm holding out til my other truck is going.