Engine noise, help needed

[Currency]

94 explorer XLT 4.0 which has 182k miles on it, stock to my knowledge. I've not had her for a month yet but noticed something odd. I've talked to a few engine shops and they want to see the green and will not help me in anyway until I fork over some cash.

It doesn't matter if she is cold or warmed up, she has some knocking which sounds like lifters pecking. But I'm not so sure. She sat for a month or so before I finished my trade and got her legal.

BUT.... Here is the strange part that bothers me. It only does it between 1/2 to 3/4 throttle and not before and not at full throttle. I use her as my daily driver and cannot afford to buy a family members rolled explorer which honestly only has a motor left in it for $300 delivered. I'm completely lost as I did everything I could think of within the first week of driver it to ensure it would treat me as nice as I do it. plugs, wires, flushed the radiator and so on.

I figure the inside of the motor maybe gummed up as the previous owner said she never opened the hood in 2 or 2 1/2 years that she owned it. So my best guess is she never changed the oil.

She honestly will get me where I need to go, But I will say something has to be up because my old 86 4wd S10 blazer with a 2.8 had a lot more get up and go as my explorer does. In my current situation I cannot and will not be able to afford to replace that motor unless some kind heart soul would do a trade for a used 2.8 s10 4x4 motor which was bought 3 years ago and never used and has been sitting in the garage taking up space ever since I spent $375 for it during better days.

Any ideas as to what may be causing this noise?

I've not had a chance to let someone rev it up and stand by it to listen more carefully. So I am only explaining this from a drivers point of view... er hearing?

 

[Currency]

A friend of mine looked her over today and believe it may be my main bearings causing this noise. It gets louder the further you push the pedal down but goes away with it to the floor.

Will a 4.0 from a 1996 explorer work if I tried to swap them? I found a deal of a life time and can get that motor and a complete dog house from a guys 96 for $100. Transfer case is another $25. So will that t/c work with mine? I offered one guy $30 just for his t/c shift motor and he said no, So if I can get a complete t/c for $25 why not.

Let me know what you guys/gals think.

 

[MrShorty]

There are a few differences (head design and such) between a 1st and 2nd gen OHV, but I don't think the differences are significant enough. I believe it will work.

The 2nd gen t-case (BW4405 control trac) is another story. The electronics and such are different to the point of probably being much more than "plug and play" swappable.

 

[Currency]

There are a few differences (head design and such) between a 1st and 2nd gen OHV, but I don't think the differences are significant enough. I believe it will work.

I will try to contact that fellow on Monday about the motor and doghouse. I will also park my 1st gen next to my friends 2nd gen and compare the doghouse. I've heard of people swapping them but I may just try selling the doghouse. I wonder if by doghouse he means fenders, hood, grille, head lights and such. I may just low ball him an offer for the entire explorer with or without a title no big deal to me, Just in case something comes up during the swap and something else is needed.

 

[rhauf]

I would be more inclined to pull the engine from yours, replace the rod bearings (and check for other wear such as mains) and reinstall it. especially if the engine is otherwise running good (has good compression and does not smoke etc)

 

[Currency]

It will sometimes at start up have a small white cloud of smoke come from the exhaust. I believe my oil pump may be getting ready to go out. The gauge stays around the O in normal most of the time, Then sometimes jumps up the the A in normal. Then sometimes it jumps back and forth. I'm currently getting a little over 14 MPG.

I'm still not 100% certain of doing a swap, But if my motor comes out I will not be messing with the internals. It would either be a close family friend or a shop doing the repairs. Which I've been out of work for 13 months and counting. So money is tight on my end with no income what so ever, minus towing junk cars to a salvage yard with my explorer which may not be helping my situation any.

I will try to hold off doing this as the cost would be an unknown thing and with it being my daily driver and money maker, I cannot afford for it to be down in a shop and not making any money.

In four or five months from now I will be getting some extra money from my college, about $1,605.51 if its the same as last time. Which I could use that money to do these repairs. I can then focus on my RA issue so my new tires don't get worn out any faster then the one is. Then fix my 4x4.

