Figuring Out What Parked The Ex...

[mohavewolfpup]

there are two head designs which will work for you're explorer. the 91tm and 93tm. the only differences between them that i know of is the exhaust port design. somewhere around 95 or 96 they changed the chamber size of the head (i believe smaller) so if you use heads off say, a '96 you're compression will be way too high and it'll predetonate and stuff..

but the heads have casting numbers on them, look for 91tm or 93tm. ...all of this information is on this forum you just have to search around.

by the way.. thats one clean looking engine from the pics.. wish mine was that clean! hah

it looked like hell before I hosed it down. lots of desert dust everywhere and i'm still finding cobwebs and eggs in it. I'm concerned why alot of the parts have pitting on them, like the metal piece that the alternator fits into. looks like it's heavily pitting and oxidizing, like bad chrome plating i've seen on older car hood ornaments and stuff

 

[arco777]

If I recall correctly, 95TM heads can be used with premium gas (90 octane or better) to safely boost performance. Worth researching.

 

[mohavewolfpup]

If I recall correctly, 95TM heads can be used with premium gas (90 octane or better) to safely boost performance. Worth researching.

are they better made then the current 90TM heads it sports? regular octane gas is fine, so I would hesitate to upgrade to 95TM just for being stuck with a higher fuel bill. the 20mpg it got is perfectly fine with me, don't want it dropping and my bank account following along with it! If they are better made then 90TM heads, then maybe it would be worth the cheaper cost of the heads at a junkyard at this point...

Anyway, here's a major update for the thread. I tore into the engine alot more today, and the camera followed along!

^Passengers Side Valve Cover^

^Passengers Side Valve Cover^

^Passengers Side Cylinder Head^

^Passengers Side Cylinder Head^

^Passengers Side Cylinder Head^

^Passengers Side Cylinder Head^

^Passengers Side Cylinder Head^

^Passengers Side Cylinder Head^

And Here's The Paydirt I'm looking for, the drivers side! Good lord all that rust!

^Drivers Side Valve Cover^

^Drivers Side Valve Cover^

^Drivers Side Valve Cover^ (this photo shows the oil that leaked into the gasket. Could this be a sign of something also? see photo below also for the oil stain)

^Drivers Side Valve Cover^

^Drivers Side Cylinder Head^

^Drivers Side Cylinder Head^

^Drivers Side Cylinder Head^

^Drivers Side Cylinder Head^

^Drivers Side Cylinder Head^

^Drivers Side Cylinder Head^

^Drivers Side Cylinder Head^

^Drivers Side Cylinder Head^

So what is everyone's opinion? My mom thinks it needs a total rebuild, and I'm wondering if the rust damage on the drivers side continued down into the cylinders deep into the block. I hope to god it didn't. Anyone seen this symptom before? It's far worse on the drivers side then it is the Passengers side as you can see by the photos.

If it means anything, I would say the most it was driven with the issue it has was maybe less then 15 miles, then into the backyard where it sits now for the last 10 years (come june, 10 years)

I'll be working on getting the exhaust manifolds disconnected tommorrow and then maybe i'll get the heads pulled off for a through inspection

 

[Mirge]

If you wanted to get it back running cheap... might be worthwhile to look at some junk yards for a motor that you can just swap into yours... damn that is a lot of rust..

 

[rhauf]

Personally i wouldn't be concerned about the rust. it's just surface rust from sitting. all the bearings and other moving parts will still have oil in them and therefore (if you pull them apart) will look exactly as they would have the day it was parked.

i would recommend after getting it running, to change the oil however, as the oil will pick up all the loose rust and junk.

 

[mohavewolfpup]

Personally i wouldn't be concerned about the rust. it's just surface rust from sitting. all the bearings and other moving parts will still have oil in them and therefore (if you pull them apart) will look exactly as they would have the day it was parked.

i would recommend after getting it running, to change the oil however, as the oil will pick up all the loose rust and junk.

I would probably do that before and many times after even, just to insure it works well. Is synthetic or dino oil a good bet for this engine?

 

[Tony H]

I guess you put lube in the cylinder walls and was able to be turned by hand since you started to disassemble.
Good at least you know the bottom end turns.
I wouldn't sweat the surface rust. 10 years of condensation will do that. Clean the Valve covers with Brillo or a kitchen scouring pad before putting them back on.

Don't even bother fighting the passenger side exhaust manifold until you disassemble the Drivers side. That's the Big Rust Head and that is the Head that had the Failing Spark Plug. That's the side that needs attention. Besides, if you pull the head and the cylinder walls are shot, then you didn't waist time on the more difficult side.

