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Ford Explorer Community - Maintenance - Modifications - Performance Upgrades - Problem Solving - Off-Road - Street
Explorer Forum Covers the Explorer ST, Explorer Sport, Explorer Sport Trac, Lincoln Aviator, Mercury Mountaineer, Mazda Navajo, Ford Ranger, Mazda Pickups, and the Ford Aerostar
I blew out fel pro and the ones Robert sends w headers. Remflex only one to seal
Not all good fasteners can be accessed when installing tmh there are a couple of spots where you must use Allen head or 6/12 point head for wrench
Also my bronco probably gets too much water snow mudd and ice on the headers
It was a few years before I built plastic inner fender protectors to help. I am sure this contributed the loss of gaskets
My first install was almost 20 years ago now
I also ran some copper gaskets for a while they seemed to seal well
Remflex has been the absolute best with the tmh…. Time will tell!
They look so nice! 24 bwhp just by bolting them on proven!
Haha yeah, I can appreciate the header sealing interface, it can be a real problem. I have a selection of copper gaskets and would prefer to run those, but none of them actually fit as good as the 1487. I do have some ARP studs with 12 point nuts for a lot of the header mounting fasteners, but agreed... this is one area where if you upgrade an engine and install headers, you have to be fairly diligent about going back and checking the torque pretty regularly.
I don't see anything from Remflex that fits the Dart/World port very well, but I do see that Flatout makes pn 7012C in copper that would work. Annealed copper gaskets with a coating of Copper Coat sealer makes for a fairly durable interface, in my experience.
Well, she is mid-progress at the moment, but I believe it's all downhill from here. The transmission will be ready this upcoming week, the EEC-V has been reprogrammed, the exhaust fits, the tank is currently out and I only need a new connector for the 190 lph pump.
I spoke with a business near my office downtown that specializes in high end custom interiors. They can do a Katzkin leather reupholster with heated seat elements for a tidy sum. I was thinking of going for it as both of my front seats have torn leather, currently. They're still quite comfortable, but could use the heated elements on long trips and in the cold. Any thoughts on reupholstery? It sure isn't cheap...
Depends what you want. Upholstery is quite a skill to master, so I understand why it costs a lot to have a pro do it. If you're wanting to stick to a budget, I've had good luck "rebuilding" seats with different bases/foam inserts/upholstery all taken from salvage yards. If you want a stock look with added features and on a budget, this path works for sure.
What interior do you have now? I always see decent titanium grey and medium prairie tan interiors in salvage yards. Other colors are harder to find.
The Mountaineer’s interior appears to be a light grey leather and similarly shaded carpet. It’s nice, with Mountaineer embroidered into the front seats. The quote for Katzkins is $1100 for both front seats and the heated upgrade costs $300 per seat, which I thought was a bit steep, but I do not have the craftsmanship to do a good job with this, so I’m willing to shell out for it.
Katz kins are very nice and when professionally installed will look like new factory seats
You can also get some very nice seats on eBay for that type of money, but some amount of fabrication and wiring is usually required to fit seats from another make /
Model
I like the thought of new upholstery, I'm aiming that way for mine at the end also. I would skip the heated feature, unless you could do it yourself. I have never needed heated seats, you feel fine after sitting for a minute or so. The steering wheel is a bigger deal to have ice cold, that I wish I could make heated. People have added aftermarket heating elements under the seat top layer, a kit made for that, and it be maybe $150 for two. That was a long time ago though, in a Ranger; times have changed.
The light grey leather is so common, I bet you could find some good upholstery in the salvage yard. When you swap the upholstery, that'd be the perfect time to add heat elements if you want them. Using OE parts will keep the cost down and just about guarantee a good fit, but it will require some tedious work to dissect a few seats.
Yeah, I’m looking for easy street with regards to the seat repairs. Being mid-swing on a full drivetrain replacement doesn’t leave me with much motivation to deal with it aside from farming it out. Some aspects of the motorization on my seats are also in need of help, so hopefully that can be dealt with at the same time as upholstery.