If I baby my explorer I can usually drive it until I come to a major hill before having to give it enough gas for the mains to start knocking. I know it would be hard to guess when it gets to a point where it has to be fixed and I cannot blame anyone but myself at that point.

How long do you think I can somewhat ignore this issue?

Advance has the bearing for about $60, I have a coupon for $5 off any purchase over $25. I may be able to borrow my mothers car long enough to let my ex sit at my friends house while he replaces the bearing and oil pump. I still have to price a high flow oil pump but I'd rather be safe then sorry.

 

[rhauf]

It will sometimes at start up have a small white cloud of smoke come from the exhaust. I believe my oil pump may be getting ready to go out. The gauge stays around the O in normal most of the time, Then sometimes jumps up the the A in normal. Then sometimes it jumps back and forth. I'm currently getting a little over 14 MPG.

I'm still not 100% certain of doing a swap, But if my motor comes out I will not be messing with the internals. It would either be a close family friend or a shop doing the repairs. Which I've been out of work for 13 months and counting. So money is tight on my end with no income what so ever, minus towing junk cars to a salvage yard with my explorer which may not be helping my situation any.

I will try to hold off doing this as the cost would be an unknown thing and with it being my daily driver and money maker, I cannot afford for it to be down in a shop and not making any money.

In four or five months from now I will be getting some extra money from my college, about $1,605.51 if its the same as last time. Which I could use that money to do these repairs. I can then focus on my RA issue so my new tires don't get worn out any faster then the one is. Then fix my 4x4.

If I baby my explorer I can usually drive it until I come to a major hill before having to give it enough gas for the mains to start knocking. I know it would be hard to guess when it gets to a point where it has to be fixed and I cannot blame anyone but myself at that point.

How long do you think I can somewhat ignore this issue?

Advance has the bearing for about $60, I have a coupon for $5 off any purchase over $25. I may be able to borrow my mothers car long enough to let my ex sit at my friends house while he replaces the bearing and oil pump. I still have to price a high flow oil pump but I'd rather be safe then sorry.

do not buy a high flow (or high pressure) oil pump. i have built quite a few engines, and every time the machine shop (or other people) talked me into a high flow or high pressure oil pump i ended up taking it back out for various reasons (such as more stress on the drive gears causing them to go bad, too much oil pressure causing leaks or other problems, etc) you're oil pressure gauge moving around doesn't mean you're oil pump is "going bad" if the oil pump turns freely when you pull it out it is still good (oil pumps rarely go bad unless the engine has metal pieces floating around in the oil, such as shreds of spun bearings (your bearings are not spun, just worn out) high flow oil pumps are almost always a bad idea. the stock oil gauge isn't accurate by any means anyhow. and oil pressure is never a concern unless it is very very low. fluctuation in oil pressure is normal anyhow (oils viscosity changes with temperature, rpm is a factor, etc, all causing changes in pressure)

moving on, you're puff of smoke at start up sounds like worn valve guide seals. when the engine is off, a small amount of oil seeps past them into the cylinder, and burns up when you start the engine. you can just replace the seals if the valve seats are in good shape (a shop can tell by looking at them) otherwise a valve job (or new/upgraded) heads are you're other option. about $400/pair assembled and ready to install (this would be the best option for a full rebuild)

as for how long you can let the knocking go, that's really up to you. here's the stages of damage and what they will cost: as it is now, you can probably have the crankshaft ground .010 (10 thousandths) and install .010 undersized bearings, but if it keeps knocking, it will beat up the crank to the point where the crank will need replacement. (a machine shop could probably get you a used crank reground and ready to go for about 100 bux) if you let it go a REALLY long time, until the crank brakes and comes apart, then you could possibly damage the block, heads and other parts. increasing the cost of repairs considerably.

for you're repairs right now, i would budget about $500 for an overhaul. giving you plenty for new bearings, machine work to grind the crank if it needs it, new gaskets, new valve stem seals (or a valve job if it needs it), new oil, coolant and other fluids, and a couple hundred to give you're buddy who's helping you do the work.

if you want to do a full rebuild, with new everything, giving you what would amount to a brand new engine, budget about $1200 for parts and machine work. when i do stock rebuilds they usually seem to come out to about 1200 for some reason. personally, i'd go the full rebuild route so that you know you have a good solid engine for many more miles (300,000 + if you take care of it) it will save you money in the long-run if you plan on keeping the vehicle. (doing it right the first time, right?)

