toobladink's 2000 XLT

[toobladink]

Hi explorerforum! I already have a post in the modified explorer section, but that was mostly about seeking help and “getting the most out of what I have”. I figured it’s time to make a registry post now that my explorer is at a point where I feel like it’s finished. Like any enthusiast, I personally feel like it will never be finished.

Anyways, I'm from Spokane WA. I own a 2000 Ford Explorer XLT, with a 4.0L V6 SOHC (which pairs with the 5R55E). It came with 4.10 L/S diffs. Modifying this all started back when I took my car to a mechanic in November 2023. In September 2023, I drove to see the Indycar race at Laguna Seca, and came back with some issues. I never did anything but change the oil and the brake pads once, so I felt obligated to take it to someone that knew more than me. That someone was Spokane Powerstroke, and they’ve always done me right. This time, I told them I wanted a “refresh” to have it feel like new. I also requested to have my instrument lights replaced with LEDs, since some had burnt out. The main reason I took it in was for a leak in the rear differential, and some weird steering characteristics. After a new pinion seal, I also got the transmission fluid flushed for the first time (at 160k, yikes!), new tie rods (one was bent), and brand new ball joints and upper control arms. The car never felt so good to drive, and that got me hooked on trying to make it better. I already liked exploring the national forests, and thought it’s about time I spent some money making it better for that.

So, here's a summary of everything I have done (or had done by someone else) so far:

New parts:
Front and rear sway bar links
K&N intake
Borla Turbo Pro XS muffler
Rancho RS5000X shocks
New UCAs, LBJs, tie rods
Falken 235/85R16 AT4W
Dayton leaf springs
Warrior WAR153 shackles
Prothane shackle frame bushing (6810)

Maintenance:
ATF, front/rear diff, and brake fluid flush at 160k
PCV valve and power steering flush at 168k
Spark plugs at 140k
K&N fuel and oil filters every 30k and 20k, respectively
Rust removal and prevention

Accessories and mods:
Custom roof racks - used to mount dune whip and fire extinguisher (both required for Florence dunes; especially the extinguisher during fire season)
Ironman 4x4 Deltawing awning
LED instrument lights
Inner bumper trim for tires

So why do all of this? I want to be comfortable on most national forest land for camping. I live in a very urban environment where I walk to work every day, and want to make owning this car more about getting out of the city and exploring. It’s pretty much used for camping and road trips!

Before I show some pics, here are some general comments I have:
Powerstop brake kit looks cool, that’s it. It replaced my broken brake parts for working ones that look good!
More people should try 235/85R16.
Shocks improved my ride quality the most.
Don’t forget that the fuel filter exists, and is recommended to be replaced every 30k miles.
Don’t forget that the PCV valve should be replaced every 100k miles!
Lift shackles shouldn’t be that hard to install. Well, more like, the old ones shouldn’t be so hard to remove!

Here’s some pics of my adventures and new parts over the past year or two!

 

[toobladink]

Some more pictures!

Camping in Oregon, south of Bend

New instrument lights!

The new brake, and the rotor that was replaced...

Getting creative for removing the shackles...

Front and rear suspension (after the new shocks)

Before and after the new shackles:

 

[toobladink]

Tack welding the crossbar to the mounts

A picture of the worlds greatest truck, featuring a really ugly one

Parking and camping at Laguna Seca inside turn 5

Getting back from Laguna, feeling happy!

Camping at Edgwater campground in Ione, WA

First day with my new Falken tires!

Breaking in the Falkens, with a trip near Usk, WA

Came home with a broken shock, fixed it and installed the new one with the jack included in the truck in my parking garage.

Some fun in the sand in Florence, OR

 

[Fix4Dirt]

Sharp rig!!!! Looking forward to seeing hwere this goes.

 

[410Fortune]

Thanks for sharing
What broke the shock? Too short?
We are neighbors! I’m in sandpoint

 

[toobladink]

Sharp rig!!!! Looking forward to seeing hwere this goes.

Hopefully not much further! Just want to maintain it and do some aesthetic stuff next. I'm sure at some point I'll have some timing chain issues; praying that never happens! Trying to buy a house so it will be a year or two before anything crazy happens to this car.