 

[mohavewolfpup]

I almost forgot also. Before I wrapped up for the day yesterday, I loosened the spark plugs on the passengers side and I believe it was the middle one that the insulator on it was pure white. I'll check again to make sure that was the right one with it.

Does that mean anything? The others just had your normal soot on them from operation, but one was pure white like it was just installed fresh out of the package

 

[arco777]

If it's not actually new, a clean plug is often indicating misfire due to coolant dumping into that cylinder through a crack in the head or gasket.

As for motor oil, I'd put cheap stuff in like Wal-Mart brand with a Fram filter, change the oil after 15-30 mins runtime with more cheap stuff, then change it again with a good quality oil and filter. That way you flush a lot of the crud and acidic sludge out. I use Motorcraft filters and Mobil 1 High Mileage (full-syn) 5w-30 or 10w-30 depending on season, but your motor's not really high mileage yet

 

[Turdle]

I almost forgot also. Before I wrapped up for the day yesterday, I loosened the spark plugs on the passengers side and I believe it was the middle one that the insulator on it was pure white. I'll check again to make sure that was the right one with it.

Does that mean anything? The others just had your normal soot on them from operation, but one was pure white like it was just installed fresh out of the package

Using a couple jumper wires to the battery-contact each injector-

they should "click" . Now,compare, and see if the "clean white plug" cylinders don't just have dead injectors

 

[mohavewolfpup]

Would bad injectors cause misfires and other issues also? I pulled all of the plugs today so the cylinder heads can come off, and on the passengers side I actually found 2 spark plugs that almost look brand new, even though they are very old (installed in 98 or so I think) In the below photos is one with my 2 fingers held over it, those 2 points underneath them are the part of the passengers side head that had the 2 clean spark plugs in it. (the location of them is the first spark plug would go into the head closest to the firewall and then the second spark plug is in the middle of the head, 3rd plug has your usual soot on it from the combustion)

What is with all the gunk and garbage in the cooling passages (that's what those are I assume?) In the photos, you can see it's in the heads also, as well as the block.

Any idea why the oil on the drivers side also appears to be very scorched and burned? looks like a new form of plastic under there! You can see it littering the top of the cylinder head co-mingled with the rust. I haven't cleaned/pressure washed the heads yet to inspect for visual cracking, so let me know if you need any close up photos of them, and i'll use my better DSLR camera versus the point and shoot I usually use.

EDIT: also forgot one of the photos shows a cylinder head bolt (passenger side) that has chocolate milk looking oil on it. One of the rocker arm bolts (middle one, from the back of the engine near the firewall for reference) had it also. The drivers side also had a rocker arm bolt covered in that, forgot if a second bolt in the head also had it (don't believe so) Would that mean the head is cracked?

Head castings says 93TM Also if that helps in anyway

 

[Tony H]

If the porcelian was white like the plug was new, there is a good chance that coolant caused by a Head Gasket leak was getting into that cylinder.
I know it's been 10 years but does mom remember the exhaust smelling sweet? Did they have to keep topping of the coolant level?

 

[jrowe6]

i personally would spend some time cleaning those heads as good as i could with a wire brush and some brake cleaner. maybe even some penetrating lube to see if it could break down some of that rust on the valve springs and on the valve stems. but idk how good an idea that is? anyone?

is that yellow stuff in the water passages solid and brittle or is it goopy muddy type stuff?

 

[mohavewolfpup]

Tony: as far as I can remember, I believe it did smell sweet. When it was in it's death throes, I believe the radiator was bubbling like mad and alot of the coolant/water mixture was being dumped into the overflow tank.

jrowe6: I just checked, and it varies between hard packed, (alot looks like densely packed carbon?) to easily poked through on each of the cylinder heads. drivers side seemed to have it the worst, the passengers side had it's fair sure of packed crud in the passages. I'm assuming the block passages are the same way

edit: just rotated the engine manually, all the pistons move with no issues at all. It has some drag, but that i'm assuming is normal for it. Rotated it through several cycles and watched each bank, none of them are stuck

Thanks for your help everyone, hopefully this thread isn't too much of a bother, wanted to really provide alot of photos since you aren't obviously local standing over my shoulder!

 

[rhauf]

If it's not actually new, a clean plug is often indicating misfire due to coolant dumping into that cylinder through a crack in the head or gasket.