 

[Currency]

if you want to do a full rebuild, with new everything, giving you what would amount to a brand new engine, budget about $1200 for parts and machine work. when i do stock rebuilds they usually seem to come out to about 1200 for some reason. personally, i'd go the full rebuild route so that you know you have a good solid engine for many more miles (300,000 + if you take care of it) it will save you money in the long-run if you plan on keeping the vehicle. (doing it right the first time, right?)

That sounds like the best way to go. I do plan on keeping my explorer no matter what happens to it. My father owns a body shop so we can work on the minor rust issues under the back doors and anything that may come down the road.

So rebuilding the motor would be the best route. I have planned on in the future having my A4LD rebuilt as well. Depending on my situation when it comes time to rebuild the motor I may send the transmission to a local shop to be completely rebuilt. Then while they are working on the tranny and my friend is working on the motor it would present me with the perfect time to haul my ex back to my fathers garage for it's planned 'new paint'.

The transmission shop is about two blocks south of my fathers shop and my buddy is located about um... one road over. With the motor and tranny out I would be able to paint the engine compartment and have better access to undercoat the entire frame rails.

Now I have to worry about my 4wd

It's going to rain this entire week and we have a decent sized um... off road park I guess you would say, It's free and open to the public. I just ask anyone who off roads back there not to mess with the tomb of Dr. Winthrop Foote and his brother Who's name I cannot remember and google cannot find. Be careful around the old quarries as it would suck to slid into one.

Someone vandalized the tomb once and they almost closed it off to the public. They also said at one point they planned to turn it into a housing addition.

 

[rhauf]

That sounds like the best way to go. I do plan on keeping my explorer no matter what happens to it. My father owns a body shop so we can work on the minor rust issues under the back doors and anything that may come down the road.

So rebuilding the motor would be the best route. I have planned on in the future having my A4LD rebuilt as well. Depending on my situation when it comes time to rebuild the motor I may send the transmission to a local shop to be completely rebuilt. Then while they are working on the tranny and my friend is working on the motor it would present me with the perfect time to haul my ex back to my fathers garage for it's planned 'new paint'.

The transmission shop is about two blocks south of my fathers shop and my buddy is located about um... one road over. With the motor and tranny out I would be able to paint the engine compartment and have better access to undercoat the entire frame rails.

Awesome, well it sounds like you have it pretty well figured out then. doing it right, and with the new trans, engine, paint and undercoat it'll be like a new truck. plus since you've done it all yourself its worthy of taking pride in (i cant understand people being proud of ridiculously expensive new cars the bank owns that they drive around)

what color are you going to paint it... any mods or keep it stock? not sure what tires you're planning on running but i've had 31" BFG MT's on mine and they do really good, (and look good too) and even with 50k miles on them they've got tread left.

btw what is the cost of the trans rebuild? have you had an estimate (or been told a flat rate for rebuild)? i suspect I'll be in the market for one soon (trans rebuild) since i don't know how the trans on my (soon to be) turbo'd offroad exploder is gonna hold up (its slipping already)

 

[Currency]

I will check into an estimate today on the transmission rebuild. I'm still unsure about a lot of things I would like to do with my explorer but here is my basic idea for it so far, Which is subject to change

The paint is most likely going to be black, I like black and would only have to buy clear as daddy as a gallon of black sitting on a shelf for me already

As for tires which these would only be for off roading and may be changed to something else through the week. (depending on the hassle).

Maxxis Trepador's either 31X10.50R15, or 35X12.50R15. Waiting on a call from a local tire company to see if they can get them and for how much.

