Finally modifying my '94 Explorer

[J. Anthony]

I have a '94 Explorer Eddie Bauer 4x4, and since it finally has been taken off the road I have made the decision to modify it into a gnarley 4x4. I would like it to be a formidable 4x4, but still a good street vehicle. I plan for it to be used off road quite a bit; mostly trail, mud and snow. I do not plan on rock crawling with it. I am asking for ideas on tires, suspension lift and wether I should rebuild the motor or go for a new one. As for the body, it is good, no dents, rust and never wrecked. The engine does run but it has more than 250,000 miles. I will be driving between Houston and Brenham, Texas daily. I am hoping to travel the states going to trail rides with it; just an idea as to what I am looking for and how I will be utilizing my 4x4. Any ideas and information willl be greatly appreciated, thanks.

 

[Mpetronek]

If I were in the position to do this I would put a straight axle under it. My buddies got a 92' and it lifted it huge when he put the new front end under it, he needs a new motor though...for now I have to stick with stock, have fun with it!

 

[J. Anthony]

Straight axle...

Is there something that will bolt right on? I have read many posts that talk about this and I was thinking I might. Second, d what do you think about going with a bigger motor? I think I am going to just rebuild mine, but there is another Ex Driver who is about to put a 302 in his.

 

[untouchable]

The jeep front axle will be the easiest. There is companys that make everything to bolt a 302 in. Painless wiring makes a wire harness so you can put a 86-93 gt 302 in. James duff has just about everything else. It will cost around $2000. Advance adaptors makes a kit to bolt a 700r4 in cost around $1200. Which then you can have a tranny to handle the power.

 

[Mpetronek]

The v6 is a good motor, but if you are getting pretty serious with it...which it sounds, i think a nice small block would be nice in there. You will need to gear it for sure though when you put the bigger tires on, I would gear it before you put a new motor in, but thats just me.

 

[Welshdragon79]

Have fun

Also keep in mind once you start talking about the torque from a small block vs. your six multiplied by gears, lower gears in the transfer case ( thinking about lockers?); then you need to think about stronger axles. If you do a Jeep front consider doing an after market D44 instead of the D30. If you do the JK ( the internals are more stout than the TJ D44) axle you'll want to do all the axle tube beefing to handle any tires 33" or bigger as the tubes bend and the C's tweak. You might consider the HP D44 from a 78- 79 Bronco/ F-150 and grab the 9 inch while your at it. Just my 2 cents

 

[seth247]

I agree with the above but if you just do a small block then you can probly stay with the 8.8.

They bolt big blocks to them with few problems.

 

[Dannyboy]

3 questions before I answer
1) what is your budget
2) what do you drive daily now
3) when you say travel the states, how far do you plan on driving?

 

[BrianDye]

cant wait to see progress!

 

[glfredrick]

Stay away from the Jeep Dana 30 axle unless you really like fixing broken axle shafts. The TTB Dana 35 is much stronger and can be made to perform well on the type of trails you are advocating.

If you do want to go SAS, then the Dana 44 front is the ticket. It matches well to the 8.8 out back (a good axle -- all the Jeep guys are sticking them under their rides!). Both axles will handle up to 37" tires with normal (not hard-core rock crawling) trail use.

V6 or V8? Biggest issues are legality these days. Any engine will fit into the Explorer -- it has a large enough engine bay for a 460 if that turns your crank, but making it all work together and keeping it legal for street use is another story all together. Plan on using AT LEAST as new an engine -- AND -- engine management system as the vehicle age. Going older/simpler won't cut it legally these days. One vehicle inspection and you are done.

That means that you also have to plan on swapping out the wiring harness, the fuel tank internals and pumps, the gauge cluster, and the front half of the exhaust system (unless you modify something else to work with the OBD setup), and all the sensors, etc., required to run the engine's emission controls.

That can be a LOT of work! I know, I'm in the process right now of installing a 94 setup into my 86/90 Ranger (yup, a lot of mix and match). Title says 86, so that is my target, legally, but the body is 90 and the engine, computer, and wire is all 94 (with a 98 intake and a BBK throttle body and Jet chip).

For off-road only use (and beware here, even a lot of off-road parks require a legal vehicle with plates and insurance) the sky is the limit. Dump a carburetor 351 in there with a built C4 and have some fun. But the minute you take it on the street, you need legality.

 

[J. Anthony]

My budget

Due to the fact that I will be doing this over a couple months I will be able to spend a good bit of money. I want to have it running by November. I hope to drive it to North Carolina and up to Oregon and Washington. Just driving around Texas will be a challenge. There are a lot advantages to getting V8, but I have found that the V6 is a good and reliable engine. I think that would be a quicker turn around choice for me and allow me to spend more money on other stuff. I had not even considered a locker. That would be a great addition to my "rig". I like the idea of changing the front axle.

