Josh's 4 door 1st gen explorer crawler (SGT Ex)

[josh40601]

we finished the house remodel last week, so after the party, Ex came back out to in front of the garage. The neighbors love it when i pull this out front... Sorry neighbors

You can also see I removed the driver door. The inner door structure had crushed against the latch and ended up having to destroy the latch to get the door off.

I wanted to replace the radiator, the hub, and the lockouts, then dive into trying to figuring out a power steering pump. I'll deal with the windshield stuff once I fix the other stuff.

So when I pulled the radiator, I was surprised to see that the plastic cap had not busted, but yet the fan had gone into the radiator. Also still have a lot of mud and crap caked to the radiator, so I'm sure that didn't help cooling...

So looks like motor mounts will also be added to the list of items to fix. This surprised me since the motor is also chained to the crossmember. I wish I could afford to just go to AutoFab's motor mounts, but I can't swing that right now.

I also got the power steering pump off, and took some pictures for how the hi pressure line enters the pump.

I'll change this out whenever I put in the rest of the setup to eliminate the sharp 90* turn at the pump and in the line. Jeff Howe mentioned these two 90's really affect the flow.

 

[DUDER 1]

Nice to see the explorer is back out ready to be worked on. Do you mind posting pictures of your front bumper. Our explorer is going into the shop soon for a bumper and I am not sure what to have built. Thanks again.

 

[WormsExplorer]

Well I am happy to see she is out and getting worked on. I bet she is missing being used.

 

[BKennedy]

See if @Brian1 has any more motor mounts left. He made a run of poly bushing mounts that look real good. If I hadn't just replaced my mounts, I would have purchased a set. The set I just purchased were standard motor mounts. I ground off the safety rivet head, punched them out and replaced with a bolt and locking insert nut. I tightened the nut until it was putting a little pressure on the mount. Haven't had any issues in at least four years. Got the idea from @Kirby N.

 

[josh40601]

Nice to see the explorer is back out ready to be worked on. Do you mind posting pictures of your front bumper. Our explorer is going into the shop soon for a bumper and I am not sure what to have built. Thanks again.

Here are some pictures from when I built it. It isn't symetrical, but its pretty damn tough. I just used 1.75 .180 wall HREW. Hope these pics help!

Well I am happy to see she is out and getting worked on. I bet she is missing being used.

i was surprised how quickly she fired up. hope to get the hub taken care of tonight. Going to pull the A/C condensor and pusher fans as well to clean them up before putting the radiator back in

 

[DUDER 1]

Thank you very much. Looking forward to your progress.

 

[josh40601]

Oreilly Auto Parts is awesome. They are usually a little higher than Rock Auto or Partsgeek, but their customer service and warranty program makes up for the cost 10 fold.

My receipt was bleached for the lifetime warranty radiator, and you could barely see the numbers, but instead of turning me away, they honored it, printed me a new receipt so I wouldn't have to worry about it anymore, and linked it to my new phone number. That's pretty awesome.

I also got the hub all put back together and worked on getting the A/C condensor out. The hub I removed was almost 4 MM bulged out than the new replacement one. The replacement was 84.02MM diameter, the old one was 87.84MM in diameter. That would explain why the lockouts were stripping out.

The E-Fans that Dan put in back in 08 are damaged, and only one is working. I am going to pull the fans out and replace them. They are just puller fans that mount between the trans cooler and the A/C condensor, but they really helped, so I will definitely be going back with some.

Also going to cap off the trans cooler lines that goes into the radiator. I currently have an external trans cooler, and other members of the RBV community have had luck with lowering engine and trans temps by running external trans cooler, and keeping the radiator cooling only the engine. Since I have all this crap out, might as well take care of this too.

 

[DUDER 1]

I've thought about only using my external trans cooler also. I hope it works for you.

 

[DUDER 1]

I run a Derale 2 plate with a fan.