Here is a picture of the Maxxis Trepador

http://4wdsuv.auto-g.jp/shop/1041/12640.html
Makes me want to get it dirty
They make them at the factory size 235/75R15. Too bad my Good Year Wranglers are only weeks old

picture of my good years, Kinda hard to explain wranglers with so many different tread patterns. Not street tires btw

http://ssl.delti.com/cgi-bin/rshop....s=Ordern&typ=R-152552&ranzahl=4&nichtweiter=1

For the lift which I believe all 4x4's need some kind of a lift.
I'm thinking either a 4" or a 5.5". unsure yet but my buddy has an 8" lift on his 2nd gen which would be to high when it comes time to put my son in his car seat. An Eddie Bauer 3-in-1 Convertible Car Seat btw

disc brake conversion some time in the future

I do plan on doing heavy off roading so skid plates would have to be fabricated at some point. Local steel fabrication plant would get that job, Even though they laid me off when my son was nine days old.

I will be soon having an electric fan installed and wired to the ignition so I won't forget to flip the switch. lol
May get some more power that way, from what I've heard anyways.

From there I don't know, But when I get the tires I will be getting a nice set of bead lock rims for them. I spoil myself when I'm not spoiling my son

Do you blame me?

One thing about my ex that is somewhat up setting. I'm sure everyone knows about or has seen this on 1st gen explorers. Under the back doors rusting out? My ex was ziebarted at some point which was suppose to prevent that from happening but didn't. So that stuff is a waste of $$$$.

From my list does anyone have any suggestions? Maybe I'm forgetting something... I always forget something.

 

[Currency]

I called a local transmission shop and they said. To replace everything that's replaceable in my A4LD it would cost $1,350.00 That includes a brand new transmission cooler as well. I made sure to tell the owners wife that this transmission has no issues at the moment but has 183,x.. miles on it and that is why it's going to be rebuilt in the future sometime.

Here is their website.

http://bedfordtransmission.com/index.html

From what she told me on the phone this is a flat rate but I may not get the same transmission back if they have one already rebuilt sitting on a shelf. I don't know if I could handle having a different one, I want mine

 

[rhauf]

I will check into an estimate today on the transmission rebuild. I'm still unsure about a lot of things I would like to do with my explorer but here is my basic idea for it so far, Which is subject to change

The paint is most likely going to be black, I like black and would only have to buy clear as daddy as a gallon of black sitting on a shelf for me already

As for tires which these would only be for off roading and may be changed to something else through the week. (depending on the hassle).

Maxxis Trepador's either 31X10.50R15, or 35X12.50R15. Waiting on a call from a local tire company to see if they can get them and for how much.

Here is a picture of the Maxxis Trepador

http://4wdsuv.auto-g.jp/shop/1041/12640.html
Makes me want to get it dirty
They make them at the factory size 235/75R15. Too bad my Good Year Wranglers are only weeks old

picture of my good years, Kinda hard to explain wranglers with so many different tread patterns. Not street tires btw

http://ssl.delti.com/cgi-bin/rshop....s=Ordern&typ=R-152552&ranzahl=4&nichtweiter=1

For the lift which I believe all 4x4's need some kind of a lift.
I'm thinking either a 4" or a 5.5". unsure yet but my buddy has an 8" lift on his 2nd gen which would be to high when it comes time to put my son in his car seat. An Eddie Bauer 3-in-1 Convertible Car Seat btw

disc brake conversion some time in the future

I do plan on doing heavy off roading so skid plates would have to be fabricated at some point. Local steel fabrication plant would get that job, Even though they laid me off when my son was nine days old.

I will be soon having an electric fan installed and wired to the ignition so I won't forget to flip the switch. lol
May get some more power that way, from what I've heard anyways.

From there I don't know, But when I get the tires I will be getting a nice set of bead lock rims for them. I spoil myself when I'm not spoiling my son

Do you blame me?

One thing about my ex that is somewhat up setting. I'm sure everyone knows about or has seen this on 1st gen explorers. Under the back doors rusting out? My ex was ziebarted at some point which was suppose to prevent that from happening but didn't. So that stuff is a waste of $$$$.

From my list does anyone have any suggestions? Maybe I'm forgetting something... I always forget something.