I appreciate the help and all the ideas. I am going to get it up on jacks this weekend and start getting the wheels and such off.

 

[nitro71]

What are your goals as far as tire size? You really need to have a list of goals and how much you want to spend.

 

[Dannyboy]

Okay, If it was me...

Keep the stock engine. You don't need a BIG engine for wheeling.

Put 2-6" of lift on the stock running gear. Run extended radius arms and good shocks in all corners.

Put ARB lockers front and rear

Put 4.88 gears in it.
Put 33-35" tires

Put a winch on the front end and a winch bumper

Get Rock sliders

Make sure you have a gas tank skid plate

Make sure you have a solid transmission with a big @ss tranny cooler

Get yourself an In-dash DVD player with satellite radio and a GPS.

Make Sure your heat and a/c work well

Get all the spare parts you would need (spare front hubs, shafts, spindle, bearings, driveshafts)

Get some good AAA coverage

GET OUT AND EXPLORE AMERICA. Forget the V8 swaps, headers, yada yada.

The major repair for reliability would then be
Replace A4LD with either a 700R4 conversion, a 5 speed with a doubler or an atlas 2 or C5 built with C4 internals like mine.


Look up a guy named "Paul" on here. His explorer is meticulously maintained, it can run through every trail in the Moab book (okay, the harder gnarly trails that you go 2 miles in 8 hours aren't in that book) because he has skid protection, recovery points and equipment, a well tuned truck, a 5 speed and an Atlas 2 transfer case. He drove it 16 hours to Moab, wheeled every trail that the Big Dogs did and drove it home 3 days later. I've wheeled hard trails in Arizona, California, Indiana, Utah, Colorado, Wisconsin and Iowa and a truck built like that would finish all of them.

I see so many solid axle swaps that never end or become trailer queens (myself included) and engine swaps that seem to be nonstop issues.

 

[J. Anthony]

Finding what is needed and what can wait...

I have figured out that my budget is in the 5000 dollar range. I have gone onto the James Duff site and didnt really find much. I found a 2.5 inch lift; on the 4 Wheel Parts site i found two that were not very much better. I like the price and functionality of the 2.5 inch suspension lift on the James Duff site, PN#5029 Stage One lift 2.5 to 3 inch lift. I am planning on getting a set of BF Goodrich All Terrain T/A KO 32/11.50R15 tires. I am just not quite sure what wheels I will get to put them on, any one have any ideas on that? The motor is going to be rebuilt 30 over and I am going to go with some headers and a tuned exhaust for performance.

Does anyone have any good sites that I could find some good parts on? I am planning to drag my Sandrail out to sell for money as well. It's just a frame right now.

 

[Sams01XplrSprt]

do u got pics of it

 

[J. Anthony]

I am going to start getting pics together

I am going to start getting the pics together today. I was wondering how to go about keeping them compiled in a file. I am going to see what would be best. I think putting them on one site and linking the site would be the best to keep the whole file together as I do the work.

I would like to thank everyone for the input. I am searching for websites that will aid me in the rebuild. I am looking for headers for my six. I had seen a website that had them before but cant find it now. Anyone have any good sites for parts?

 

[Dannyboy]

WHOA! 5K, awesome, most guys come on here saying they are going to swap an axle for $300.

Go
http://www.camburg.com/fords1P4x4.html
or
http://autofab.com/mdl_44_ranger.htm

I have done pretty much every level of suspension lift (4", 6" skyjacker, solid axle, current setup) and what I have now is simply amazing for a bolt on suspension system. The rear end was a little loose until I put the big dog shocks through the floor, but I think good leaves with a good set of 2.5" shocks in the rear would do very well.

 

[glfredrick]

$300 axle swaps require a few things -- first that one has an axle without paying much at all for it, including proper gearing -- second, that one has the ability to fabricate in the home shop, which typically means that somewhere in the neighborhood of $10K plus in tools has already been spent -- third, that other related parts like steering, etc., are all going to fit from a donor vehicle (good luck with that) -- and fourth, that the project will ever get done at all...

It CAN be done... I'm doing it, but I've parted out 7 trucks to get the stuff I need, selling what I don't need to purchase what I do. I also have the shop full of tools and the know-how to use them. So far, I have about $2K invested in a radical build -- a Ranger truggy on 38s with a new crate motor 4.0, a new cab, and all the goodies like gears, winch, roll cage, etc. I've done remarkably well for my $$$, but it has taken over 5 years and I've literally built EVERYTHING from scratch.

 

[tom_mcmullen006]

if you want to do a 302 swap into it. Why not find a newer explorer with the 302 in it? theyre a dime a dozen in junk yards, at least around here they are.