Project Get This Running and Ripping | Ford Explorer Forums - Serious Explorations

  • Register Today It's free!

Project Get This Running and Ripping

KennyKenny93

New Member
Joined
December 24, 2021
Messages
5
Reaction score
5
City, State
Ohio
Year, Model & Trim Level
93 Explorer XL
Hello everyone!

I'll start by introducing myself and how I came to acquire my 93 Explorer XL 4x4.

I am 26 and have been in the car scene for about 8-9 years.

It all started with my dad's 89 foxbody that I learned everything I know today on. My dad daily drove it for 10ish years and then when he decided to "grow up" the car was parked for about 10 years when I asked what he was planning on doing with it. That is what sparked my love for cars. Long story short, I did suspension, boltons, and some audio mods. That was all before I took it to college and it was stolen in 3 days of it being there.

I then got into German cars because I wanted something different so I bought an 89 BMW 325i and at this point there isn't a bolt I haven't touched on it. Let me know if anyone else has dove into these or if any questions!

Screenshot_20211209-110743_Instagram.jpg
Screenshot_20211224-122911_Gallery.jpg



I still have the BMW but daily a 13 Audi A4 that has very very basic boltons.

Screenshot_20211224-123320_Gallery.jpg


Now to the Explorer! My grandpa passed away a little over a year ago and left behind his 93 Explorer that he used as a vehicle that he would take out to the woods when he hunted or anytime he wanted to get away.

Screenshot_20211224-122932_Gallery.jpg


From what everyone has been telling me, it ran well right before he passed. I have always been interested in offroading/rock crawling/overlanding but never pulled the trigger on a project like that. I started thinking about it and I decided that this would be the perfect vehicle.

My goal is to make sure that it is reliable and runs and drives without hiccups. That being said my buddy has a tundra and just got a car trailer so we decided to make the drive to pick it up and start this project!

There is a good amount of surface rust on the frame but nothing structural and the rockers are not existant.
Screenshot_20211224-122945_Gallery.jpg


I'm really excited about this but it's going to be a lot of work
 



Join the Elite Explorers for $20 each year.
Elite Explorer members see no advertisements, no banner ads, no double underlined links,.
Add an avatar, upload photo attachments, and more!
.





So first step when I got it back to my place was to replace all of the basic maintenance items.

I started with an oil change and filter to make sure it has good oil to start with

I got it started and running decent but the battery was not keeping a charge so bought the nicest battery I have ever bought so I went with an Optima red top
Screenshot_20211224-123606_Snapchat.jpg

Changed out the air filter and the old one was very dirty.

The next step was plugs, wires, and ignition coil. Got all but the front drivers side and the back passenger side. Decided to tackle those the next day.

Looked online and the best/only way to get to the back passenger is to take off the wheel. Got the wheel off and change out the plug and wire in a few minutes. The next step was the front driver's side. I didn't get this one because it was pretty stuck so I sprayed some penetrating fluid to loosen it up.

Well it loosened something up!
Screenshot_20211224-123615_Snapchat.jpg


As you can see, the plug snapped off at the threads. Great...... bought a square extractor set off of Amazon and it got delivered the next day.

Spent about 30 minutes and a few swear words but it was successful!
Screenshot_20211224-123618_Snapchat.jpg


Got it out and then to tackle the fuel filter. I got the old one out using fuel line disconnects I bought at Autozone. Again, some swear words and about 30 minutes and got it out and the new one in.

Now the car won't start. Hmmm. I still had my OBD reader from the fox body days so I hooked that up and got a few codes with engine off

114
116
157
159

Looked online and it looks like a coolant sensor, intake air temp sensor, and maf codes

Have a new maf and sensors coming from Rockauto and will update when I get those in!
 






Welcome! Saw your project in one of the Facebook groups, I'm looking forward to seeing the progress on here.

Ive never seen a spark plug break like that, wow! Glad the rest wasn't too much of a pain to extract.
 






Been a Ford technician for 33+ years and I've never seen that style of spark plug do that!! Looks like a good build project and that's one of the best winches ever built on the front, a little overkill for an Explorer but nothing wrong with that!!
 






