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Brian1 91 XLT 4x4

Brian1's 1991 Ford Explorer
Moab Edition

Drivetrain:

4.0 V6
BrianBuilt intake adapter with AEM Dryflow filter and Pre-filter
Dynomax cat back exhaust with
High flow cat
Spectre 3" Aluminum intake
BBK Throttle Body
5 speed manual trans With custom transmission mount
4.10 gears
Front D35 TTB, locked
Rear 8.8 with disc brakes, Powertrax No-slip locker, welded tubes to diff, Riddler Cover
Warn manual hubs
Manual BW1354 Transfer Case (swapped in)

Chassis & Suspension:
Skyjacker 2" coils and add a leafs
1" custom aluminum body lift
Quick disconnect front swaybar
Bilstein 5125s 10" shocks rear
Bilstein 5125s 10" shocks front
F250 Shock Tower Conversion
Custom Extended Radius Arms


Interior:
PRP daily driver seat
Cobra CB
E-track cargo tie down system
Lowrance HDS 5 Baja GPS for offroad explorations
Yaesu FT2800 HAM Radio

Wheels & Tires:
LT265/75R16 Dick Cepek Trail Country EXP tires (currently, Cooper STT and BFG MT in the past)
16" GenII teardrop wheels, formerly had 15" stock Gen II teardrop wheels

Misc:
Warn 9000lb multi mount winch with synthetic rope
Onboard Air using Viair 480c compressor and 2.5 gallon tank
Front diff guard from BrianBuilt
Rear u-bolt skid plates and raised shock mounts from BrianBuilt
Raised axle and t-case breathers
Custom Bolt-on Rock Sliders (version 2.0)
Custom Winch bumper
Custom rear bumper with tire carrier
9" Vision X ADV Cannons LED Lights (Old: 9" import LEDs and 7" HID Lights)
Reverse light
Pro-comp extended brake lines
9007 Headlight conversion
Fuel Pump Access Panel
Replacement Door Weatherstripping
Dual Batteries with auxillary fuse block
ARB Awning
ARB Fridge
Maxtrax Recovery Boards
Trasharoo Spare Tire Trash Bag

Project Super Stock

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part of the reason intake spacers are plastic is heat soak, it keeps the UIM cooler so the incoming air charge is cooler = more power
Doesn't anyone make a phenolic spacer for the ohv?

There is but it is a $100 piece of plastic. This one is essentially free. Heat soak is negligible because it is separated by several cardboard gaskets which do not conduct/transfer heat very well. Additionally a 3/8" to 1/2" thick piece of aluminum is not going to matter much when there is a massive aluminum manifold above it that is already heat soaking from the under-hood air. I'm more after increasing the intake runner length which effects the torque curve bringing it lower. This whole thing is an experiment anyway, I don't have an eta when I plan to install it or if I will even keep it on if I don't notice any improvements
 



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I've been working on a craft project recently :D . I made black-out window shades that also help with insulation. I camp inside my Explorer on many "overland" trips so these shades will help insulate in cold weather camping as well as provide privacy when camped near other people. Camping in warm weather the reflective side can face out to keep the inside cooler.

I bought a 24" x 10' roll of Reflectix, some black fabric, spray adhesive and some masking paper to make the window templates with. The roll was enough for the 3 rear windows and one front door window (if you are good at Tetris!). I still plan to make some for my door windows. Overall I'm pretty happy with how they turned out!

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I did the exact thing to my van. I added a tab and some material to the inside as well, because I couldn't get passed the silver ugliness in there. :)

You're going to like it!

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C
Nice shades dudes they came out nicely, there were a couple of times during our big move I wished I had those....you know sleeping in the back seat of excursion at rest area with bright lights and RV's full of kids all around....sucks!
 
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I did this years ago in the F350 I drove while working in the oilfields. I hacked it kind of quick though... I just put the roll up against the window and cut it out with a razor blade.
After leaving the oilfields, those pieces for the F350 got hacked again and I use them in the Explorer when it's parked for days on end. I have 5% tint on the rear door and rear windows, so I only need the covers for the front doors.

Something I have noticed with mine over the years, they tend to shrink/swell a little depending on the temps outside. Not a lot, but enough that it creates a little extra material when trying to stuff them in the window frame.

Overall, they work great! And will really block out a lot of heat & light.
 


















That looks like a whole lot of quiet out there. Is that a LS powered Waggy with you?
 






That looks like a whole lot of quiet out there. Is that a LS powered Waggy with you?

It was very remote!

It's a FSJ Waggoneer still powered by the AMC V8. It did great the whole trip!
 


















I like the video. Are those old coke ovens that you were flying over?
 






I like the video. Are those old coke ovens that you were flying over?

Yes they are. It's an old mining town right along the railroad. The coke ovens are about all that remains. It's all private property so I had to drone it.
 






Awesome video. The place looks scenic and probably a good location for a car TV ad.
 






