My 94 Explorer BLIZZARD

Well I mine as well enter my 94 explorer into the registry.


So in January of 2014 I got my 88 F150 4x4 running and started driving it without thinking twice. 2 days before my 18th birthday (birthday is the 30th) it threw a rod. I pulled it home and parked it but I knew I was going to have to either get her up and going or get another vehicle and work on her later. So I started looking for another 302 or a explorer, full size bronco, Bronco II, or another F150. I picked up a 302 but ended up being that I need to tear into it. I didn't have the time or money to deal with that at that moment so I kept looking for either one. I get a call from my younger brother saying come check out this 94 Explorer 4x4 that is in great shape. I couldn't get anywhere so I just told him I will come the next day. Went to the guys house (which the guy is my buddy) and checked it out. I first just looked up and down the truck to see what I could see wrong with it. When I couldn't find anything wrong I asked price and what is wrong with it.

He told me engine was seized and he wanted $1000. I started to walk off and he said it came with his parts truck which I knew ran and drove great. So it was about 6o'clock at night I told him I would be back in a few minutes to get my trailer. Towed it home with one of our trucks and parked it for the night.

The next morning I started cleaning the truck up well as it was parked in a field for some time.

Day after that I started tearing apart the parts truck (92 ranger 4.0L).
The day after that finished tear down and got the engine out of both the ranger and the Explorer.

Day after that I got the engine in and started noticing differences in wiring.
92 rangers had a plug for no camshaft position sensor
94 Explorers had a cam shaft position sensor.

92 ranger had one square and one round plug for the main harness
94 Explorers had both square.

92 ranger had no egr crap
94 explorer had egr crap.


So plan started pull intake, camshaft position sensor, drivers side exhaust manifold and wiring from the original engine and put it all in.

Well went to turn the engine over to TDC and found out the damn thing won't turn over. So I tried using the starter and no go. So pulled the starter and put the one from the parts truck in and turned it over and all. Turns out STARTER WAS SIEZED NOT ENGINE. So I did an engine swap for only 100k miles less engine. Well I got everything on yesterday and went to start it and it would crank but wouldn't start unless I sprayed fuel into the intake. So I knew automatically what was wrong. NOT GETTING FUEL.


So my todays plan is to start finding out why it isn't getting fuel.




Anyways info on the truck:
1994 Ford Explorer 4x4 4.0L V6 A4LD 3.73 LS manual hubs with power everything else. It is only an XLT but that is a big upgrade from my custom F150. It has a great interior and exterior with only a couple small dings that you have to look long and hard to find.

Problems I know of as of right now:
wheels are off a crown Victoria and are 16s
a little paint chiping and surface rust above the windshield
small cracks in the grille
driver's side window doesn't roll down
inside handle doesn't work on passenger rear door
outer handle doesn't work on drivers rear door
visors have cloth falling apart on them
rear hatch doesn't lock
has 242K miles on rest of the truck
needs spark plugs as they are a little worn
all I know of right now.

Goods:
straight body
great interior
almost compactly stock


Plans for the truck:

I have 2 phases the truck will go through since I need only 2 things from it (good gas mileage and dependability)

Phase 1:
fix the small problems and get it running
paint the hatch around the window black and paint the window trim black
Paint the plastic/fiberglass rockers black
paint the mirrors black
Install my jeep wheels
paint the inner part of the gray of the grille black
drive until my 88 F150 is up and going again

Phase 2 (when the mods begin):
Small lift (unless the 235 75 R15 tires bring it up a lot higher)
clear headlights
clear turns or smoked
clear or smoked tail lights
clear or smoked third brake light
overhead visor
2nd gen mirrors and overhead console
frame off restomod
upgrade stereo system (may do in phase 1)
cold air intake
a little louder and freer flowing exhaust if possible no cat!
repaint it completely with summit white and tuxedo black!
chip if it helps with power
small brush guard (preferably chrome)
billet grille
tons of lights (some lights may be added in phase 1)
headers (do they even make these for 4.0Ls?)
regear if needed.
CB radio
and probably more as I start looking for more things to do to it.





Now onto what everybody wants to really see pics:

with my brother's 84 Bronco 2 4x4 2.8L with a few small mods he was a little happy I joined the ranger based vehicle side although I still love my V8s I may start to like the Bronco 2s and explorers (never will like rangers):

the jeep wheels I have:

overhead shot:

love the cluster on this thing:

the inside pics were before I cleaned it. I will have to get new shots uploaded:

engine removal begin:

new engine which just happened to have a B&M torque convertor on it:

Brother's bronco helping me out a bit:

my other brother (has a F250) and my dad helping me drop the engine in:

and that's all the pics I have as of right now. Will be uploading more as time goes on and hopefully will have her running soon.
Trav

 

[Redneckfordf250]

Forgot all about my registry.
Fuel pump ended up being bad so we replaced that fired her up and drove her around.

Shortly after I eneded up changing the oil, oil filter, trans filter, trans fluid, spark plugs, wipers (all 3), put in more wiper fluid, flushed a bit more of the radiator and drove her. Was driving her and found 1 bolt missing and 3 bolts hand tight on the driveshaft!!
Replaced those and drove her some more.

After that polished her up, painted the side trim of the hatch, painted the trim by the doors and drove her some more.

Installed some rubber floor mats front and rear also got a steering wheel cover that I still need to install.

Then found out I had a leak. Tracked it down turned out one of the rad lines weren't tightened. Tightened it and it runs great.

somewhere in between I fixed the window on the drivers side and don't know how.


also took the wheels off the bronco 2 and put them on here only because they rubbed like crazy on the bronco 2.
Somewhere in between their we put a used DPFE sensor on to get ride of a CEL.
Few accessories I picked up at the Junkyard:
2nd gen overhead console (Still have to install it)
94 Ranger sun visors (my dad has to modify them a bit)
2nd gen manuals.


Problems still with her:
power steering leak
shimmys a bit (I think tires need balanced)
overhead visors are still ripped
rear doors still have their issues (drivers only opens from inside passanger outside)
rear hatch lock doesn't work but if I had the auto door locks it locks which is good enough for now.
Still need to do a bit of touch up paint.



Other then that she has been being daily driven (even though I haven't driven her yet).


Pics of the progress:

92 driver's side exhaust manifold:

94 exhaust manifold which is now on:

everything back together:

cleaned her up really well:

Paint checkering:

small rust on roof:

replacing the fuel pump:

painted side door parts:

fuel pump being replaced:

mirrors which were just waxed:

pic with old wheels:

with my 02 F250, my dad's 89 F250:

wheels on:

Pic of me with her:

Playing around with my camera:

on a different setting on my camera:

sunset where I live: