Beginning of a beautiful journey, 2000 Explorer SOHC

[Pekka]

Here's the frame being installed on a painting stand.

Sandblasting

Sandblasted frame. It's in pristine condition, even after 21 years.

Red primer. Red goes faster.

Black Raptor protective coating

Frame finally home. My dog has a habit of eating all the wiring from the body so I had to build a little fence

 

[EB4X]

I thought I was styling for finally purchasing some car ramps......

 

[C420sailor]

I love this.

We get a lot of people who come in here talking a big game about doing V8 swaps and restos. You’re actually doing it, and doing it right. Well done.

 

[Pekka]

Some more pictures

New springs attached to the frame. No, you can't install springs first

Rear suspension done.

New front suspension parts

Some assembly required

Yellow training brake caliper

 

[EB4X]

I'm guessing that rusty diff cover is next on the chopping block....

 

[fast_dave]

An Explorer frame on a rotisserie in Finland - who'd have thought?!

Right on @Pekka !

 

[EB4X]

An Explorer frame on a rotisserie in Finland - who'd have thought?!

Right on @Pekka !

View attachment 340380

 

[fast_dave]

@Pekka get's my GIF, but for those that don't know, the GIF is from the Finnish Comedy Hit,
"Lapland Odyssey" AKA "Napapiirin Sankarit" in Finnish.

The original was such a hit that it turned into a trilogy, and I highly recommend all three.

You will have to read subtitles, but for me that's no biggie - the comedy crosses over the language barrier.

 

[Pekka]

I'd love to have a Sierra

 

[Pekka]

Being a total amateur is really showing in reassembly. I have learned that I know absolutely nothing about repairing cars.

As donalds gave the best advise yet "Labels label label label" ...i didnt do it.

It's pretty horrid to go to the barn and rummage through several containers of nuts and bolts trying to find the right ones. Most of the bolts that had been attached to the frame are awfully rusted anyway so I've been buying new bolts that seem to fit best.

I'll promise, next time I'll do this I shall have a ton of ziploc bags to store the nuts and bolts. Also I will have them TAPED INTO THE PART I REMOVED THEM FROM

Anyways, I'm waiting for my next lot of parts for the car. I'll get back into this in a week or so.

 

[EB4X]

Getting one of these (only a few bucks at local hardware etc) and then labeling bottom of each compartment with piece of masking tape / sharpee works great.

 

[CDW6212R]

Getting one of these (only a few bucks at local hardware etc) and then labeling bottom of each compartment with piece of masking tape / sharpee works great.

View attachment 340517

I have several of those container types. I've got odd items in them, bolts, nuts, small part items that can be kept together in them, some transmission parts, etc.

Take lots of pictures along the way for any project, you will be glad to have them later. I only took a lot early on for my big 99 rebuild, and some later as I made steps putting it back together. My rolling chassis picture and many SOHC front engine pictures have been very helpful.

 

[Pekka]

It's been a while. I tried and I failed to do the V8 swap. In fact, I totally botched it. All the work done to the frame have been mostly in vain.

But, I've learned a lot, so that's that.

I didn't have the time or the resources to finish the project, also the cabin is thoroughly rusted now for standing outside for years.

So I did what any sane person would do in this situation, I bought another car with a working engine

It's a '99 POLICE INTERCEPTOR and it is in horrible condition! But now I have a ton of spares from old '00 EB!


I have a "things to do" -list, and it's a big one.

Rear leaf springs are FLAT
Rear shocks are dead
Exhaust leaks
Front diff leaks oil
Main seal leaks oil
Overdrive issues
Engine coolant temperature sensor doesn't work
Front shocks are dead
Rust
Spare tire holder is just a 2x4 with rope

It has this "please let me die" vibe, you know. But the journey continues!

(actually I have my doubts that this is an actual police interceptor but instead someone has just slapped a cool sticker on the rear door)

 

[Mbrooks420]

There weren’t 2nd Gen PIUs.

 

[donalds]

There weren’t 2nd Gen PIUs.

Yep
My buddy jack has a 95
I couldn't find any special equipment on it

 

[EB4X]

At first I thought he was talking about a Crown Vic until this > "Front diff leaks oil"

 

[C420sailor]

That’s a shame. You did all the hard work!

Hopefully it wasn’t the organization that got you. Inspecting airplanes, I learned that LOTS of plastic baggies of fasteners taped and/or tucked where they came from goes a long way. Or, at the very least, bagged and labeled.

Beyond that, not sure how you can botch it?

I assume that is a police package explorer? V8? If so, have fun with it. The V8 is amazing. While I love my SOHC, the torque curve and linear delivery of the 302 is incredible. I can feel extra passengers or a light trailer behind my SOHC. The 302? I forget it’s back there.

And the snappy shifts of a J-modded 4R70W….mmmmmm

 

[Pekka]

I took too much to bite and never managed to fit the 4,6 V8 on my car. I did horrible work on welding the engine mounts and because of mostly time constraints I wasn't able to give enough effort for the engine swap. It's easier to start fiddling with a drivable car.

The new '99 is with 4.0 SOHC engine. From it's history, I know that it has been imported first to Germany in the early 00's, then 2011 it was imported to Finland. If it's police package or not, I really don't know. The install of bull bar on the front looks aftermarket and most probably it just has a cool sticker that says POLICE INTERCEPTOR and the car has never seen service in law enforcement.

So I started the easy parts swaps. Most fault codes gave my rear window because of broken contacts on the window defroster. I swapped the rear window glass, shred both of the window mount threads and snapped defroster contacts off the window

What parts can I swap from '00 to '99? Are transmission and front diff the same on both year models? Is the EB climate control unit compatible with non-EB trim?

 

[CDW6212R]

The 1999 and 2000 models are identical except for wiring and features or options. That EATC from the EB is matched to the dash wiring, to swap that you would need the wiring, which includes a few going into the engine bay harness. It's easier to work with a matched set of wires, so try to use the group from the truck you prefer the features of. Then there will be less wiring to have to figure out or change.

 

[Pekka]

Thanks for the answer. I can't be bothered to deal with the front diff seals so I'll just swap the differentials since '00 doesn't leak yet. Since I'm going to drop the transmission because of main seal leak, I might be able to tackle the overdrive malfunction by just swapping the '00 tranny instead of actually doing any actual repair work.