Motor Swap vs. Inner Fender Work, thoughts please.

[explorerAK]

Heres my predicament -

I have two explorers, both out of service, but both have parts that could be "donated" to eachother to bring them back to life. I just cant decide which endeavor would be a better choice.

Explorer 1 - 1991 Xl with front end damage. Left outer fender is gone, inner fender is bent outwards about five inches. Grill is cashed, so is trim and some inner parts (coolant/windshield fluid etc). Hood is a lil crunched, and bumper and all that mess is trashed. Radiator support is bent and crunched, needs to be replaced. Also, power steering pulley has somehow come lose , in turn breaking serp belt and throwing charging/coolant/running system out of wack.

The engine is the 4.0 AUTO, with about 95,000 on it.

Explorer 2 - 1993 XL, 4.0 MANUAL. 105,000 miles on it. Coolant leaking from the rear of engine, probably cracked block, warped heads, something major. Front grill is gone, as is chrome trim, bumper, valances, other random cosmetics.

The fun part - which would be a better donor to the other? I have a friend who works at a body shop who tells me that instead of inner fenders bolting up they are actually welded onto eachother and onto the frame. So the 91's inner fender can either be A. bent back in, fit with the outer panel off of the ninety three. B. inner fender can be ripped off the 91, replaced with straight inner fender from the 93. From then on out its just cosmetics and gettin everything to line up.

OR

The engine from the 91 could be swapped into the 93, and no body work would have to be dealt with. Ive gotten prices from shops for the engine swap at around $1500 with them doing everything. In theory the engine swap would work, but.. would the AUTO engine bolt up to the MANUAL transmission? And what other problems would i have to address if i did an Auto engine into Manual Tranny Exploder?

Which is the better call here guys? Put in your two cents, lets see if we can come up with something.

Heres to everyone on this form.

 

[pope_face]

By the sounds of it, you've already got a daily driver, and have two Ex's to screw around with for a while... seeing as both are pretty much shot, I don't think that it'd be much trouble to get either working. Having said that, I shall assume you've got garage space or something equivilant, or can at least get some. Seeing as you already commented on paying ~$1500 to replace the engine, I say you get yourself a decent engine hoist and some tools and do it yourself. Personally I don't think it'd be worth it to fix the body on the '91. It sounds like you're more into the manual tranny as opposed to the auto... Each tranny will bolt up to the engine.

As I've said before, I think the engine swap is a better idea. The engine has fewer miles on it and you know it works. On the other hand, seeing as you don't need either of the Ex's immediately, you could pull the destroyed engine and rebuild/modify it. There's a sticky at the top where someone had rebuilt the 4.0 OHV, so that should give you some ideas as to what's involved and what can be done. If you go with this route, you'll end up with one complete truck, one parts truck, and two engines: One rebuilt and modified in the truck, and one good spare. It would require some work, and it certainly would cost a little money, but you'd end up with more than you started off with for roughly the same cost, plus the pride and bragging rights of having rebuilt your own engine the way you want it.

We're all here to help, so regardless of which route you choose you can always ask for advice. I vote rebuild, but ultimately the decision is up to you. Hope that helps.

 

[Burns]

I would fix explorer 2. It may be missing a few parts and needs a engine but it has less damage by what you have described.

 

[Dan Whitaker]

All that would need to be swaped from the auto engine to the standard tranny is the flywheel and install a pilot bushing in the crank shaft.

I highly recomend replacing the clutch & presure plate as well and having the standard tranny flywheel turned.

 

[bikeboarder]

go with the 5 speed, if you want a truck that you can be mean to and not have it puke back at you then the 5 speed is a much better route.