$200 V8 Project

[CDW6212R]

Sounds great. I have so many new parts collected, I need more space, and an inventory method to find crap. I hope I can find it all as needed.

 

[RandomNerd2000]

So, I've been driving this a while, and outside a transmission, it's been pretty smooth, I'm at 269K, well into the Eddie Bauer V8 swap and have been driving this truck for literally everything. Well I've sorta gotten tired over the past year of driving a truck with no power drivers window (messed up, goes down and won't come back), screwed locks, and worn out mechanisms, among several broken interior pieces I just didn't have anymore. Well I've hit what I believe to be a miracle, I've found a 99 Mountaineer parts truck, identical, been sitting since 2011, has literally under 125K miles, but the motor is bad he was told, it's a northern truck and passed emissions 17K miles before "dying", it is a giant rust bucket, rockers are gone, fenders are gone, shackles are swiss, and the body is rough, guy isn't gonna want much, but it's super clean inside, and the doors I imagine work properly, or at least don't have anywhere between 250-300K miles of use on them. I'll keep posted, if this goes through I will be cranking the motor in the Mountaineer, that'll be fun. That's all I got for right now, V8 Explorers are a blast.

 

[CDW6212R]

Good find, if I had more space and time I'd find another one too. I'm needing an AWD transfer case now, and my Mercury not moving is about to lose its TC. I'll order some parts and see how a $400 rebuild works out. Then I'll be doing my first of three front carriers, I have two bad ones now.

Have fun, and if you have the Mountaineer roof rack as spare parts, I need some for my 98 Limited.

 

[RandomNerd2000]

I'm going to "borrow" the front bumper for the 2000 Explorer since the one I have on there is messed up, it's warped, when I stored it I didn't make sure nothing had a pull on it and it retained a warp, so that'll be a true orphan, Mounty bumper on an Explorer. I plan to finish Eddie with parts off it, fix my white truck up super nice with it, try to get it running and test out the drivetrain, which I imagine is likely okay, guy who's selling it don't know anything about it. It's a bit far out but the motor might go on to be a built up one for Eddie, if I went there, it's tempting to go there.

 

[RandomNerd2000]

So I get the parts truck next week, $400 later. 1999 Mountaineer, 5.0 V8 AWD complete from end to end, gonna pull what I want, which is interior and door internals for my 2000, since it's a mint interior best I can tell, even the console is good, the cover is mint condition, it has the driveshafts I've been debating picking up for my Eddie Bauer so that's good too, motor and trans are unknown, guy had no clue, been dead since 2011 so who knows, and junk it, I'll likely sell whatever I don't want. Reason for purchase despite unknown drivetrain? It's been sitting long enough it was low mile, and by low mile, it's under 125K miles, I don't see any red flags on it other than the rockers are absolutely rotted out, and holes in the body itself.

 

[CDW6212R]

Excellent. The electrical parts that are unreliable in higher mileage trucks might all be good on that one. The window trim pieces, trim in general, are obsolete, so grab all of those.

Do you need the engine/trans wiring, or will that be spare? I need a 99-01 harness to swap my 99 V6 truck later, and the roof rack.

 

[RandomNerd2000]

I'm going to probably hang onto the wiring harnesses, and almost all of the Mountaineer since I have two trucks, one with high miles. I'm going to be swapping essentially the entire door internals into my 2000's doors to solve the worn latch and actuator problems. I do have the harness on the transmission itself off my old 4R70W that died a few weeks ago still, don't think I'll be needing that one if you'd be interested, no clue what it's worth though. The roof rack also probably is going to end up on my 2000, since mine is bent down in the front, no clue how or why, but the entire front rail is kinked downwards, no roof dents though?

 

[CDW6212R]

Gotcha, save as much as you can.

The transmission wiring are not tough to get, and I have a spare or two that came with a couple I've bought before.

Try to buy new lock actuators, used ones are not worth the time really. The latches are good to replace, and those run about $55-$65 for NOS.

I need the main four roof rack pieces, for my 98 Explorer, as they are different, and mounted with different holes. I prefer the Mountaineer side rails more, so I'll figure out how to locate the right holes.