Thanks for sharing
What broke the shock? Too short?
We are neighbors! I’m in sandpoint

I think it was a combination of me not tightening it enough and not using loctite. The top nut was nowhere to be found. I think it just wiggled off after a few hours of constant driving on some old forest roads. I bought a 14mm gear wrench to properly tighten it this time! I also drove around for a bit, and purposely went on some speed bumps, and then tightened again. I didn't do that the first time. The picture I uploaded with the shock is actually the one that didn't break off. You can see it's pretty tight based on that bushing and I think I just got lazy and didn't tighten the other like that.
I love Sandpoint! I know a decent amount of people are moving up there; lots of great reasons to be up there. Maybe you should open up your private offroad shop so I don't have to break shocks
I wanted to do some camping up there near the panhandle next summer. There's a road that connects Sullivan Lake and Priest Lake that I want to drive along, with this along the way. It's close to you, have you been up here before?

Roosevelt Grove of Ancient Cedars Trailhead · NF-302, Metaline Falls, WA 99153

★★★★★ · Hiking area

maps.app.goo.gl

Or have a suggestion?

 

[410Fortune]

Very close to me like that road is in my backyard ish…
Our backyard is many hundreds thousands of acres lol all protected wilderness. It is 19 miles as the crow flies from priest lake to my house … but due to mountains it is a 2 hour drive to go all the way around

The road you speak of is seasonal and I believe it has been closed to vehicles? maybe only atv and single track now? … I will ask my neighbor. We have only been here 8 years hahaha and barely ventured out
I can see Roman’s nose from
My Property if that helps we are about 10 miles north of sandpoint waaaaaaay back in the woods

 

[toobladink]

Figured I would share an update since it's been over six months! A lot has happened in that time frame and I'm excited to share all my highs and lows with you all.

Back in December, I moved into my first house and most importantly, got a garage! Now I don't have to go to my parents' house and use all my dad's tools. I've been working on buying all the tools we'd use working on my car together and it's such a fun and awful way to burn through way too much money.

Now that I have a garage though, I've been able to do things that I would neglect like detailing. I steam cleaned the entire interior. Not really worth showing that... but here's a crazy before and after of my wheels. I did this during a tire rotation.

A couple weeks later, I was driving to Portland. On my way back, I felt some vibrating on I-84 (very normal for this road) and about thirty seconds later, I was on the side of the road. Not sure if you can tell, but I have a pretty bad problem with not tightening stuff down enough. I immediately bought myself a 1/2" torque wrench after this happened.

So this meant I had to replace the wheel studs. I went the extra mile (the easy route) and just replaced the entire hub assembly. I also decided to just do the other side, but only have the picture of the one. I got lucky considering that's all that I had to replace.

Pretty disappointed in myself that this happened. Just a case of me not having access to the tool I needed, saying "good nuff" and also just not being smart enough. Hopefully this is the last time I do something like this, especially considering my shock breaking was probably for the same reason. What makes this even worse is I was just hesitant to buy that big torque wrench and kept thinking that I would only ever need it for lug nuts. At least I got a second use out of it when putting back my axle nuts!

Anyways, after I got it fixed up, I went to riverside state park ORV area with my friend for his birthday. We had a blast and I was able to keep up with him, which I was pretty happy with considering he has front lockers. He would never admit this, but I think my car is definitely a little more capable than his

On the way home, I noticed some vibrating. One ChrisFix video later, I have the driveshaft out, and found the culprit. Looks like some of the stuff that got on my paint also made its way inside the caps of the U joint (I think that's what happened here).

After a trip to harbor freight to get a cheap vice they had on sale, and a ball joint press loan, I managed to get both U joints in the rear drive shaft replaced. Hope I never have to do that again lol. One cap was so hard to get out that I felt like I was flexing the breaker bar on the press (not true at all) and when it finally came loose, it sounded like a gun shot. I have never seen or heard of something stuck like that causing that sort of thing. It's like the cap was fused to the shaft and I snapped it off with the press.

Yesterday, I got the awning back on my car for more camping trips. I took it off over the winter because I wasn't going to need it.

I modified it a little bit and put some 1/8" plates underneath the awning U bolts. I noticed it bent the steel roof rack, and the plate is like four times as thick. They're just held in by pressure.

I have plenty of things I want to do to this car and actually have a bunch of parts for it sitting out in the garage. By end of fall, here's what I'm hoping to install or replace:
Front lift (with keys most likely)
Camber bolts (for front lift lol)
Replace burnt brake light
Front U joint
Rear wheel bearings (new diff cover while I'm at it maybe?)
Rear window gas strut things that hold the glass
Intake gaskets

I plan to have these done by my next update and hope to share my garage renovation! Of course I have many other things I will be working on in parallel and hope to share a fun update again this year.