Check eBay for mint condition replacement seats
I have 01 Eddie Bauer heated leather tan non perforated in my 88 bronco ii. I paid $800 for them shipped to me that was 15+ years ago. They are mint, hardly any cracks in the drivers leather.
I put neoprene eBay covers on them to keep them perfect underneath
02-05 sport tracs have very nice seats
Some late rangers have nice black leather too
If I could find a black leather ranger setup with the black Gen. Ii dash and all the trimmings that would be ideal upgrade for a gen ii sploder
Ranger f150 seats on eBay are $$$$
But if you type in Lincoln or Mazda the prices drop big time even though their seats are better
Wow, nice to have the TMH's with your rebuild! Installation is easier and they eliminate the bottleneck, allowing you to get the most out of your other upgrades.
The leather and heat sounds great but they sure like their work. I wonder what it would take to install the heat? I got sticker shock on $300 each. I went with an 05 Ranger, tall back, bucket bench and tough cordura seat covers.
Yes, $300/seat for the installation of the heated elements is not cheap at all, but considering I have zero skills in the upholstery department as well as the fact that this shop is literally walking distance from my office makes it appealing. The $1000 bill for both seats reupholstered using Katzkins is not a bad deal, though.
I priced out some new vehicles, like a new Ford Bronco and a few Jeep models as replacement vehicles, but I prefer my old Mountaineer for family roadtrip stationwagon duties. I enjoy visiting Mexico and when driving down there you want to fly under the radar and avoid unwanted attention. A new vehicle would almost certainly get you pulled over for no reason, which is a common occurrence in the Mexican state of Sonora.
The transmission and t-case are back and ready for installation! The transmission received a proper warming up, with improved frictions made of carbon/kevlar. The front drum was replaced with a billet steel version of it, new direct drum (not billet), J-mod in conjunction with a B&M shift kit (which was already installed). The converter is a Precision of New Hampton unit with 2300-2800 stall rating, anti-balloon plate and furnace brazing throughout. It also has a Luk clutch internally, so that will be a nice upgrade. T-case received a refresh with new seals and all new bearings, it looked fine internally and it doesn't look like there's much that can actually go wrong with a 4404 due to their simplicity, but we'll find out!
Who is going to wire up the seats? Where do you mount the buttons?
Things to consider when adding heated seats, I like the factory buttons on the sides of the bolster, makes wiring easier. Usually I add a fuse to the pjb under the hood and run a new dedicated power feed and then branch it off to both drivers and pass seat under the floor/ carpeting..
I also use factory pigtails so you may want to grab some from the junk yard so you can make the seats plug in and out
I added heated seats to my 88 about 20 years ago still work fine!
This thread is a decently how to on replacing the stock heater element
So it's winter and when the heated seat doesn't work, themishmosh isn't a happy boy. The driver's seat was not heating but the passenger seat was fine...a good sign, I thought to myself. The cooling/ventilation was working. I pull codes using Forscan Lite and get Code B1208 - Driver Seat Cushion...
Looking at the electrical schematics for the 2nd Gen, I can see that the vehicle is already wired to support heated seats as that was a factory option. The heated option had the controls on the seat itself, making for a modular seat assembly although it probably leaves some room for improvement with regards to knowing what setting it’s at.
I just cleaned the **** out of my shop, it took me about 4 hours of scrubbing and mopping. Planning to stab the transmission in tomorrow.
The 1999 model had the heated seat option, standard on the Limited. I have the 99, the wiring for it is fairly simple, but it's one power wire that runs through the body harness to the engine bay harness, to the PDB. It has it's own fuse, white, I used that circuit for a different purpose in my mail truck.
So adding it would be difficult if you wanted to add the OEM wires. It's easier to just add one wire to tap into another existing circuit, such as the dash ashtray if the truck had that one.
The 99-01 Limited's had the flat front seats, less form fitting than the popular prior seats.
The wires are not present in the truck for the heated seats
Not in the ones I have seen
The wires have to be added at least at the seat and at the power junction box
The transmission is in! Not accomplished without a transmission jack with a tilt head. It's super tight in there! The service manual immediately calls out for installation of the trans dipstick, so glad we got that in as the main assembly went in... it would've been impossible to get it in place otherwise.