See if @Brian1 has any more motor mounts left. He made a run of poly bushing mounts that look real good. If I hadn't just replaced my mounts, I would have purchased a set. The set I just purchased were standard motor mounts. I ground off the safety rivet head, punched them out and replaced with a bolt and locking insert nut. I tightened the nut until it was putting a little pressure on the mount. Haven't had any issues in at least four years. Got the idea from @Kirby N.

I run his motor - trans mounts and they are stout. My engine barley moves at all

 

[josh40601]

See if @Brian1 has any more motor mounts left. He made a run of poly bushing mounts that look real good. If I hadn't just replaced my mounts, I would have purchased a set. The set I just purchased were standard motor mounts. I ground off the safety rivet head, punched them out and replaced with a bolt and locking insert nut. I tightened the nut until it was putting a little pressure on the mount. Haven't had any issues in at least four years. Got the idea from @Kirby N.

Thanks for the info! I just seen this message. I'll message him now to see if he does. If not, I'll take yours and Kirby's route.

Thanks again sir

 

[josh40601]

I run a Derale 2 plate with a fan.


I run his motor - trans mounts and they are stout. My engine barley moves at all

Just commented on his post to see if he still had a set

 

[josh40601]

aaaaand just like that I have a new set of motor mounts and a new trans mount.

Thanks gents. Thanks Brian

 

[DUDER 1]

Very nice sir

 

[josh40601]

truck is back on all 4's. the lockout fits nice and tight as they should. a couple of the studs were a little boogered up so i went on and ran the die down to clean up the threads.

Next up is to get the pusher fan all the way out, install the new(to Ex) PS cooler in, block off the radiator trans cooler and run the lines strictly to the aux cooler, pull the A/C condensor and clean it up to allow better airflow, then get the PS pump mess addressed. Then address that whole hole thing in the windshield.

 

[josh40601]

Didn't spend a lot of time on the truck, but did get a little work done.

Biggest change is the retirement of the flag hood.

I also pulled the a/c condenser and the pusher fans. Both have seen better days.

The cooling fan bracket is really cool and already cut down to fit the truck, so the plan is to either find a set of aftermarket fans that fit the bracket (11" diameter) or pick up a benz setup off eBay and use just the fans. I dunno which one yet. I'm going to research the flow rates to see if any aftermarket solutions will provide the same cooling and go from there.

Brian1 hooked it the eff up on these motor mounts. The trans mount looks beef AF too. Hope to get these in next week. I've never installed motor mounts with the engine in the vehicle, so this should be fun.

Last thing is these weatherproof plugs. I put one in for the light bar and am going to try and find some for the front doors. A 20 pin weather tight plug though is likely not an option. I'll post up what I find.

 

[josh40601]

Looks like I found an aftermarket fan set that will work with the mercedes bracket, for a whole lot cheaper than a replacement mercedes fan.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06VWMJFHM/ref=twister_B01N029KQN?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

Flow is 1750 CFM, I'm not sure if that is both fans, or 1750 per fan, and I am having trouble finding anything on the merc fan setup. Since I am still running the factory fan and clutch setup, I think 1750 would be sufficient for just a pusher fan. And at 35 bucks, its worth trying. The cheapest I found the Merc was 60+ for each fan assembly.

 

[josh40601]

With the excitement of having the bumblebee back, i still made sure to keep plugging away at this. Here's what I got done:

First up was getting the center support out of way, I just replaced it with a bent up piece of 3/8" solid rod. You also can't see in this picture but I added 2 pieces of sheet metal to each side of the radiator support so the fan bracket had somewhere to mount.

Then I added some tabs and an oil cooler off a super Dookey to act as my new power steering cooler, and to hold the trans cooler. Put the fans back on and made sure everything fit

It's close, but it fits!

Still waiting on fund to finish up the steering, but at least I was able to get everything all mounted. Hopefully the winch doesn't impede too much with the fans on, but if so I could always switch back to the m8000 that's on the ranger now.

 

[WormsExplorer]

I'm Not seeing any of your Attachments. :-(

 

[josh40601]

I'm Not seeing any of your Attachments. :-(

Fixed

 

[WormsExplorer]

Looks great sir.