Andrew's 1996 Explorer XLT

Well I've been gathering information and giving information here for a while now and just found this thread!

Anyways, I got my explorer when I was 16 as my first vehicle 6.5 years ago with 61k on it from my Grandpa who recently then couldn't drive anymore. Ever since I got it I have made a project out of it. First it started with just fixing some spot rust and waxing and the story just gets longer!!

Since then over the years I have done many mods including:

-Gibson cat-back exhaust
-K&N intake system
-Custom electric fan set up with a painless controller. (I used a dual fan set-up from a 97 ford contour for clearance reasons)
-dimond-cut head lights
-"lego" tail lights, lol (I didn't realize they looked that that until I got them, but I've grown to like them)
-6000K HID's
-Blue LED grill & interrior lights
-LED gauge cluster conversion
-Eagle Alloy 17" rims with 245/70R17 Nitto Terra Grappler tires
-Aftermarket stainless steel running boards to prevent moisture/ salt being trapped against the body
-Pioneer 3100dvd double din radio
-Pioneer 6X8 door speakers and a 10" Audio Bahn sub
-Dynamat in all the doors including the hatch
-Grover 1650 Airhorn with a VIAIR 350C compressor and 2 custom steel air tanks
-Torsion Twist front lift and air shocks in the rear - soon to be custom shackels
-Changed the gear ratio from 3.55 to 3.73LS

Besides all of the mods, I've also replaced the head gaskets at 76k just to have them blow again at 91k so I put a new to me rebuilt engine in. This past summer I had to pull it again to replace the timing chain and tensioner. While it was out I found a bad push rod and rocker. Obviously I replaced those too. Note to self, never buy a reman engine from a huge corporation again (it was Proformance Powertrain if you were wondering). Next time I'll do it myself! Now all that frustration aside, it is running great again! I have done all of the work myself, except the engine rebuild... never never again.

My grandpa passed away 2.5 years ago so since then I've been trying to keep it as nice as possible. I replaced the rocker panels and dog legs myself 2 summers ago but they weren't welded in correctly ( I used mostly epoxy to prevent rust so the paint cracked at some of the joints but I'll get it fixed up right some day!

To further prevent it from rusting out I bought a 99 2wd ranger to drive as my every day crappy weather vehicle. We have a lot of salt on the roads up here in Northwest Ohio. I miss the 4wd in the snow though!!

In the future I plan to finish/ redo the rust repairs and have all the imperfect areas repainted. I'm a bit of a perfectionist if you couldn't tell

Here are a few pictures of it now with 123k on it. I'll get more but I didn't realize I only had 2 on Photo Bucket..

These pictures are when I got the rims and tires just about a year ago with the rockers and dog legs already replaced.

Since then I drove it to San Antonio, TX and back but not much else so I only put about 5k on it last year and it is currently sitting in the same place in the barn as this picture was taken. lol

EDIT: Since I've created this thread I have now swaped in a supercharged 347 with a TOD4406 transfercase. That progress can be seen here: 5.0 Swap Thread

 

[Sams01XplrSprt]

do u got pics of the hids

 

[vinceschilke]

wish i had as much knowledge as you. seems i have a lot to learn. what is your estimated price on how much you have done? i want mine to be as perfect as yours. my favorite part is the aftermarket running boards and for the same reason. to keep out salt and moisture.

http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=299822

 

[vinceschilke]

i would love for you to do most of this stuff to my 97 mountaineer. plus you dont live too far away from me. maybe you can answer a question of mine. i bought an aftermarket radio. got the correct harness and i have the 97 mountaineer with the sub in the back. i was TOLD by a tech at best buy that i needed to wire some wire from my radio all the way to the back because thats where my antenna wire is located? so i took my radio in to get professionally installed. i just noticed that my antenna wont go down with the radio off and even the car off. does you know what is wrong, or did the place half ass the job? and did i even need to go to get it professionally done? the only reason i did is because i thought i couldnt handle it myself after what the guy at best buy told me.

 

[ahodges]

do u got pics of the hids

6000k headlights, regular middle lights with blue lenses, stock fogs with silver stars

 

[ahodges]

wish i had as much knowledge as you. seems i have a lot to learn. what is your estimated price on how much you have done? i want mine to be as perfect as yours. my favorite part is the aftermarket running boards and for the same reason. to keep out salt and moisture.

http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=299822

Well the amount I've spent totals over 10 grand. But, that includeds having to replace the engine myself too which was right around $3,000.

As for the running board conversion, I started that whole project because the rocker panels and dog legs were rusting out. So, I spent around $2,000 in that. I bought and replaced the panels myself but then had to pay a body shop $1,500 to paint it... Most of the work done to my explorer has been in labor. Cleaning, waxing, undercoating, and detailing is esentially free and that is what makes a vehicle look so much better than most others on the road.

About your radio. Mine doesn't have an electric anttena so I'm not real familiar with that. But from reading the instail instructions with my radios I think there is a seperate wire that has to give power to the anttena motor somehow to tell it to go up or down. I think it is some kind of relay to be honest which could be why the best buy guy said the wire had to be run to the back of the truck.

 

[ahodges]

Well the most recent mod was getting a custom tune from James at Henson Performance! On the premium 93 octane tune I am running a 10.7 sec 0-60. Stock 0-60 was 11.2 sec. I haven't driven it enough yet to say if it helped gas mileage at all but I'll find out about that this spring when the snow clears!

 

[takeaction]

extra lights?

