Darn Heep!

OK, so i go to a ORV type park Livingston, Ky for a day of off roading, i'm with a Heeper freind and i'm following him, i can tell he's going places that he doesn't think i can go through, but i make it. Pretty much to make a long story short, i hung with the heep in the hill/rock/step crawling department, so he decides to hit up the mud, and Hydro-locked. Of course here comes the X to the rescue, i have to get into the mud which is around knee deep, just under the doors on the truck. to pull him out, i get him out and start towing him down the trail....YOu should've seen the looks we got with an explorer towing out a jeep...well we get out of the park and towards a gas station and the explorer starts running hot, i rush to a car wash and let the truck sit for about an hour cleaned everything, but the truck still ran hot, we couldn't figure it out, so i start taking everything off the motor and the fan side of the radiator was soo caked in mud that i was getting no air flow through it.

here we are removing stuff

The Heep friend cleaning off my radiator

Here she is just sittin pretty

And finally after about 4.5 hours of cleaning my engine and radiator the truck runs cool again, and the heep is towed home!

 

[zensius]

Couldn't do that mud job better if it was painted on! Nice job. Great looking rig. Way to better the Explorer name in the field.

 

[Doug]

Very Nice. When i was out at paragon a friend of mine was running through some real thick mud and did the same thing. fortunantly a friend of mine lives 5 minutes from the park so we just booked back there and power washed it. Im wondering are you running 3.27s with the stock gears?

 

[JoshC]

That a boy Yomie, how did she perform for you, tires do good and all that stuff?

Happy trails!!

 

[Yomie]

Tires were excellent, they did better than i thought they would. i am running the 33x12.5's with 3.73 gears (which is stock for my truck) and a 5-speed tranny. I was in 4lo alot but we were doing some climbing. if i find the money in the future i will regear but for now i can live. i avg about 17-19 mpg on the interstate and about 13-15 in the city, (after the tire height calculation so this might not be totally accurate, but close).

Sorry there are no pictures of the park itself, we forgot the camera in the Expedition which was at the entrance.

So what is the best way to remove mud caked in the engine compartment (theres still some in there)

 

[410Fortune]

Engine de-greaser and low pressure water.

I like Gunk's Foamy engine bright myself, the hose should be fine. Get it wet, let it soak, spray the gunk in there, let it sit for 5 minutes, spray it off. Works great on oil or mud. Works best if engine is warm.

 

[Alec]

Very cool!

In AZ we had to help some Heeps off the trail that couldn't make it across the river by themselves. Rick just strapped em up and yanked them across They were impressed when the wimpy 2wd Explorer made it across unaided

 

[Josh Adams]

I love hearing stories, or seeing in person, something other than a Jeep doing well in the off road world. I especially like seeing it in person. I think Jeep are over rated, stock Jeeps anyway. My cuz's Wrangler has opened diffs, and no flex, still has sway bars. I had to pull him out of a creek we were playing in one day, cause he didn't have any kind of traction device. I love Ex's and my Ranger.

 

[1993fordexplode]

I love pulling j**ps out of places they couldn't go that my ex could. I laugh and they get mad! I love it.

 

[weebo]

yomie!!!

long time no see!!!

nice looking rig.

I've been hearing alot about Livingston lately....I wonder my my x would be like down there....

get in touch sometime

 

[Yomie]

Originally posted by weebo
yomie!!!

I've been hearing alot about Livingston lately....I wonder my my x would be like down there....

get in touch sometime

Who have you been hearing about livingston from? its a pretty cool place. there are trails out there and its alot of climbing, like steep hills, or step kinda stuff, not alot of rocks but kinda clay/dirt stuff, it was pretty fun, there are a few mud holes in the back but i would stay away from thoes, they are VERY deep.

If you go out there you gotta watch out for the mud buggies...4 wheelers...and dirt bikes, but it was pretty fun!

 

[baexploder]

man did that bring up a bad memory! i did exactly what you did tryin to show off for diff whack daddy and tdavis at hollister hills.but i learnd from it.and i ended up pulling out my radiator and gently spraying the fins clean. cool lookin truck!

 

[Yomie]

Originally posted by baexploder
i ended up pulling out my radiator and gently spraying the fins clean. cool lookin truck!

Thats exactly what i had to end up doing...and thanx for the compliments

 

[jimbo74]

hehe..... i had my radiator fluid boiling when i went mudding at carnegie.... that brings back memories of 10 minutes before the roll

 

[jshexplo96]

Yomie, did you tear off the lower valance while you were there?? Is that what that is sitting in the back???

 

[Yomie]

no, i had the lower valence off already, i had been planning on putting it back on, thats why it is in the back, but it was already off when we got there, but did you notice i whacked the rear bumper pretty good, its no longer straight

 

[Mbrooks420]

I worked with a kid who bent his bumper up like that. We put a heavy ass barrel on the forklift and tapped it back down. 3 minutes later it was all straight. I've also seen it done with the 3 point hitch on a tractor.

 

[Yomie]

it actually bent the lower half of the frame outward, between the shackles and the bumper...bending my bumper brackets....nothing a BFH can't fix, i'm taking the BL off shortly anyways, i'm hating it more and more every day

 

[Mbrooks420]

What are you doing with that BL by the way? Why don't you like it.

 

[Yomie]

well #1 since i now have a M5R1 ranger Manual tranny, i had to use an extention on my shifter which makes 1st gear 5 miles away from 2nd gear..and so on with 3-4. the body lift also makes the shackles look 2 miles long. Since i wheel my truck and keep it very clean (like i enter shows with it) the body lift allows dirt and water and mud to enter my engine compartmentand get everything dirty (never had a problem before the body lift) my front bumper doesn't line up perfectly now with the bumper extentions (but only i notice that). i don't like the look of the frame hanging really low beneath the body, if i pass you on the other side of the road you can see my frame. and you can see daylight in my rear wheel wells from the other side of the truck. i know i'm picky but i've always been picky.

When i take the lift off i have to use some of the bolts (this is a 2" BL from a 91-94 explorer) all i really used were the blocks, i had to get my own bolts and i got bumper brackets from the 98+ ranger, i had to make my own rear bumper brackets, the fan shroud would only drop down 1.5" due to the radiator hose, man i could go on for days, it would have prolly been easier with the 3" BL but i'm done with BL's its all suspention from here on out, that is if i even keep this thing lifted.