Junk Yard

[Rooster-Alpha]

I have been hitting the junk yard recently. Thanks to the cash 4 clunkers program a lot of road worthy X's are getting traded in and some wind up at my local pull-a-part.

What i need to know is. Am I correct that all 1995-2001 Explorers with x as the eighth character in the VIN designates that, that vehicle is outfitted with the 4.0 L OHV engine?

and

If so are there any significant changes to that engine within the years specified? Or, did everything stay exactly the same and all parts are interchangeable?

I tried searching the forum's before posting this, but the information was not in any of the obvious places.

Rooster

 

[99ExploratorySUV]

Yes, the X indicates the 4.0L OHV design engine. I am not aware of any huge changes made to the OHV engine throughout that year range. Since it has been around for a long time I would assume nothing major, and the parts should be pretty much all interchangeable. What parts are you swapping? Depending on the part you're trying to find, it couldn't hurt to double check.

 

[Rooster-Alpha]

Well i was walking around and saw a '96 in good shape. I looked under the hood and the engine had not even been touched yet (score). I've been trying to chase down this squeaking noise so I thought I'd give the idler pulley a try since they are pretty cheap. Immediately the engine felt familiar but i noticed the air intake was different. The filter housing had a ford dealership tag on it that read approved modification. Well i started second guessing myself wondering was this my same engine. I pulled the pulley off anyway and hid it inside another X on the lot a few row's down hoping nobody will take it. I checked the VIN and sure enough it has an x as the eighth character but I had already started down the spiral of second guessing myself and wasn't even sure if I was correct about that being to correct designation.

Basically I just needed some reassurance.

I didn't go there looking for anything in particular just hoping maybe I'd see something cool like a black EB (my x is black) with the rear door in awesome shape or a sport in the 2nd gen range with running boards. You know, anything to spruce up the ride.