Andrew, in post #7 (front view) you have fog lights inside the bumper. do those give a really good light spread at night? The reason I ask, is that we have an EXTREME deer population here in this county, and you literally can't drive down any main road and NOT see a fresh roadkilled deer... I've hit a deer before in a truck and the damage it did, although not too severe, I can't afford to fix on our explorer on our very limited income now. If they give better sight range or width, I'd love to try adding some to our truck.

Thank you in advance.

 

[ahodges]

Andrew, in post #7 (front view) you have fog lights inside the bumper. do those give a really good light spread at night? The reason I ask, is that we have an EXTREME deer population here in this county, and you literally can't drive down any main road and NOT see a fresh roadkilled deer... I've hit a deer before in a truck and the damage it did, although not too severe, I can't afford to fix on our explorer on our very limited income now. If they give better sight range or width, I'd love to try adding some to our truck.

Thank you in advance.

I can't really say that they add that much to the visibility. I've found that the smaller lights that do fit in the bumper like that don't really help much.
However, if you mounted some to the roof rack or bellow the bumper that were bigger; that would help a lot. I used to have a Westin brand Safari Bar (basically a bull bar without the skid plate) with 4" lights on it which helped a lot. I had to take that off after an accident dented it a little and broke the lights though. Amazingly the bar isn't bent just dented in one spot.

Anyhow.. I hope that helps

 

[ahodges]

Custom Shackles

The most recent mod that I just finished was building a custom set of rear leaf spring shackles. I didn't want to pay for a set of warrior shackles nor did I want a full 2 inches of lift. Mine are made out of 1/4 inch stainless steel strips. Overall lift from these shackles was about 1 inch. From center to center the holes are 7.5 inches apart compared to the stock ones at 5.5 inches.

As you can see in the pictures I put another piece of steel on a diagonal between the 2 vertical pieces for support. To be honest I only drilled the holes and tack welded them together while my dad took them to work and had a friend finish welding them. I'm very happy with the way they turned out!

The stock ones were in pretty bad shape anyhow

 

[ahodges]

Photo Shoot

Yesterday I went out and took a few pictures so I thought I'd share them on here!

This is of all my street legal toys

And a close up.
I've never talked about my motorcycle on here but it's an 85 Honda Nighthawk 650.

 

[ahodges]

5.0 Swap

So, the explorer sickness has finally got the best of me.. I'm preparing to start my own 5.0 swap into my 96. On Friday I picked up a 97 mountaineer with AWD to be my donor truck.
It has 174k and runs great. The problems with it are a mile long though.. bad exhaust leak, cats are cut out, leaky axle seals, bad cam sensor, leaking power steering cooler, possibly a bad powersteering pump, bad tires, broken hood release cable, several interior problems, and a BAD case of cancer. Nothing terminal that I can't fix though!

So here is the plan short a sweet. I plan re-building the 5.0 and making it a stroker 347 with all the up grades, rebuilding the trans and adding performance parts, doing the F150 transfercase swap, and then hopefully put the V6 from my truck in the mounty and selling it.

This project isnt going to start immediatly yet so in the mean time I plan to drive it this winter and utilize the AWD!!

 

[ahodges]

Here is a link to the 5.0 (now a 347) build thread: Build Thread. It is finally mostly finished, just tuning to complete it.

I did swap the V6 from my explorer into the Mountaineer and drove that for about 6 months. A friends brother plans on buying that from me this weekend I think. Only thing is i think it needs another new computer and Ford discontinueed them so its back to the junkyard I go!

 

[ahodges]

Here is the most recent mod I did over the weekend I installed Alloy USA hardened axles and a Ford Racing axle girdle. The 347 running good with a couple of bugs to work out but it has plenty of power that now I'm looking to get some Caltrac traction/ antiwrap bars.

 

[FIND]

well... you won't be breaking those anytime soon.

 

[ahodges]

well... you won't be breaking those anytime soon.

As long as I get my wheel hop fixed soon or stop doing burnouts they won't!

 

[ahodges]

Traction Bars Required

Even with the stock V8 traction bars the wheel hop was too bad to leave it alone. I invested in a set of CalTracs traction bars from Calvert Racing in California.

Install went really smooth. Hardest part was taking the leaf springs off and having the aluminum bushing pressed into the front eye (I had a local spring shop do that for me).

I am very impressed with the results, no more wheel hop and pure power off the line. It drifts like a king as well

Calvert modified a set of stock explorer shock mounts

A machinist friend of mine slotted the bushings to help retain grease

I would recommend these to anyone!

 

[ahodges]

Most recent mod I added was 2 degree axle shims to correct the pinion angle that got messed up by lengthening the shackles by 2 inches. I haven't got a chance to test drive it yet to see if there is a difference but I'm sure there has to be because I did the geometry and it works out just about right where for every length of shackle you add, you angle the pinion up by 1 degree on our trucks. The reason I did this that ever since I made the shackles longer, I could feel a driveline vibration around 70mph and above. Sorry no pictures right now..

 

[4pointslow]

Explorer

Awesome explorer!
Lots of great upgrades you have done there.
Got a question for you, Do you remember what size the front leaf spring bushing outside diameter was? I believe it is 1 1/4 inches but cant measure to well with the spring still in the truck.

 

[ahodges]

I tried to do a little digging and I can't come up with what that dimension is. I was thinking it was more than 1 1/4" but can't say for sure because that might be right.

 

[4pointslow]

front leaf spring bushing

Turns out the front leaf spring bushing in my "4 leaf" spring from a 1998 4 door explorer was 1 7/8 outside diameter. Definitely have to pull that spring down to measure that bushing. Don't know if all 2nd gen explorer front bushing are the same size. Probably not.