Well i do have some suggestions from reading your list, this is just my taste though, a result of my experiences etc.

you mentioned 31 or 35 inch tires, i think 31's would be perfect for up to 4 inches of lift, at which point you might consider 33's. although you WILL have to do some trimming to make 33's fit, but since you've got the body shop hookup that may not be a problem for you.

if you went with 35's you'd have to do a lot of trimming, and have at least 5 or 6 inches of lift, which in my opinion is too tall for a narrow explorer and would make it too prone for tipping. also even 33's are a stretch for a dana 35 and C-clip 8.8. so if you went that big you'd have to consider some larger axles (or just have things breaking constantly which is no fun)

you might consider gearing down your axles as well, especially if you went as big as 33's. (4.88 would probably be a pretty comfortable gear, even for freeway driving, with 33's) remember lower axle gear ratios take load off your transmission and in essence make the transmission "stronger".

I think more than 4 inches of lift will cause geometry problems with the TTB unless you cut/turn it (which would be a good idea even for 4 inches probably, although not required) the other band-aid for high-lift on TTB is to lower you're bump stops, but this takes away from wheel-travel and in my opinion defeats the purpose of lifting the truck in the first place.

i'm not going to get into body lifts but they're crap, so i hope you're not considering one of those. they break (especially if you offroad) and cause other stress-related problems. they also do not increase flex or travel and they look stupid IMO.

why do you want to do a disk brake conversion? you've already got disks up front, and the rear drums never seem to over heat. i even tow with mine and its not a problem. just put some good quality brake pads on and you'll be fine.

about the rust, my explorer which i'm turboing (among other axle mods etc) has the same exact rust, mostly in the flange that sticks down below the door. although i think I'll be cutting that part out and building sliders into the body there.... or something.. i haven't figured it out exactly yet.


1300 sounds really fair to have that trans rebuilt. a local shop here i know of charged a friend of mine 1600 just to change the case on his e4ld, the internals were not replaced.

although i do see rebuilt ones online for around 900 (after core charge) i don't know if i would trust those on-line rebuilders though.. plus im sure warranty is crap.

 

[nitro71]

What's the warranty on the rebuilt transmission? That's the only thing that matters and does it include labor. If a shop is so proud of their work they are only willing to warranty it for a year I'd keep looking.

 

[rhauf]

What's the warranty on the rebuilt transmission? That's the only thing that matters and does it include labor. If a shop is so proud of their work they are only willing to warranty it for a year I'd keep looking.

i dont know, google them up (put e4ld into google product search i think is what i did) i just glanced at them briefly. it does not include labor... you're 1300 includes labor? that's a steel then, i figured that was if you brought them the transmission out of the truck and dropped it off.

 

[Currency]

They never stated how long of a warranty it had and I forgot to ask. But considering the shop, I'd say it's at least a year.

These are really nice people when it comes to transmission problem. My mothers boyfriend contacted them about a used replacement tranny for his 89 4cyl ranger, auto btw. They did not have no, Did not offer to rebuild it but gave him some phone numbers to call. The company that had the transmission was out of Canada and total cost for replacement was just over $1,000.

He has another 89 ranger, 4.0 v6 auto its just a hair over 100,x.. on her. He recently bought it for $2,600 and now it cuts out and misses, Has no OD, and get's 10MPG. I won't knock fords but I told him to get the 99 dakota quad cab 4x4 but old men never listen to people 30 years younger then them. It was the same price. I won't tell him about explorerforum because "Computers are a waste of time and ruin peoples lives" Something he says all the time but hey, I'm doing my College online

 

[Currency]

Yeah I won't do a body lift because it won't help me slid over rough terrain in any way and the only purpose it has is to make it look nice.

I'm still unsure about some things I want to do to my explorer.
Like the brake conversion, A little expensive so I may skip that one. Put that money into other things.

The tires I want for off roading only come in the 31" or 35" with no options in between. The competition version only come in like 37" and 44".

I may also add some custom bumpers with some off road lights and a winch for sure.

Right now there is one other explorer in town that looks 99% like mine because it's pretty much bone stock. But I've recently contacted an old friend who's company is hiring in the IT department which he manages. Woot maybe he can pull some strings

Go back to work and my explorer will get done so much more quickly.