My 2000 Explorer 4 door XLT

[vroomzoomboom]

you must love buying trucks with hammered out driveline's dont you lol

 

[4pointslow]

Good you replace the EGR, some get subtle leaks thru the pintle.

Are you getting a brand new valve cover? I ended up getting a pair of used ones, derust with electrolysis, and painting them with a few coats. The passenger VC isn't available new, made a deal with a JY in PA, they shipped both to me.

I also got a nice set of reman injectors for like $50. He had tons of good reviews. The old ones looked scary rusty. I had an injector leak thru the body once

I got a brand new passenger side Ford OEM valve cover (the one with the oil fill cap), The driver side was not available new at this time so I got a used one ordered and hope it is as good as it looks in the picture. Makes me wonder why there are a million passenger side valve covers for sale but no one has the driver side? Strange indeed.

A leaky injector can be a fire starter huh? That had to be some rust, probably like the rust on my poor 98 4 door!
I recently bought a Fuel injector cleaner/flow tester with the clear tubes so you can watch the spray patterns etc.
Things cost around $400, I will get my use out of it for sure.

 

[donalds]

Things cost around $400, I will get my use out of it for sure.

Cool beans

 

[4pointslow]

you must love buying trucks with hammered out driveline's dont you lol

Oh man, I wish I could have found an explorer in better shape than this one without rust. LOL
Searched for quite a few years. Found a couple of rust free ones but the sellers wanted over 4,000 for them.
I didn't have the money at the time when they showed up, and when I had the money there were none around. LOL
This showed up for 1,400.00 and was rust free, and the guy even drove it to my house for me.
Looking at what I have done to this truck so far, he took his life in his hands driving this thing to my house. !!!

I am not done buying Explorers yet, I want another two door for racing. As long as the one I already have has been down, I need another one!
Probably will get rid of my 2004 after I find another two door. Looking for a 1995 since there is no state inspection on 95 and older.
Opens up a lot of possibilities for drivetrain swaps.

 

[vroomzoomboom]

be the first to strap a JTO in one!

 

[donalds]

be the first to strap a JTO in one!

Curious JTO ?

 

[fast_dave]

This thread rocks!

No doubt your neighbors have named you "the Explorer guy"

 

[vroomzoomboom]

Curious JTO ?

Jet Take Off

 

[4pointslow]

Yesterday I had to work but got done early (around 1:30).
I got right to work on the 2000 Explorer! I am slower than usual because I ripped my pinky finger up at work on Monday.
I will spare everyone the gross out by not posting a picture of it. It is healing so I should be back to normal speed in no time. LOL.

Yesterday I got the old driver side exhaust manifold off, got all the studs out including the one that broke too.
Then I got the new studs installed, and the exhaust manifold bolted in place. I am waiting on a fitting for the EGR tube to connect with the exhaust manifold. Funny how the manifold did not come with that important item!

Today I got the spark plugs in, the old ones looked like crap.

I also got the Passenger side valve cover installed with a new gasket.

While I was at it, I got the thermostat, both radiator hoses, thermostat housing, serpentine belt, and belt tensioner installed.
The belt tensioner is used and had been on my 98 2 door that has the GT500 supercharger on it, everything else is new.

I also got the new high pressure power steering hose installed and torqued to 35 ft lbs. The old hose was missing that little white sealing ring on the bottom connection and that caused it to leak.

Since I had the battery tray out, I replaced that with the one off my old 98 4 door Explorer. The one in the 2000 Explorer was missing the threaded hole for the bolt that keeps the battery tight.

I am now waiting on parts. I ordered a used driver side valve cover because this one ended up looking worse than I previously thought.
I had ordered a new one but was contacted by the seller who said they ended up not being in stock and they don't know when they will show up again. So a used one should show up at my house sooner or later.

Also waiting on the EGR fitting for the exhaust manifold, that should be here Tuesday if all goes well.
The old driver side valve cover has a sticker on it that tells me the year of the engine (if the valve cover was not already replaced once before).
Looks to be a late 1999 4.0 OHV.
Well, that's all for now until I get more parts.

 

[96eb96]

Yesterday I had to work but got done early (around 1:30).
I got right to work on the 2000 Explorer! I am slower than usual because I ripped my pinky finger up at work on Monday.
I will spare everyone the gross out by not posting a picture of it. It is healing so I should be back to normal speed in no time. LOL.

Yesterday I got the old driver side exhaust manifold off, got all the studs out including the one that broke too.
Then I got the new studs installed, and the exhaust manifold bolted in place. I am waiting on a fitting for the EGR tube to connect with the exhaust manifold. Funny how the manifold did not come with that important item!

