Brian1 91 XLT 4x4 | Page 19 | Ford Explorer Forums - Serious Explorations

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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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Looks like a fun trip:chug:

I've already replaced my cat twice. Once to switch to a high flow, before the original went bad, and again to replace the high flow when it stopped doing it's job.
 



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I had to replace the cats when the 700R4 was installed. They would not fit so one high flow went in instead. If I did that now, it would be rejected by CARB, but its over ten years old so its grandfathered in. Gotta love California.

Looks like a fun trip, just getting out in the dirt would be nice.
 






The cat on it now is a high flow (one of a few mods I did the first several years of owning it) and Ive had to repair the middle connecting pipe a few times from cracks where it had the mounting rod. I guess I should order a new one. About 5 more years and I shouldn't have to go through emissions anymore because of its age!
 


















That was a pretty cool video. Almost made me miss living in the High Desert, Hesperia, Victorville area.
 






Another trip another video! This time to the Southeastern part of Utah about 2 hours south of Moab

Recap:



Extended Cut of the full drive down Comb Ridge



On the way home I hit a large bird doing 55mph on the highway right in the middle of my grill. It broke out the center section, luckily I had an extra at home from an Explorer I parted out so I painted the grey parts black and put it on the day after I got home. Also changed the transmission fluid since I am getting a whine in 3rd and 5th. Im hoping I dont need to tear down the trans to replace some bearings so I will have to keep an eye on that to see if it gets any worse.
 






Nice vids Brian! Been watching some Overland family exploring southern Utah the last month, and it's amazing landscape!

What are using to edit the gopro footage?
 






Nice vids Brian! Been watching some Overland family exploring southern Utah the last month, and it's amazing landscape!

What are using to edit the gopro footage?

Thanks! My camera is a cheap GoPro knockoff, Akaso brand, and it works pretty well. You can see how well the stabilization works in the 2nd video going down the ridge. You see the hood bouncing all over but the image stays pretty straight especially for being hardmounted to my windshield. For editing I use a free program called Kdenlive on my Windows based laptop. It takes a little bit to learn but I have the basic functions of it down.
 






Pretty country. Something about driving on a cliff face seems to slow me way down.
 






Doing some maintenance the past few days getting ready for a trip to Colorado next week. My A/C stopped working around the time I got home from the Utah trip. I figured the bird crash might have put a pin hole in my a/c condenser and leaked all the refrigerant out. I misplaced my manifold guage set and had to tear apart the garage to find it but I finally got it hooked up and the pressures were just fine. Then I jumped the a/c clutch and that worked. I moved onto the pressure switch and ran a continuity test which told me the switch was closed for the pressure that was in the system so it was working. Finally a light bulb went off in my head and I replaced the only part that wasn't new - the wide open throttle A/C relay that cuts power to the compressor clutch. It is underneath the under-hood fuse box (along with the fuel pump relay). The relay must have been the original Ford one from when it was built. I had a new one on hand so it was a quick fix after all the diagnostic work.

My e-brake dash light wasn't working well so I sanded the contacts on the switch by the pedal and now its working. I also replaced a few flickering or non-operational LED dash cluster lights with new LED bulbs. I adjusted my parking brake today too, why haven't I done this sooner! My e-brake has always been terrible since I swapped in the disc brake 8.8. Today I took off the rotors and the shoes looked fine. I turned the star probably 15 times and that seemed to be the sweet spot with no drag on the brakes and an e-brake that actually holds.

Next on the list is to make a slight adjustment to my t-case linkage as I think it is not fully engaging the shift fork in 4wd.
 


















Brian, how does the Explorer do at high altitude? Mine seems to get even more gutless than usual.
 






Brian, how does the Explorer do at high altitude? Mine seems to get even more gutless than usual.
I really don't notice any change. It's 5k here and the trip varied from that up to 13k. It's never done good going up hills but I can accelerate up them if I keep it at/above 3k RPMs.
 






I changed out my wheels for some 2nd Gen 16" ones after returning from Overland Expo. I cut out the front center caps for my hubs on the lathe and they are a perfect fit, flush with the hub face.

I took a drive on a back road through the local mountains to meet up with a 4x4 group the day after I got them put on. I like the look of these wheels much better!

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Just got the same center caps for some new wheels on my Explorer. What size hole saw did you use to cut for the hubs?
 


















How about some updates?

Last trip out was mid October, another fun one chasing an old narrow gauge steam train through the forest

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Before this trip I noticed my rear quarter window was leaking and water was getting in. During the trip I found out why and noticed the window moved in and out because a few nuts had worked themselves loose. Got home and ordered 3M Windo-Weld Round Ribbon Sealer in a 1/4"x15' kit. It worked great. I pulled the interior rear quarter trim and took out the glass, vacuumed all the dirt out, removed the old t-case shift computer that was no longer needed, pulled out some old auxiliary wiring when I used to have a roof rack with lights years ago, and painted the bottom steel bracket under the window that was rusty. Window was reinstalled with loctite on the nuts this time!

I also noticed a small crack in the body near the tire jack so I ran some seam sealer around the seams and over the small crack. I also cut a small portion out of the metal jack bracket/holder so I could finally slide my bottle jack in flat and fit better in the compartment. (I got rid of the factory jack soon after owning my Explorer)

Also during the cleanup of all the mud from the trip I poked a hole through the back of my rocker in the wheelwell area while scraping some mud out. No big deal...I'll seal it up with something and that's when I opened Pandora's Box :oops: More to come in the next post...
 



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I decided to pull off my bumpers and sliders to clean them up and give them some new paint. The undersides were getting rusty and dinged up from rock chips. I pulled off my sliders and got another surprise -

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To go along with the other side rockers I talked about in my post above -

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I prodded around and wound up cutting and grinding out a lot of rust from the rear dogleg areas on both sides.

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I applied rust converter to the insides and then made my own patch panels out of 20ga steel since the entire dog leg wasn't too bad except in a few spots. After much welding and sanding I got it all smoothed down and looking good for a skim coat of bondo. Before completly sealing everything up I did apply some primer and then some rubberized sealant to the insides of the rockers as much as I could access. As a bonus I was able to finally seal up those "tupperware" holes on the passenger side from a previous body shop fix 14 years ago when I had it repainted. I smoothed it down and applied some truck bed coating to match the texture of the lower body paint (it had a tough coating applied under the rubber trim all around) and to protect against rock chips.

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Lastly I tracked down some factory color matched paint (Medium Sandalwood Metallic in this case) in a large spray can with another can of automotive clear coat. It was the most expensive spray paint I have ever bought but it worked out great. I also shot my frame with some gloss black and used some undercoating on the backside of the rockers and in my rear wheelwell. I applied some POR15 seam sealer to a few places that needed it as well, that stuff works well and is tough!

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All-in-all it turned out pretty good. I did all the work in my driveway and without any real bodywork experience.

I also got my rocksliders and rear bumper sanded down and repainted. I had to replace the swingout bearings on my rear bumper as the old ones were getting rusty and smashed/flat in spots. I wanted to see how much my bumper and sliders weighed so I put them on the scale before reinstalling. Rear bumper with bare swingout came in at 155lbs and my sliders were 67lbs per side. Thats a hefty 229 lbs!
 






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