So for the last month and a half I have gone out camping and exploring every other weekend and put on roughly 1700 miles with 40-50% of that on dirt. It has been really fun and probably the most I have ever used my Explorer in a 'short' period of time. There have been some maintenance things and some issues come up I will get to in my next post but to recap my last few adventures-

Memorial Weekend I went down to southern NM to do some exploring in an area I haven't been much, the Lincoln National Forest. It was fun but the roads were very rough and rocky. Here is a youtube I made of that trip:



It was fun, we visited 2 rumored UFO crash sites near Roswell and found an abandoned mile long airstrip in the middle of nowhere (It was probably used when the pipeline was built)

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Two weekends after that I again went south to explore the Gila national forest after a friend invited me on his run. No video as I was just enjoying my time and being the tail plus there was more camping than miles put on.

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Double rainbow over camp!

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Whitewater-Baldy fire burn scar was massive, I believe the biggest fire in NM history.

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This last weekend a friend and I ran from the NM/CO border up the Continental Divide Trail motorized route to Salida before we ran out of weekend. We found camp Friday evening about 30 miles in on the dirt route. It was a 9 hour, 200 mile day on Saturday with spectacular scenery finished off by about another 50 miles Sunday. I plan to make a short video of the trip soon.

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I'm currently looking into options for where to next to keep my streak going, it will definitely be somewhere North to stay cool
 






So a few maintenance issues have been taken care of and in process.

First my door switches have started to go bad. First it was the rear passenger window switch that went out which made the master driver door window switch not work either for my rear passenger door window. Got that replaced with one from my parts pile and it is now working great. Next is the unlock button on the passenger door. I'm stumped on what the problem is. I have metered the switch and it appears to be working. I also tried another switch I had and it doesn't unlock either. I even tried jumping the contacts and couldn't get it to unlock from the passenger side door. The lock does work though. Maybe a bad wire but I have no idea where.

Next is my tail light is out. Last time on the other side I found the connector housing had 'relaxed' and was not making contact with the good bulb so I put a big zip tie around it to essentially squeeze the connector housing around the bulb and that is still working great. Seems like that did the trick for this side too. They are both aftermarketr connectors as the old factory ones were too brittle to keep using.

I just performed my 3k mile oil change on the new engine and everything looked great. While I was under the Explorer I did a quick inspection of everything and found my rear t-case output was loose. I took the drive line off and the nut was only finger tight! Put on some loctite and retorqued to 175 ft/lbs. I noticed on my last trip that a slight vibration I had while coasting was gone or much reduced. That slight vibration has been there for a long time and I have even retorqued the nut before. I probably need to pull the t-case and rebuild it with new bearings and seals and maybe a new chain.

Next up is my air filter issues. I have been running a KKM intake adapter and cone filter for probably 15+ years. I decided to clean it just before my trip this past weekend and ran into a major problem. The cotton gauze filter media had rotted out and disintegrated in a few places that I could see right through the wire mesh! That is no good especially for my brand new engine. I'm not sure who made the filter for them but I hope it wasn't a K&N as it was about 900k miles short of their million mile warranty. Luckily I had a spare used cone filter and an intake adapter I made out of an old MAF housing so that got put on for the short term.

The KKM intake has a 3.625" inlet diameter and the filter I had is a 3.5" but luckily I had an adapter I had experimented with by turning down a MAF housing on the lathe. Now I think I plan on looking for a dry flow air filter that uses synthetic material instead of the cotton oiled gauze filters that I have never really liked. Universal options for the 3.625 inlet are severely limited I have found so I will probably go with a 3.5" once I find one with the right specs/dimensions to fit proper. Anyone have experience with the cleanable dry filters?

Old photo I had of the adapter I made out of a cut up MAF housing. Left is the scrap part, middle is a cheap plastic adapter that was on a parts Explorer I tossed out and right is the machined adapter out of the other half of the MAF housing.

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Also my engine rebuild story and an additional story on the Indeflate tire airdown tool with my Explorer both appeared in the July 2020 Fourwheeler magazine. If you hurry you may still be able to find them on the shelves.
 
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Sounds like you had a great time out there. With all the crap that's going on It's a great time to be on the trail exploring:chug:
 






Just finished the video from last weekend:

 



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I found a bolt in the curb by my driveway. It sure looked like an exhaust manifold bolt so I held onto it until I could take a look at my engine. Sure enough I was missing 2 exhaust manifold bolts on the passenger side with a few more loose. No exhaust leak was heard. I had to pull another bolt out of my original engine I had in storage to replace the missing one. Got them all retorqued on both sides.

I also installed my new AEM Dryflow filter 21-204BF with a 3.5" ID inlet to fit on my custom machined adapter. It is the Bruteforce version designed for dusty off-road conditions so hopefully it should hold up and do a good job. I cleaned my MAF with some CRC MAF cleaner as well.
 

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