View attachment 321402

Today I got the spark plugs in, the old ones looked like crap.

View attachment 321403

I also got the Passenger side valve cover installed with a new gasket.

View attachment 321404

While I was at it, I got the thermostat, both radiator hoses, thermostat housing, serpentine belt, and belt tensioner installed.
The belt tensioner is used and had been on my 98 2 door that has the GT500 supercharger on it, everything else is new.

View attachment 321405

I also got the new high pressure power steering hose installed and torqued to 35 ft lbs. The old hose was missing that little white sealing ring on the bottom connection and that caused it to leak.

View attachment 321406

Since I had the battery tray out, I replaced that with the one off my old 98 4 door Explorer. The one in the 2000 Explorer was missing the threaded hole for the bolt that keeps the battery tight.

View attachment 321407

I am now waiting on parts. I ordered a used driver side valve cover because this one ended up looking worse than I previously thought.
I had ordered a new one but was contacted by the seller who said they ended up not being in stock and they don't know when they will show up again. So a used one should show up at my house sooner or later.

Also waiting on the EGR fitting for the exhaust manifold, that should be here Tuesday if all goes well.
The old driver side valve cover has a sticker on it that tells me the year of the engine (if the valve cover was not already replaced once before).
Looks to be a late 1999 4.0 OHV.
Well, that's all for now until I get more parts.

View attachment 321408

Good decision to replace the drivers side. Those seem to rot more. They aren't made new anymore. I would almost say to scuff and paint them with engine paint if you want it for the long haul. The ones I got used need an electrolysis bath, but after painting they looked better than new.

 

[96eb96]

All yours if you pay shipping :lol:. This is after a date with my wirewheel.

 

[96eb96]

I would also do the lower intake gasket (I did mine when it was off). I got the OEM gasket. Honestly it still looked good, but who knows. At least re-torque the lower intake bolts, years ago mine were loose. I think the failure mode is loose bolts leading to a leak. The OEM German Gasket looks pretty stout.

 

[DP96XLT]

I guess I just have to mention, I have worked on my share of older stuff in my life... Especially considering that I was usually broke when I was younger, so I didn't have new vehicles. Even now I buy used cars with low mileage just because I don't care to deal with rot and everything else associated with high-mileage older stuff. I also buy used because it is insane to take the depreciation hit all new stuff has.

But, I have to question, does no-one use car-washes in the winter on their vehicles???

I bought a 2001 Acura TL for my daughter. 229k miles on it. No rust anywhere except for some rock chips that have rust showing on the bare metal (will take care of those before winter). But the engine was never rinshed/washed off, and you could tell (all aluminum componentry everywhere with the associated corrosion), but it was taken through a car wash religiously. Had to be, otherwise everything would have been rotting and falling apart and it is like working on a 5 year old car (which even exhaust bolts come right out with no seizing). I will take it through the car was weekly in winter as long as it is owned.

The rest of my cars include the 1996 Explorer XLT 4wd that sat for quite a while, but everything is almost as new except for some surface rust on some of the brake lines where they were exposed under the car for the few times it was driven in winter and some of the fender well areas that got the same exposure, but the rest is damn near like new, which it should be for the 42k miles it had on it when I got it, it has 49k miles now), a 2012 Lincoln MKS (74k miles, driven in winter, but car washed weekly, so like new everywhere), 2002 Mustang V6 (warm weather vehicle, but was driven in winter by previous owners, but still solid and no major corrosion), 1995 Trans-Am and 1995 Camaro Z28 convertible (never driven in winter, warm weather only vehicles), and then the newer ones the 2014 Cadillac CTS-4 (41k miles, driven in winter by previous owners but car washed regularly) and 2017 Lincoln MKT (43k miles, originally from San Francisco and I drove it during it's first winter in snow and it is car washed weekly, so again, like new everywhere).

My point is that with regular cleaning the corrosion aspect drops off greatly. Sure in 200k miles you expect some wear/tear/corrosion, but so many vehicles must be neglected and abused that no-one even thinks of running them through a car wash, or only the cheap ones without an underbody flush.

I just can't see how engines get so far corroded. I take that back, I also used to own a lot of minivans and conversion vans over the years, and if the van is too big to get into a car wash you are kinda screwed. I loved the high-top conversions, but good luck finding a car wash to fit it in. But outside of those I don't see any excuse as to why a car/truck/minivan is rotting out, unless there is known issues with a given models sheet-metal (and yes, I have come across those as well, where you do everything your supposed to and they still rot, usually from the inside out)

 

[DP96XLT]

I forgot to mention, I laughed at the JTO comment... Too funny.

For those that don't know what a JTO unit is, think of the coyote and the road runner. The coyote was using JTO units to try to catch the road runner...

