Proformz Pre-Runner Explorer Project Build!! | Ford Explorer Forums - Serious Explorations

  • Register Today It's free!

Proformz Pre-Runner Explorer Project Build!!

Myself and a friend have been planning a pre-runner project for a good while now, and after spending the last few desert seasons with mostly stock 4x4’s, we finally got it started! I’ve seen some great how-to’s and excellent product reviews that have been invaluable on the forums here helping to get us started on our build, so I thought it would be cool to document and throw up some pics of the progress of the project, and hopefully it will be useful to others in the future!

Some basic goals: We’re looking for about 325-350HP from the 302, 14-18 inches of wheel travel in the front, 12-14 in the rear (for now anyways). We have a countless list of other details to round everything out, but for now it’s all about getting the big stuff knocked out.

A couple months back, we found a good base vehicle with the characteristics we were looking for. The goal was to find a decent running, original, and corrosion free truck. I know that’s rare, but that’s why it pays to shop around until you find what you’re looking for! We ended up making a pretty good deal on our project, we found a ’96 XLT V8 2WD for about $1,300 bucks. It had 228K on the odometer, but was running great and was extremely clean and complete. It was definitely well cared for, and the drive train had never been rebuilt.

The main steps will be to rebuild the drive-train, modify the body for the suspension, install the suspension, then we will be doing some various mods like roll cage, full vinyl wrap, custom stereo install, HID lighting etc..

The first step was to pull out that tired 302 for a fresh rebuild and give it some love in the HP department. It was really cool to see that the cylinders all still had a nice crosshatch and the compression was still good at a quarter of a million miles! We removed the front body panels, and sprayed the inner wheel wells, engine bay, and fender supports with bed liner material to protect from all the debris and rocks that will be thrown up in there soon.

I’ll be posting updates as the project rolls along, your comments and questions are welcome, and helpful advice is well appreciated! Below are some pictures of our project truck as it arrived, pulling the engine, and applying the bed liner material before and after pics…

Ex_arrives.jpg


Engine_Bay_Before.jpg


Engine_Bay_1st_Removed.jpg


Inner_Fender_Before.jpg


Inner_Fender_After_Paint.jpg
 



Join the Elite Explorers for $20 each year.
Elite Explorer members see no advertisements, no banner ads, no double underlined links,.
Add an avatar, upload photo attachments, and more!
.





Fresh driveway stains means only one thing... DOIN' WORK>>! Looks good keep a steady stream of pictures... I'm subscribing.
 






Some Constructive Criticism

The main steps will be to rebuild the drive-train, modify the body for the suspension, install the suspension, then we will be doing some various mods like roll cage, full vinyl wrap, custom stereo install, HID lighting etc..

1) While you have the drivetrain out, consider moving the engine maybe 1-ft back to balance the weight. Explorers and RBVs in general, tend to "endo" on jumps because they are so front-heavy.

2) Do the cage while you have the engine out - it'll make fabrication and welding much easier. You didnt really mention how you're going to execute the 14-18" wheel travel in the front but an engine cage (tied to or as part of the roll cage) would be a good point for (coil-over?) shock mounts

3) Why then vinyl wrap and stereo (considering its a prerunner) ?
 






1) While you have the drivetrain out, consider moving the engine maybe 1-ft back to balance the weight. Explorers and RBVs in general, tend to "endo" on jumps because they are so front-heavy.

Not going to happen unless he does some serious modifications. moving it back even 1cm would take way to much work to make it worth it.
 






Motor has been for the most part completed over the last few weeks, here's some before/after on the rebuild, and a mock-up of the intake and header fitment. Current mods on the engine so far:

Bored .30 over
Crower custom grind cam
High-perf push rods
Jeg's 1/2" phenolic spacer
MAC CAI
TMH
Flex-a-lite fan
ARP Intake and Timing cover bolts

Still undecided on a tuner for this configuration - any suggestions?
A huge thanks to Robert at TMH, hands down an awesome product!

