body lift..why would it look like this?

[travis16]

Hello, ive been concidering a body lift for my explorer after ive looked through tha options and with a smaller budget. i have oone question though. there was a senior at out school last year and he got a 3inch body lift on his Toyota 4-runner and the first thing i noticed was his radiator showed...like ive heard from the people on this board that it just lifts the body up. it lifted his body up and mabey an inch or 2 of his radiator you could plainly see. why is this? would this happen on my explorer too ? becuse i sure wouldnt want a body lift if it;s going to do that.

seems everyone lists what the have for a truck and accesories so below is mine

thank you much !
travis
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92' ford explorer xlt
sony explode deck 50x4
4 pioneer 6x8
bass blockers on 6x8's
2 cerwin vega vega series subwoofers 1000watt peak each
memphis 500 watt class D amp
radio shack cb with public anouncement speaker mounted in grill
fog lights
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[glc8937]

Well I am sure others will respond to your question who can answer it better than I but I do know that there is a kit for hiding the gap between your suspension and the body for body lifts. How that affects the radiator I am not sure of though.

 

[Hotweels]

I just did a 3"!!!!! body lift and the only way you can tell from the outside is if you look under the truck and see the lift blocks, open the hood and the fan shroud sits 3" lower and you can see some of the rad fins but its still fixable by cutting the botton half of the shroud off just dont stick your fingers in there or.....get a electric fan setup and throw your old fan and clutch in the bushes
Maybe the toyota kit relocates the rad i know the explorer kit does not.

 

[kvo]

That's exactly what will happen in a body lift. Everything will be exposed, you can see the frame rails, the gaps, etc. One positive note is that it makes removing the spark plugs much easier. I had a three inch body lift and took it off because I just didn't like the way it looks. Plus I wanted the steel front bumper (and wich) to protect me in an accident instead of two skimpy brackets that hold the OEM bumper.

I think a two inch body lift is not as noticeable and is cleaner, if you want to go that route.

If anyone with a body lift that is looking for that kit to cover the gap, let me know, I still have mine for sale ($20 + shipping).

 

[wabbit]

Your radiator won't show...

On your Explorer, the radiator is mounted to the body, so it will be lifted with the body. The fan shroud will need to be relocated.

 

[Robert]

The PA 3" kit I put on my '97 Explorer included drop down brackets for the radiator. I lowered my radiator 3" to keep the fan in the center. It doesn't look bad. You can see the black plastic cover on the bottom of my radiator, but you can't see the radiator fins. The Toyota is probably set up differently, with less room to start with below the radiator. There are two ways you can do it though. The sencond way is to lower just the fan shroud, leaving the radiator in the stock position in relation to the body. When I first attempted to do it that way, it seemed to put a lot of stress on my hoses, since they weren't made for the 3" rise to the radiaor. I also had some concern with cooling by not having the fan in the center of the radiator. Here in Arizona, cooling is important. Although the guy (bullrdr) that chose the second method lives here in Arizona also. As far as I know cooling hasn't been a problem on his.

 

[RON A. M .]

so what u are all saying is that i will have to rearange my fan and radiator for any type of body lift? and if so where and how would i go about doing that?

 

[Robert]

You have two choices; 1) reposition the radiator which will keep the fan in its original location to the radiator or 2) leave the radiator attached to its original location on the body and just repostion the fan shroud. This will put the fan 3" lower on the radiator and it will no longer be centered.

The kit included the radiator drop down brackets. It had two pieces of metal about 1 1/2" wide by 4" long with a pressed in bolt at one end and a hole 3" down. You remove the two top radiator bolts and pull it up out of the rubber mounts in the bottom. You use the included bolts to bolt the bracket to the hole that the top radiator bolts were bolted to. You put the radiator on the pressed in bolts three inches lower.

The bottom is completed by removing the rubber bushings from the original mounts and putting them into a rectangle piece of metal. It is hard to explain but there is a hole at each end of the rectangle. The rubber goes into the bottom hole the top gets bolted to the hole you removed the rubber from.

If you move just the shroud, I've seen it held on with a couple of clips and wire-ties. If you go this route, make sure you aren't pulling on your radiator hoses since they will be positioned 3" higher than they were made to go. It would suck to have one pop off or break as you are driving down the road.

 

[LLSTRIKES96]

"there was a senior at out school last year and he got a 3inch body lift on his Toyota 4-runner and the first thing i noticed was his radiator showed... "

I have one friend who actually has a 4Runner with a 3" BL and a friend who has a X with a 2" BL and I can tell you that the 4Runner looks much more exposed, infact the front shows these nasty little holes in the frame. With the X all the underjunk is much more suttle.