I've also already replaced the rear axle damper and removed the front sway bar! Removing the front sway bar has made a huge difference in how this handles. Of course it is really scary on the highway compared to before, but it makes a big difference even on forest roads. I just don't have pictures but wanted to throw this in.

 

[Fix4Dirt]

Figured I would share an update since it's been over six months! A lot has happened in that time frame and I'm excited to share all my highs and lows with you all.

Back in December, I moved into my first house and most importantly, got a garage! Now I don't have to go to my parents' house and use all my dad's tools. I've been working on buying all the tools we'd use working on my car together and it's such a fun and awful way to burn through way too much money.

Now that I have a garage though, I've been able to do things that I would neglect like detailing. I steam cleaned the entire interior. Not really worth showing that... but here's a crazy before and after of my wheels. I did this during a tire rotation.View attachment 465121

A couple weeks later, I was driving to Portland. On my way back, I felt some vibrating on I-84 (very normal for this road) and about thirty seconds later, I was on the side of the road. Not sure if you can tell, but I have a pretty bad problem with not tightening stuff down enough. I immediately bought myself a 1/2" torque wrench after this happened.
View attachment 465122
View attachment 465123

So this meant I had to replace the wheel studs. I went the extra mile (the easy route) and just replaced the entire hub assembly. I also decided to just do the other side, but only have the picture of the one. I got lucky considering that's all that I had to replace.

View attachment 465124


Pretty disappointed in myself that this happened. Just a case of me not having access to the tool I needed, saying "good nuff" and also just not being smart enough. Hopefully this is the last time I do something like this, especially considering my shock breaking was probably for the same reason. What makes this even worse is I was just hesitant to buy that big torque wrench and kept thinking that I would only ever need it for lug nuts. At least I got a second use out of it when putting back my axle nuts!

Anyways, after I got it fixed up, I went to riverside state park ORV area with my friend for his birthday. We had a blast and I was able to keep up with him, which I was pretty happy with considering he has front lockers. He would never admit this, but I think my car is definitely a little more capable than his
View attachment 465125

On the way home, I noticed some vibrating. One ChrisFix video later, I have the driveshaft out, and found the culprit. Looks like some of the stuff that got on my paint also made its way inside the caps of the U joint (I think that's what happened here). View attachment 465126

View attachment 465127

After a trip to harbor freight to get a cheap vice they had on sale, and a ball joint press loan, I managed to get both U joints in the rear drive shaft replaced. Hope I never have to do that again lol. One cap was so hard to get out that I felt like I was flexing the breaker bar on the press (not true at all) and when it finally came loose, it sounded like a gun shot. I have never seen or heard of something stuck like that causing that sort of thing. It's like the cap was fused to the shaft and I snapped it off with the press.

Yesterday, I got the awning back on my car for more camping trips. I took it off over the winter because I wasn't going to need it.View attachment 465128
View attachment 465129

I modified it a little bit and put some 1/8" plates underneath the awning U bolts. I noticed it bent the steel roof rack, and the plate is like four times as thick. They're just held in by pressure.

I have plenty of things I want to do to this car and actually have a bunch of parts for it sitting out in the garage. By end of fall, here's what I'm hoping to install or replace:
Front lift (with keys most likely)
Camber bolts (for front lift lol)
Replace burnt brake light
Front U joint
Rear wheel bearings (new diff cover while I'm at it maybe?)
Rear window gas strut things that hold the glass
Intake gaskets

I plan to have these done by my next update and hope to share my garage renovation! Of course I have many other things I will be working on in parallel and hope to share a fun update again this year.

I've also already replaced the rear axle damper and removed the front sway bar! Removing the front sway bar has made a huge difference in how this handles. Of course it is really scary on the highway compared to before, but it makes a big difference even on forest roads. I just don't have pictures but wanted to throw this in.

Looking good! Were gonna need a garage build to go alongside the Explorer build!

 

[410Fortune]

Congrats on the garage with attached living quarters!!

Yard and garage sales are a great way to build a tool collection without breaking the bank

Nice work and thanks for sharing

Good choice of u joints those spicer lifetime joints are oem quality and will last