Before

Engine_Block_Before.jpg


Engine_Bore_before.jpg


Engine_Block_Before_2.jpg


After

Engine_Block_After.jpg


Engine_Block_after_2.jpg


Upper intake, spacer, TMH (not fully assembled just yet)

Up_Intake_Painted.jpg


New_Engine_Mock_Up.jpg


New_Engine_Mock_Up_2.jpg


TMH_on_Engine.jpg
 






Thanks for the suggestions IZwack, I'll definitely consider the cage idea while we have the motor out:thumbsup: Will be going with the stock engine location though, as the modification to move it back a foot would be a little beyond the scope of our project. It's going to be more for recreation than racing, so we want to retain the original interior configuration.
 






What are the specs on the cam? If you plan on 325-350hp (I'm assuming flywheel) you are going to need to clean up the heads a little and run 10:1 compression. You will also want to port the intake manifold.
 












Yes I am looking for flywheel HP, here are the cam specs:

techieman33 thanks, I'll definitely contact James on the tuner.

Cam_Specs.jpg
 






Consider a set of toyota 62" springs instead of the explorer leafs. If setup right 18-19" is very possible. I think you are going to find you have far more motor then any basic suspenion youre gonna put on can handle.

Whos front kit are you going with? I can set you up with a very good kit for these explorers for cheaper then anyone else.
 






That's a good cam choice. I'd clean up the exhaust ports a little and port the intake. If you do that you should make around 300hp.
 






Looking good and fun! Wish I had my TM headers in..
 






Hey Sean,

I recently got a chance to check out your truck, that thing is a beast dude! You guys did a great job, it looks like it was quite a challenge and a lot of trial and error to get it where you wanted. Thanks in advance for all the work you put down, it's going to be a huge help building this truck, hopefully we can do something similar on this one.

I'd be interested to check out what you think on a LT setup, I agree that the motor will need to be considered from a power and weight perspective. I'd like to get something planned out before I get it put back in the truck if I need to do any mods to the front end that would be way easier to do while its out as IZwack was saying.
 






That's a good cam choice. I'd clean up the exhaust ports a little and port the intake. If you do that you should make around 300hp.

Yeah hopefully it won't be too far off the goal. I'll give a call to the machine shop and check up on the porting options. I think it will be acceptable power once we get some weight reduction done. Can't wait to get it in there and see how it runs...
 












What kind of heads are they? Aluminum would be nice and about 50#s lighter then cast steel which would really help in the already heavy front end.
Also do you know what size valves you got? I was looking at cam specs with that amount of lift and duration and was wondering about the heads and valve size.
Do you have any idea of the finished truck weight?
You mention a sound system, does this mean a stock type interior? Just curious about the weight and then racing it.
 






The heads look like they are the stock GT40P heads which means they should have 1.85 intake and 1.46 exhaust valves. The cam he chose should clear the factory pistons when using the stock 1.6 rockers with the small valves.
 






Are you wanting to run a regular lift spindle like fabtech or pro comp? Or would you be more interested in a fully fabbed spindle with d35 stuff for added strength?

Would love to go with a fabbed spindle, would that be used with the standard BTF kit? or would the kit need to be fabbed/modded too?
 






The heads look like they are the stock GT40P heads which means they should have 1.85 intake and 1.46 exhaust valves. The cam he chose should clear the factory pistons when using the stock 1.6 rockers with the small valves.

They're gt40's, not gt40p's.
 



Join the Elite Explorers for $20 each year.
Elite Explorer members see no advertisements, no banner ads, no double underlined links,.
Add an avatar, upload photo attachments, and more!
.





What kind of heads are they? Aluminum would be nice and about 50#s lighter then cast steel which would really help in the already heavy front end.
Also do you know what size valves you got? I was looking at cam specs with that amount of lift and duration and was wondering about the heads and valve size.
Do you have any idea of the finished truck weight?
You mention a sound system, does this mean a stock type interior? Just curious about the weight and then racing it.

They are stock GT-40 heads (non "P"). Aluminum would be nice mainly for the weight savings, but the overall cost of the project calls for some give and take, and the stock heads on these motors can actually perform really well with some decent air flow so we opted to spend the money elsewhere.

We want the interior to remain somewhat stock. There will be a roll cage fabbed, racing seats, the floor rhino lined, rear shock mount cage, spare mounts, racks etc... so "stock" is a pretty relative term. The audio system is going to be done mainly for promotional demonstration on some products we manufacture (custom 6 1/2 component set conversion pods for the doors are in development) and some custom gauge panels. The wrap is for pretty much the same purpose.
 






Back
Top