Hello my name is Jake, im from San Diego and I own a 1997 Explorer 5.0 that has gone through a lot of changes to become what it is now. There's so much custom work on here that I've done...It's gonna take a few posts.
When I got the exploder it was bone stock with no speakers or stereo and had a "bad transmission". It was free though, had a v8, 130k and was Awd so it came home with me. I deep cleaned it for about a month because the interior was a bit of a wreck
The transmission problem turned out to be a transfercase leak and with the 4r70w having an open passageway to the awd tcase it was becoming low and loosing the ability to shift...or the something like that. All I know is a bw4406 swap and 5 quarts of atf solved the problem.
That In addition to a new radiator, water pump, shocks ball joints control arms and bushings, cvs, mustang Carbon fiber clutch pack for the ford 8.8 expedition drive shafts and tail housing conversion for the explorer factory speedo. I tried wiring in a dakota digital signal modifier to get the speedo to work with the different speedometer sensor but that didn't work so the tail housing swap was a must.
It pretty much stayed like this for a year or so other than new wheels and tires and a very boxy rear bumper project. My wife and I survived a snowy flagstaff winter driving the truck and honestly We had so much fun with it in the snow and the mtns on the outside of town.
A year later we were back in San Diego and my friends were starting to go on more difficult trails In their jeeps. I was already at a disadvantage with my lockerless ifs setup and minimal ground clearance so I decided to order the parts to build upper control arms and do a coilover conversion. This was all with the hopes I would be able to fit 33s, more ground clearance and squeeze some more travel without lifting the truck to the sky or adding drop brackets.
I built a front bumper with a winch mount and a Baja Designs Onx light bar on it. Low pro was the goal here.
I added 11" travel fox 2.0s to the rear that were blown and came off an old project. Shafts, seals, and a replacement body were all ordered from polyperformance, homemade extended shackles, a couple of procomp add a leafs, a powertrax lunch box locker, and a few other odds and ends made up the rear.
The front got Fox 2.0 6" Travel coilovers, Fk uniballs and rod ends inside chromoly builders parts from poly. The fabrication on the control arms and shock towers was a little rushed because we were doing the conversion the day before taking it up to John bull/Holcomb creek in big bear, ca.
More to come!
When I got the exploder it was bone stock with no speakers or stereo and had a "bad transmission". It was free though, had a v8, 130k and was Awd so it came home with me. I deep cleaned it for about a month because the interior was a bit of a wreck
The transmission problem turned out to be a transfercase leak and with the 4r70w having an open passageway to the awd tcase it was becoming low and loosing the ability to shift...or the something like that. All I know is a bw4406 swap and 5 quarts of atf solved the problem.
That In addition to a new radiator, water pump, shocks ball joints control arms and bushings, cvs, mustang Carbon fiber clutch pack for the ford 8.8 expedition drive shafts and tail housing conversion for the explorer factory speedo. I tried wiring in a dakota digital signal modifier to get the speedo to work with the different speedometer sensor but that didn't work so the tail housing swap was a must.
It pretty much stayed like this for a year or so other than new wheels and tires and a very boxy rear bumper project. My wife and I survived a snowy flagstaff winter driving the truck and honestly We had so much fun with it in the snow and the mtns on the outside of town.
A year later we were back in San Diego and my friends were starting to go on more difficult trails In their jeeps. I was already at a disadvantage with my lockerless ifs setup and minimal ground clearance so I decided to order the parts to build upper control arms and do a coilover conversion. This was all with the hopes I would be able to fit 33s, more ground clearance and squeeze some more travel without lifting the truck to the sky or adding drop brackets.
I built a front bumper with a winch mount and a Baja Designs Onx light bar on it. Low pro was the goal here.
I added 11" travel fox 2.0s to the rear that were blown and came off an old project. Shafts, seals, and a replacement body were all ordered from polyperformance, homemade extended shackles, a couple of procomp add a leafs, a powertrax lunch box locker, and a few other odds and ends made up the rear.
The front got Fox 2.0 6" Travel coilovers, Fk uniballs and rod ends inside chromoly builders parts from poly. The fabrication on the control arms and shock towers was a little rushed because we were doing the conversion the day before taking it up to John bull/Holcomb creek in big bear, ca.
More to come!