As for motor oil, I'd put cheap stuff in like Wal-Mart brand with a Fram filter, change the oil after 15-30 mins runtime with more cheap stuff, then change it again with a good quality oil and filter. That way you flush a lot of the crud and acidic sludge out. I use Motorcraft filters and Mobil 1 High Mileage (full-syn) 5w-30 or 10w-30 depending on season, but your motor's not really high mileage yet

i agree with this all except the high milage oil part. IMO high milage oils should be avoided always, they are a band-aid for leaks, but they do that by puffing up seals, the end result of which is the seals rotting away. so they fix leaks for a short time, but after a year or two, things may get bad (you can google more info on this)

i personally run 10w30 full synthetic in my '93, have been running that for the last 50,000 miles (has 210k now) and no problems (no leaks, no smoke, nothing)

 

[mohavewolfpup]

Tommorrow i'm probably going to pressure wash the cylinder heads, then analyze them for cracks. does anyone think the stuff this guy used is a good idea?

http://www.custompistols.com/cars/articles/crack_inspection.htm

Seems cheap and seems to show results, but I don't know if it's the old "you get what you pay for" syndrome in full effect

I'm also pursuing if the mechanic of the century (my father) possibly put the head bolts on too weak or didn't apply the gaskets properly. Some of them look pretty corroded, like the metal insides rusted up (the gaskets only, bolts appear to be fine except with the ones that had milky oil on them). the lower intake manifold gasket tore at the front and back when I took it off

 

[rhauf]

You do know you can't reassemble the engine with the old head bolts, right? The head bolts used on these 4.0's are whats called "stretch bolts" they are a one time use bolt... replace them with *new* bolts.

the torqueing instructions for the heads, they will give you a torque spec.. then they will instruct you to give them another half turn or something, this is the "stretch" part...

i missed the part before that you're dad took the heads off and put them back on.. so if he used the old bolts this could likely be one of the problems

 

[mohavewolfpup]

You do know you can't reassemble the engine with the old head bolts, right? The head bolts used on these 4.0's are whats called "stretch bolts" they are a one time use bolt... replace them with *new* bolts.

the torqueing instructions for the heads, they will give you a torque spec.. then they will instruct you to give them another half turn or something, this is the "stretch" part...

i missed the part before that you're dad took the heads off and put them back on.. so if he used the old bolts this could likely be one of the problems

he claims to have bought new bolts, he was complaining about the price for them being expensive when he did it.

I think it's reaching the end of the line with this vehicle, I keep getting told it's off to the junkyard and a complete waste of money to fix it up

 

[jrowe6]

if you decide to just scrap that whole car it might be worth keeping it to tinker with and rip stuff apart to learn how it all works. thats what i would do or just keep it and buy a running x of the same generation. then you have a whole truck worth of spare parts. plus isnt that truck like new on the inside?? i would think the interior would look great. you could always swap out the carpet and seats and everything to the running truck. or swap the engine and trans from the good truck to the one you already have. to find one of those trucks with 65k on it will be hard, and when you do find it chances are it will be more expensive than you want. so why not buy a running one for $500 and use it to get your good one going again.

 

[mohavewolfpup]

if you decide to just scrap that whole car it might be worth keeping it to tinker with and rip stuff apart to learn how it all works. thats what i would do or just keep it and buy a running x of the same generation. then you have a whole truck worth of spare parts. plus isnt that truck like new on the inside?? i would think the interior would look great. you could always swap out the carpet and seats and everything to the running truck. or swap the engine and trans from the good truck to the one you already have. to find one of those trucks with 65k on it will be hard, and when you do find it chances are it will be more expensive than you want. so why not buy a running one for $500 and use it to get your good one going again.

because for that price, I might as well take the $500 or so and sink it right back into the current vehicle. I know it will need all new tires, brakes, anything rubber replaced, etc. I see sooo many explorers out that look like total trash. Look on ebay, some ghetto piece of crap that never saw a vaccum cleaner on the interior or a car wash, horrible rims, previous a/v connections just dangling from the roof, and so much more crap.

To me this one in it's current shape is still a hell of alot better then any of the other junk on the road. What do people do to these vehicles? I see one every weekend at petsmart that looks like they paid a team of gnomes to beat all it's fenders to death and lord knows what else. Windows don't go up in it, you have to grasp it with your hand and lift them up as much as you can, which doesn't close all the way....

I got the whole run down that the vehicle is a piece of trash due to the ford logo on the hood basically, if 3k or more is put into it, the transmission will probably blow up and throw fluid everywhere, yada yada, seals will explode and strand me, blah blah blah. The whole thing said on it is that anything over a penny invested into it is a total waste. Even when I mention I would pay for it all, I still get the bs about it being a typical ford



can't win this crap