Welcome! Saw your project in one of the Facebook groups, I'm looking forward to seeing the progress on here.

Ive never seen a spark plug break like that, wow! Glad the rest wasn't too much of a pain to extract.
Thanks! Excited about this and where it'll take me, my fiancé, and dog!

Been a Ford technician for 33+ years and I've never seen that style of spark plug do that!! Looks like a good build project and that's one of the best winches ever built on the front, a little overkill for an Explorer but nothing wrong with that!!
I heard the same thing about the winch! I am going to try and rebuild it because I'm not sure if it actually works and decide whether I want to keep it or sell it to fund some other things.

I will probably put up a summary of the rebuild here when I get to that.
 






Thanks! Excited about this and where it'll take me, my fiancé, and dog!


I heard the same thing about the winch! I am going to try and rebuild it because I'm not sure if it actually works and decide whether I want to keep it or sell it to fund some other things.

I will probably put up a summary of the rebuild here when I get to that.
Not too bad to rebuild and all parts are available, that winch is over $2,500 new!! I have one I need to rebuild for a Early Bronco camper build I'll be doing in a couple of years. Rebuilding the legendary Warn M8274 electric winch step by step
 






Nice! Welcome to the community. You're going to love that old truck.

I got my 93 from my grandpa as well! Old Blue is pretty mint if you squint.

Have the torch and the impact ready to go because every bolt will be rusty.

There's a ton of good info on this site for basically anything you want to do to your truck. Enjoy!
 






Been a minute due to the holidays but slowly troubleshooting and discovering things.

Ordered a bunch of things and it all came in this past week
Screenshot_20220101-232523_Gallery.jpg


I started with the maf because the truck was running really rough. Replaced it and was still running rough.
Screenshot_20220101-232518_Gallery.jpg

When I replaced the coil, plugs, and plug wires. I thought I replaced the wires correctly. Apparently I didn't! Looked up a diagram and got the wires placed in the right spot. After this it was still not wanting to stay running but when it was running sounded much better

I unplugged the maf and started the truck up again and it was smooth running and was staying running. Thought it was odd, so I plugged the maf back in and the truck died in a second of it being plugged in.

Since I know the maf is good, my other two thoughts are big vacuum leak(very likely as it looks like all the lines are old and crusty) or wiring issue. If anyone has any tips to confirm the wiring is good then that would be greatly appreciated!

So since the truck was at least running, I decided to tackle the accessory drive since it was extremely noisy. Bought a tensioner and belt off of rockauto and when I got it in noticed that it is very different than the one on the engine. The one on the engine is held on by 2 bolts and the one that came had just a center bolt like below.
Screenshot_20220101-232627_Chrome.jpg

Odd, but decided to just go to oreilly and pick up one and bring the old with me. Once I took the one off, I spun it and it sounded like sandpaper rubbing against itself so this was definitely the sound culprit. When at oreilly we figured out that the 91 explorers had the 2 bolt tensioner design. So not really sure if maybe the engine was replaced at some point.

Replaced the belt and tensioner and sounds great now! No accessory noise anymore.
Screenshot_20220101-232457_Gallery.jpg
Screenshot_20220101-232505_Gallery.jpg

Also replaced the air intake temp sensor and coolant temp sensor as well. Coolant sensor was crusty for sure
Screenshot_20220101-232513_Gallery.jpg
 






Man have I been busy with life. Anyway, decided to get back to work on the explorer.

Tested the car for vacuum leaks because I thought that was the reason for the MAF codes still but couldn't find a single one.

So i am just going to replace the connector because it seems the pins might be corroded a bit. Ordered that connector as well as a new IAC because it was cheap enough off of rockauto

Yesterday I started to pull all of the vacuum lines to replace. Whether they needed to be replaced or not, I can't stand the plastic lines for it. So grabbing some bulk vacuum line from autozone after work and throwing it on.

While pulling the lines off of the charcoal canister the purge valve decided to snap off the plastic piece on it so another one on the way now.
20220504_180629.jpg
 






Back
Top