 

[RandomNerd2000]

The racks are different? Hmm didn't know that. The thing I did was my old 01 XLT had a mint rack and I meant to swap rails and forgot until after I'd sold it. I've had decent luck with the used actuators here, I think it's temp dependent on how they age, here though they last roughly 200K. I've always thought the Mountaineers were better looking than XLT Explorers, I love the Eddie Bauer Explorers though, they're hands down my favorite.

 

[CDW6212R]

It is an adventure to learn how many variations there are, what parts swap etc. I've got most of the parts from a Mountaineer to put on my Limited, the roof rack was the one thing I discovered would be the hardest. The bolts are in different locations in the roof, and I haven't checked to see if the main side rails can have the holes redrilled, or if it'll take new holes in the roof.

 

[RandomNerd2000]

One thing I do like is just how pretty the Mountaineers are, I would keep the body for my rust free frame but the rockers are gone. Who knows though what I'll end up doing, I mainly have the goals of rebuilt doors and driveshafts out the gate, since that's all low mile stuff, and maybe the seats since best I saw they're perfect, past that it's mostly a see and pull it game. Such a shame, but it'll make a nice donor to fix the white car up really well. Sorta shame I went 2WD when it went back together since I'm getting another likely good 4R70W, but can't win them all. But hey, a complete V8 donor truck with low miles, can't go but so wrong even if the motor needs rebuilding, which I doubt, I'd imagine even though it's sat several years the drivetrain is good still since it was worth like 8 grand in 2011 afaik.

 

[CDW6212R]

So you won't end up with a Mountaineer, all Explorers? I ask because there are a couple of Mercury items I will need to swap. The rack was the quickest thing I think of. I need the four door sill pieces, black that say Mercury instead of Explorer, and a nice black two spoke steering wheel. I'm mixing things between three trucks, my 99 I had a grey wheel, swapped a nice black four spoke, and want to go back to the two spoke, plus a black Ford air bag for the two spoke. I need to make a list, and stop doing it in my head every time.

 

[RandomNerd2000]

I'll keep everybody posted on here with what I don't use basically, since I have a sorta crappy mental list too.

 

[RandomNerd2000]

So, update to things. Parts truck has arrived, 99 Mountaineer, 124xxx miles, 5.0 V8 AWD, and it's rotted, bad, and won't start still, won't even attempt such a feat. Meanwhile, I've done some work to this truck. It's turned 272K miles, abiding some collective issues, so I did some work to it today. First, fuel filter. I'll start by saying I forgot it when I bought it, and didn't remember until this week. No clue how long it'd been in there, but what caused my remembering is a lack of power, bad hesitation, and cranking a long time to start. As for how bad it actually was, releasing the pressure at the rail doesn't release the pressure before the filter if it's clogged. Glad I was wearing glasses.

I also took out the Bosch plugs it's had since 257K miles, since they were used out a motor for a project, and put in Autolites. The Bosch plugs were shot, they had a ton of white crusty buildup on them (Lean?). One of the two made an amazing difference in the truck, it's strong now, no hesitation, no vibrations like before, nothing, dead smooth driving.

*Edit* I can't find anything in the paperwork it came with or the records on MyCarfax to suggest a fuel filter was ever changed. Filter is presumed OEM like the front suspension and belt when I bought it. It's so clogged you can't even blow through it, what ran out looks like chocolate milk.

 

[donalds]

Well enjoy your new truck with no monthly payments, and take great care of it. I don't know how much road salt you get there, but for rust I'd get started on it. My Mercury came from Milwaukee in 2003, and I decided a long time ago to replace it due to corrosion in the body seams. I'm keeping it as a spare, it'll last ten years for sure if I take care of it.

You might make the time after main things, and get under it with rust prevention/treating chemicals. I like Eastwood for everything but a few items, like POR 15. Eastwood makes the best rust dissolver, due to it being a thin liquid. It's great to spray onto almost anything, just avoid interior type materials. It cannot(nothing can) get into body seams and fully kill rust, which is why my Mercury is an eventual victim, but it will do more in those impossible to reach places. The thin liquid wicks well into seams, between body pieces.

Fortunately it also is treatable after use with almost any products. You can wipe it down at any point with a typical final prep solvent, and use anything else from POR 15 over it, to paint, or primer, or a seam sealer. Of course always start by removing as much actual rust as possible, either with a grinder, or sand paper, or a brush etc. The more you do mechanically before using the rust dissolver or other conversion products, the less rust will be left behind.

So don't simply spray some kind of undercoat over it all, stop as much rust as you can, and finish with an undercoat.