 

[vroomzoomboom]

my bad. its JATO



k enough of me derailing this thread

 

[4pointslow]

I just lost 2nd,5th, and reverse in my 2001 Ranger.
Down to one vehicle, my 2004 supercharged 4 door Explorer.

 

[donalds]

. That won't be fun to drive at all Lmao

 

[4pointslow]

Ok so things escalated real fast with my Ranger transmission failing.
I got it home and posted the above post about it. Then I went downstairs to find my EGR fitting just arrived.
So I just replaced the driver side valve cover gasket (not the valve cover) because I need to get this thing together so I can get my Ranger into my garage. I got it all back together and took it for a 6 mile ride. All the gears in the transmission work in the Explorer, it is drivable.
The picture below was taken through the wheel well in the dark.

 

[4pointslow]

Today I changed the transmission fluid, filter, and installed a transmission pan with a drain plug.
I ordered a pan with drain plug but it wont be delivered for a couple of days so I swapped it with the one off my 2001 Ranger since I have to pull that transmission and fix or replace it anyway.
The transmission fluid looked more like 3,000 mile old engine oil so I will change the fluid again utilizing that drain plug.

Also in the picture there is a red circle around the place where there was a missing exhaust gasket. I installed a new gasket loaded up with Ultra Copper RTV and new bolts. That leak is fixed and it is so quiet that I can hear the passenger side exhaust manifold leaking now. There is a broken stud on that manifold, so I was not surprised it was leaking. It is minor though, I will replace the manifold later(like maybe after I fix my Ranger).

I also had to replace the front shocks, you see someone replaced them but used the old factory shock bushings and they were beat.
Trying to loosen the top shock nut was not possible, it was twisting the threaded stud part right off the top of the shock.
So I wanted a higher quality shock, and I have these Rancho RS9000 adjustable shocks on my race truck that I like a lot.
Two Rancho shocks installed today and adjusted 1/2 turn clockwise from fully loose. It rides a lot less bouncy now!
After completing all the work, I took the 2000 Explorer for a good 30 mile ride and it didn't blow up so it seems to be road ready now.
I must say that the power is definitely not there in this Explorer with the OHV 4.0L, feels like an empty pool table = No Balls!
At least it is drivable so I am back to 2 vehicles, planning on trying to fix the AC tomorrow.

 

[96eb96]

Today I changed the transmission fluid, filter, and installed a transmission pan with a drain plug.
I ordered a pan with drain plug but it wont be delivered for a couple of days so I swapped it with the one off my 2001 Ranger since I have to pull that transmission and fix or replace it anyway.
The transmission fluid looked more like 3,000 mile old engine oil so I will change the fluid again utilizing that drain plug.

Also in the picture there is a red circle around the place where there was a missing exhaust gasket. I installed a new gasket loaded up with Ultra Copper RTV and new bolts. That leak is fixed and it is so quiet that I can hear the passenger side exhaust manifold leaking now. There is a broken stud on that manifold, so I was not surprised it was leaking. It is minor though, I will replace the manifold later(like maybe after I fix my Ranger).

View attachment 321655

I also had to replace the front shocks, you see someone replaced them but used the old factory shock bushings and they were beat.
Trying to loosen the top shock nut was not possible, it was twisting the threaded stud part right off the top of the shock.
So I wanted a higher quality shock, and I have these Rancho RS9000 adjustable shocks on my race truck that I like a lot.
Two Rancho shocks installed today and adjusted 1/2 turn clockwise from fully loose. It rides a lot less bouncy now!
After completing all the work, I took the 2000 Explorer for a good 30 mile ride and it didn't blow up so it seems to be road ready now.
I must say that the power is definitely not there in this Explorer with the OHV 4.0L, feels like an empty pool table = No Balls!
At least it is drivable so I am back to 2 vehicles, planning on trying to fix the AC tomorrow.

View attachment 321657

Empty pool table and no balls is a great analogy. The 4.10s do not like highway. But with 4.x4 low you could probably pull a house off a foundation. But on the good side, it keeps you safe, I keep the speed limit.
I have NOS Reflex in the front. The guy in Monroe said they are very similar to the non-adjustable Ranchos. I also have A-torsion bars from a ranger. Very tight with no roll. In the rear I have the coilovers. Gives it a tiny rake. I took home about 1400lbs of patio tile (only local roads under 30mph) and it was fine.

I would get the exhaust gasket from Ford. The Advance Auto one didn't fit right.

I would also suggest the huge trans cooler. I think hayden 679? I didn't have one from the factory. I drove in the mountains, touched it, you could probably fry an egg on the inlet side.