Fortunately my "new" 98 Limited has no visible corrosion on it, which is the only reason I bought it. It was a GA car until eight years ago, and some young lady got it in NC as her first car. She didn't take care of it and it looks awful, but I can fix it with the parts I've accumulated. It takes time, and I'm getting slower LOL.

Funny you say nc mine has lived in nc it's whole life and no body rust at all only corrosion I can find is little spots on the frame where the road grime blasted away the black paint
If I wipe it with my finger it's clean metal
I was gonna paint the frame but it's so nice I can't see my self doing it
But it seems like people who have no rust take it for granted
The fact that my truck has no rust is why I fixed it up to a rust free truck with new drive train
I can appreciate people who de rust their truck
Its nice to have a rust free truck

 

[donalds]

So, update to things. Parts truck has arrived, 99 Mountaineer, 124xxx miles, 5.0 V8 AWD, and it's rotted, bad, and won't start still, won't even attempt such a feat. Meanwhile, I've done some work to this truck. It's turned 272K miles, abiding some collective issues, so I did some work to it today. First, fuel filter. I'll start by saying I forgot it when I bought it, and didn't remember until this week. No clue how long it'd been in there, but what caused my remembering is a lack of power, bad hesitation, and cranking a long time to start. As for how bad it actually was, releasing the pressure at the rail doesn't release the pressure before the filter if it's clogged. Glad I was wearing glasses.

I also took out the Bosch plugs it's had since 257K miles, since they were used out a motor for a project, and put in Autolites. The Bosch plugs were shot, they had a ton of white crusty buildup on them (Lean?). One of the two made an amazing difference in the truck, it's strong now, no hesitation, no vibrations like before, nothing, dead smooth driving.

*Edit* I can't find anything in the paperwork it came with or the records on MyCarfax to suggest a fuel filter was ever changed. Filter is presumed OEM like the front suspension and belt when I bought it. It's so clogged you can't even blow through it, what ran out looks like chocolate milk.

Chocolate milk fuel filter mine was the same when I first changed it when we got the ex
It's amazing how people don't think to change stuff like that

 

[RandomNerd2000]

Well normally I do, in my 2001 EB I've changed it twice, once when bought, again for FP, and again when the V8 swap is done due to sitting. My old 01 XLT I changed it, it had a near new one though. This truck I've honestly never remembered. I remembered this time BC it didn't have the "get up and fly" it should've on the highway, and when I was checking out the parts truck I spied the one on it and remembered. I've had to do a fuel pump on a 2nd gen before too, so I'm well aware of what happens with neglect. My bad this time lol.

My Eddie Bauer is rust free though, it's SPOTLESS underneath, even has the warning labels etc still intact, the PO just let it go too far before I got it and then the SOHC drivetrain showed it's age. My 2000 is rusty though, probably destined for restoration since the body is clean except the front support is rusty. The Mountaineer if I chose to fix, that'd involve putting that body on my 99's frame, since I have a clean title frame here, then fixing the rockers and rot above the rear wheels.

 

[donalds]

My Eddie Bauer is rust free though, it's SPOTLESS underneath, even has the warning labels etc still intact, the PO just let it go too far before I got it and then the SOHC drivetrain showed it's age

I was blown away when I looked under my truck it's so clean
It's hard for me to pass something like that up
In buffalo NY the cars are rust
My shoc and trans were showing the age the rear end to
Reman engine
Remain trans and rear end rebuilt with 373 gears and carbon fiber clutch disks

Now it's like a new truck
My wife loves it

 

[RandomNerd2000]

I'm slowly restoring the 2000, I've done more to it than I ever agreed to, and if I had my Eddie Bauer finished, who knows if I actually would. Considering I sorta like this 2000 and would hate to see it on blocks in a junkyard I probably would over again.

 

[Nick986]

I have a 96 EB V8 AWD Parts truck. Its from Burnsville, NC - definitely up in the mountains of NC. In the Appalachian mountain area/roads, NC uses brine as well as salt. It ate this truck up so badly. The bumpers have rusted through the chrome and are falling off, the brake lines are holey, the fuel lines are rotted - hose clamps and rubber hose are the replacement. Rockers are gone. Running boards you can't step on anymore,.

Yet door bottoms, tailgate, and fenders, and wheel arches are fine...